It is through gratitude for the Present Moment that the spiritual dimension of Life opens up.
-Eckhart Tolle
Mind Fanatic
I am such a mind fanatic. I am so, so intrigued by the human mind and I always have been. It just fascinates me to delve into its three layers and to see the how's and whys of human behaviour there. I see the mind as the cause of human suffering and I also see understanding it as the solution.
The power of core beliefs has been amongst one of the many things I have tried to understand. I honestly believe our thoughts and beliefs are fundamental producers of the Life we are experiencing...both the inner and the outer.
Greater- Self Fanatic
I am also fascinated by the deeper dimensions of the so called 'self'...which to me is a Self that goes way beyond the limitations of "I", "me", and "mine", that goes way beyond mental concepts and individuality.
So I read whatever I can, I study scripture both western and eastern. I read the works of great philosophers, poets, writers, scientists, psychologists/psychiatrists, and teachers that have walked the planet. I try to figure it all out on my own as well...to determine what feels right etc. I observe and I watch humans, including myself. I meditate and go deeper to ask the big questions. I pray. I teach to learn.
Life Student
I am a life long student of the mind and that which lay as a background to the mind.
It is all so amazing to me. Even if I never get the answers I seek...the process of asking is so exciting for some reason. And the more I ask, the more I think I learn. With the more I think I learn, comes the realization ...the less I actually know and therefore the more I ask. It seems to be a big beautiful cycle that never ends but throughout it all, the more peaceful I become...the more accepting and grateful I am for what is.
I keep my mind open. I study different things, different modalities both the allopathic and alternative kinds. I listen to different teachers regardless of how they may appear to mainstream society...I pay more attention to the message and how it resonates inside me than I do to them as messengers.
I believe the individual needs to heal so the world heals. I look into healing therapies. So I have been looking into Theta Healing like I looked into other things and what intrigues me about it is not the miracles its teachers purport to be able to create in a human's experience...not the mystical magical stuff of transcending through layers of the universe and layers of light to the Creator (though I am not discounting it) ...but the way it seeks to dismantle those core beliefs that impair a human being's ability to live Life fully. That, I believe, is where we have to go to make this world a better place. ...to the mind of the individual, to the collective mind of all.
That collective mind I believe is in the spiritual dimension...the place where we realize once and for all that we are not separate little entities but something much greater...much more unified. It is there we experience the background of Life experience rather than being lost in the foreground of it. It is there where true awareness exists. It is there where we realize there is actually nothing to heal.
Hmmm!
All is well in my world.
References
Tolle, E. (2017) Talk to Your Thoughts. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrRHaE_7d4
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Making Waves to Tap Into Grace
Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
-William Hazlitt
This soul can be made harmonious by tapping into our theta waves. How do we do that? Through good old meditation.
A Little on Brain Waves
There are four types of brain waves picked up by modern scientific analysis using equipment such as EEG's and MRI's. These waves are (from fastest to slowest): Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta
.
Beta waves are those brain waves induced when we are aroused. They are most active and the fastest occurring at about 15-45 cycles per second. They also have the shortest amplitudes. The more alert the brain is, the quicker these waves will run. When we are stressed, as most of us are, spending much of our time in our monkey minds, we will have lots of Beta waves on our EEGs.
Alpha waves are slower that Beta waves and have a higher amplitude. Occurring at 9-14 cycles per second, they occur when we are alert, awake but calm. We would likely see these waves after we completed a complicated mental task and sat down to reflect on it. If we were to have our brains measured just as we were sitting to meditate, we would also likely see Alpha waves in the slower range.
Theta Waves are the good guys we want to induce in order to tap into grace. We can get there through meditation ...and some modalities like Theta Healing purport to take us directly to "divine grace". These waves are slower than Alpha waves but do not necessarily induce sleep. We are still awake but very, very relaxed. They occur at about 5-8 cycles per second. We tend to dip into the subconscious in this state.
Then there is Delta waves which occur with sleep. They are obviously the slowest waves and have the highest amplitude, occurring anywhere from 1.5-4 cycles per second. We slip into the semi-unconsciousness here.
Waves then are slowest when we are calm. The amplitude is also higher in these slow waves. So the more relaxed we are the better the mind actually works and the easier it is to tap into the subconscious mind. We do not want to have our brain waves so slow and high that we fall asleep or go into a coma but we would like to tap into those waves that occur when body and mind are relaxed if we wish to enhance our spirituality.
Another Brain Wave Recently Discovered
There has also been another brain wave discovered in a Buddhist Monk during meditation while he was focusing on attention and compassion. Gamma waves were recorded on Mathieu Richard during meditation experimentation at NYU. This was the first time such a wave was recorded in a human mind opening the door to the mystery of what meditation can provide.
Ideally...it would be great for all of us to reach that state where we would be sure to tap into the true Self and the Ultimate Grace. Unfortunately, it may take years of practice to achieve the ability to do so. Theta waves then are the default choice for tapping into our soul/true Self/ higher consciousness/ purusa. They are in a sense our doorway to Grace.
Theta Healing
One way of tapping into these waves and experiencing divine Grace directly is said to be by using a fairly new modality called Theta Healing. This method was devised by a woman named Vianna Stibel in the 1990's to cure herself from bone cancer. Practitioners are encouraged to visualize transcending from their earth bound energized bodies through the universe and into various layers of light to the white light realm where The Creator (and one is encouraged to use whatever terminology they are comfortable with to visualize the source of all creation) abides. It is believed this realm is the deepest subconscious where self limiting beliefs can be dispelled with the creator's intervention.
I have tried it and have done the associated muscle testing to determine my core beliefs and my success at changing them. I cannot say, at this point, that it was effective or ineffective. I am, however, intrigued to continue trying.
Tapping Into that Place of Peace
Whether it through theta healing imagery, plain old fashioned meditation or simply mindfulness...the goal is to tap into Grace which to me is synonymous with that place of peace I long to be in. That is where we can find inward harmony of the soul. That place of peace is not out there, up there or anywhere but right here and right now. It is the present moment that brings our awareness of our connection with the Source and that awareness is Grace.
Every moment is filled with Grace.
Why?
Because, The present moment is my true Self. Isn't the True Self...the Soul many of us refer to. Is that not what we experience a connection with when we tap into those Theta waves? Just saying, just wondering...hmmm? I would really like to operate more frequently in a state of theta and maybe someday experience the rare Gamma state others have experienced.
All is well in my world
References
Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey ( n.d.) Gratitude is in the Present Moment from the Manifesting Grace through Gratitude Meditation Series.
Kitney, Anna (March, 2016 ) Theta Healing Meditations & Instant Healing's. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjRwkWPn64
Newer, Rachael ( November, 2012) The Happiest Man is a Tibetan Monk. from Smart News. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-happiest-man-is-a-tibetan-monk-105980614/
Scientific American (n.d.) What is the Function of the Various Brain Waves? Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22/
Sivananda Ashram yoga Retreat Bahamas (February 2018) Vianna Stibel: Divine Timing . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV3WeDfGNzU
-William Hazlitt
This soul can be made harmonious by tapping into our theta waves. How do we do that? Through good old meditation.
A Little on Brain Waves
There are four types of brain waves picked up by modern scientific analysis using equipment such as EEG's and MRI's. These waves are (from fastest to slowest): Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta
.
Beta waves are those brain waves induced when we are aroused. They are most active and the fastest occurring at about 15-45 cycles per second. They also have the shortest amplitudes. The more alert the brain is, the quicker these waves will run. When we are stressed, as most of us are, spending much of our time in our monkey minds, we will have lots of Beta waves on our EEGs.
Alpha waves are slower that Beta waves and have a higher amplitude. Occurring at 9-14 cycles per second, they occur when we are alert, awake but calm. We would likely see these waves after we completed a complicated mental task and sat down to reflect on it. If we were to have our brains measured just as we were sitting to meditate, we would also likely see Alpha waves in the slower range.
Theta Waves are the good guys we want to induce in order to tap into grace. We can get there through meditation ...and some modalities like Theta Healing purport to take us directly to "divine grace". These waves are slower than Alpha waves but do not necessarily induce sleep. We are still awake but very, very relaxed. They occur at about 5-8 cycles per second. We tend to dip into the subconscious in this state.
Then there is Delta waves which occur with sleep. They are obviously the slowest waves and have the highest amplitude, occurring anywhere from 1.5-4 cycles per second. We slip into the semi-unconsciousness here.
Waves then are slowest when we are calm. The amplitude is also higher in these slow waves. So the more relaxed we are the better the mind actually works and the easier it is to tap into the subconscious mind. We do not want to have our brain waves so slow and high that we fall asleep or go into a coma but we would like to tap into those waves that occur when body and mind are relaxed if we wish to enhance our spirituality.
Another Brain Wave Recently Discovered
There has also been another brain wave discovered in a Buddhist Monk during meditation while he was focusing on attention and compassion. Gamma waves were recorded on Mathieu Richard during meditation experimentation at NYU. This was the first time such a wave was recorded in a human mind opening the door to the mystery of what meditation can provide.
Ideally...it would be great for all of us to reach that state where we would be sure to tap into the true Self and the Ultimate Grace. Unfortunately, it may take years of practice to achieve the ability to do so. Theta waves then are the default choice for tapping into our soul/true Self/ higher consciousness/ purusa. They are in a sense our doorway to Grace.
Theta Healing
One way of tapping into these waves and experiencing divine Grace directly is said to be by using a fairly new modality called Theta Healing. This method was devised by a woman named Vianna Stibel in the 1990's to cure herself from bone cancer. Practitioners are encouraged to visualize transcending from their earth bound energized bodies through the universe and into various layers of light to the white light realm where The Creator (and one is encouraged to use whatever terminology they are comfortable with to visualize the source of all creation) abides. It is believed this realm is the deepest subconscious where self limiting beliefs can be dispelled with the creator's intervention.
I have tried it and have done the associated muscle testing to determine my core beliefs and my success at changing them. I cannot say, at this point, that it was effective or ineffective. I am, however, intrigued to continue trying.
Tapping Into that Place of Peace
Whether it through theta healing imagery, plain old fashioned meditation or simply mindfulness...the goal is to tap into Grace which to me is synonymous with that place of peace I long to be in. That is where we can find inward harmony of the soul. That place of peace is not out there, up there or anywhere but right here and right now. It is the present moment that brings our awareness of our connection with the Source and that awareness is Grace.
Every moment is filled with Grace.
Why?
Because, The present moment is my true Self. Isn't the True Self...the Soul many of us refer to. Is that not what we experience a connection with when we tap into those Theta waves? Just saying, just wondering...hmmm? I would really like to operate more frequently in a state of theta and maybe someday experience the rare Gamma state others have experienced.
All is well in my world
References
Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey ( n.d.) Gratitude is in the Present Moment from the Manifesting Grace through Gratitude Meditation Series.
Kitney, Anna (March, 2016 ) Theta Healing Meditations & Instant Healing's. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjRwkWPn64
Newer, Rachael ( November, 2012) The Happiest Man is a Tibetan Monk. from Smart News. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-happiest-man-is-a-tibetan-monk-105980614/
Scientific American (n.d.) What is the Function of the Various Brain Waves? Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22/
Sivananda Ashram yoga Retreat Bahamas (February 2018) Vianna Stibel: Divine Timing . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV3WeDfGNzU
Thursday, March 28, 2019
More on Grace
Grace is like the rain, it falls on everyone alike.
