Reflections
Pu-tai, Protector of Children
The tales of Ch'i-t'zu spread throughout China, and he came to be called Pu-tai (Budai), which means "hempen sack." He carries a sack with him full of good things, such as sweets for children, and he is often pictured with children. Pu-tai represents happiness, generosity and wealth, and he is a protector of children as well as of the poor and the weak.Pu-tai, Protector of Children
More thoughts & Reflections
Redemption and Sin 12.19.20
Redemptiona metanoia of the self. Metanoia: n. The act or process of changing one's mind; penitence, repentance, spiritual conversion.Hamartia or ‘sin’ is missing the markNous of metanoia is mind.I understand Metanoia as ‘entering the stream’ a course change that leads to living a moral life. One that cultivates well- being. bioethics (n.)also bio-ethics, coined 1970 by U.S. biochemist Van Rensselaer Potter II, who defined it as "Biology combined with diverse humanistic knowledge forging a science that sets a system of medical and environmental priorities for acceptable survival." From bio- + ethics.
The following are
11/22/2020 There are endless writings about consciousness,
There are endless writings about consciousness, but stories soon become stories about stories and historians are born. There does not seem to be more or less than that that occupies us. But what are the results of stories, how do we act when we hear that story. What are common threads of all stories and stories of stories. Can we observe our own stories and dispositions. Yes, and the view, is a story also. The observer seems neutral or we assume that there is such a neutral observer possible. I am not sure about the truth of this, except as a pscyoglogical fact. A function. We feel that we stand outside of our desires and the object of our desires. But often we are carried away by passion. The objective mind dissappears, if it ever was there to begin with. And we enact a desire or attitude and are swept away. How is this different than divine intoxication? Some part of us wants to be swept away, integrated with our belief in a higher ethos. But, still, we question this higher ethos. How can it be, if I think or feel it. The frozen middle path, versus the dynamic middle path. Like yes and no, the middle path, is also a fabrication. But what is the fabrication of a fabrication. When do we allow ourselves to trust that this fabrication is true. Is there anything that could allow us to have confidence in our vision or understanding. If it is in action, then the shifting grounds of subject and object momentarily are related to in a beneficial manner, that is one that supports, promotes life and whole some ness.
11/12/20 Adopting a more positive attitude.
11/12/20 Adopting a more positive attitude. So, I am reading interesting people who are creatively offering solutions to our American dilemna. Broadcast news has become unbearable. It creates a feeling of hopelessness. Quaker action groups, small dynamic groups offering support for people, micro finance, action groups that support the poor with new approaces to the endemic problems of poverty, racism, fear that is American as apple pie. A picture of complexity that cannot be resolved gets created by this wave of information which is sensationalized, and ubiquitious. Eneough. Stop. It is an addiction. Time to control what you read and think about. Rather than what can't be done,what can you do. If not you then who, if not now, then when?
11/1/2020
A large gap in writing. This is the day of reflection. 2020 has been a year of great suffering and death. Death in a way of living, death in trust in our country. It is unknown if this can be resurrected. So, grief and mourning are in order.
Bare attention, just this moment. Clear Comprehension, all moments imagined and experienced, and just this moment. Like a kaleidoscope going into and out of focus.
Personal pain, delusion, when does that end, if ever. What is left is uprightness in the midst of so much difficulty and yes, joy.
What is next happens. Is unknown. Is mysterious and intimate. Mountains do dance, as dear Dogen suggested. Love happens, and death and hope gives way to misty valleys and rain.
No stopping, the shapes are shifting in fabulous forms and colors. Zenki, being there with each one as an expression of the ultimate or Big Mind.
Breath, love, weep and dance.
6/1/20 Sickness Old Age and Death
Shakyamuni spent 6 years as the apocrypha of Buddhism lore suggests, dealing with his fundamental anxious fear of death and aging. His search caused him to leave his life as a son, heir and even father and husband, because the anxiety swept away all sense of comfort and ease in his life.
The fact that his sacrifice was great, and that his wealth and ease the best that one could attain, make his attempt more universal. Unlike most of us, he was not poor, attractive or with bad parents or friends. He was the kid who had it all. And found that it was not enough. You could say that he had minimal lack to transcend with a bow to Loy.
Yet, the fear of death prevented well being and caused him to enter into a state of dis-ease.
If the tale were told today and stripped of heroic Gods, Asuras and Deities, but was considered a human story, then Shakyamuni would have been seen as emotionally disturbed and a candidate for therapy, medication and perhaps shock therapy to get him back on track.
Yalom points out that all great heroics tales are about overcoming death. They provide a release from our mortal fear of our own go down into Hades. We fear death and need world conquerors who can overcome death.
So, how did Buddha fare with his attempt to deal with this death fear? For six years he pursued all means to overcome death, anxiety and dis-ease caused by the inevitable ending of all life.
First by attempts at controlling his own mind and allowing states of bliss and joy to arise in him. At some early point, he denied these courses of action, believing that while one engaged in them, one could suppress death anxiety, but inevitably, one had to return to a normal state of affairs, and the old fears would reassert themselves.
Thereafter, he attempted a direct attack on his own mind and body, with an attempt to ‘crush it’ into submission, to allow any insight that might arise, to come to his succor and aid.
This attempt ended in near death, and only the random intercession of a cow herder girl, saved his life. Taking nourishment, and reclining on soft kusala grass, he felt energy and a subtle joy return to his body.
This delight, and joy, he found to be useful in cultivating insight and using this beneficial joy, he begins to see that his mind becomes soft and pliable, easy. His small group of followers abandon him, in derision they point out that he has given up a way to truly find insight, and is a back slider.
It is the memory of a moment of joyful ease, interest and empathy as a boy, that secures him in the trust of this new experience. He terms it the middle path.
The bleakness of his battle with death, gives way to a more gentle pursuit. A different approach. One founded on human acceptance. He becomes fully human, and accepts his nature without contention. Ahimsa or non aggression become a subtle practice, of being fully human.
His death, or death and life are not enemies, but rather natural events and he is no more or less than part of nature himself. Not foreign born and a creature that overcomes death, but accepts death with a peaceful heart and feels joy in his life as a creature of this earth.
Loy: So, how does Loy’s contention that deep anxiety burns out deep anxiety and that we must face this death with clarity be able to allow this anxiety to burn up the dross of our selfhood or ego. It is our selfhood or dualistic ego that causes our sense of lack, or need, perhaps guilt to arise and drive us into foolish acts that increase our fear.
Rather than allow us to merely be anxious. Finally, the great modern God of therapy Freud’s theory of repression is equated with this guilt, or death and inadequacy fear that arises in us.
A question of how much of this can we bear, and the fact that our ego rebels and trembles before this onslaught, where is this trembling a warning sign, that we should not go, that it is unhealthy, but that if we need to go there ultimately, and our own death suggests that we do, then how do we undertake this journey in a healthy minded and useful way.
This fear and going down seems to surface in many great traditions. And perhaps, true heroism is this facing the minotaur of death with open eyes. Yet, do we need a ball of twine to navigate our way to safety or not. What do we trust in, as this exchange is one of the great unknown, death. And envisaged as death of the ego, in life.
If the ego is my sword and buckler, then what will protect me if I lose thee?
The fact that his sacrifice was great, and that his wealth and ease the best that one could attain, make his attempt more universal. Unlike most of us, he was not poor, attractive or with bad parents or friends. He was the kid who had it all. And found that it was not enough. You could say that he had minimal lack to transcend with a bow to Loy.
Yet, the fear of death prevented well being and caused him to enter into a state of dis-ease.
If the tale were told today and stripped of heroic Gods, Asuras and Deities, but was considered a human story, then Shakyamuni would have been seen as emotionally disturbed and a candidate for therapy, medication and perhaps shock therapy to get him back on track.
Yalom points out that all great heroics tales are about overcoming death. They provide a release from our mortal fear of our own go down into Hades. We fear death and need world conquerors who can overcome death.
So, how did Buddha fare with his attempt to deal with this death fear? For six years he pursued all means to overcome death, anxiety and dis-ease caused by the inevitable ending of all life.
First by attempts at controlling his own mind and allowing states of bliss and joy to arise in him. At some early point, he denied these courses of action, believing that while one engaged in them, one could suppress death anxiety, but inevitably, one had to return to a normal state of affairs, and the old fears would reassert themselves.
Thereafter, he attempted a direct attack on his own mind and body, with an attempt to ‘crush it’ into submission, to allow any insight that might arise, to come to his succor and aid.
