Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Four Principles

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note*...nice talk from Robert..taken from "

This talk was recorded, transcribed, edited, entitled, manufactured and distributed by Edward Muzika...

Be aware though that Robert was speaking of the ultimate reality.He also was handiccaped by the sheer fact that he never HAD to do any practices,since he was born realized.Same applies to others..In other words,he never got the experience of,,not being there,, therefore he speaks like,,you should be there,, with zero results,since only the realized ones COULD understand him.However,he speaks the truth,as he understands it..while nobody around him understands it.Ponder about him..because he did NOT get realized by asking,,whom I am,,..and neither did Ramana,or any others Advainta California new-age gurus.It's something else.

-added by danny-

..................

Robert:

This is not a formal talk. I can only tell you about my own experiences, not what I read. I can tell you that nothing exists the way it appears. Everything is appearance. The trap is that we get pulled into the appearance. We react to it. We feel hurt. We feel slandered. We feel something is wrong. We have negative emotions because we are falling for a false premise-- that the world is real.

In fact, the world is not real, and neither are you. What we have to do is stop reacting to anything. The only way to do that is to discover who you are. When you discover your true nature, everything becomes perfectly clear. You are at peace. If something works out, it works out. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Your feelings have been transmuted. You never even feel what human beings feel. You just have a great love and compassion for all things. You know that the substratum of all existence is harmony, peace, emptiness. You feel wonderful all the time. What can disturb you if you are at peace? If you find true peace, what can possibly disturb you?

The world comes and goes. One day it is like this, the next day, it is like that. But what does it have to do with you? Nothing. You are free, you are not the world. You are not your body, you are not your mind. You are total freedom, total joy, total love. You have to awaken to this fact--its truth.

We speak many words and take many actions, but to what avail? Does it mater in the end? We build our life, we earn positions, we father children, and what happens at the end? Poof! It's all gone. Everything disappears. (Robert laughs) There is nothing. So what's the purpose?

People say, "I must leave make this world better for my children." They are dreaming. The world will never be better or be worse. The world is a dream of existence; like this one day, like that another. But you are not the world. Awaken to that fact.

You are not your thoughts, you are not your Karmic expressions, you are not your inclinations from past lives. Things appear real as long as you believe in them. If I believe in the devil, the devil would appear to me. I would create him myself. If you believe in God, your God would appear to you. Ramakrishna believed in the god Kali. Kali became very real to him. He used to dance and sing with Kali (Robert laughs). He created Kali. That is why no one else saw Kali but him. That is how we create our lives.

Think of the things you fear in your life. You fear becoming sick. You fear poverty. You fear getting divorced, you fear getting married. Whatever you fear is a concept created by your own mind. There is no question of should I get married or shouldn't I get married. It doesn't matter. What matters is how you react to it and expect of it. This is true in every aspect of your life. That is what you have been trained to believe since you were a little kid. Your teachers brainwashed you, your parents brainwashed you, the outside world brainwashed you, and here you are.

You are filled with ideas, concepts, emotions, attitudes, and that makes you what you are--miserable. (Laughter) As soon as you wake up, all that disappears. Nothing can ever happen to you of a destructive nature. There is absolutely nothing that can destroy you. You can not be destroyed. Your body may appear to vanish, but that is like a dream. You dream that you are doing something, then you get shot and disappear. Then you wake up.

My question to you is, "What do you believe about yourself and about the world?" "What is most important to you?" I feel that a true spiritual path should be the first thing of importance in your life. Why? Because it wakes you up. No matter how good of a life you live, you may become the richest and most famous person on earth, you'll have to experience the other side of the coin one day and be the poorest, most miserable person on earth. That's the way it works.

You may say to me, "My neighbor never has any problems. It's like he fell into a pot of gold. Everything he touches turns into money. He's as happy as a horse. He's got a beautiful wife, a big house, everything he could possibly need, and look at me! You know, that guy's life hasn't changed for 40 years."