-Deepak Chopra
I am taking part in the 21 day meditation series offered by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey. I was especially moved by the message that grace flows back to us when we are grateful.
I am not sure what "grace' is...it is just a word after all...a mental construct...an idea and I am not sure exactly where it comes from. My traditional conditioning would tell me it comes from God and that it is conditional...only passed on to me when I am worthy or when I do something special. I have to earn it somehow. That means, I will spend most of my life without it. Sigh
The above quote, however, defines it in a more appealing way by saying it/ Grace is instead like nature...non-discriminating, pouring down on all of us...all beings...in the same cleansing and refreshing way.
Many of us believe that when Life doesn't go the way we think it should, when we are faced with one challenge after another that God ( this higher power we may or may not adhere to and that we may define in a myriad of ways) is out to get us.
I often catch myself trapped in an old belief system...that I am being punished for something that makes me unworthy...maybe simply being? I know it is irrational but for years that belief somehow dominated my thinking therefore my feeling and therefore my believing. I thought there was something 'personal' in it.
Now that I am more aware, I am conscious of it and I have the power to disbelieve it, to let this old tired Self-destructive belief go. I choose grace instead. I smile as I hold my face up to the rain. I, as do all beings on this planet, deserve Grace's healing water.
According to Oprah Winfrey, Grace is the knowing that we are heard, known, understood and a part of something bigger and wonderful. We reach elements of this knowing every time we are grateful for what is. Grace responds to our gratitude, gently and sweetly like spring rain allowing us to grow.
Hmmm! How beautiful is that?
All is well in my world.
References
Chopra Meditation Center.( n.d.) Day Four: Grace is Replying. Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra: Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude
-Deepak Chopra
I am taking part in the 21 day meditation series offered by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey. I was especially moved by the message that grace flows back to us when we are grateful.
I am not sure what "grace' is...it is just a word after all...a mental construct...an idea and I am not sure exactly where it comes from. My traditional conditioning would tell me it comes from God and that it is conditional...only passed on to me when I am worthy or when I do something special. I have to earn it somehow. That means, I will spend most of my life without it. Sigh
The above quote, however, defines it in a more appealing way by saying it/ Grace is instead like nature...non-discriminating, pouring down on all of us...all beings...in the same cleansing and refreshing way.
Many of us believe that when Life doesn't go the way we think it should, when we are faced with one challenge after another that God ( this higher power we may or may not adhere to and that we may define in a myriad of ways) is out to get us.
I often catch myself trapped in an old belief system...that I am being punished for something that makes me unworthy...maybe simply being? I know it is irrational but for years that belief somehow dominated my thinking therefore my feeling and therefore my believing. I thought there was something 'personal' in it.
Now that I am more aware, I am conscious of it and I have the power to disbelieve it, to let this old tired Self-destructive belief go. I choose grace instead. I smile as I hold my face up to the rain. I, as do all beings on this planet, deserve Grace's healing water.
According to Oprah Winfrey, Grace is the knowing that we are heard, known, understood and a part of something bigger and wonderful. We reach elements of this knowing every time we are grateful for what is. Grace responds to our gratitude, gently and sweetly like spring rain allowing us to grow.
Hmmm! How beautiful is that?
All is well in my world.
References
Chopra Meditation Center.( n.d.) Day Four: Grace is Replying. Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra: Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
10,000 Things: 10,000 Names
Because phenomena seem, even to our senses, to exist from their own side even though they do not, we mistakenly accept the view that phenomena exist more substantially than they actually do.
- the Dalai Lama
6th Century BCE Quantum Physicists
I think the Buddhists (and Taosits...maybe all philosophies that arose from those 6th century BC thinkers) understood the rational behind the Double Slit Theory before it was even proposed. lol
I have been subliminally pulled towards Quantum physics again in the last couple of days. I went from studying some of the Buddhist doctrine to re-reading the Tao to listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn to watching videos where Shantena Sabbadini discusses the connection between quantum physics and Lao Tzu's wisdom and most recently to listening to some old lectures from David Bohm . I was pointed there, then there, then there and then here lol.
Why Physics?
Being math and 'physics' challenged to the core...I mean absolutely stupid in those areas...I cannot understand why I was led back to it. Maybe to realize that all things I was pointed to were connected. (If only by a conceptual map in my mind. :)) If they are connected, maybe all things are and if all things are connected maybe they were never separated in the first place by anything other than thought or a name.
What is in a Name?
What I have realized once again was the power that exists in a name or category. When we name something we specify it from the general, we dissect this something from the whole, we abstract it in part, leaving most of what it actually is behind, we then define it, limit it, categorize and group it based on its similarities with other phenomena, and therefore we make distinctions.
10,000 Things
We make what Lao Tzu referred to as the 10,000 things out of one thing. What this naming does is divide the whole into parts...into what many translations refer to as "10,000 things" and what Legge refers to as "all things" .
(conceived of) as having a name, it is the mother of all things
and in other translations:
The name, once introduced, becomes the mother of 10,000 things. (http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm)
Before the naming all so- called things, which were actually no-thing, were one and after the naming they were many.
Names, Thoughts and Concepts
Naming is what thought does, right? It is a form of judgment and labelling we do to make sense of our world. We name to group and categorize...make sense of our perceptions and therefore our thoughts about what we are perceiving. Then when we are confronted with something we seen or heard before... the name calls upon the concept related to that thing. The name brings us back to thought. It take us out of the actual experience back to the thought of it.
Helen Keller
Bohm describes this conceptualization tendency of the human mind beautifully when he explains the Helen Keller story. How she, without having the usual means of perception (sight or hearing) was introduced to the idea of concepts ( advanced thought) through names scratched onto her palm by her teacher. At first the scratching made no sense to her at all because she had no idea what a concept was. Eventually, however, she connected that the water in whatever form she was experiencing it was still water. It had a name.
Prior to that 'understanding' she seemed feral, disconnected, alone in her experience. Everything, to her, would have been One dark and silent thing...without distinction. She did not understand "10,000 things" but with the understanding of a relatable concept through naming water, she was removed from her isolation. Now that is a good use of naming right?
Division
Yet what also happened was she was removed from understanding the wholeness of who she was. The Universe she knew was suddenly divided as separate parts of it were abstracted to form scratches on her hand. If things around her were separate, there had to be an "around" her and there had to be a her. She herself became a separate thing with distinct borders that separated her from everything else...a "me", an "mine", a "I".
As soon as she formed that "little me" she would have become lost like the rest of us...endlessly searching for more 'things'. The story depicts her running around excitedly after coming to terms with conceptualization...looking for the names of other things, looking for more physical world knowledge. She wanted a name for every one of those 10,000 things. She began to strive. :)
The Down Side to Naming
I have to wonder if she, as an expression of Life, would have become lost in the naming, the thoughts and the concepts. Did those names scratched on her hand , rather than the experience of wholeness, become her reality? Did phenomena became substantial for her as the Oneness of all things slipped away? Did the scratches on her hand become her reality instead of what they pointed to? Did naming the water become more important than experiencing the water?
Do you see what I am getting at?
Pointing Fingers
I wrote about the Zen student's confusion with the pointing finger and about the student getting reprimanded by his teacher for speaking during a beautiful sunset in previous entries. Sabbadini, to make this point, refers to a picture of a pipe with the caption translated form French to mean, "This is not a pipe".
If you ask a viewer what that is , they will likely say it is a pipe. But it is not a pipe. It is a picture of a pipe. It is a small abstraction of what a pipe actually is. You cannot pick it up and hold it in your palm. You cannot feel the smoothness of it, or smell the sweet tobacco or taste it. It is just a picture symbol...like a name...only depicting a small portion of what that something is. In itself, like a name or a thought, it is so limited. But maybe, if it is a good representative, like a good ad would make it, it will lead you to go to a real pipe. It points the way.
Names, thoughts and words are just pointing fingers ...advertisements that call upon thoughts and concepts. They take us from 'experience' back into the mind. They serve a purpose. They allow us to understand each other and make some sense of our physical world but we have to be very, very careful with them.
We can get lost in them. We can see them as our reality. We can stop at them instead of going to where they are pointing to. We can strive and cling and hold onto them at the expense of our own wellness. We can defend and attack because of them. We can isolate, separate and segregate because of them. Names can do damage if we invest too heavily in them. This is what the Buddha refers to in his teachings. Thinking can be the source of our suffering both individually and globally.
Does that make sense?
I hope so because I can not say any more on the subject and I definitely cannot scratch it on the palm of your hand.
All is well.
References
Bohm, David. (June, 2018) David Bohm: Thought is an Abstraction. David Bohm Society. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fbK2E0XEc
Legge, James (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Science and Non-duality (July, 2015) Laotzi and Quantum Physics-Shantena Augusto Sabbadini. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcKbpMIelMo
Shimomissi, Eiichi(1998) Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm
- the Dalai Lama
6th Century BCE Quantum Physicists
I think the Buddhists (and Taosits...maybe all philosophies that arose from those 6th century BC thinkers) understood the rational behind the Double Slit Theory before it was even proposed. lol
I have been subliminally pulled towards Quantum physics again in the last couple of days. I went from studying some of the Buddhist doctrine to re-reading the Tao to listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn to watching videos where Shantena Sabbadini discusses the connection between quantum physics and Lao Tzu's wisdom and most recently to listening to some old lectures from David Bohm . I was pointed there, then there, then there and then here lol.
Why Physics?
Being math and 'physics' challenged to the core...I mean absolutely stupid in those areas...I cannot understand why I was led back to it. Maybe to realize that all things I was pointed to were connected. (If only by a conceptual map in my mind. :)) If they are connected, maybe all things are and if all things are connected maybe they were never separated in the first place by anything other than thought or a name.
What is in a Name?
What I have realized once again was the power that exists in a name or category. When we name something we specify it from the general, we dissect this something from the whole, we abstract it in part, leaving most of what it actually is behind, we then define it, limit it, categorize and group it based on its similarities with other phenomena, and therefore we make distinctions.
10,000 Things
We make what Lao Tzu referred to as the 10,000 things out of one thing. What this naming does is divide the whole into parts...into what many translations refer to as "10,000 things" and what Legge refers to as "all things" .
(conceived of) as having a name, it is the mother of all things
and in other translations:
The name, once introduced, becomes the mother of 10,000 things. (http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm)
Before the naming all so- called things, which were actually no-thing, were one and after the naming they were many.
Names, Thoughts and Concepts
Naming is what thought does, right? It is a form of judgment and labelling we do to make sense of our world. We name to group and categorize...make sense of our perceptions and therefore our thoughts about what we are perceiving. Then when we are confronted with something we seen or heard before... the name calls upon the concept related to that thing. The name brings us back to thought. It take us out of the actual experience back to the thought of it.
Helen Keller
Bohm describes this conceptualization tendency of the human mind beautifully when he explains the Helen Keller story. How she, without having the usual means of perception (sight or hearing) was introduced to the idea of concepts ( advanced thought) through names scratched onto her palm by her teacher. At first the scratching made no sense to her at all because she had no idea what a concept was. Eventually, however, she connected that the water in whatever form she was experiencing it was still water. It had a name.