This attempt ended in near death, and only the random intercession of a cow herder girl, saved his life. Taking nourishment, and reclining on soft kusala grass, he felt energy and a subtle joy return to his body.
This delight, and joy, he found to be useful in cultivating insight and using this beneficial joy, he begins to see that his mind becomes soft and pliable, easy. His small group of followers abandon him, in derision they point out that he has given up a way to truly find insight, and is a back slider.
It is the memory of a moment of joyful ease, interest and empathy as a boy, that secures him in the trust of this new experience. He terms it the middle path.
The bleakness of his battle with death, gives way to a more gentle pursuit. A different approach. One founded on human acceptance. He becomes fully human, and accepts his nature without contention. Ahimsa or non aggression become a subtle practice, of being fully human.
His death, or death and life are not enemies, but rather natural events and he is no more or less than part of nature himself. Not foreign born and a creature that overcomes death, but accepts death with a peaceful heart and feels joy in his life as a creature of this earth.
Loy: So, how does Loy’s contention that deep anxiety burns out deep anxiety and that we must face this death with clarity be able to allow this anxiety to burn up the dross of our selfhood or ego. It is our selfhood or dualistic ego that causes our sense of lack, or need, perhaps guilt to arise and drive us into foolish acts that increase our fear.
Rather than allow us to merely be anxious. Finally, the great modern God of therapy Freud’s theory of repression is equated with this guilt, or death and inadequacy fear that arises in us.
A question of how much of this can we bear, and the fact that our ego rebels and trembles before this onslaught, where is this trembling a warning sign, that we should not go, that it is unhealthy, but that if we need to go there ultimately, and our own death suggests that we do, then how do we undertake this journey in a healthy minded and useful way.
This fear and going down seems to surface in many great traditions. And perhaps, true heroism is this facing the minotaur of death with open eyes. Yet, do we need a ball of twine to navigate our way to safety or not. What do we trust in, as this exchange is one of the great unknown, death. And envisaged as death of the ego, in life.
If the ego is my sword and buckler, then what will protect me if I lose thee?
5.16.20 Becoming more human. Could it be so simple? We have forgotten our humanity, the fact that we are highly evolved animals, but that we share a profound link to all other life forms. Our intellectual prowess has allowed us to be persuaded that we are masters of the universe. Able to move objects, kill what needs removing and now, to subject ourselves to the same perilous gaze. Only a real humility and acceptance of our birth and death, as a human animal can allow us to become whole again, or be redeemed. Most of the great philosophies attempt to teach this, Agape, acceptance, compassion. Tonglen is interesting but it has an element perhaps derived from a desire to redress the balance of more self-ish attitudes to inculcate this humility and sense of service. Yet, this seems one sided and counter productive. Spinoza’s selfishness, like the Dalai Lama’s allowing the self to be happy and seek happiness, appear more well rounded a goal. Whilst there is a danger that we will fall back into simplistic dualistic sense desire and immediate gratification, this diminishes our ability to make realistic adjustments to our life as it is lived. It is our mortality that gives us dignity and binds us to the earth, with all the other life forms that abound. The Age of Reason has now become the Tyranny of Reason and the object is now ‘us’, the hapless objects of our own demonic attempt to fix and control.
4.20.20
Charles Taylor's book The Ethics of Authenticity touches on many of today's dilemnas in our society. Fragmentation, atomonization based on a dual sense of powerlessness to effect change along with atomization that we are alone and masters of a personal fate, create alienated persons, angry people.His solution is not to accept either the boomers or knockers as he terms them, that is one side that is driven by computatinalist visions of efficiancy and skill versue a more utopian vision of human value. My wording is not quite accurate, as it is early in the morning, but will suffice.
Rather than see one side win, he suggests that instead of polarization leading to victory, we recall the purpose of all the technological skill employed, why did we come up with systems of efficiency, save to help humanity and the planet we live on.
A common view of this outcome, you could call it a fostering of well being, needs be to bring the sides together in dialogue. This dialectical impetus would allow progress to be made without 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater.'
That is, not an agrarian return to nature, or casting out of the money lenders completely, but seeing how nature and money lending needed to co exist.
Taylor criticizes immoral instrumental reasoning, not all resoning.Instrumental Resoning: When you hear it, you might think about things like making a rational decision or thinking rationally about something. In philosophy, rationality means something a little bit different. ... Instrumental rationality means doing whatever it takes to achieve a goal so long as it aligns with your ultimate objective.
Social action, like all action, may be...: (1) instrumentally rational (zweckrational), that is, determined by expectations as to the behavior of objects in the environment and of other human beings; these expectations are used as "conditions" or "means" for the attainment of the actor's own rationally pursued and calculated ends; (2) value-rational (wertrational), that is, determined by a conscious belief in the value for its own sake of some ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of behavior, independently of its prospects of success; ... ... the more the value to which action is oriented is elevated to the status of an absolute value, the more "irrational" in this [instrumental] sense the corresponding action is. For the more unconditionally the actor devotes himself to this value for its own sake, ... the less he is influenced by considerations of the [conditional] consequences of his action - Max Weber
4.1.20What is the benefit of the large scale vision or vast look at anything, except to remove us from our particular, fixed and limited view of things. This is more a perspective change, than a different reality. It is not as though an object perceived had two natures, one dreal nature that is anchored in a reality and then a second nature seen from a different view point as part of a second reality. Just as we muse and dream, but come back to our senses, which is meant an awareness of relationships of objects to each other, comparison and time, neither state interrupts the other. Both seem like functioning parts of our consciousness that we easily move between on a shifting as needed basis. Now, if we call this Big Picture, God, Buddha Nature, Noumena or Big Mind, is matters not. But the shift in perspective is important. In fact, the pull between these states, of dreaming, imagining and ‘reality’ are often viewed as in dangerous disequilibrium. We search for a means to harmonize this shift of focus or consciousness. Levinas writes that in the face of the other, and here he refers to physical presence and meeting, when we allow a larger view to be envisioned, he suggests that we are moved to break the boundaries of the particular self that we imagined ourselves to be. Our phobias and concerns are released, and we can experience this as a transformation. This seems akin to what earlier humanity may have experienced with divinity. A pull away from secular and comparative value into relating to the whole again.And maybe this is the needed alchemy for our secular age, where personal entitlement and personal separation which we have cherished for several hundred of years, is proving to be a burden. Meaninglessness and need to make something of ourself, creates a new anxiety.
Well, I think that this is a quote, but darned if I can remember who wrote it! I will append the name later, if I wrote it, I was in a fugue state. Ha ha!
Well, I think that this is a quote, but darned if I can remember who wrote it! I will append the name later, if I wrote it, I was in a fugue state. Ha ha!
3.25.20 Spinoza Spinoza is so interesting to me. He agrees with Buddha that conditioned events are not entities under their own power, can create other events or sustain themselves, but then says this animating power is God, which is something like Nature that is a part of. All things are determined by our Nature, hence belong to it, and the best that we can do is cultivate though paying attention to our actions, to allow the best that we can achieve, well being. Both he and Buddha seem to aver that the potential for goodness is a seed in us that requires attentive awareness and appropriate action. Spinoza: No substance can be created by anything other than itself...itself is its link to God, which he equates to Nature. Enactivison of Maturana and Varela terms this autopoiesis, arising from itself. Buddha is careful not to objectify and substantialize anything so avoids the characterization of how it can about or causes and instead has us employ our energy accepting ourselves as we are, and looking deeply. His concern is human ability to become diverted by our ability to solidify matter and consciousness. He prefers to stay only with our sense experience, as it arises, without naming or languaging it.Spinoza equates Nature and God and returns to the isness of things, as their divinity. As Nagarajuna notes, it is only through the conventional that we can be saved, and the conventional is not different than the ultimate, save in perception. Neat
In Irons 2.7.20“Being in irons” describes a boat that is stopped. While pointing into the No-Go Zone, the sails will be luffing. You will not be able to steer normally.On a boat with a jib you can turn the bow away from the wind by backing the jib. To back the jib, hold it out to the side of the boat opposite the direction you want to go. The wind will push against the jib and turn the bow around without the boat backing up very much.Both shore and boat are moving, as Dogen points out in the ocean of birth and death. So to maneuver is counter intuitive when you enter the No Go Zone. Sometimes you have to take action that is contradictory and odd. This is an expert's mind in Mahayana practice.