You're making your own conclusion. He has earned this Karmically, and if he doesn't pull away from it, he might spend his whole life in goodness, human goodness. But then he will be drawn back again by the law of Karma, which is in his mind and he doesn't know it, and next time he will be a homeless person. Whatever he does, he won't be able to make a dime. He'll try his best, but he'll always be poverty stricken. He won't be able to earn a dime no matter how hard he tries. This is why we should never judge. You have no idea what your neighbor's going through. Never say he or she has a wonderful life and look at mine. Why am I poor, why am I sick, why am I this way or that way. The idea is to wake up, not to look at yourself, not to feel sorry for yourself, not to compare yourself with others, but to awaken.

When you awaken, something happens that is unexplainable. There are

no human words to explain it. When you awaken, you just understand, you know, you feel--and these words are inadequate--you become divine harmony. You are no longer fooled by person, place or thing. You no longer react.

As an example, someone tells you that you won the lotto, you won 50 billion dollars. You do not become a slave to that. Someone tells you that you lost 50 billion dollars. Same thing, same reaction. You do not become a slave to that. What happens in the human life does not matter. When you know who you are, you do not say it doesn't matter. You simply exist. You exist as yourself. You're at peace. No one can ever take the peace away from you no matter how hard they try. You are not fooled by things.

What you do is deal with yourself. You can give of yourself because you become your living self. Therefore, you can give yourself away and you're still there, for you've become the infinite self, the divine mother, omnipresence, total oneness with all things. So you can give of yourself, and yet you're always there.

When Ramana Maharshi was being robbed, his devotees wanted to attack the robbers, and he said, "No, no, no. It's our Dharma to be what we are, and it's their Dharma to be what they are. We should not interfere with their Dharma, therefore give them what they want." That's very profound. We are spiritual people. The world is not. We act in accordance with spiritual principles.

What this really means is that we, as human beings, become last, not first. That's what Jesus meant when he said, "Those who go first will be last, and those who are last will be first." You have to develop great humility. Do not long for anything. Do not want to rich, or famous or great, and do not say, "I want to be poor and have nothing" either. They're both wrong. Just be yourself. When you are yourself, you will be amazed how the universe takes care of you.

It's like the body with vitamins and medicines. Your body is a natural healing factory and able to heal itself. When we start taking too many vitamins, when we start taking medicines too much, the body will say, "Well, you've made that into your God, so now you have to depend on it." Then you have to keep taking vitamins for the rest of your life or you get sick. Think about that.

You've got to depend on yourself to take care of everything.

Now yourself is yourself. There's one self, so we take care of each other. Did you ever think of that? When you think of others you're making a mistake. The feeling will come to you one day that you are all others. There are no others, there is just the Self appearing as others. So, how do you treat others? As you treat yourself. You don't think about it. You don't think that that person's worthy and that person's not, so I'm going to help this person, not that person.

You give of yourself automatically. You do not think about it because everything is yourself, and that includes the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and everything else you don't understand. They're all part of the One. What you do to the one, you do to everything. How you treat one person is how you treat the whole universe because everything is one.

Now, these four principles I gave you have to do with all these things. You're supposed to ponder these things. How do you work with these principles?

As soon as you open your eyes in the morning---I'll speak in the first person---you have to say to yourself, "I feel and realize and understand that everything, everything---say everything twice---is a projection of my mind." Think about what that means. Forget about the other three. Work on that. "I feel that, I realize that, I understand that everything is a projection of my mind."

Then you may think about any problems if you have any and you say to yourself, "If everything is a projection of my mind, where do these problems come from?" You then realize, Why, they came from me. I projected them. I created them. Then you say, "Who is this I that created them?" Now you're getting to the meaty part, to the substance. "Who is the I that created all this illusion in my life? Where did the I come from? Who gave it birth? My mind. Where did my mind come from, the I? They're both the same. The I and my mind are the same."

It's a revelation. You think along these lines. "Where did the mind/I come from and to whom does it come?" You follow it deep, deep within yourself, and if you do it correctly you will realize there is no I. There is no mind, so there are no problems. It will be over, and you will start laughing. You will actually start laughing at yourself. You'll start to think, "I fear this and I fear that." Once you get into that consciousness something will happen to actually physically relieve you of that problem, or what you think is a problem.