Prior to that 'understanding' she seemed feral, disconnected, alone in her experience. Everything, to her, would have been One dark and silent thing...without distinction. She did not understand "10,000 things" but with the understanding of a relatable concept through naming water, she was removed from her isolation. Now that is a good use of naming right?
Division
Yet what also happened was she was removed from understanding the wholeness of who she was. The Universe she knew was suddenly divided as separate parts of it were abstracted to form scratches on her hand. If things around her were separate, there had to be an "around" her and there had to be a her. She herself became a separate thing with distinct borders that separated her from everything else...a "me", an "mine", a "I".
As soon as she formed that "little me" she would have become lost like the rest of us...endlessly searching for more 'things'. The story depicts her running around excitedly after coming to terms with conceptualization...looking for the names of other things, looking for more physical world knowledge. She wanted a name for every one of those 10,000 things. She began to strive. :)
The Down Side to Naming
I have to wonder if she, as an expression of Life, would have become lost in the naming, the thoughts and the concepts. Did those names scratched on her hand , rather than the experience of wholeness, become her reality? Did phenomena became substantial for her as the Oneness of all things slipped away? Did the scratches on her hand become her reality instead of what they pointed to? Did naming the water become more important than experiencing the water?
Do you see what I am getting at?
Pointing Fingers
I wrote about the Zen student's confusion with the pointing finger and about the student getting reprimanded by his teacher for speaking during a beautiful sunset in previous entries. Sabbadini, to make this point, refers to a picture of a pipe with the caption translated form French to mean, "This is not a pipe".
If you ask a viewer what that is , they will likely say it is a pipe. But it is not a pipe. It is a picture of a pipe. It is a small abstraction of what a pipe actually is. You cannot pick it up and hold it in your palm. You cannot feel the smoothness of it, or smell the sweet tobacco or taste it. It is just a picture symbol...like a name...only depicting a small portion of what that something is. In itself, like a name or a thought, it is so limited. But maybe, if it is a good representative, like a good ad would make it, it will lead you to go to a real pipe. It points the way.
Names, thoughts and words are just pointing fingers ...advertisements that call upon thoughts and concepts. They take us from 'experience' back into the mind. They serve a purpose. They allow us to understand each other and make some sense of our physical world but we have to be very, very careful with them.
We can get lost in them. We can see them as our reality. We can stop at them instead of going to where they are pointing to. We can strive and cling and hold onto them at the expense of our own wellness. We can defend and attack because of them. We can isolate, separate and segregate because of them. Names can do damage if we invest too heavily in them. This is what the Buddha refers to in his teachings. Thinking can be the source of our suffering both individually and globally.
Does that make sense?
I hope so because I can not say any more on the subject and I definitely cannot scratch it on the palm of your hand.
All is well.
References
Bohm, David. (June, 2018) David Bohm: Thought is an Abstraction. David Bohm Society. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fbK2E0XEc
Legge, James (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Science and Non-duality (July, 2015) Laotzi and Quantum Physics-Shantena Augusto Sabbadini. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcKbpMIelMo
Shimomissi, Eiichi(1998) Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Holding Infinity(the lotus flower) in the Palms of Our Hands
Nothing is to be clung to as "I", "me" or "mine."
-The Buddha
Hmmm! Have you heard the lotus sermon in the Zen Buddhist tradition ( in every Buddhist tradition actually but this one sermon became the basis for Zen).
The Lotus Sermon
One day the Buddha was sitting with his five disciples during a sangha. Before him was a pond where beautiful lotus flowers floated.
The disciples looked expectantly to their teacher for him to expound his usual wisdom but that day he merely dipped his hand into the muddy water and pulled out a lotus flower. Holding it in the air with its roots still dripping with pond water, the Buddha remained silent. Saying nothing, he showed the flower to each of his students who fervently and unsuccessfully went to their minds to look for the meaning of what their teacher was trying to impart.
The Buddha went from one student to the next until he got to his last student Mahakashyapa. Mahakashyapa looked at the flower , his eyes alight with Buddha's wisdom, and smiled. Buddha smiled back giving him the flower.
This one student understood the lesson! No one else did.
Seeing the Whole Picture
What Mahakashyapa got was that in that flower existed the whole universe. He not only saw the flower that his teacher held out like the other students did, but he saw the ocean, the sky, everyone and everything.
William Blake, much, much later, wrote a poem about karma that spoke to this understanding.
What a wonderful lesson for all of us. what this understanding entails is the true message of all Buddha's teachings. When we can get past the veil of 'me' that exists in most of our minds...we too will be able to see the connectedness of everything. It is this clinging to those awful pronouns of "I", "me" and "mine" that stops us from remembering who we are beneath our stories.
It is attachment to these pronouns and our so called stories that keep us stuck in this idea of suffering or Dukkha. It is this clinging to ideas we have of ourselves and others and the world that keep us small and separated from the whole....that in turn leads to fear based behaviours like addiction, violence and isolation.
We fail to see that we are not subjects looking at an object...we are the lotus flower. We are not broken, isolated beings we are connected and part of everything.
Remembering
We just forgot who we were. We need to remember.
Deepak Chopra in his conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn tells us that remembering is remembering (reconnecting) the wholeness of the dismembered.
When you see yourself in an object, the experience is beauty. When you see yourself in another person, the experience is love. -Deepak Chopra
How beautiful is that?
Back to the Tao...again
I go back to the Tao to understand the lesson Buddha's best student understood so quickly. In Verse 22, James Legge translates Lao Tzu's wisdom as:
Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing(of humility),
and manifests it to all the world.
He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines;
from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished;
from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged;
from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority.
It is because he is thus free from striving
that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.
So much wonderful wisdom to learn from, heal with and experience.
All is well.
References
Blake, William (n.d.) Auguries of Innocence. from Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence
Deepak Chopra in Conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn (Nov, 2017) The Chopra Well. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqGrwujf-0
Legge, James ( 1891) Translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
The Flower Sermon.(n.d.) from Buddha's World. Retrieved from http://www.katinkahesselink.net/tibet/flower-sermon.htm
-The Buddha
Hmmm! Have you heard the lotus sermon in the Zen Buddhist tradition ( in every Buddhist tradition actually but this one sermon became the basis for Zen).
The Lotus Sermon
One day the Buddha was sitting with his five disciples during a sangha. Before him was a pond where beautiful lotus flowers floated.
The disciples looked expectantly to their teacher for him to expound his usual wisdom but that day he merely dipped his hand into the muddy water and pulled out a lotus flower. Holding it in the air with its roots still dripping with pond water, the Buddha remained silent. Saying nothing, he showed the flower to each of his students who fervently and unsuccessfully went to their minds to look for the meaning of what their teacher was trying to impart.
The Buddha went from one student to the next until he got to his last student Mahakashyapa. Mahakashyapa looked at the flower , his eyes alight with Buddha's wisdom, and smiled. Buddha smiled back giving him the flower.
This one student understood the lesson! No one else did.
Seeing the Whole Picture
What Mahakashyapa got was that in that flower existed the whole universe. He not only saw the flower that his teacher held out like the other students did, but he saw the ocean, the sky, everyone and everything.
William Blake, much, much later, wrote a poem about karma that spoke to this understanding.
To
see a World in a Grain of Sand
And
a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold
Infinity in the palm of your hand
And
Eternity in an hour
What a wonderful lesson for all of us. what this understanding entails is the true message of all Buddha's teachings. When we can get past the veil of 'me' that exists in most of our minds...we too will be able to see the connectedness of everything. It is this clinging to those awful pronouns of "I", "me" and "mine" that stops us from remembering who we are beneath our stories.
It is attachment to these pronouns and our so called stories that keep us stuck in this idea of suffering or Dukkha. It is this clinging to ideas we have of ourselves and others and the world that keep us small and separated from the whole....that in turn leads to fear based behaviours like addiction, violence and isolation.
We fail to see that we are not subjects looking at an object...we are the lotus flower. We are not broken, isolated beings we are connected and part of everything.
Remembering
We just forgot who we were. We need to remember.
Deepak Chopra in his conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn tells us that remembering is remembering (reconnecting) the wholeness of the dismembered.
When you see yourself in an object, the experience is beauty. When you see yourself in another person, the experience is love. -Deepak Chopra
How beautiful is that?
Back to the Tao...again
I go back to the Tao to understand the lesson Buddha's best student understood so quickly. In Verse 22, James Legge translates Lao Tzu's wisdom as:
Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing(of humility),
and manifests it to all the world.
He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines;
from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished;
from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged;
from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority.
It is because he is thus free from striving
that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.
So much wonderful wisdom to learn from, heal with and experience.
All is well.
References
Blake, William (n.d.) Auguries of Innocence. from Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence
Deepak Chopra in Conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn (Nov, 2017) The Chopra Well. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqGrwujf-0
Legge, James ( 1891) Translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
The Flower Sermon.(n.d.) from Buddha's World. Retrieved from http://www.katinkahesselink.net/tibet/flower-sermon.htm
Monday, March 25, 2019
Dhanya Vad
Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge or reason.
-Pope Francis (Brainy Quotes)
Grace
Grace is not something you go looking for. It is something you already are. It is not something knowledge or reason provides...it exists beyond the limitations of mind, action and speech.
You are already whole, complete and perfect. Do you believe that? Most of us don't...so we spend vast amounts of energy and clock-time looking out there for this something that is in here.
We already Have It; We already Are It
We strive to 'know' what grace is and where it can be found...instead of simply getting out of our own ways and letting Grace shine from where it has always been. It is not about us and what we think and do. We don't do life, Life does us. We do not breathe...we are breathed. We don't become, we are. How come we have such a hard time getting that?
Jon Kabat-Zinn , a wise mindfulness teacher and founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction reminds want -to-be mindfulness teachers that there is no "there". There is just here and now and if we really want to find grace and all the happiness we tend to externally strive for, we just need to get out of our own ways. It is all about letting .
"Let the beauty that is us interconnect with the beauty that is the whole world."
It is not about doing, it is simply about being what we already are. The Buddhist heart sutras also reminds of this:
No place to go, nothing to do, nothing to attain.
We already are, we already have what we are looking for. We just keep forgetting that. We need to remember. To remember is merely to restore to your mind what is already there. (ACIM; T:10:II:3:1)
Gratitude
One simple way of getting there is through the practice of gratitude. Gratitude, according to Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey, in their 21 day meditation series entitled Manifesting Grace through Gratitude, shifts attention from our automatic and problematic tendency to resist Life to accepting everything the present moment has to offer. When we can learn to embrace all we are given we will find happiness, we will find the peace we long for, we will find Grace. When I am grateful, I find my grace.
We do not need to strive to attain; we do not need to do; we do not need to know anything conceptually to experience grace...we just need to be willing to sit and experience Life in the present moment, regardless of what is happening in us or around us. And be grateful for it. It is that simple.
All is well in my world!
References
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles: combined Volume. Text. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace
Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey(2019) Day 1: The Path to Grace Begins Today, from The 21 day Manifesting Grace through Gratitude series. Chopra Center Meditation. com
Jon Kabat-Zinn (2018) The Art Of Teaching Mindfulness. Wisdom 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEGcTTLMDow
-Pope Francis (Brainy Quotes)
Grace
Grace is not something you go looking for. It is something you already are. It is not something knowledge or reason provides...it exists beyond the limitations of mind, action and speech.