What if we operated as if people were good.Well, that is nonsense. They are not. Many people are bad, lazy and destructive. What is creative as if modeling that also takes into and relates to the phenomena we experience. There are dangers and problems. To think as if, and ignore them is not wise. To be solely governed in fear and need by the problems, limits vision.Although they seem contradictory, they are made up of the same stuff! Like a gestalt image of young women and old hag, we cannot see both at the same time. Thoughts for later- like the mammalian parasympathetic system and amygdala, will we develop additional neural networks that allow these contradictory states to work together, or if not, how will the more complex abilities to live together with these seemingly very different operating systems develop.-?Buddhism sees the bend and distortion created by fear and need as the problem. This suggests that with cleary ‘vision’ we would be able to see and respond to events more usefully.And here, useful, replaces truth. However, clarity demands that we look carefully. We may believe that everyone is good, but if we fail to admit some people act immorally, then this will be a dangerous operating system. We want to act as if people were good, and at the same time see the problems their actions cause. This is two very different operating systems. They are not the same and one is called hope or vision and the other reality. How do we use them skillfully. Like the Big and Little of perception, Big Mind and Small Mind, Vast and detail orientated, they do not seem to belong together.Thoughts for later- like the mammalian parasympathetic system and amygdala, will we develop additional neural networks that allow these contradictory states to work together, or if not, how will the more complex abilities to live together with these seemingly very different operating systems develop.-?
Ryan’s explanation of digital recording was quite wonderful. In an arc of sound, which is made up of sound and no sound, only certain points are recorded, as there is a limit to what the human ear can hear. It is enough to give a sense of the composition. Great stuff.God is all of the notes not heard, but only imagined. The music must be imagined from the notes heard and not heard.
11.18.19 That Old Emptiness RagtimeSo, emptiness or boundlessness. Great topic. What the heck is it, why is it so important to Buddhists and even if it is, what do we do to live in accord with this insight, or belief.Beliefs versus Truths. I think it is important to clear this up at the outset.A truth seems epistemological, and conceptual. A belief or enaction, is a call to act, a way of seeing and perhaps could be called a perception. Of course, conception is involved, as it always is. But to act as if...something were true, does not mean that you need proof of its truth.Now with emptiness or boundless, we can’t prove it, so we need a dodge or way to work, as if it were true. Not being a Kantian, we don’t have to prove the function that allows us to perceive this way. We are concerned with outcomes, soteriology.OK. Got it so far. A danger comes up, many as ifs, beliefs in the evil of others, aggression could use this same function, no? What protects us from going off the rails.Our intention, I say. If we intend the betterment of all life and are scrupulously honest in what is happening, we will have provided a safeguard, perhaps the only one that we have.For centuries folks have molded their truths to their connotative emotions and feelings. If it feels right, is just not enough. Interestly Buddha uses one who is cleared of Greed Hate and Delusion or at least is honest about what is happening, as most likely being able to approximate clear or truer, percepts and to life a life in accord with this perceptions. What we perceive we enact, what we enact we perceive, might be the simplest formulation of things. Or in primitive Buddhist speak, when this arises, that arises. So then what is happening here in each moment. Modern folks, neuroscience and such, talk about the physicality of emotion, feeling, belief and action. As Buddhism is a training in conditions, not entities or spirits or selves, much less Deities, this should be oats to the horse and cause no problems.Ok, so if we could use cognitive approaches, we would see that if we wanted to give up a belief in absolute entities or metaphysical constructs, we would decide and just do that.But not so fast my friend. This seems much deeper and by that I mean embodied, than that.We need to look at what happens in a situation.We have contact with something we call form. Either a physical space or concept if mind is involved. So raw existence of consciousness meets a form or concept that resists it. Consciousness reflects itself in the act.Great. Got that. But what happens in the event? Why if we see the out turn is bad, and by that i mean suffering is experienced, can’t we make some changes?Stepping away from the three poisons greed hate and delusion, which are more developed and come after the consciousness becomes conscious of itself. Do we think, and have cognitive awareness and control of all aspects of the experience. Or do I as subject A, think and have control of my experience and perceptions. But in daily life, we find that it is really not so simple. The cognitive apparatus is linked to the whole danged infrastructure of body and mind.We mentally can think, I step out of the apparatus and come closer to the truth.Science uses techniques to ensure or try to ensure that the experiment removes the human foibles, intuitions, feelings, perceptions from the information flow as much as possible.In a sense Buddhist technique of Bare Attention training, tries to remove the bias from our experience. The method of science has these properties:The steps of the scientific method go something like this:Make an observation or observations.Ask questions about the observations and gather information.Form a hypothesis — a tentative description of what's been observed, and make predictions based on that hypothesis.Test the hypothesis and predictions in an experiment that can be reproduced.Analyze the data and draw conclusions; accept or reject the hypothesis or modify the hypothesis if necessary.Reproduce the experiment until there are no discrepancies between observations and theory. The assumption is that 1 and 2 might be incorrect, but by the experiment, you can beat the untruth out of the theory you hatched. Margin for error and double blind are two such techniques. These are an attempt to remove bias from the theory. Let’s contrast this with our usual experience as people. We ran into lots of experiences and most require immediate responses. The above method, the scientific method, we could use is computationalist. The computational theory of mind holds that the mind is a computational system that is realized (i.e. physically implemented) by neural activity in the brain. Linear reasoning is also understand by the term computationalist.By the way, science appears to be questioning this purely computational approach, maybe we could term this neo computationalist approaches. Maybe, we need to get back to an immediate experience which occurs in an environment, other external, or internal.Meeting an external event, we use our senses to gather information. This is first sensory and perceptual. It is obvious that sensory apparatus, including mind, meet or are touched by or resisted by external events. Interpretations of those events clearly show the co produced event. Objects have no ulterior motives nor contain subject conceits or hidden allurements, save in the ‘eye of the perceiver’.Science tells us today, that we are likely wired into several different systems that affect our reception of objective events. Shakyamuni or Siddharta Gautauma did not raise questions of memory, or psychology in the sense of self that needed to be adjusted and dealt with.Rather, he seemed to go no deeper than three distorting influences or states of Need, Fear and Confusion. These were vectors of distortion in sentient beings. The self as an object, the driving force behind their power over us. Neat and simple. Eschewing a deeper analysis of what caused these states to arise, he suggests ways to be free of enough distorting influence to allow the being to gain knowledge.This knowledge is based on enacted behavior, as concept alone would lead merely to a ‘proliferation of views’ which a modern translation calls ‘obsession’. Technique or ways to undertake this developing clarity of vision fall under the rubric of Mindfulness teachings. Concentration and Compassion practices are the two major wings of that training.Delusion or confusion is part of Need and Fear, so any work in the sphere of clarity would assist with making the Need and Fear tolerably manageable. Clarity into the nature of the nexus or binding agent of Fear and Need, the personality, or Self or self…(I am not crazy about all the caps and uncaps here) but my personality I mean the human personality, or sense of a self that is separate and unique.But let’s move forward 2600 years now. Modern thought has offered some insights into the physiology of the organism and techniques that may have value in helping the suffering being along the path of greater well being. The being experiences these forces daily. Modern insights into the operating system that is caught up in the sympathetic nervous system and is likely hard wired into a basic operating system of reactive survival, a parasympathetic system that seems wired or created due to mammalian evolution in our species and finally the cortex or higher reason site that allows us to reflect on our own thoughts. So what? The question is how does this information help us. From an action point of view, perhaps not overly much. Although trauma studies indicate that practitioners who use self compassion and compassion for others report that they feel better and begin to evidence signs of being better able to operate in more complex environments. Stress disorders that have lead to system shut downs, freezing, disconnection and numbness are reported to have lessened and are evidenced by observers note the increased social activity without violent disruptions or disconnection. Whether compassion training devices with feedback and a brain wave pattern that reflects target states is created, the need for the organism to work with the situation is still required.Ok, so what buddy! If we step away from the computationalist model we have events or tableaus that arise. Like a scene from a play or story, they come fully storied with details inked in, or at least enough detail to create a compelling scene. Blurring or projection seems to be a feature of this movie. Now so many parts of the tableau come unbidden, literally rise up to meet us as full blown actors and actresses. Some we can follow back into Does physiology, memory, past attitudes and enacted behaviors shape our current responses to an event. Even the event is contingent on this flux of conditions. Now this is easy to say, but how do we creatively engage with this flux in order to shift conditions, accent some, repress or dismiss others, in order to experience well being.Oh, and as Jung noted, some are beyond an individual consciousness and are generic to the species and culture. Some are transcultural even.How deeply can we delve into the brew of consciousness to move things around. Or, as with the biosphere, can we cause damage by shifting things, just as introducing a new species to control a rampant predator, can lead to unimagined problems.Zen awareness, is to minimize the conscious manipulation and at least during phases of meditation, nearly eliminate them. Just be in the present moment.This suggests a belief that out of this suspension on linear thought, direction and will, save the will to not will, which of course is a will!That this state will allow a clear take on things to arise and from this clear vision, we can act morally or correctly.It is as thought the alchemy of the state of the relationship between the universal and particular allows a homunculi of truth to be born.Now, Zen also away from the meditation hall, promotes morals and discipline, and in fact has countless rules of ‘practice’ that govern the student.It is as if a form that is like an insect's exoskeleton is created around a soft pupa of transformation. The two are not mixed together. The cocoon of practice holds the transformation of the pupa safely.