As long as you believe in your mind that there's a problem ---whether it is little or big doesn't matter, they're both the same---as long as you believe you've got a problem, you'll have a problem and it will grow and you can't change it. It may appear that you change it, but it turns into something else of a worse nature when you try to work with the problem itself. You never try to work with the problem, but ask where the problem came from. How did I get it? How did I get this birth? Where did it come from? That's the problem. The birth is the problem. Because you believe you were born, you have the problem, and you can go on and on and on.

That's how you work with the principles. I feel, I understand that everything,

Everything is a projection, a manifestation of my mind. Whose mind? My mind. Whose mind. Mine. My mind. Who am I who has this problem? And as you ask yourself this question, you will begin to feel better and better and better. You will actually begin to feel better, and as you begin to feel better, the problem becomes less and less important, and it will vanish. This is great psychotherapy. It works. If psychiatrists gave this to patients, they wouldn't have to give them any drugs.

You understand, you feel, that everything is an emanation of your mind or it wouldn't exist. All existence, from the smallest nothing to the greatest cosmic galaxy--it all comes out of your mind. However, even if I tell you this, you still feel that something is real, don't you? You feel that something is real. You may say the sun is real. You may say that God is real. You may say that an atom is real, but you do not comprehend that you are creating these things. They're all a project of your mind. If you didn't have a mind, you would not have these concepts. That's why we have to annihilate the mind, to kill the mind. No mind, no concepts.

Q: Can you say the Self is real or is 'real' a term that doesn't exist?

R: If you say the Self is real, you don't really mean it. If you meant it you wouldn't have to say it, but you can say it when you are truly yourself, because it makes you feel better. It helps you live. It's better than saying that my world is real or my problem is real. It's better to say the Self is real than to say that.

Q: What is better than that, to say nothingness is real?

R: Keep silent. Say nothing. When you ask yourself the question, "Where do does my mind come from or where do my problems come from", and you keep still, that's real. The emptiness is real.

Q: Isn't the emptiness the same as the Self?

R: Yes, but when you speak you spoil it to an extent.

Q: That's right because the Self doesn't know.

R: When you say the Self is real, that becomes personal. When there's silence it becomes omnipresent.

Silence is always the best policy after you say all those things to yourself. It's in the silence that your problems just dissolve. Try it. It really works. When you keep still after saying a lot of these things, your problems will dissolve by themselves. Do not think, "I am getting rid of my problems", because that enhances the problems. Do not think about the problems at all, but work on yourself to see your own reality, and in reality there are no problems.

We can also note that to most people, no matter how many times I say this, their problems are very real to them. The problems hold them like a vice. They really feel their problems. To those people I say, "To the extent that you can realize that your mind is creating these problems, in reality you are mind-less." To that extent the problems begin to dissolve. Repeat this when you wake up, when you open your eyes in the morning. Do not go through the four principles all at once. Take one at a time, even if you don't get to the second that morning, and spend and hour or two working on the first one, that is good. You can these things all your life if necessary instead of worrying about your problems. Take them one at a time.

Now go to the second principle and work on it just like the first. The second principle is: I perceive, I feel, I understand that I was never born. I am Unborn. I do not prevail. My existence does not exist, and I will never disappear.

Q: Can you say I perceive or understand that I am unborn before the mind fully accepts it?

R: Whatever you can work with to let yourself know that you perceive or understand or feel.

Q: Would it be more honest to say "I am beginning to perceive..."?

R: There is no beginning. You can say "There is something within me that perceives, or there is something within me that knows I was never born, I do not prevail, and I will never disappear. I am that one that knows. Start working on that.

What does this "I was never born" mean? I am unborn. It sounds like a contradiction because you believe your father and mother gave you birth. This appears to be true. Who gave them birth? My grandmother and grandfather. It goes all the way back.