You are already whole, complete and perfect. Do you believe that? Most of us don't...so we spend vast amounts of energy and clock-time looking out there for this something that is in here.
We already Have It; We already Are It
We strive to 'know' what grace is and where it can be found...instead of simply getting out of our own ways and letting Grace shine from where it has always been. It is not about us and what we think and do. We don't do life, Life does us. We do not breathe...we are breathed. We don't become, we are. How come we have such a hard time getting that?
Jon Kabat-Zinn , a wise mindfulness teacher and founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction reminds want -to-be mindfulness teachers that there is no "there". There is just here and now and if we really want to find grace and all the happiness we tend to externally strive for, we just need to get out of our own ways. It is all about letting .
"Let the beauty that is us interconnect with the beauty that is the whole world."
It is not about doing, it is simply about being what we already are. The Buddhist heart sutras also reminds of this:
No place to go, nothing to do, nothing to attain.
We already are, we already have what we are looking for. We just keep forgetting that. We need to remember. To remember is merely to restore to your mind what is already there. (ACIM; T:10:II:3:1)
Gratitude
One simple way of getting there is through the practice of gratitude. Gratitude, according to Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey, in their 21 day meditation series entitled Manifesting Grace through Gratitude, shifts attention from our automatic and problematic tendency to resist Life to accepting everything the present moment has to offer. When we can learn to embrace all we are given we will find happiness, we will find the peace we long for, we will find Grace. When I am grateful, I find my grace.
We do not need to strive to attain; we do not need to do; we do not need to know anything conceptually to experience grace...we just need to be willing to sit and experience Life in the present moment, regardless of what is happening in us or around us. And be grateful for it. It is that simple.
All is well in my world!
References
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles: combined Volume. Text. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace
Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey(2019) Day 1: The Path to Grace Begins Today, from The 21 day Manifesting Grace through Gratitude series. Chopra Center Meditation. com
Jon Kabat-Zinn (2018) The Art Of Teaching Mindfulness. Wisdom 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEGcTTLMDow
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Compassion and the Self
Compassion strengthens your outlook, and with that courage you are more relaxed. When your perspective includes the suffering of limitless beings, your own suffering looks comparatively small.
-Dalia Lama
I'm back and man is it good to be back. Even though we had to leave our now stable patient behind, coming home was a bit of a necessity for me for all kinds of reasons. We can get to the point in our caring and being there when we are no longer serving, giving or helpful. This point can be reached if we fail to take care of ourselves.
After two full weeks of being totally immersed in this crisis at the neglect of everything else, including my own health...it was time to step away for fresh air ( and unfortunately into another ongoing crisis sigh!) Oh well, we need to remember that it is what it is.... that simple.
Compassion
Compassion is a wonderful healing medicine. I have discovered, because of the extreme nature of some of the crisis' I have been dealing with, that compassion for others removes us from our self centered focus. It takes us to something greater and more powerful than our own incessant whining. It takes us away from body focus and into that space the Tao and Buddhist doctrine speaks of.
An Example
On that Saturday two weeks ago, I was literally becoming ill. I had a fever, was achy all over, chills, sweats...flu like symptoms on top of the ongoing pelvic pain I was experiencing. I had resigned myself to a day in bed. When D. came home to tell me he had to call an ambulance for his son...I got out of bed , put aside any intentions I had to allow myself to be sick and I went into crisis mode. On encountering the crisis everything just went away or at least I was able to get beyond it. For a period of time I was removed from awareness of my own symptoms...my own demanding life experiences etc. I realized so profoundly that this Life was not all about me and that this body was something I was meant to use in the service of others! I suddenly had much, much compassion for other beings...all beings actually. I forgot about 'me'. It was amazing really...freeing...like I really had a fever that disappeared.
But...
Forgetting about 'little me' is a great thing...but forgetting about ourselves as part of the larger Self, the larger whole isn't always so so healthy. Compassion has to transfer to Self as well.
Don't Be a Martyr
Martyr syndrome develops when compassion for others at the 'expense of self' becomes the ego focus. It is actually self-serving but in a very unhealthy way. Ego strives on victim hood...and martyrs claim such status. The true Self...however, is neglected in such instances and compassion is therefore limited in its giving potential.
I did not and do not want to go there. I want my giving to be natural and whole hearted which it was in the beginning until my ignoring my body signals became problematic. There is still something going on in my body and my body definitely wants me to do something about it. How can we serve others if we have no transportation to them?
Pain is always a wonderful wake up call. It snapped me away from Self-sacrifice to self exposure. It made me aware that my compassion was being contaminated by my own self neglect. And as Ru Paul would say, "If you can't love yourself; how the h-e- double hockey sticks are you going to love someone else?"
I knew I had to come home and rest for everyone's sake, for the sake of the Greater Self. My fever, ironically, came back as soon as I gave myself permission once again to take care of this amazing, wise body. Hmmm! How amazing is that?
Anyway...we got through the hard part and a little self nurturing is now called for....not for selfish ego reasons but for the greater good. Even Kant could have agreed with that, wouldn't he? It is all good.
All is well in my world.
-Dalia Lama
I'm back and man is it good to be back. Even though we had to leave our now stable patient behind, coming home was a bit of a necessity for me for all kinds of reasons. We can get to the point in our caring and being there when we are no longer serving, giving or helpful. This point can be reached if we fail to take care of ourselves.
After two full weeks of being totally immersed in this crisis at the neglect of everything else, including my own health...it was time to step away for fresh air ( and unfortunately into another ongoing crisis sigh!) Oh well, we need to remember that it is what it is.... that simple.
Compassion
Compassion is a wonderful healing medicine. I have discovered, because of the extreme nature of some of the crisis' I have been dealing with, that compassion for others removes us from our self centered focus. It takes us to something greater and more powerful than our own incessant whining. It takes us away from body focus and into that space the Tao and Buddhist doctrine speaks of.
An Example
On that Saturday two weeks ago, I was literally becoming ill. I had a fever, was achy all over, chills, sweats...flu like symptoms on top of the ongoing pelvic pain I was experiencing. I had resigned myself to a day in bed. When D. came home to tell me he had to call an ambulance for his son...I got out of bed , put aside any intentions I had to allow myself to be sick and I went into crisis mode. On encountering the crisis everything just went away or at least I was able to get beyond it. For a period of time I was removed from awareness of my own symptoms...my own demanding life experiences etc. I realized so profoundly that this Life was not all about me and that this body was something I was meant to use in the service of others! I suddenly had much, much compassion for other beings...all beings actually. I forgot about 'me'. It was amazing really...freeing...like I really had a fever that disappeared.
But...
Forgetting about 'little me' is a great thing...but forgetting about ourselves as part of the larger Self, the larger whole isn't always so so healthy. Compassion has to transfer to Self as well.
Don't Be a Martyr
Martyr syndrome develops when compassion for others at the 'expense of self' becomes the ego focus. It is actually self-serving but in a very unhealthy way. Ego strives on victim hood...and martyrs claim such status. The true Self...however, is neglected in such instances and compassion is therefore limited in its giving potential.
I did not and do not want to go there. I want my giving to be natural and whole hearted which it was in the beginning until my ignoring my body signals became problematic. There is still something going on in my body and my body definitely wants me to do something about it. How can we serve others if we have no transportation to them?
Pain is always a wonderful wake up call. It snapped me away from Self-sacrifice to self exposure. It made me aware that my compassion was being contaminated by my own self neglect. And as Ru Paul would say, "If you can't love yourself; how the h-e- double hockey sticks are you going to love someone else?"
I knew I had to come home and rest for everyone's sake, for the sake of the Greater Self. My fever, ironically, came back as soon as I gave myself permission once again to take care of this amazing, wise body. Hmmm! How amazing is that?
Anyway...we got through the hard part and a little self nurturing is now called for....not for selfish ego reasons but for the greater good. Even Kant could have agreed with that, wouldn't he? It is all good.
All is well in my world.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Back to the Tao
Clay is fashioned into vessels, but it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends.
- Lao Tzu
What we see, feel, hear, smell and taste creates what we know of the material world. It is easy to think that is all there is. Within form and around form, however, is the non-material world: space, emptiness, no-thing. We neglect sometimes that space and fail to see its usefulness. its everythingness.
So much wisdom offered in the 81 verses quickly written by Lao Tzu as a means to get permission to pass through a border and into another country. I love to read those verses and to soak up the wisdom they offer. I am presently reading James Legge's translation. He adds a bit of poetic intention with rhyme scheme etc from time to time. I am not sure Lao Tzu had the same intention but it works.
Let's briefly go through the next eight verses.
Verse Nine
This verse basically teaches that it is not always best to have more. If we have a lot in our possession our loads are heavy to carry. If we are proud of how sharp something is and we constantly want to feel that sharpness, our grabbing and clinging can make it dull (less desirable). The more wealth we have the more we need to defend and attack in order to keep it safe. It can also lead to arrogance ( ego evil). These things are not important...they are not the way of heaven. It is best to do what we are here to do without such possession or recognition...to simply remain obscure or at least return to obscurity (humble).
I think of the Dalai Lama's words:
No material object, however beautiful or valuable, can make us feel loved, because our deeper identity and true character lie in the subjective nature of the mind.
Verse Ten
Verse Ten speaks to the idea of perfecting human nature. We do so by recognizing our oneness with all life, putting away this notion of separation that keeps us distant. We also do so by relaxing into our being ness...which we can do, for example, through breath awareness. We can also get there by getting beyond all that our minds try to get us to believe.
Perfecting our human nature is not necessarily achieved through action or doing...but through being present. We can be like 'mother birds' who simply sit on their nests and allow the beings beneath them to grow as the gates of heaven and earth open and close. True intelligence is not about conceptual knowledge...but about understanding who we really are ...being ...simply being is wisdom that extends to all . We can be like the Tao ...nourishing ...producing all things without owning them or possessing them. There is no ego involved in the way...no control... yet it leads so perfectly, offering everything. This is the mysterious quality of the Tao.
Again, we go back to the Dalai Lama:
If your life becomes only a medium of production, then many of the good human values and characteristics will be lost - then you will not, cannot, become a complete person.
Verse Eleven
This beautiful verse speaks to what the Buddhist call Shunyata or emptiness. Though the wheel has thirty spokes, what makes it move is the empty space on the axis. Though the clay cup or pot is made of solid material (clay), it is the space within the cup that we fill and use to drink out from...if there was no space the cup would have no use. Though a house has solid walls with windows...it is in the empty space within those walls that we can live. The point is that what is of form and can be seen, heard, felt, etc is something we can make the most of but the real usefulness is in the emptiness, or the space.
Verse Twelve
Here Lao Tzu tells us how dependency on our five senses to determine the quality of our lives can lead to madness and an inability to experience what is real...what cannot be seen, heard, felt, tasted or touched. Attempts to satisfy the cravings inspired by these bodily senses can make men 'evil'. The wise person, will not seek to satisfy the senses but to simply feed the belly....focus only on what is needed by the body for survival. He/she realizes that these other cravings will never be satisfied.