Heart of Buddhist Meditation
This is taken from Nanamoli's 'Heart of Buddhist Meditation'
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu (born Osbert John S. Moore; 25 June 1905 – 8 March 1960)
Two facts, however, must be remembered in this connection. Firstly: as the Master himself says so emphatically in the Discourse, the attainment of final deliverance from suffering (Nibbāna) is the ultimate aim and inherent power of Satipaṭṭhāna. But an earnest follower of the Mahāyānic Bodhisattva Ideal who, with full awareness of the implications, vows to aspire after Buddhahood, ceases thereby to strive after individual deliverance before he has achieved his lofty aspiration. Consequently, he will have to avoid the application of Satipaṭṭhāna to the methodical development of Insight (vipassanā) which may well lead him, in this very life, to a stage (‘Stream-entry’ or Sotāpatti) where final deliverance is irrevocably assured, at the latest after seven existences; and this would, of course, put an end to his Bodhisattva career. Such restraint imposed on the full practice of Satipaṭṭhāna creates a rather strange situation from the view point of Theravāda and in the light of the Buddha’s own injunction. But be that as it may, there is no doubt that he who is determined to walk the arduous road to Buddhahood will require a very high degree of mindfulness 8 | Introduction and clear comprehension, of keen awareness and purposefulness, if he wishes to acquire, maintain and develop, in the midst of life’s vicissitudes, those high virtues, the Perfections or Pāramīs, which are the requisite conditions of Buddhahood. And in that endeavour he will be, for a long stretch of the road, the companion of his Theravāda brother. In his final effort for Enlightenment and ultimate emancipation, he will, of course, have to reach the summit of Insight (vipassanā) through the Only Way of fully developed Satipaṭṭhāna. This is the road that all Liberated Ones have gone and will go, be they Buddhas, Pacceka-Buddhas or Arahants (see the stanza in Part III, Text I). Among the Mahāyāna schools of the Far East, it is chiefly the Chinese Ch’an and Japanese Zen that are closest to the spirit of Satipaṭṭhāna. Notwithstanding the differences in method, aim and basic philosophical conceptions, the connecting links with Satipaṭṭhāna are close and strong, and it is regrettable that they have hardly been stressed or noticed. In common are, for instance, the direct confrontation with actuality (including one’s mind), the merging of every-day life with the meditative practice, the transcending of conceptual thought by direct observation and introspection, the emphasis on the Here and Now. The follower of Zen will, therefore, find much in Theravāda’s presentation and practice of Satipaṭṭhāna that can be of direct help to him on his own path. Since the literature on Zen has grown considerably in the West, it would have been repetitive to include here illustrative texts often reproduced elsewhere. ....This is an intriguing look into a perceived difference between Theravada and Mahayana approaches.Another thought is that the failure of Mahayana, that is reason cannot reach to the summit but something else is necessary, is very much like the Epoche or Bracketing practiced by Phenomenology. A technquie to removed you from the Scientific method' into a realm of wonderiment or direct awareness.10.31.19
The following write up from F. Nietzsche interested me. Many of you know that I have liked David Loy's The World is Made Up of Stories for quite some time. Telling the life story that we want to tell, feel we have to tell, is an important empowerment.'What's your story', is a critical gambit or statement we hear. It suggests that seperate from your story, is another reality, which is quite pure and beyond any stories.Zen would call this the Absolute and Western Philosophy the Nourmena, as opposed to the particular, relative or Phenomena.Often Zen teachers tear down a story, without helping the client, or student re build a new story. Emptiness becomes the 'real' thing, But what does that mean? Do we mistrust helpful stories that help us develop, becomming ready to see the nature of all stories, thereby become less reactive and free.Anyway, I like this insight from Nietzche.EnjoyIn bringing to fruition this new self of our creation Nietzsche suggested that the use of deception may still be required. However, the deception in this case would not be rooted in the need to mask our weaknesses, as this only leads to stagnation. Rather in becoming what Nietzsche called “the true poets and continuous creators of life” he advocated the use of a subtle form of deception as a tool to initiate our transformation into the self we are striving to become. Nietzsche understood that very often it is our actions which precede a change in our emotions and belief structures. Thus, if one is striving to remake themselves, initially they will need to act in a somewhat fraudulent manner. Or in other words, they will need to act as the person they have not yet become, but wish to be. Or as Nietzsche advised in Human, All Too Human:“When someone fervently wants for a very long time to seem something, it will eventually be difficult for that person to be anything else. The profession of almost everyone, even of the artist, begins with hypocrisy, with an imitating from outside and a mimicking of what works effectively. One who always wears the mask of friendly expressions must eventually gain power over benevolent moods, without which the expression of friendliness cannot be effected – and finally these moods gain power over him, and he is benevolent.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human)My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it. WittgensteinLoy, David. The World Is Made of Stories (p. 91). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition.Here is a portion of a fasicle of Dogen's. Oh, fasicle comes from fasicula, or sheave of wheat bound up, usually seen in pictures of ancient Rome.I used this at Arcata Zen Center as a chant for our services.Sometimes Zennie fall into dumb silence when they hear that all truth comes after words and speech. Oh the fasicle is Ango, or Dwelling in Peace and was written by Dogen click here for Shobogenzo Dwelling in Peace, AngoThe World-honored One was proclaiming the Dharma for allsentient beings in Magadha. At that time he wished to institute thesummer training period and said to Ananda, “I continually proclaimthe Dharma for men, gods, my close disciples and all sentient beingsbut they do not respect it properly. Therefore, I will now institute thepractice of spending the ninety days of summer in one’s roommeditating. If someone has a question about the teaching, answer forme by saying, “All things are without creation and withoutdestruction”. Saying this he returned to his room and began hismeditation.Two thousand one hundred and ninety-four years have passed sincethen (up to the present year, Kangen sannen, (1245) in Japan). Allthose descendents who have not mastered the inner essence of thisinterpret the training period in one’s room as “wordlessproclaiming.” Present day people also often misinterpret this,thinking that Buddha instituted a special training period in order toemphasize the inadequacy of words in explaining the Dharma; i.e.,words are nothing more than “skillful means.” They also say that theultimate truth can never be explained with words; the truth onlyappears after the working mind has disappeared. Hence, “no words,no thought” is the way to ultimate truth. “Words as thought” lead usastray. The ninety-day summer training period is to be spentcompletely cut off from all other people. Such an interpretationcompletely misses Shakyamuni’s real meaning.Namely, if “words cannot describe the truth” and truth “appearsonly after the mind has stopped,” then all social and economicactivity cannot be explained in words and only appear after the mindhas stopped its working.Actually, “beyond words” covers all words; “the mind stopsworking” covers all workings of the mind. Moreover, this story aboutShakaymuni contains nothing about “wordless” proclamation.Shakyamuni entered the dirty water (i.e., this world) and with hisentire body proclaimed the Law to everyone over and over. Turningthe wheel of the Law was his sole intention. I would like to ask those“descendents” who say that the ninety-day summer training period isa wordless proclamation, “Please show me that ninety-day summertraining period.”Shakyamuni said to Ananda, “Answer for me by saying, ‘All thingsare without creation and without destruction.’” Buddha’s intention isnot to be taken lightly. Why is the summer training period said to bea “wordless proclamation”? Let us put ourselves in Ananda’s placefor awhile and ask what is the essence of, and how we should explain,“All things are without creation and destruction.”