Who gave them birth? You go back to the beginning, way to the first man and woman and where did they come from? Who started this? Who started the human race? Who started the idea of birth? Now don't answer, because the mind will create answers, Adam and Eve, God. Somebody told you that. But is it true? Where did God come from?

Go back to the beginning. It is like asking what came first, the chicken or the egg? The tree or the seed? The man or the woman? Who made them? You will realize they don't exist. Nothing gave you birth. The whole origin of birth is false, it is a dream. It does not exist. Therefore, I do not exist the way I appear to be.

Then go back to the first premise. Who am I? You always go back to self-enquiry. Who am I that exists? If I am not the body, am I my thoughts? I can't be my thoughts because they keep changing and changing. The who am I? Keep silent for a while.

You know it's working when you start to feel a quiet, loving feeling. You start to feel a peace you have not felt before. You start to feel that all is well.

If you do this often enough, you will feel a happiness you never felt before, and you won't care if a bomb is dropped on your head. You would feel this happiness because you would know you can't die. Right now these are just words. You will actually know, some day, that you can't disappear. Nothing can kill you. "Kill" is just a word. It means something that you have accepted. We make up words and put feelings behind them. Listen to the word, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. It sounds ridiculous. The word itself has no power except the power you give it yourself.

When the mind is silent, then reality comes of its own accord. When you are think and thinking, the world has got you, and you become worldly again. Self-enquiry causes the mind to causes the mind to be quiet.

After you work on that, you go on saying, "I do not prevail." You say to yourself, "You mean that my entire existence since I was a baby, until I die, means nothing?" Then you say to yourself "I have just proven I was not born. If I was never born, how can I prevail? What prevails? Who prevails?" You will see that it is the mind that prevails. The mind wants existence, wants strength, wants power. It makes you believe you are the body. Ask yourself, "To whom comes the mind? Who gave it birth? What is its source?" Then keep still. You will begin to laugh because you will begin to feel, even if only for a moment, that there is no mind. You will actually feel no-mind. In the beginning, it may last for a moment or two. As you practice everyday, those moments of no-mind will become ever greater.

Go on and say, "I will never disappear." Now you laugh again, because you realize that which never existed disappears. I am no-mind, so how can I disappear? This becomes very meaningful for you and as you do it everyday, you become stronger and stronger in mindfulness, and something happens that's so beautiful that I can't describe it. You feel such love, such joy, such harmony, such bliss. Then you carry on.

What's the third principle? Something in me feels, understands the egolessness of all things. All these principles are alike. Did you come to that conclusion yet? They all have the same source--nothing, but you have to work with them until you get there. I feel and understand the egolessness of all things. You say ALL things, not just some things, but ALL things, from the greatest galaxy to the minutest atom. Nothing has an ego. If it has no ego, it has no source, because if it has an ego there has to be a source, and just by realizing this great truth you become free immediately. It blows your mind. It's like a Zen koan. All of a sudden, something snaps in your mind, and your mind is gone because it has no source since there's no ego. It never existed, and you feel so good.

Q: Can you say, "I Am is not the body"?

R: Yes, you can say that. That's why I tell you not to use that too much, because you make it too personal. You're still into yourself as an individual. When you read in text books, "I am not the body, I am not the mind", they're referring to the universal body and the universal mind. There is no body, nobody, no-o-o body. (Everyone laughs) Nobody exists. That sounds ridiculous to the average person.

Now you may say, "What does all this do for me?" It does everything for you if you are creative in music, art or anything else. You'll become a better musician and a better artist without wanting to, without going after it. Your body will do what its supposed to. There will be no karmic attachment. As an example, if you are a great artist or a great musician or a great carpenter, or a great loafer or a great homeless person, and you go after it humanly this is what is holding you to the earth, and you're going to have to come back again and again and again because you made yourself earthbound, don't you see? Everything that you attach yourself to pulls you back to the earth, whether it's good or bad. If you hate something, it's the same as if you love something. It pulls you back to the earth. You've got to let go. It's just you're letting go because you know, "I am my brother and my brother is me. I am everything."