Verse Thirteen
We should fear favour just as much as we should fear disgrace and good fortune and calamity are really the same.
What?
We normally anticipate that fear comes with disgrace which is the loss of favour...therefore we fear losing that favour. So when we are in everyone's good graces ....do we not fear that we will not be able to hold onto that status thus causing us to be afraid? And we normally understand that having a lot of bad luck is a negative personal condition, but if that is the case good fortune is too. We would worry about losing good fortune and falling to the brink of despair if everything was going our way, would we not? And really as long as we are in physical form ...we can expect to have some challenges right? If we favour the kingdom as we favour ourselves we will be fit to rule it. If we could love the kingdom as much as we loved ourselves we would be entrusted with the care of it.
Verse 14
In this verse we are told that the Tao is the One and it consists of three qualities: It is equable (unseen even though we are looking at it), inaudible( unheard even though we are listening to it) and it is ungraspable ( can not be held even though it is is right in front of us). It can not then be named or described with words but if we blend these three qualities together we call it the One. It is neither bright nor obscure. Because it never stops doing and it always returns to that state of stillness, silence, emptiness or nothingness ...it is no -thing. It is formless, invisible, temporary and unpredictable. Because of this we meet it without seeing its front and we follow it without seeing its backside. Unwinding the clue of the Tao involves understanding its indescribable characteristics and allowing it to direct our lives regardless of the fact we can not see , hear, hold or name it.
Verse 15
Here we hear of the old Tao masters of the past who were able to fully understand the nature of its truth. Those who truly followed the way we're like the Tao, beyond being understood . They were shrinking, irresolute, cautious, evanescent, unpretentious, vacant and dull??
They allowed it to just be! We make muddy water clear and movement still, not by resisting or struggling against but, by just allowing them to be. The water will become clear if we just let it be. Movement will eventually end if we just let it be. Those who attempt to preserve the motion of the Tao (let it be) can afford to appear tired and less than perfect...there is no ego.
Verse 16
Spaciousness is something to be brought to its full potential and stillness is something to be fiercely protected. All things will return to their natural state after they have completed their own processes. Vegetation will return to its roots which can be called the state of stillness.
We do the same. Once we reach this state we know that we have completed what we are here to do. The unchanging rule is taught to us through report of that fulfillment.
Intelligence is knowing that rule....without knowledge of it we are prone to reckless, evil behaviour. Knowledge of this rule leads to a great capacity to handle what life offers and to be at one with all beings ( community) . We then can develop the characters of kings and from there we become heaven-like. When we are heaven-like we have the Tao/are living the Tao. Having the Tao protects us from decay as long as we are in our bodies.
Wow! Such great wisdom ...it inspires me to read more
All is well.
Monday, March 18, 2019
Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it become still, and it will eventually become clear.
-LaoTzu(verse 15 as translated by James Legge)
I feel like I have abandoned my best friend by not coming here every morning. Wow! It truly is an important part of my life experience. Still away dealing with the crisis and it is just too hard to write and think clearly. This iPad makes the process more challenging lol. Things are really looking up though so I will be back.
All is well.
-LaoTzu(verse 15 as translated by James Legge)
I feel like I have abandoned my best friend by not coming here every morning. Wow! It truly is an important part of my life experience. Still away dealing with the crisis and it is just too hard to write and think clearly. This iPad makes the process more challenging lol. Things are really looking up though so I will be back.
All is well.
Friday, March 15, 2019
It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than it is to attempt to carry it when it is full
Lao Tzu
Four O'Clock in the morning and it looks like it is going to be another sleepless night....that song comes to mind whenever I lay awake around this time. I don't mind sleeplessness too much as long as I have the opportunity to give into my need to write. Aren't most writers insomniacs?
Sigh... I have a lot on my mind...besides how frustrating it is to try to write on an IPad.
We have a loved one going for major surgery tomorrow and his life is literally dependent on the success of this surgery. Then there is one major recovery after another to follow. We can't look that far ahead though. Just one day at a time. And on this day I am awake at four in the morning thinking about him, his father and a loved one at home who is still struggling and I am sad. I am sad but I am accepting. Acceptance is an amazing thing. It simply is what it is..are words that heal.
The last few days I got to know him all over again...I mean really know him beneath all that junk that gets in the way. How beautiful and amazing people are when they are stripped down to their most precious vulnerable states. Then I watched amazing medical and nursing staff do what they do...reaching in beyond all the outer stuff and seeing and treating him 'wholly'and my heart just got so much bigger ( not in the bad way...no we don't need another case of cardiomegaly to deal with). I have faith in humanity again. :)
I read verse nine of the Tao... So beautiful. Lighten the load by not clinging or attempting to have everything. That is reassuring advice being that my vessel is pretty darned empty. What is important is breath and life. I pray that it continues for that lovely young man tomorrow and that he is able to transcend the challenges ahead...to heal in all the ways he needs to heal...so that he can someday help lighten the load of someone else.
All is well because it simply is what it is.
Lao Tzu
Four O'Clock in the morning and it looks like it is going to be another sleepless night....that song comes to mind whenever I lay awake around this time. I don't mind sleeplessness too much as long as I have the opportunity to give into my need to write. Aren't most writers insomniacs?
Sigh... I have a lot on my mind...besides how frustrating it is to try to write on an IPad.
We have a loved one going for major surgery tomorrow and his life is literally dependent on the success of this surgery. Then there is one major recovery after another to follow. We can't look that far ahead though. Just one day at a time. And on this day I am awake at four in the morning thinking about him, his father and a loved one at home who is still struggling and I am sad. I am sad but I am accepting. Acceptance is an amazing thing. It simply is what it is..are words that heal.
The last few days I got to know him all over again...I mean really know him beneath all that junk that gets in the way. How beautiful and amazing people are when they are stripped down to their most precious vulnerable states. Then I watched amazing medical and nursing staff do what they do...reaching in beyond all the outer stuff and seeing and treating him 'wholly'and my heart just got so much bigger ( not in the bad way...no we don't need another case of cardiomegaly to deal with). I have faith in humanity again. :)
I read verse nine of the Tao... So beautiful. Lighten the load by not clinging or attempting to have everything. That is reassuring advice being that my vessel is pretty darned empty. What is important is breath and life. I pray that it continues for that lovely young man tomorrow and that he is able to transcend the challenges ahead...to heal in all the ways he needs to heal...so that he can someday help lighten the load of someone else.
All is well because it simply is what it is.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Suffering Exists
I really really get the first noble truth of Buddhism after today...suffering exists!
And I am not just talking about my petty little suffering.... But the suffering of all humans...today I witnessed the epitome of self induced suffering and it broke my heart and left me shaking to the core. How far we can fall, how hard we can land and how broken we can all become. I realized how badly one lost human needed an intervention just to ensure he still breathed...and thought the whole world needs an intervention.
We can point fingers, judge and condemn a certain few for their choices, we can shut these people out of our hearts and minds so we do not see ourselves in that suffering, we can segregate and isolate and do all the harm reduction that is possible....but this will not change the fact that suffering exists in everyone. What we need is compassion and healing and kindness for all those that suffer. Definitely, not more judgment. Suffering exists!!
All is well!
And I am not just talking about my petty little suffering.... But the suffering of all humans...today I witnessed the epitome of self induced suffering and it broke my heart and left me shaking to the core. How far we can fall, how hard we can land and how broken we can all become. I realized how badly one lost human needed an intervention just to ensure he still breathed...and thought the whole world needs an intervention.
We can point fingers, judge and condemn a certain few for their choices, we can shut these people out of our hearts and minds so we do not see ourselves in that suffering, we can segregate and isolate and do all the harm reduction that is possible....but this will not change the fact that suffering exists in everyone. What we need is compassion and healing and kindness for all those that suffer. Definitely, not more judgment. Suffering exists!!
All is well!
Friday, March 8, 2019
Seeing Rightly (through Terracotta Soldiers)
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
-Antoine de Sainte-Exupery (The Little Prince)
Working on a poem that I started here yesterday and because it came out here I wanted to leave here. Now I am wondering if that is a good idea. It is just a poem. I have copy right protection. I can prove that it is mine. I don't want any money for it either do I want anyone else to make any money off it (not that they could lol). Just leave it be...please.
After a wonderful get together with friends I found myself triggered as I was innocently reminded of how much my life has changed, how different I now was compared to them and the person I use to be. I felt like all my usual defense mechanisms and personas were dropping away messily...and I wondered if my friends could almost see them dropping away and if that made them feel uncomfortable. It was a lovely, lovely visit yet a weird mental experience took place in my head. My friends are both absolutely lovely...my vulnerability had nothing to do with them.
It actually has been surfacing all week...that heavy sadness I felt when I got up each morning...and I was just very much aware of it during the visit. Then I picked up these beautiful little Terra-cotta soldiers that were tourist/gift representatives of the ones found in the Chinese tomb. Something happened as I held one in my hand...I became aware of how all our defenses and protection are really not real...but used by ego to scare others away. Being open and raw is not a bad thing.
So the poem came out...but it took more time than usual (hours!!)...I was a bit obsessed with it until I finally finished. Now I feel like wow! I feel relief and release. Is that what was coming up since Monday??? I didn't want to analyze it with conceptual thought so it came out creatively...still with words mind you...but words that came from the place behind the mind and not the mind itself. :)
I guess it is about Seeing rightly.
I will put it here now and do whatever I can to protect it but I will just let it be. If I become aware there is any illicit behaviour, I will deal with it harshly only for the preservation of the written word :) :
Terra-cotta Soldiers in a Perfect Little Room
I feel the jagged little pieces of life piercing through my chest,
pulling away the broken flesh and feeding on the rest.
Bleeding , draining memories, sticky, sweet and wet
drip through tiny holes of me, staining social etiquette.
I stand here awkwardly, not quite knowing what to say,
My mind resisting noisily as spirit pushes walls away.
Do they notice I am unprotected now, open, exposed and raw
As I smile my nervous smile, feeling the tightness in my jaw?
Do they see beyond this decaying carcass with its matted clumps of past
Still sticking to the surface of an image that was never meant to last?
Do they wonder who I am now with all the flimsy veils torn away
Or would it be simpler if I hid behind my burqa for yet another day?
All that remains of my defenses are spilling slowly to the floor
Creating large embarrassing puddles that leads me reaching for the door.
But I do not want to leave a mess behind for anyone else to clean
So like the well trained dogs, I sit and hope the puddles can’t be seen.
Do they hear the apologetic trembling in my scattered broken speech
That once expressed such confidence as I stood in front to teach?
Are my long pauses leaving them wondering what we will dare speak of next
As we distractedly reach for cell phones and the protective wall of text?
Even the tiny terra-cotta soldiers, I know, can not protect my crumbling tomb
And I feel a chill despite the light pouring into this perfect little room.
I now know I have trembled more from fear than I ever did from cold
and suddenly I feel like the soldiers ....so very, very old,
I am not who I used to be, the person they knew is gone
yet my body sits upright and smiles and tries to carry on
the fantasy that I ever was this stranger they once said they loved and knew
with the same desires, goals and wishes, I so drastically out grew
There is so much of me that longs to be here, to just sit within their grace
To speak of perfect homes, perfect kids, the challenges they face,
to talk of their work, their pets and crafts, with life so innocently expressed
but it leaves me, for some reason, feeling stripped down to my naked brokenness.