Well, my studies of Nagarjuna with Dennis may pay off. Also Tom helped me form a clearer picture of activities, for instance Bodhisattva ones are acts of conation not conceptual states. A movement of activity, not one of entities and thoughts. The Diamond Sutra suggests that a being that thinks that they will save all beings, is bound by selfhood and gets lost. But doing good deeds, sure, no problem. But still my mind revolves back to old conceits and tendencies. Oh, how can the teaching of Mahayana Buddhism square with Theravada Arhatship?Give up the fixed entity and you can move around in different types of activities and experiences. The problem here is the attempt to use a linear and logical means of understanding and the creation of templates.When they fall apart, it just demonstrates the vaporish and vague notion of what is happening. When the Diamond Sutra says: “So I say to you –This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”Boundless or emptiness refers to conceptual entities. This is a useful approach and way of seeing things, not a new truth. Hard to not have a new sacred truth. But once you can drop that guise, action frees up. We move about doing good works, if we have developed compassion and empathy to act in this way. Fini
Guilt and Anxiety, a Buddhist perspective
Guilt and anxiety are reactions to how we perceive ourselves as objects, and how we compare the object that we have made of our self with the other ‘Self objects’.
We don’t about how we are doing, unless we have a desire to accomplish or be that other object. The object of our desire must at least have the proper attributes whether it be money or morality.Jealousy, anger and other ill omened mental states arise because we feel failure at achieving our self object’s richness in religion , finance or life. So first we have to desire the other self as an object, and then become it. This identification with the object of our desire and value of our self as a perceived object of our own hankering, constitutes what the sanskrit Upadana or clinging- attachment -investment refers to as a state that the self object plunges into against any ability to find harmony and balance. A witch’s brew that is nowhere a real objective state,but like a ghost haunts our every thought, when events go awry. We wonder when we become obsessive why we can’t banish these ghosts?.Anxiety, failure, self object dislike, guilt are the children of this unholy wedlock and activity. Therapy attempts to help us surface these projections and desires for an objective self hood that have often lain dormant and beyond the pale of our conscious mind. Most therapy is more superficial, in the sense of ‘getting the self object’ back on track. Psychotherapy attempts to allow the deeper impulses to surface, but for the ordinary patient, they are not necessary, unless one wants to become a teacher ie therapist here. Patients are then reshaped with more healthy created self objects. Therapy stops when our desire, or the fuel that drives us to become something meaningful, is achieved at least to the degree that the friction or agitation experienced by the self object in its pursuit of other self objects.This can be likened to treating the symptoms, but not the underlying tendency toward a way of being that is conducive of ill health, and agitation. Buddhism questions the underlying perception of what is happening here, and eschews more palliative measures if the victim is hopelessly damaged, or techniques to get the person on track again without going to the depths.Anxiety arises out of this volcano of comparison and desire to avoid a pit of perceived meaninglessness Loy contends. Rather than create a vivid new story to replace the one that failed, Buddhism suggests we examine the actual activity and outcome itself, for ourself being guided by experience. Buddhist insight teaches that it is not the actual flux of life itself that is the problem, but rather this separate activity of objectification of self, or casting of self onto acts, that causes agitation. Events arise and pass away. Some are pleasant and others, not so much. Staying with the arising and passing away completely is Nirvana, according to Suzuki Roshi.In the following, Loy dissects the mechanism of ego, or self objects and suffering or agitation. What is the seal of freedom attained? No longer to be ashamed of oneself. -NietscheThe ego cannot absolve its own lack because the ego is the other side of that lack. In terms of life and death, the ego is that which believes itself to be alive and fears death; hence the ego, although only a mental construction, will face its imminent disappearance with horror. Uncovering that repression, recovering the denial of death for consciousness, requires the courage to suffer.,,,,the Buddhist path is not resoluteness but simple awareness, which Buddhist meditation cultivates. One does not do anything with that anguish except develop the ability to dwell in it or rather as it; then the anguish, having nowhere else to direct itself, consumes the sense of self. Since the sense of lack is the other pole of the sense of self — tails to its head, but one coin — primordial lack-as-anguish devours not only the ego-self but itself. It is like the matter and antimatter of quantum physics collapsing back into each other and disappearing, to reveal the ground they polarized out of.Loy, David R.. Lack & Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism (p. 58). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition. The creation of a chamber to allow the object self to extinguish itself by not budging but to stand firm in the difficult heat of the object self being devoured by the fire of no way out, or creating of new self objects to become enamored of, is often reduced to ‘it is good for your practice.’ Ajahn Sumedho:Suffering and Self-View It is important to reflect upon the phrasing of the First Noble Truth. It is phrased in a very clear way: “There is suffering”, rather than “I suffer”. Psychologically, that reflection is a much more skillful way to put it. We tend to interpret our suffering as “I’m really suffering. I suffer a lot – and I don’t want to suffer.” This is the way our thinking mind is conditioned. “I am suffering” always conveys the sense of “I am somebody who is suffering a lot. This suffering is mine; I’ve had a lot of suffering in my life.” Then the whole process, the association with one’s self and one’s memory, takes off. You remember what happened when you were a baby... and so on. To let go of suffering, we have to admit it into consciousness. But the admission in Buddhist meditation is not from a position of: “I am suffering” but rather, “There is the presence of suffering” because we are not trying to identify with the problem but simply acknowledge that there is one. So do not grasp these things as personal faults but keep contemplating these conditions as impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self.
Keep reflecting, seeing them as they are. The tendency is to view life from the sense that these are my problems, and that one is being very honest and forthright in admitting this. Then our life tends to reaffirm that because we keep operating from that wrong assumption. But that very viewpoint is impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self …
Sumedho is pointing out the importance of entering into this chamber that is alchemical in nature, the burning away of substances or impurities. That is the ego is forced to let go of its projection, because it is hopeless and painful. As it dissolves, the suffering diminishes, and then vanishes. We are left with events, experiences and life, a simple life again. But this pot latch of all the treasures of a meaningful life, are difficult to give up. Being reduced to No-Thingness again, we are free to live our lives.
Next time, a posting on relative approaches to entering this chamber. Is everyone equipped to enter this ‘burning ground’ and exit intact. Is it always guaranteed that the caterpillar will fly as a butterfly, or can things go wrong in the chamber that need attention? Does Meditation, Medication and Therapy and gradual development help to prepare one for this final burning or extinction of self object reality? Things to think about for next time.
Guilt and anxiety are reactions to how we perceive ourselves as objects, and how we compare the object that we have made of our self with the other ‘Self objects’.
We don’t about how we are doing, unless we have a desire to accomplish or be that other object. The object of our desire must at least have the proper attributes whether it be money or morality.Jealousy, anger and other ill omened mental states arise because we feel failure at achieving our self object’s richness in religion , finance or life. So first we have to desire the other self as an object, and then become it. This identification with the object of our desire and value of our self as a perceived object of our own hankering, constitutes what the sanskrit Upadana or clinging- attachment -investment refers to as a state that the self object plunges into against any ability to find harmony and balance. A witch’s brew that is nowhere a real objective state,but like a ghost haunts our every thought, when events go awry. We wonder when we become obsessive why we can’t banish these ghosts?.Anxiety, failure, self object dislike, guilt are the children of this unholy wedlock and activity. Therapy attempts to help us surface these projections and desires for an objective self hood that have often lain dormant and beyond the pale of our conscious mind. Most therapy is more superficial, in the sense of ‘getting the self object’ back on track. Psychotherapy attempts to allow the deeper impulses to surface, but for the ordinary patient, they are not necessary, unless one wants to become a teacher ie therapist here. Patients are then reshaped with more healthy created self objects. Therapy stops when our desire, or the fuel that drives us to become something meaningful, is achieved at least to the degree that the friction or agitation experienced by the self object in its pursuit of other self objects.This can be likened to treating the symptoms, but not the underlying tendency toward a way of being that is conducive of ill health, and agitation. Buddhism questions the underlying perception of what is happening here, and eschews more palliative measures if the victim is hopelessly damaged, or techniques to get the person on track again without going to the depths.Anxiety arises out of this volcano of comparison and desire to avoid a pit of perceived meaninglessness Loy contends. Rather than create a vivid new story to replace the one that failed, Buddhism suggests we examine the actual activity and outcome itself, for ourself being guided by experience. Buddhist insight teaches that it is not the actual flux of life itself that is the problem, but rather this separate activity of objectification of self, or casting of self onto acts, that causes agitation. Events arise and pass away. Some are pleasant and others, not so much. Staying with the arising and passing away completely is Nirvana, according to Suzuki Roshi.In the following, Loy dissects the mechanism of ego, or self objects and suffering or agitation. What is the seal of freedom attained? No longer to be ashamed of oneself. -NietscheThe ego cannot absolve its own lack because the ego is the other side of that lack. In terms of life and death, the ego is that which believes itself to be alive and fears death; hence the ego, although only a mental construction, will face its imminent disappearance with horror. Uncovering that repression, recovering the denial of death for consciousness, requires the courage to suffer.,,,,the Buddhist path is not resoluteness but simple awareness, which Buddhist meditation cultivates. One does not do anything with that anguish except develop the ability to dwell in it or rather as it; then the anguish, having nowhere else to direct itself, consumes the sense of self. Since the sense of lack is the other pole of the sense of self — tails to its head, but one coin — primordial lack-as-anguish devours not only the ego-self but itself. It is like the matter and antimatter of quantum physics collapsing back into each other and disappearing, to reveal the ground they polarized out of.Loy, David R.. Lack & Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism (p. 58). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition. The creation of a chamber to allow the object self to extinguish itself by not budging but to stand firm in the difficult heat of the object self being devoured by the fire of no way out, or creating of new self objects to become enamored of, is often reduced to ‘it is good for your practice.’ Ajahn Sumedho:Suffering and Self-View It is important to reflect upon the phrasing of the First Noble Truth. It is phrased in a very clear way: “There is suffering”, rather than “I suffer”. Psychologically, that reflection is a much more skillful way to put it. We tend to interpret our suffering as “I’m really suffering. I suffer a lot – and I don’t want to suffer.” This is the way our thinking mind is conditioned. “I am suffering” always conveys the sense of “I am somebody who is suffering a lot. This suffering is mine; I’ve had a lot of suffering in my life.” Then the whole process, the association with one’s self and one’s memory, takes off. You remember what happened when you were a baby... and so on. To let go of suffering, we have to admit it into consciousness. But the admission in Buddhist meditation is not from a position of: “I am suffering” but rather, “There is the presence of suffering” because we are not trying to identify with the problem but simply acknowledge that there is one. So do not grasp these things as personal faults but keep contemplating these conditions as impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self.