Now I'll go to the last principle. You say, "I perceive and understand what realization is. I know, something within me understands and feels what self-realization is", and you keep still. Believe me, the will come to you. The only way you can find out is through negation. So you can say to yourself, "It's not the sun because the sun is a projection of my mind. It's not the moon..." Same thing. "It's not my husband or my wife, it's not my body or my organs. It's not peace. It's not the war. Everything you name it's not. When you get tired of naming things, you keep silent, and that's what it is. Everything is silence. The four principles and the silence are all the same. Any questions about this?

Q: Yes, I have a question. There are two things that you said which I had difficulty with. One of the things you said is never deal with a problem.

R: Right.

Q: And I know we should concentrate on the positive things you were speaking about, that's the essential teaching, to stress all the ideas you already talked about today. But still in this period of life that we have, as we make these statements, as we move towards this goal which I can accept, still there is the life to be lived. There are issues to deal with. So it seems to me that when you say, don't deal with the problem, this leads to enormous problems.

R: On the contrary. You're separating both. You're putting them into categories. There's only one. As an example, say somebody cheated you, and you sue them in court. When you sue somebody and you're getting involved in something like that, you're sending up an energy. Even if you win the case, you're going to have to sue somebody else and then sue somebody else and it never stops. You've set up a pattern for yourself. But if you go about it the other way, and if you know the truth about yourself, you also know the truth about the guy who cheated because you both are one.

Q: Robert, let me give you another example. Let's say that we all stay here and we have no money. Tomorrow we're all hungry in the morning, and we say we're not going to deal with this problem, but because our hunger is so great and keeps mounting, we really can't think of anything else. Eventually we can't think of any of these ideas that you told us about because we're so extremely hungry.

R: Your first premise is wrong. It doesn't work like that. It would never work like that. If you're hungry, something will happen to appease your hunger. What you're thinking about is that you sit down and you do nothing. It doesn't work like that. When you know the truth, somebody will knock on the door and bring you food.

Q: I brought up the example a week or two ago about the holocaust, and remember I said how the attitude of the Jewish people and especially the Rabbis was that God is living in Nazis, God has manifested himself through Auschwitz and the others, and so we must go along with this. Would you say that's the attitude the Jewish people should have had?

R: On the contrary, because that's an attitude. I'm not talking about attitudes. I'm talking about realization. Reading the Bible and making quotations is one thing. Being a living embodiment of the truth is another thing.

Q: Then, you're saying to deal with the problem.

R: On the contrary, if you become the truth, the problem will take care of itself.

Q: Yes, but you're speaking of a state to which we are aspiring, and I believe that would happen, but we're not in that state. We are not fully in that state because we cannot fully grasp it and manifest it.

R: If you take it personally, and you work on yourself as I said, you will do what's right. You will not be passive.

Q: So you didn't exactly say, don't deal with the problem, just realize that the body doesn't really exist. You're body will do the right thing by itself.

Q2: Remember what Christ said when he said, "Put you first the kingdom of heaven and the all rest will be added unto you." Isn't that something you're saying?

R: That's right.

Q: I have no argument with the concept, the idea, the goal and the abstract reality. I am talking the about the interim period that we live in our daily lives during the day. That's why I bring up these problems, and the food as examples of what we h

have to deal with every moment.

R: Your body and mind are motivated by karma. The law of karma takes care of them. But you are not your body. If you are aware that you are not your body, the right action will pursue.

Q: You mean you can be aware that you're not your body, yet your body will go out and get food.

R: Exactly.

Q: But you would know that you are not the doer.

Q: If you are aware, those are key words, if you are aware that you are not the body. I would say from my understanding that there are degrees of awareness. If you are completely, absolutely, totally and wholly aware that you are not the body, then I grant you that. But there are these degrees of awareness, and if you are not at that particular state, then you must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

R: In reality, there are no degrees. You either are or you're not. If you think you're not, then you have to fetch for yourself. If you think you are, you'll think about these things, and then you'll go and do something. But you won't be doing it. It will do itself.