Thankfully there is no talk of shattered hearts, of loss, or bodies that are ill
There is little focus on decaying forefronts and the externals that haunt me still.
They graciously drop their eyes and look away from my broken ,bloody parts
And do they do so, I wonder, with apathy or with kindness in their hearts?
I know it’s hard to look upon what remains of an ugly broken shell
beaten down, and tarnished, depicting how traumatically someone fell
from ego's pedestal of laurel wreaths and perfect decored normalcy
to the hard cold depth of something else , a world so few want to see.
I want to reassure them it is just the outer that can break
And though it looks so messy, it is just the externals life can take
Clinging and fighting and holding on to remnants will never give us peace
There is something so healing, and so freeing, in the sweetness of release.
Besides ...this ‘little me” they thought they knew is just eschar on the skin
and once debrided fully, the healing light will finally come in.
I want to speak of what I learn as each layer is stripped away
And let them know that though it stings, it is going to be okay.
But as I sit on perfect chairs, beside tiny soldiers, seeking true identity,
I question if they can see beyond the layer of raw and fragile vulnerability.
Who I really am is well preserved and waiting within this wall-less terracotta tomb
Where precious Love shines through to all of us who gather in this room.
I am not sure though that what I have to say is something they would really care to hear.
So I bite my lip and nod my head and I listen, focusing on simply being here.
Then I awkwardly take a picture of us to remember how we used to be
And sadly walk away from the room, the soldiers and the lovely company.
© Dale-Lyn 2019
-Antoine de Sainte-Exupery (The Little Prince)
Working on a poem that I started here yesterday and because it came out here I wanted to leave here. Now I am wondering if that is a good idea. It is just a poem. I have copy right protection. I can prove that it is mine. I don't want any money for it either do I want anyone else to make any money off it (not that they could lol). Just leave it be...please.
After a wonderful get together with friends I found myself triggered as I was innocently reminded of how much my life has changed, how different I now was compared to them and the person I use to be. I felt like all my usual defense mechanisms and personas were dropping away messily...and I wondered if my friends could almost see them dropping away and if that made them feel uncomfortable. It was a lovely, lovely visit yet a weird mental experience took place in my head. My friends are both absolutely lovely...my vulnerability had nothing to do with them.
It actually has been surfacing all week...that heavy sadness I felt when I got up each morning...and I was just very much aware of it during the visit. Then I picked up these beautiful little Terra-cotta soldiers that were tourist/gift representatives of the ones found in the Chinese tomb. Something happened as I held one in my hand...I became aware of how all our defenses and protection are really not real...but used by ego to scare others away. Being open and raw is not a bad thing.
So the poem came out...but it took more time than usual (hours!!)...I was a bit obsessed with it until I finally finished. Now I feel like wow! I feel relief and release. Is that what was coming up since Monday??? I didn't want to analyze it with conceptual thought so it came out creatively...still with words mind you...but words that came from the place behind the mind and not the mind itself. :)
I guess it is about Seeing rightly.
I will put it here now and do whatever I can to protect it but I will just let it be. If I become aware there is any illicit behaviour, I will deal with it harshly only for the preservation of the written word :) :
Terra-cotta Soldiers in a Perfect Little Room
I feel the jagged little pieces of life piercing through my chest,
pulling away the broken flesh and feeding on the rest.
Bleeding , draining memories, sticky, sweet and wet
drip through tiny holes of me, staining social etiquette.
I stand here awkwardly, not quite knowing what to say,
My mind resisting noisily as spirit pushes walls away.
Do they notice I am unprotected now, open, exposed and raw
As I smile my nervous smile, feeling the tightness in my jaw?
Do they see beyond this decaying carcass with its matted clumps of past
Still sticking to the surface of an image that was never meant to last?
Do they wonder who I am now with all the flimsy veils torn away
Or would it be simpler if I hid behind my burqa for yet another day?
All that remains of my defenses are spilling slowly to the floor
Creating large embarrassing puddles that leads me reaching for the door.
But I do not want to leave a mess behind for anyone else to clean
So like the well trained dogs, I sit and hope the puddles can’t be seen.
Do they hear the apologetic trembling in my scattered broken speech
That once expressed such confidence as I stood in front to teach?
Are my long pauses leaving them wondering what we will dare speak of next
As we distractedly reach for cell phones and the protective wall of text?
Even the tiny terra-cotta soldiers, I know, can not protect my crumbling tomb
And I feel a chill despite the light pouring into this perfect little room.
I now know I have trembled more from fear than I ever did from cold
and suddenly I feel like the soldiers ....so very, very old,
I am not who I used to be, the person they knew is gone
yet my body sits upright and smiles and tries to carry on
the fantasy that I ever was this stranger they once said they loved and knew
with the same desires, goals and wishes, I so drastically out grew
There is so much of me that longs to be here, to just sit within their grace
To speak of perfect homes, perfect kids, the challenges they face,
to talk of their work, their pets and crafts, with life so innocently expressed
but it leaves me, for some reason, feeling stripped down to my naked brokenness.
Thankfully there is no talk of shattered hearts, of loss, or bodies that are ill
There is little focus on decaying forefronts and the externals that haunt me still.
They graciously drop their eyes and look away from my broken ,bloody parts
And do they do so, I wonder, with apathy or with kindness in their hearts?
I know it’s hard to look upon what remains of an ugly broken shell
beaten down, and tarnished, depicting how traumatically someone fell
from ego's pedestal of laurel wreaths and perfect decored normalcy
to the hard cold depth of something else , a world so few want to see.
I want to reassure them it is just the outer that can break
And though it looks so messy, it is just the externals life can take
Clinging and fighting and holding on to remnants will never give us peace
There is something so healing, and so freeing, in the sweetness of release.
Besides ...this ‘little me” they thought they knew is just eschar on the skin
and once debrided fully, the healing light will finally come in.
I want to speak of what I learn as each layer is stripped away
And let them know that though it stings, it is going to be okay.
But as I sit on perfect chairs, beside tiny soldiers, seeking true identity,
I question if they can see beyond the layer of raw and fragile vulnerability.
Who I really am is well preserved and waiting within this wall-less terracotta tomb
Where precious Love shines through to all of us who gather in this room.
I am not sure though that what I have to say is something they would really care to hear.
So I bite my lip and nod my head and I listen, focusing on simply being here.
Then I awkwardly take a picture of us to remember how we used to be
And sadly walk away from the room, the soldiers and the lovely company.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Preparing the Mind and Heart for Peaceful Presence
Today, everything is interconnected. Destruction of your neighbor is destruction of yourself. So please, prepare your mind and heart with patience, knowledge, and skill, so that in the world and in every nation there can be peace.
-Dalai Lama (from today's calendar page)
Hmmm! I have been learning.
An Example of My Learning
I awoke this morning feeling sad and heavy almost to the core. My first conditioned reaction, once I realized how I was feeling, was to build story around it, to use the mind to analyze it , create conceptual reason for it...to give the pain conceptual meaning.
In itself, the heavy sadness was just that...heavy sadness...an emotion I could deal with...signalling maybe that some psychological component of my self was arising. Psychologically, I could understand it but I wanted automatically to build on the psychology of it...and to interpret it, label it, fix it, control it, solve it as the egoic mind so likes to do. I wanted to bring that feeling, that could be felt in my belly and chest and in the heaviness of my limbs, to my head instead of just letting it be.
The Usual Reaction to Pain
That has been my normal reaction to pain for as long as I can remember but I recognized myself almost immediately. I caught myself slipping into previously unconscious patterns of resisting. I was aware of myself reacting right away. So I was able to get beyond the Step One of Knowing Self that I wrote about yesterday. That is quite a thing.
Normally, I would have taken the feeling of sadness to the mind...and I would have worked on being able to see it clearly from that level. I would have pondered over and over again this question, "Why am I feeling sad? What is going on in my outer world that gives me reasons to be sad?' Then I would have begun searching for reasons, focusing on all the things in my Life that have caused pain or could cause pain. I would draw up old painful memories. I would feel even more pain. I would have thought, "Poor me!" etc. Then I would have asked, "How do I fix this or at least what can I get from it?" Then I would imagine telling my story to others, of writing about it, creating more drama and sadness.
I would have basically psycho analyzed and storied myself to death lol. Understanding the whys and hows of feeling and venting is not a problem in itself and even necessary to some extent...but...but...I ...the 'little me'... would have got stuck there.
I would have analyzed to the point of filtering the conceptual whys and hows from the actual experience of feeling and being...which is known as intellectualizing. The more I intellectualized how I felt mentally...the more the feeling would be numbed and stuffed down below the superficial layer beneath all the drama I would have created around it. The sadness would not have been experienced as it simply was asking to be. I would have used up much energy and time resisting the feeling...therefore resisting life in that moment the feeling arose... causing the 'Dukkha' or suffering' component of pain.
Awareness Keeps Us Conscious
But I didn't...I became aware of my egoic reactions before I got lost in them. By becoming aware, I got to choose another option. I went beyond my usual tendency to conceptualize. I let go of my need 'to know' and therefore staid conscious and aware. I simply was with the experience.
Hmm! That little learning outcome was interesting and gave me hope that I am getting there. I don't know where 'there' is but I am getting there because I am 'here'. The more I can catch myself beginning to react and the sooner I can...the more aware I will be.
Commitment to Preparing the Mind and Heart
Anyway...the point is... through the committed preparation of my mind and heart with patience, true non- conceptual knowledge and skill, I got to the point I didn't get lost in my usual conditioned reactions of slipping into unconsciousness...of slipping into the mind when the opportunity presented itself. (Ironic that this type of unconsciousness occurs when we call on the mind, and that the preferred type of consciousness occurs when we get beyond the mind, eh? )
I may slip next week, or tomorrow or half an hour from now but the more I am able to bring awareness into unconscious behavioral patterns, the more conscious I will become.
If I can do it , any of us can!!!
When we stop trying to addictively judge, interpret and label all our experiences or the experiences of others we will experience peace more often. When we relinquish our need to think, do, and narrate we will find the true knowing. It is in the place of peaceful knowing where we tap into who we really are.
Who are we?
And to get back to the Dalai Lama's words...we are all interconnected. When I hurt myself... I hurt another, when I hurt another... I hurt myself. And ...if I offer peace to you, I offer it to myself and vice versa . The same spacious place of peaceful knowing that is in you, is in me, in all of us.
Eckhart Tolle in You Are the Universe explains how we tend to react to people who are present, conscious and aware. We feel relaxed and peaceful around them. We tend to like them and have nice things to say about them. Why? Not because they are anything special or offer anything extraordinary. But simply because we sense that there is no judgment and interpretation...so we can relax without feeling like we are being judged. Peace and judgment do not go together.
True knowing involves no judgment!!! So when we are using that knowing to look at another person, we don't feel the need to judge them. We can see beyond the superficial personality and behaviour of the other to the presence, the same presence that is in us. We therefore help to create a more peaceful world.
Hmm! Something to think about!
All is well.
Eckhart Tolle (2019) You are the Universe. (as linked in the previous entry)
-Dalai Lama (from today's calendar page)
Hmmm! I have been learning.