Keep reflecting, seeing them as they are. The tendency is to view life from the sense that these are my problems, and that one is being very honest and forthright in admitting this. Then our life tends to reaffirm that because we keep operating from that wrong assumption. But that very viewpoint is impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self …
Sumedho is pointing out the importance of entering into this chamber that is alchemical in nature, the burning away of substances or impurities. That is the ego is forced to let go of its projection, because it is hopeless and painful. As it dissolves, the suffering diminishes, and then vanishes. We are left with events, experiences and life, a simple life again. But this pot latch of all the treasures of a meaningful life, are difficult to give up. Being reduced to No-Thingness again, we are free to live our lives.
Next time, a posting on relative approaches to entering this chamber. Is everyone equipped to enter this ‘burning ground’ and exit intact. Is it always guaranteed that the caterpillar will fly as a butterfly, or can things go wrong in the chamber that need attention? Does Meditation, Medication and Therapy and gradual development help to prepare one for this final burning or extinction of self object reality? Things to think about for next time.
Fini
Oddities of Buddhism and Zen
The core teacher of Buddhism’s teaching is not to seek Nirvana, but to remain here and save all beings? Yet, he himself accepts, or perhaps ‘slips into’ Nirvana. Normally, we value a teaching that is enacted. so how do we make sense of this discordant note in Buddhism? Is there a more subtle way to view this Mahayana teaching?Meditators that I have met, including myself, have a secret longing after a transcendent experience that will allow them to be free of the painful push and pull of the world of desire. Or realm of desire. Now is such a goal truly to be sought? Is there such an elemental freedom in human activities possible.For most meditators I suspect this is our little secret ambition, that we are ashamed to speak of but instead we discuss accepting things as they are, mundane reality and insight.Oddly, if the goal let’s say for conjectures sake, is elemental freedom and insight, why do we have so few examples of success. Rarely does anyone say they are enlightened, or an Arhat, much less so a Buddha or an awakened entity.
Now some part of this shyness feels quite fey, that is by denying it with a vague poetic statement, the interlocutor hopes to be recognized as enlightened in nature, due to their disavowal.More to the point is or rather than a psychological analysis is if we take people at their word and no one admits to enlightenment than this ‘goal’ if we can describe it that way, is rarely achieved by Buddhist practitioners. Often the image of a fish surfacing in one small ring on the ocean as a depiction of achieving human form, could indeed be used to discuss entering Nirvana and enlightenment? A great deal of labor for a paltry outcome? Fini
Mystery Felt
A pervading mystery cloaks life exists through life in its ungraspable quality. Flowing flows and we attempt to coalesce the experience, and this need to make solid, graspable what is creative and gossamer like causes ending ills. This is more like addiction than it is to intellectual activity. The mystery is our inability to grasp onto the flow. Or creation of seemingly solid emotions and ideas that defeat our ability to move and abide in this creation. Seemingly the closer we come to the flowing nature, the safer we are. A misstep and we are separate an under attack or tipped into a deep state of longing and pain. Therefore, we cannot escape as though these walls of projection and identification were real. The projector and projection are one.8/26/19
Ataraxia and Eudamonia
Equanimity and Well Being. Greek concepts of a life built on flourishing. German turn of the 20th century phenomenology explored states of being. Husserl and later writers explored ancient Greek thought that sought to capture the wonderment and awe of existence that was the fount of science. Reduction or bracketing Epoche, ..’requires that one avoid all abstraction, all theorizing, all generalization, even all belief in the existence of what we call “real” or “not real” (the experience of a dream or hallucination can be just as real as the experience of an actual event). Indeed, for any research project one must examine the available theories and discuss the body of knowledge about the topic. Theories need to be reviewed for how they inform experience, by ultimately fail to capture it in its inexhaustible richness….’This wonderment required setting aside comparison and sense of time and entering into a deeper immediate relationship with experience.
Subject and Object as William James observed in the United States, was made up of the same stuff’, but different in functionality.
8/23/19 Whitehead’s process philosophy demystifies form and emptiness dialogues of zen, for me. click here . Process Philosophy is mostly attributed to the mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) – but Heraclitus (c. 535–475BC) is the godfather.
It is the view that actuality consists not of individual objects with attributes, but rather of interwoven processes.e.g. an “atom” does not exist as an isolated substance with essential and accidental properties, but is rather an abstraction that denotes a temporal process consisting of myriad elements constantly in flux, those elements also constituting other processes.
The belief in individual objects is an effect both of our evolved perceptual apparatus, notably vision (we perceive relatively isolated objected for practical purposes (cf. Henri Bergson)), and the effect of the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness: reification – we easily slip into believing that an individual word/term must refer to an individual object (e.g. “atom”, “star”). This fallacy is perhaps induced by our Indo-European linguistic emphasis on nouns (rather than verbs).
i.e. our language solidifies what is in actuality flux. The greek Cratylus suggested that you cannot enter the same river even once and like some old zen master, raised one finger when asked a question.
This language is more accessible to our Western brains, that the poetic language of classical zen teachers. although perhaps the need to resort to poetry is necessitated by the difficulties of naming and language itself.
As Husserl noted about Kant, although his insight was groundbreaking, still he lapsed into his methodology using the ‘scientific method’ of his predecessors.
It is the view that actuality consists not of individual objects with attributes, but rather of interwoven processes.e.g. an “atom” does not exist as an isolated substance with essential and accidental properties, but is rather an abstraction that denotes a temporal process consisting of myriad elements constantly in flux, those elements also constituting other processes.
The belief in individual objects is an effect both of our evolved perceptual apparatus, notably vision (we perceive relatively isolated objected for practical purposes (cf. Henri Bergson)), and the effect of the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness: reification – we easily slip into believing that an individual word/term must refer to an individual object (e.g. “atom”, “star”). This fallacy is perhaps induced by our Indo-European linguistic emphasis on nouns (rather than verbs).
i.e. our language solidifies what is in actuality flux. The greek Cratylus suggested that you cannot enter the same river even once and like some old zen master, raised one finger when asked a question.
This language is more accessible to our Western brains, that the poetic language of classical zen teachers. although perhaps the need to resort to poetry is necessitated by the difficulties of naming and language itself.
As Husserl noted about Kant, although his insight was groundbreaking, still he lapsed into his methodology using the ‘scientific method’ of his predecessors.
Oh my the sky is falling. And it has been for millenia. The great Lisbon earthquake, fall of Rome, the extinction of the great reptiles have been part of the cycle of contraction and expansion since life formed.
Here we are in the grip of an upsurge of Nationalism, fear and darkness last seen in the mid 20th century. And it is a similarity to that earlier time.
Hopelessness and fear channeled into hatred for the other and reason.Being ‘reasonable’ seems too weak a response. In fact reason seems unindicted co-conspirator of people’s fear.