An Example of My Learning
I awoke this morning feeling sad and heavy almost to the core. My first conditioned reaction, once I realized how I was feeling, was to build story around it, to use the mind to analyze it , create conceptual reason for it...to give the pain conceptual meaning.
In itself, the heavy sadness was just that...heavy sadness...an emotion I could deal with...signalling maybe that some psychological component of my self was arising. Psychologically, I could understand it but I wanted automatically to build on the psychology of it...and to interpret it, label it, fix it, control it, solve it as the egoic mind so likes to do. I wanted to bring that feeling, that could be felt in my belly and chest and in the heaviness of my limbs, to my head instead of just letting it be.
The Usual Reaction to Pain
That has been my normal reaction to pain for as long as I can remember but I recognized myself almost immediately. I caught myself slipping into previously unconscious patterns of resisting. I was aware of myself reacting right away. So I was able to get beyond the Step One of Knowing Self that I wrote about yesterday. That is quite a thing.
Normally, I would have taken the feeling of sadness to the mind...and I would have worked on being able to see it clearly from that level. I would have pondered over and over again this question, "Why am I feeling sad? What is going on in my outer world that gives me reasons to be sad?' Then I would have begun searching for reasons, focusing on all the things in my Life that have caused pain or could cause pain. I would draw up old painful memories. I would feel even more pain. I would have thought, "Poor me!" etc. Then I would have asked, "How do I fix this or at least what can I get from it?" Then I would imagine telling my story to others, of writing about it, creating more drama and sadness.
I would have basically psycho analyzed and storied myself to death lol. Understanding the whys and hows of feeling and venting is not a problem in itself and even necessary to some extent...but...but...I ...the 'little me'... would have got stuck there.
I would have analyzed to the point of filtering the conceptual whys and hows from the actual experience of feeling and being...which is known as intellectualizing. The more I intellectualized how I felt mentally...the more the feeling would be numbed and stuffed down below the superficial layer beneath all the drama I would have created around it. The sadness would not have been experienced as it simply was asking to be. I would have used up much energy and time resisting the feeling...therefore resisting life in that moment the feeling arose... causing the 'Dukkha' or suffering' component of pain.
Awareness Keeps Us Conscious
But I didn't...I became aware of my egoic reactions before I got lost in them. By becoming aware, I got to choose another option. I went beyond my usual tendency to conceptualize. I let go of my need 'to know' and therefore staid conscious and aware. I simply was with the experience.
Hmm! That little learning outcome was interesting and gave me hope that I am getting there. I don't know where 'there' is but I am getting there because I am 'here'. The more I can catch myself beginning to react and the sooner I can...the more aware I will be.
Commitment to Preparing the Mind and Heart
Anyway...the point is... through the committed preparation of my mind and heart with patience, true non- conceptual knowledge and skill, I got to the point I didn't get lost in my usual conditioned reactions of slipping into unconsciousness...of slipping into the mind when the opportunity presented itself. (Ironic that this type of unconsciousness occurs when we call on the mind, and that the preferred type of consciousness occurs when we get beyond the mind, eh? )
I may slip next week, or tomorrow or half an hour from now but the more I am able to bring awareness into unconscious behavioral patterns, the more conscious I will become.
If I can do it , any of us can!!!
When we stop trying to addictively judge, interpret and label all our experiences or the experiences of others we will experience peace more often. When we relinquish our need to think, do, and narrate we will find the true knowing. It is in the place of peaceful knowing where we tap into who we really are.
Who are we?
And to get back to the Dalai Lama's words...we are all interconnected. When I hurt myself... I hurt another, when I hurt another... I hurt myself. And ...if I offer peace to you, I offer it to myself and vice versa . The same spacious place of peaceful knowing that is in you, is in me, in all of us.
Eckhart Tolle in You Are the Universe explains how we tend to react to people who are present, conscious and aware. We feel relaxed and peaceful around them. We tend to like them and have nice things to say about them. Why? Not because they are anything special or offer anything extraordinary. But simply because we sense that there is no judgment and interpretation...so we can relax without feeling like we are being judged. Peace and judgment do not go together.
True knowing involves no judgment!!! So when we are using that knowing to look at another person, we don't feel the need to judge them. We can see beyond the superficial personality and behaviour of the other to the presence, the same presence that is in us. We therefore help to create a more peaceful world.
Hmm! Something to think about!
All is well.
Eckhart Tolle (2019) You are the Universe. (as linked in the previous entry)
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
The Great Mystery
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
So going back to the Tao and what was learned in the first eight verses:
All is well.
James Legge (1891) LaoTzu's Tao Te Ching (https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm)
So going back to the Tao and what was learned in the first eight verses:
- We need to get beyond conceptual knowledge to understand It
- It is not something that can be known with the mind
- It is not something that can be taught or explained with speech or 'symbols'...words
- It is okay if we don't understand it and therefore don't understand who we are.
- The Tao is the way. The way to what we do not yet know.
- The Tao is not a path that can be physically trodden upon
- It can not be reduced to a name
- It is eternal and unchanging
- It is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, what is seen and unseen
- It is the mother of all 'things' (all forms)
- It is not something you seek for and find with the mind
- It is deep
- It is the power that allows all things to spring up
- It is the work but not the achievement of the work
- It is the power that never ceases to be
- It is the universal order that prevails beyond knowledge and desire
- It is emptiness ( open spaciousness= shunyata)
- It is deep and unfathomable
- It is like the ancestor of all things
- It is pure and still
- It appears to have been before God
- It is the space between heaven and earth?
- It never loses its power
- It is free and guarded from obstacles by the inner Self (so it isn't the inner Self?)
- It is spiritual and never dies
- It is the greater mother, giving birth to Heaven and Earth
- It's power is long and unbroken
- It is meant to be used gently
- It is selfless and ever giving thus preserving Itself
- It is excellent like water
- It flows everywhere beyond man's judgments and resistance
- It is home
All is well.
James Legge (1891) LaoTzu's Tao Te Ching (https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm)
The Special Truth
Not inside knowledge, not outside knowledge, not knowledge itself, not ignorance.
-Line from Mandukya Upanishad as translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda in The Yoga Sutras of Pantajali,
Say What???
Okay...I know. All this is getting harder and harder to grasp. But that is the beauty of it, isn't it? We do not have to grasp it or understand it for that truth to be what it is.
It isn't just the Tao that speaks to this idea of not knowing...of experiencing rather than trying to understand the Great Mystery conceptually. Ancient Hindu scripture expresses this as well and Yoga...the ultimate quest for Self...is centered around that idea of finding wisdom beyond the mind.
The 49th sutra of Patanjali's Book One can be translated:
The special truth is totally different from knowledge gained by hearing, study of scripture or inference.
The Tao, consciousness, the cosmic force, God, can not be understood from learning nor can any of it be explained in that way. True knowing can only be experienced by transcending the mind.
And because we are a manifestation of this, we can not understand who we really are until we get past our hang up with knowing conceptually. We are a part of that mystery.
There is an unknown and an unknowable depth to who you are. (Eckhart Tolle, 2019)
Know Thyself!
Tolle explains in, You are the Universe, that there are two levels of understanding this Great Mystery of Self.
We need to let go of conceptual knowledge to reach the ultimate truth of our existence. Christianity, even back in the medieval day, spoke of this need for unknowing. An excerpt from a translation of A Cloud of Unknowing reads
God can be loved but he cannot be thought. He can be grasped by love but never by concepts. So less thinking and more loving. (A Cloud of Unknowing)
Hmm! Something to think about.
All is well!
References
William Johnson...translator(reissued 1996)...A Cloud of Unknowing. Image Publishing book
Sri Swami Satchidananda (2011)The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Integral publications: Yogaville
Eckhart Tolle (2019) You Are the Universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNuMS-GlDrc
-Line from Mandukya Upanishad as translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda in The Yoga Sutras of Pantajali,
Say What???
Okay...I know. All this is getting harder and harder to grasp. But that is the beauty of it, isn't it? We do not have to grasp it or understand it for that truth to be what it is.
It isn't just the Tao that speaks to this idea of not knowing...of experiencing rather than trying to understand the Great Mystery conceptually. Ancient Hindu scripture expresses this as well and Yoga...the ultimate quest for Self...is centered around that idea of finding wisdom beyond the mind.
The 49th sutra of Patanjali's Book One can be translated:
The special truth is totally different from knowledge gained by hearing, study of scripture or inference.
The Tao, consciousness, the cosmic force, God, can not be understood from learning nor can any of it be explained in that way. True knowing can only be experienced by transcending the mind.
And because we are a manifestation of this, we can not understand who we really are until we get past our hang up with knowing conceptually. We are a part of that mystery.
There is an unknown and an unknowable depth to who you are. (Eckhart Tolle, 2019)
Know Thyself!
Tolle explains in, You are the Universe, that there are two levels of understanding this Great Mystery of Self.
- One important level of knowing your Self is through recognizing your conditioning the moment you are caught in a conditioned reaction. Knowing ourselves on the psychological level is okay to begin with. We can learn to understand our thoughts, emotions and behavioural responses to them We can understand our egos. We can use psychotherapy to help us to do this. The trick, however, is not getting stuck here in the psychological story of who we are. It is good to be aware on the superficial layer but we want to get beyond this layer, right?
- Then we relinquish any attempts to understand with the mind. That is where the above sutra takes us...past the psychological mind. We go deeper into awareness and awareness itself goes beyond conceptual knowing. When and if we are able to completely let go of all the knowing we have been offered from the outside...(the knowing the ego thrives on)...we can then 'experience' the truth of who we really are.
We need to let go of conceptual knowledge to reach the ultimate truth of our existence. Christianity, even back in the medieval day, spoke of this need for unknowing. An excerpt from a translation of A Cloud of Unknowing reads
God can be loved but he cannot be thought. He can be grasped by love but never by concepts. So less thinking and more loving. (A Cloud of Unknowing)
Hmm! Something to think about.
All is well!
References
William Johnson...translator(reissued 1996)...A Cloud of Unknowing. Image Publishing book
Sri Swami Satchidananda (2011)The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Integral publications: Yogaville
Eckhart Tolle (2019) You Are the Universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNuMS-GlDrc
Monday, March 4, 2019
"I Just Don't Know"
You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. (ACIM: Text: Chapter 18:IV:7:5-6)
Hmm! In other words...if we understand it or not the truth really doesn't care. It is still the truth doing what truth does. This to me, is one of the biggest take aways so far in my reading of the Tao. Whether we understand the truth, the Tao, the divine Mystery is irrelevant to it. It still is all that It is. And the thing is...we are not going to understand It with our minds...it doesn't work that way.
How could we ever understand or explain the vastness of the universe...the mystery...what forever alludes conceptual thought...with a few words and syllables. (Tolle...somewhat clipped and paraphrased)
What parts of these first eight verses of the Tao stresses this?
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Under these two aspects, it really is the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
He constantly keeps them without knowledge and without desire, and where there is those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
How deep and unfathomable it is...
...that of the mind is in abysmal stillness
Our travelling the way is best accomplished when we accept that we know nothing and do not try to fill our moments with ceaseless interpreting, judging, solving and doing. We really cannot understand this vastness, this mystery with our conceptual minds. The more we do so, the farther away from it we get. In peace is every breath Thich Nhat Hanh puts it this way: An overloaded boat is easily capsized by wind and waves. Lighten your load, and your boat will travel more quickly and safely.(pg 52)
We need to let go. We need to learn to say: "I just don't know". And be okay with that.