Perhaps we have gotten into a situation that combines a broad look at our past and complex social and economic problems that force us to come together and usher in a new trans-personal consciousness. The individualized cognition of the individual has shifted to group awareness. Because the soul includes the individual and the social milieu.
By removing the soul from the world and not recognizing that the soul is also in the world, psychotherapy can’t do its job anymore. The buildings are sick, the institutions are sick, the banking system’s sick, the schools, the streets—the sickness is out there.Hillman, James. We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy (pp. 3-4). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.
Here we are in the grip of an upsurge of Nationalism, fear and darkness last seen in the mid 20th century. And it is a similarity to that earlier time.
Hopelessness and fear channeled into hatred for the other and reason.Being ‘reasonable’ seems too weak a response. In fact reason seems unindicted co-conspirator of people’s fear.
Perhaps we have gotten into a situation that combines a broad look at our past and complex social and economic problems that force us to come together and usher in a new trans-personal consciousness. The individualized cognition of the individual has shifted to group awareness. Because the soul includes the individual and the social milieu.
By removing the soul from the world and not recognizing that the soul is also in the world, psychotherapy can’t do its job anymore. The buildings are sick, the institutions are sick, the banking system’s sick, the schools, the streets—the sickness is out there.Hillman, James. We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy (pp. 3-4). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.
Truth, Usefulness and Happiness
Hillman’s belief that all mythos and tales are part of our human development. Zen prefers to accept them as necessary, while at the same time to imply that they are delusional. In this sense, the conventional which Nagarajuna saw as the inevitable expression of the Absolute, is considered looping or being lost in delusion. Hillman like Jung before him accept this inevitable recurrence as part of the mystery of life and the weaving of myriad threads of character are the spiritual development. At face value, this cutting through these stories and dwelling reverentially in them seem at great odds to one another.
They are if these cutting through is replaced with a higher sudden awareness, that is seperate from the recurrent tales and dreams. Can we grow through delusion and are these tales or as Jung described Archetypes delusion in origin.
In the Ant Hill sutta, layers of a great ant hill, fuming by day and night are explored. And the explorer descends level by level touching each element which is discarded, save the Naga or great serpent at the base, which the ‘disciple’ of wisdom and inquiry is urged to keep and not discard.
Like Hillman, Buddha’s exhortation to develop a Noble life, is not an idea, but a living enactment and development of character or being. This requires endless trial and error. As Levinas notes, and this trial and error come alive as we face the other.
Now, the other is two fold, that one with a human face, which is different and the Other, which is greater than any particular individual other. Perhaps instead of God, Buddha nature it will suffice to say the Other whose face is hidden.
Again, we are pressed upon by two questions now. Like cutting through delusion versus accepting and working with delusion, is this greater other necessary to invoke the sensibility and create a tempo that allows the song of great character to be sung?
Or is it enough the inevitable breakdown in the unresolvable difference, the sharp disagreement between souls that the door to that which is greater is exposed? In that paradox, I am set free. Is the hint of another greater possibility only a more subtle solidification, a God by another name and title? Hillman notes the use of the poetics and imagery of Alchemy because of their sensual nature more allows a person to touch the living tissue of character development. Zen with its frame of the Noumenal and Phenomenal, Relative and Absolute, is by comparison a bare cupboard.
For some time I have felt the need for a new language or way of depicting these states, and although too little life remains to make a systematic exploration of Alchemic typology, I share with Hillman the respect for imagination.
Separately I have been pondering Truth and Usefulness as a Buddhistic dialogue, at least in my own head. An excellent clarification by Thanissaro Bhikku a.k.a Geoffrey DeGraff notes that No Self is an epistemological theory but Not Self, Anatta, was a useful belief. This then becomes an Ontological definition or one relating to being and transformation and not logic or semantics. Although I would beware that ontology become its own metaphysic!
Glen Wallis, Harvard Don and musician in Philly, attacks this distinction as a subtle attempt to bring a metaphysical belief system back into the dialogue. A non definable term of function, becomes a staircase to recreating a whole theistic pantheon. Or at least a power separate from and self creating.And yet, this if not self creation, then self expression, that is being arising from itself in an environment, without beginning or end, could be used to describe the condition of sentiency. This autopoiesis in religion is deemed a light unto itself.
And here for me the very question of imagination comes into play. Can imagination allow a solution to this insoluble sticking place, real or not. true or false?
Sebatian Voros in his paper ‘A Plea for not Watering down the Unseemly’ uses three issues: 1 | our stream of conscious experiences; 2 | our (historically dependent) scientific theories; and 3 | the unchanging (historically independent) absolute reality.
Perhaps another tact and one that might be more useful is to raise the question of what are the proper boundaries of Imagination. Are certain facts inviolable and forever true, that is an absolute reality, or are all realities also based someone in imagination and creative perception.
One approach would be to examine points 2. and 3. above. If Scientific theories and ex;licate this absolute scientific reality, then any discussion of the use of imagination would be irrelevant. It simply requires the researcher find the correct theory that fits the data.
Firstly, is this not another use of imagination and can this imagination ever completely explain the phenomena we experience. And more critically, does it alter the absolute nature of things by subtly bending them to fit the theorem? Or will the theory ever have greater or truere validity than the terms used allow.
If 2. and 3. are seen as potentially true, yet not currently workable and viable, then it is just a matter of waiting and seeing until the final theorem or system is devised that fits all ‘the facts’. Oddly, this becomes a waiting for a type of revelation or ‘second coming’.
And yet, believing I can fly and flying are two different things. Whereas I can fly in my imagination, leaping from a tall building will result in a different outcome than the one that I imagined. Or I could imagine a plane, and that invention would allow flight.
Again, this is imagination in a specific environment.
As Buddhism is the main bone that I worry in this life, what distinction does it make in this case and how does it resolve the problem. Here I think you can say that Buddhism is Soteriology and not merely Ontology or Philosophy.
It talks of a moral theory or approach to the production of well being and freedom. Buddha was careful to delineate this field of inquiry and he removed it from epistemology and metaphysics, and grounded in an experience, by experience leading to human betterment. Her dismisses all arguments about absolute beginning or ending as being useless to the work at hand. The production of well being. The development of moral character.
Again this morality requires another, the other. A ‘face’ or character to relate to. Moral action in a vacuum has dimensionality or living character, or embodied truth to it.
Hillman’s belief that all mythos and tales are part of our human development. Zen prefers to accept them as necessary, while at the same time to imply that they are delusional. In this sense, the conventional which Nagarajuna saw as the inevitable expression of the Absolute, is considered looping or being lost in delusion. Hillman like Jung before him accept this inevitable recurrence as part of the mystery of life and the weaving of myriad threads of character are the spiritual development. At face value, this cutting through these stories and dwelling reverentially in them seem at great odds to one another.
They are if these cutting through is replaced with a higher sudden awareness, that is seperate from the recurrent tales and dreams. Can we grow through delusion and are these tales or as Jung described Archetypes delusion in origin.
In the Ant Hill sutta, layers of a great ant hill, fuming by day and night are explored. And the explorer descends level by level touching each element which is discarded, save the Naga or great serpent at the base, which the ‘disciple’ of wisdom and inquiry is urged to keep and not discard.
Like Hillman, Buddha’s exhortation to develop a Noble life, is not an idea, but a living enactment and development of character or being. This requires endless trial and error. As Levinas notes, and this trial and error come alive as we face the other.
Now, the other is two fold, that one with a human face, which is different and the Other, which is greater than any particular individual other. Perhaps instead of God, Buddha nature it will suffice to say the Other whose face is hidden.
Again, we are pressed upon by two questions now. Like cutting through delusion versus accepting and working with delusion, is this greater other necessary to invoke the sensibility and create a tempo that allows the song of great character to be sung?
Or is it enough the inevitable breakdown in the unresolvable difference, the sharp disagreement between souls that the door to that which is greater is exposed? In that paradox, I am set free. Is the hint of another greater possibility only a more subtle solidification, a God by another name and title? Hillman notes the use of the poetics and imagery of Alchemy because of their sensual nature more allows a person to touch the living tissue of character development. Zen with its frame of the Noumenal and Phenomenal, Relative and Absolute, is by comparison a bare cupboard.
For some time I have felt the need for a new language or way of depicting these states, and although too little life remains to make a systematic exploration of Alchemic typology, I share with Hillman the respect for imagination.
Separately I have been pondering Truth and Usefulness as a Buddhistic dialogue, at least in my own head. An excellent clarification by Thanissaro Bhikku a.k.a Geoffrey DeGraff notes that No Self is an epistemological theory but Not Self, Anatta, was a useful belief. This then becomes an Ontological definition or one relating to being and transformation and not logic or semantics. Although I would beware that ontology become its own metaphysic!
Glen Wallis, Harvard Don and musician in Philly, attacks this distinction as a subtle attempt to bring a metaphysical belief system back into the dialogue. A non definable term of function, becomes a staircase to recreating a whole theistic pantheon. Or at least a power separate from and self creating.And yet, this if not self creation, then self expression, that is being arising from itself in an environment, without beginning or end, could be used to describe the condition of sentiency. This autopoiesis in religion is deemed a light unto itself.
And here for me the very question of imagination comes into play. Can imagination allow a solution to this insoluble sticking place, real or not. true or false?
Sebatian Voros in his paper ‘A Plea for not Watering down the Unseemly’ uses three issues: 1 | our stream of conscious experiences; 2 | our (historically dependent) scientific theories; and 3 | the unchanging (historically independent) absolute reality.
Perhaps another tact and one that might be more useful is to raise the question of what are the proper boundaries of Imagination. Are certain facts inviolable and forever true, that is an absolute reality, or are all realities also based someone in imagination and creative perception.
One approach would be to examine points 2. and 3. above. If Scientific theories and ex;licate this absolute scientific reality, then any discussion of the use of imagination would be irrelevant. It simply requires the researcher find the correct theory that fits the data.
Firstly, is this not another use of imagination and can this imagination ever completely explain the phenomena we experience. And more critically, does it alter the absolute nature of things by subtly bending them to fit the theorem? Or will the theory ever have greater or truere validity than the terms used allow.
If 2. and 3. are seen as potentially true, yet not currently workable and viable, then it is just a matter of waiting and seeing until the final theorem or system is devised that fits all ‘the facts’. Oddly, this becomes a waiting for a type of revelation or ‘second coming’.
And yet, believing I can fly and flying are two different things. Whereas I can fly in my imagination, leaping from a tall building will result in a different outcome than the one that I imagined. Or I could imagine a plane, and that invention would allow flight.
Again, this is imagination in a specific environment.
As Buddhism is the main bone that I worry in this life, what distinction does it make in this case and how does it resolve the problem. Here I think you can say that Buddhism is Soteriology and not merely Ontology or Philosophy.
It talks of a moral theory or approach to the production of well being and freedom. Buddha was careful to delineate this field of inquiry and he removed it from epistemology and metaphysics, and grounded in an experience, by experience leading to human betterment. Her dismisses all arguments about absolute beginning or ending as being useless to the work at hand. The production of well being. The development of moral character.
Again this morality requires another, the other. A ‘face’ or character to relate to. Moral action in a vacuum has dimensionality or living character, or embodied truth to it.
Individuated Consciousness and Community Consciousness 7.29.19
What lodestar guides the balancing act between these aspects of awareness? Great suffering has been occasioned when people throw themselves head long into either camp. Absolute and relative truth conceal themselves in the wings of this discussion. Absolute truth likewise is dangerous, as a disconnect from thought invites blindness.
Often, our worst angels are masked in this miasma. Sentient at the human level, apparatus has conflicting flows, from reason in the left brain and cortex, to empathy in the amygdala along with the hormonal flood from the brain stem.
This apparatus is subject to inflows from its environment. Some control of the external environment is possible and useful. However, an internal regulating system built around attention, ease and virtue is more useful. Both external and internal control and development are suggested by the dynamic flow of subject-object relationships.
A critical faculty ‘truth for the moment’ or ‘time being’ is helpful as it mimics the information system of sentient response.
One observation is the relationship between the larger picture, transpersonal or non personal and the individuated, is the possible structure of the human brain. It seems to do best when both systems as Austen notes, the upward cascade to noumena and the downward cascade to phenomena. James noted that the poetry of Whitman touches both, the visceral particular and the universal. Consciousness shuttles between these states.
My suspicion of Zen ‘form and emptiness’ discussions is that they dwell in the domain of this polarity. Rather than dismiss any discussion of Zen’s approach it is quite comforting to think that the warm and weave of sentience and evolution might well hold this enactment.
Zen through its poetry and koans touches this place between ‘the one and the many’ in significant ways. Zen meditation of Gnosis may be the best cauldron for allowing this to brew. This non intrusive environment allows each to find its natural balance and relationship.
Like Dzonchen, this emptiness yoga invites a deeper settling into this zone of consciousness. Koan Zen and the Five Ranks 7/31/19.
The five ranks were created to help practitioners find balance between the infinite and the finite. Boundlessness and the bounded. Koans are lanterns on the journey to finding equilibrium between these two seemingly opposite polarities.
And this might have more to do with human physiology and consciousness. Both states, that of beyond bounds and boundedness might be necessary components of human evolution.
The struggle to coalesce and bring into harmony these states of awareness, might further humanity on its ascent.
The five ranks had a particular quality that I did not understand. There seemed to be two activities. The first three ranks end in a balance, the resolving of the tug of war that the two mental backgrounds of form and emptiness occasion.
But then a further development, the fourth and fifth ranks are completed. It is as though Reflection 8/8/19 While Studying Nagarjuna for Fridays session with Dennis, I came upon the verse 17 in chapter 17. Of all these actions, whether dissimilar or similar, belong to certain realms, only one would arise at the moment of birth (of being).
This set off a chain reaction of association and new vantage points for me to look over. The holon of any moment of existence, depends on all past moments and in a new environment. From the level of inherent cultivation, something is expressed. So at birth only one expression of character arises and defines the entity. And the same at death.
This suggests to me a level of great integration and cultivation. You can’t fudge here. A phrase of contrition uttered by one who has not developed a contrite heart or humility does not fool the stream of being.
What lodestar guides the balancing act between these aspects of awareness? Great suffering has been occasioned when people throw themselves head long into either camp. Absolute and relative truth conceal themselves in the wings of this discussion. Absolute truth likewise is dangerous, as a disconnect from thought invites blindness.
Often, our worst angels are masked in this miasma. Sentient at the human level, apparatus has conflicting flows, from reason in the left brain and cortex, to empathy in the amygdala along with the hormonal flood from the brain stem.
This apparatus is subject to inflows from its environment. Some control of the external environment is possible and useful. However, an internal regulating system built around attention, ease and virtue is more useful. Both external and internal control and development are suggested by the dynamic flow of subject-object relationships.
A critical faculty ‘truth for the moment’ or ‘time being’ is helpful as it mimics the information system of sentient response.
One observation is the relationship between the larger picture, transpersonal or non personal and the individuated, is the possible structure of the human brain. It seems to do best when both systems as Austen notes, the upward cascade to noumena and the downward cascade to phenomena. James noted that the poetry of Whitman touches both, the visceral particular and the universal. Consciousness shuttles between these states.
My suspicion of Zen ‘form and emptiness’ discussions is that they dwell in the domain of this polarity. Rather than dismiss any discussion of Zen’s approach it is quite comforting to think that the warm and weave of sentience and evolution might well hold this enactment.
Zen through its poetry and koans touches this place between ‘the one and the many’ in significant ways. Zen meditation of Gnosis may be the best cauldron for allowing this to brew. This non intrusive environment allows each to find its natural balance and relationship.
Like Dzonchen, this emptiness yoga invites a deeper settling into this zone of consciousness. Koan Zen and the Five Ranks 7/31/19.
The five ranks were created to help practitioners find balance between the infinite and the finite. Boundlessness and the bounded. Koans are lanterns on the journey to finding equilibrium between these two seemingly opposite polarities.
And this might have more to do with human physiology and consciousness. Both states, that of beyond bounds and boundedness might be necessary components of human evolution.
The struggle to coalesce and bring into harmony these states of awareness, might further humanity on its ascent.
The five ranks had a particular quality that I did not understand. There seemed to be two activities. The first three ranks end in a balance, the resolving of the tug of war that the two mental backgrounds of form and emptiness occasion.
But then a further development, the fourth and fifth ranks are completed. It is as though Reflection 8/8/19 While Studying Nagarjuna for Fridays session with Dennis, I came upon the verse 17 in chapter 17. Of all these actions, whether dissimilar or similar, belong to certain realms, only one would arise at the moment of birth (of being).
This set off a chain reaction of association and new vantage points for me to look over. The holon of any moment of existence, depends on all past moments and in a new environment. From the level of inherent cultivation, something is expressed. So at birth only one expression of character arises and defines the entity. And the same at death.
This suggests to me a level of great integration and cultivation. You can’t fudge here. A phrase of contrition uttered by one who has not developed a contrite heart or humility does not fool the stream of being.