All is well.
You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. (ACIM: Text: Chapter 18:IV:7:5-6)
Hmm! In other words...if we understand it or not the truth really doesn't care. It is still the truth doing what truth does. This to me, is one of the biggest take aways so far in my reading of the Tao. Whether we understand the truth, the Tao, the divine Mystery is irrelevant to it. It still is all that It is. And the thing is...we are not going to understand It with our minds...it doesn't work that way.
How could we ever understand or explain the vastness of the universe...the mystery...what forever alludes conceptual thought...with a few words and syllables. (Tolle...somewhat clipped and paraphrased)
What parts of these first eight verses of the Tao stresses this?
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Under these two aspects, it really is the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
He constantly keeps them without knowledge and without desire, and where there is those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
How deep and unfathomable it is...
...that of the mind is in abysmal stillness
Our travelling the way is best accomplished when we accept that we know nothing and do not try to fill our moments with ceaseless interpreting, judging, solving and doing. We really cannot understand this vastness, this mystery with our conceptual minds. The more we do so, the farther away from it we get. In peace is every breath Thich Nhat Hanh puts it this way: An overloaded boat is easily capsized by wind and waves. Lighten your load, and your boat will travel more quickly and safely.(pg 52)
We need to let go. We need to learn to say: "I just don't know". And be okay with that.
All is well.
References
ACIM
Legge. J. (1981) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tolle, Eckhart (2019) What I am means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRshKVMSKk
References
ACIM
Legge. J. (1981) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tolle, Eckhart (2019) What I am means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRshKVMSKk
Hmm! In other words...if we understand it or not the truth really doesn't care. It is still the truth doing what truth does. This to me, is one of the biggest take aways so far in my reading of the Tao. Whether we understand the truth, the Tao, the divine Mystery is irrelevant to it. It still is all that It is. And the thing is...we are not going to understand It with our minds...it doesn't work that way.
How could we ever understand or explain the vastness of the universe...the mystery...what forever alludes conceptual thought...with a few words and syllables. (Tolle...somewhat clipped and paraphrased)
What parts of these first eight verses of the Tao stresses this?
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Under these two aspects, it really is the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
He constantly keeps them without knowledge and without desire, and where there is those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
How deep and unfathomable it is...
...that of the mind is in abysmal stillness
Our travelling the way is best accomplished when we accept that we know nothing and do not try to fill our moments with ceaseless interpreting, judging, solving and doing. We really cannot understand this vastness, this mystery with our conceptual minds. The more we do so, the farther away from it we get. In peace is every breath Thich Nhat Hanh puts it this way: An overloaded boat is easily capsized by wind and waves. Lighten your load, and your boat will travel more quickly and safely.(pg 52)
We need to let go. We need to learn to say: "I just don't know". And be okay with that.
All is well.
You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. (ACIM: Text: Chapter 18:IV:7:5-6)
Hmm! In other words...if we understand it or not the truth really doesn't care. It is still the truth doing what truth does. This to me, is one of the biggest take aways so far in my reading of the Tao. Whether we understand the truth, the Tao, the divine Mystery is irrelevant to it. It still is all that It is. And the thing is...we are not going to understand It with our minds...it doesn't work that way.
How could we ever understand or explain the vastness of the universe...the mystery...what forever alludes conceptual thought...with a few words and syllables. (Tolle...somewhat clipped and paraphrased)
What parts of these first eight verses of the Tao stresses this?
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Under these two aspects, it really is the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
He constantly keeps them without knowledge and without desire, and where there is those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
How deep and unfathomable it is...
...that of the mind is in abysmal stillness
Our travelling the way is best accomplished when we accept that we know nothing and do not try to fill our moments with ceaseless interpreting, judging, solving and doing. We really cannot understand this vastness, this mystery with our conceptual minds. The more we do so, the farther away from it we get. In peace is every breath Thich Nhat Hanh puts it this way: An overloaded boat is easily capsized by wind and waves. Lighten your load, and your boat will travel more quickly and safely.(pg 52)
We need to let go. We need to learn to say: "I just don't know". And be okay with that.
All is well.
References
ACIM
Legge. J. (1981) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tolle, Eckhart (2019) What I am means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRshKVMSKk
References
ACIM
Legge. J. (1981) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tolle, Eckhart (2019) What I am means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRshKVMSKk
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Let things be, let yourself be, let everything be and accept it as it is. Nothing more. Nothing less.
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Okay...I am addicted to the Tao lol. Just like James Frey in A Million Little Pieces I am transferring my energy to it so I can heal. Of course, it is one of the many things I use to heal from my thinking addiction(which is probably the root cause of most addictions).
There is so much ancient wisdom in the east and it has taken centuries for the West to open up to it. Amazing really. Hmmm! The Toa offers such wisdom.
So what I would like to do, is interpret eight verses at a time. Eight is the sacred number in the East (well 108 is) only because it represents the symbol of infinity maybe? I don't know but anyway. I will do eight at a time. So every few days I will post my interpretations of those eight here.
Please know they are just my interpretations. I read James Legge because he is my chosen translator and try to understand what he meant quickly and from the heart. I often then go back to other translators as well, just to compare. The differences can be astounding! Goes to show what Lao Tzu tried to teach...that the sage should instruct without speech. Words can sometimes get in the way of what was meant.
Anyway here are the first eight:
Verse Two
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Okay...I am addicted to the Tao lol. Just like James Frey in A Million Little Pieces I am transferring my energy to it so I can heal. Of course, it is one of the many things I use to heal from my thinking addiction(which is probably the root cause of most addictions).
There is so much ancient wisdom in the east and it has taken centuries for the West to open up to it. Amazing really. Hmmm! The Toa offers such wisdom.
So what I would like to do, is interpret eight verses at a time. Eight is the sacred number in the East (well 108 is) only because it represents the symbol of infinity maybe? I don't know but anyway. I will do eight at a time. So every few days I will post my interpretations of those eight here.
Please know they are just my interpretations. I read James Legge because he is my chosen translator and try to understand what he meant quickly and from the heart. I often then go back to other translators as well, just to compare. The differences can be astounding! Goes to show what Lao Tzu tried to teach...that the sage should instruct without speech. Words can sometimes get in the way of what was meant.
Anyway here are the first eight:
How do we understand the first eight verses of the Tao?
Verse One
We need to understand that beyond what we can see and understand
with our physical forms, beyond what we can name and label with our minds… the
Tao exists. It is the path…the way for
all of us. It a way to healing. But we
cannot get there with our ‘little me’ or ego focus. We cannot understand it conceptually with our
minds …it needs to be experienced as the Great Mystery it is. We need to let go
of what we think we know about it, about Life, about the world and each other
and accept that we do not know.
The world is full of amazing contrast, what we refer to as opposites. Opposites are like two sides of the same coin
and that is okay….both sides are equally valuable and equally valueless. We do not need to judge anything as good or
bad…just accept it for simply being what it is.
We need this contrast. At the
same time we must realize that we make judgments about it in our mind and that
can create resistance to what is. The wise
person doesn’t do. The wise person
focuses more on being than doing. The
wise person goes beyond speech…beyond words and mental concepts to teach. Presence or being with the way is the best teacher. When we are present we go beyond a need to judge
and interpret, to own, to compete, to cling or to do for the sake of
reward, achievement and recognition. We just are
and we allow things to just be.
Third Verse
We must put away our ego tendencies if we want the world to become
a more peaceful place. We need to put
away our own individual desires to own, to flaunt, to be recognized, to be
special or better than…if we want to stop tempting others into self and other
destructive behaviours. The wise man leads others to a state of peace and
social order through helping them empty their minds of tired old belief systems
and conceptual knowledge, takes care of their bodies by filling their bellies,
reduces the power of their egos so they learn to stop resisting life and strengthens
their stability and solidity(their bones). It starts with one mind…our
own. When we have peace and stillness,
good order is universal.
Forth Verse
This verse speaks to the infinite emptiness, the infinite
spaciousness of the Tao. I really see Buddhist like ideology in this verse. The Tao
is deep, unfathomable and a mystery that we will never understand with our
conceptual minds. It is the oldest of the old and came before our understanding
of God (This translation uses the word God…but I don’t know if Lao Tzu would
have. Other translations use the word
…gods, or time etc)
Fifth Verse
Heaven and Earth and the Sage who understands them does not act to
be “good”…they just are. All beings, all things are treated without judgment,
attachment and ideas of specialness. They are treated as sacrificial toys
or humble and useless things (https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/13325/the-meaning-of-grass-dogs-dogs-of-grass)
There is a space between Heaven and Earth; between the physical and the non
physical. That space is like a bellows (
an instrument used by Blacksmith’s that expanded and contracted to let air
out). Even when this space is contracted and apparently empty…when we cannot
see it…it is still there and it doesn’t lose its power. And then when it is expanded and working we
can feel the air of it. The more we speak of it and use conceptual knowledge to understand it, the more tired we
become. We cannot understand it this
way. The inner being is always there guarding
the Tao, allowing it to flow freely but we cannot see that or understand
that…we cannot explain that with words or actions. It must be experienced.
Sixth Verse
In Verse sixth we speak of the eternalness of the Tao. This spiritual essence which is the way
tucked into the valley of the physical does not die. It is actually a feminine
mystery…and is often referred to as The
Great Mother in other translations. It is the root from which heaven and
earth grew. This makes me think of the
female womb, the root chakra. It is long
and unbroken, meaning that it is infinite and indestructible as is its power. It can be used gently without force or
masculine aggression…and without pain.
Seventh Verse
Heaven endures forever and earth has continued for as long as it
did because they did not live for themselves but for all beings. There is no egoic selfishness in them. Therefore the wise put away their egos and
put the little ‘self’ last. By so doing they find the ‘Greater Self’, the
true Self. The sage treats the ‘little me’ as foreign to his or herself and the
real Self is preserved by doing so. It
isn’t that they have no personal needs.
It is just that these needs are met because they are not ego needs but
the needs of the One Self. The Tao provides
Eighth Verse
In the eighth verse the Tao is compared to the excellence of water. Like water, it benefits everything. In its easy natural flow it can occupy all
things easily and go to those low places man would rather not go. It does not strive or fight its way there…it
just flows. There is also an analogy of
a residence in this verse. A residence is
a home, a place to live and excellence is defined as suitability. Legge’s
translation teaches that the mind is a suitable place to live if it is still;
relationships are suitable if they are virtuous; leadership is suitable if it
secures good order…actions and affairs are suitable if there is ability and all
movement is suitable as long as it is timely. The biggest take away here is that if we as humans do not fight or resist where
we are even if we deem it to be a low position we are showing excellence,
suitability for life and no one will find fault with us. We do not resist the
flow we go with it. We go with the flow
of Tao.
Well that is what I think and feel anyway. and we know how valuable that is lol...
References or to-reads
Frey, James (2005) A Million Little Pieces Sixth Edition. Random House Canada; Toronto
Legge, J. (1891) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tao Te Ching Translation Comparison https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:gff,sm,jhmd,jc,rh/section:1
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