Q: That's what I was going to say. Robert was telling us before about not being the doer, the realization that you are not the doer, is what Christ was talking about. That is, you dwell on the Self, on self-realization, and your body will continue to do whatever is necessary karmically, but your realization that you're not the body and you're not the doer doesn't mean it doesn't get done.

Q: Well, now we're getting down to the nitty gritty. Then what you're suggesting is this. Let's talk about tomorrow morning. My body-mind says go out and try to find some money to get breakfast, but all the time that I'm doing this I can still think that I am not doing this. I am not going to be getting the money. I am not going to be eating it.

R: No, no, no. When you work on the principles and you are hungry in your body, you will automatically, spontaneously go get food, but you won't dwell on it. Your mind will be somewhere else.

Take my life, for instance. When I get up in the morning, I have no idea what is going to happen that day, but I am acting and interacting. I do certain things, but not purposely; it happens spontaneously. I didn't ask to teach classes like these. It happened. I never asked for anything. It happens because my body does it, spontaneously. My mind is not aware, involved. I don't plan, except maybe to spend a couple of hours in Venice. But I have no long range plans. Everything works out. I know it is hard to perceive this....

Q: My second point is related to that. You quoted Ramana telling his devotees to give to the robbers, but couldn't his Karma have been to protect?

R: It was not his Dharma, his way, his truth.

Q2: Another teacher could have told his followers to kill the robbers.

R: That's right. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna told Arjuna to fight. It depends on the path you are on. Notice that Krishna did not have to fight. He told Arjuna to fight. When you get to the highest, there is peace. There is no need to do anything.

In the martial arts, when one becomes proficient to the highest degree, they do nothing. They don't even defend themselves. they go the other way. They accept being killed. Arjuna was not up there.

The highest teaching is that everything is being taken care of. Ramana, as a boy, would have died if it were not for this mysterious power that took care of him. He went into the jungle and into a cave and sat there. He didn't know where his food would come from. He didn't even think about it. It didn't enter his mind. He just sat there for days until a woman came to help and started to feed him. If you have trust and faith, there is a mysterious power that will take care of you, and supply all you need.

Q: But while you are paying attention to the spirit you must function in the world and deal with problems.

R: You are speaking from your own point of view. You are speaking of appearances. This is how you see it now. But is not like that.

Q: I first came because someone said it would be a good thing to do. It just happened. I didn't go to him asking for places to see. Yet, each week I have to consciously arrange to come here. Both energies exist on the same plane simultaneously.

R: No. This plane you speak of doesn't exist. As long as you believe it does, it does, because you are creating it. You give it its power. You are its power source. When you take the power away, everything just is.

When you realize you are not the doer, your body will do whatever it has come to earth to do. Your body follows Karma. But your body is not you. That can only be experienced.

To most people, this is ridiculous. All that I have said does not mean a thing. Most people want something practical, to accentuate the humanhood in them. The highest truth is that humanhood does not exist. When you come to that conclusion, your life will be bliss.

Q: Isn't the purpose of Satsang to ask questions?

R: Yes, but you have to practice the things I tell you and watch what happens. When you leave here you have to work on yourself and not just get caught up in the world until the next meeting. You'll see what happens.

Q: Could you state the four principals again, as clearly as possible?

R: (1) I understand, I feel, I perceive, that everything, everything--and emphasize the second everything---is a manifestation of my mind. (2) I feel and understand deeply, that I am unborn, I do not prevail, and I do not disappear. (3) I feel and understand the egoelessness of everything, of all creation. (4) I have a deep understanding of what self-realization is. That's it.

Q: What if we don't feel that, should we say that?

R: Say it when you wake up. It starts something going.

Q: During the day should we say that?

R: Make it a little different. Think that everything is a projection of your mind. In the morning, it is good to say I perceive, I understand. When you first open your eyes, you are not awake yet, and you are your real self. Therefore, you are confessing to yourself your real nature. It goes deep into the subconscious mind as a new idea.

Q: Should we be asking all these questions in Satsang?

R: Real Satsang is not intellectual, it is the reality of the person giving it. New students all ask the same questions. That is their perception. No matter what I say, they never will be able to see it until they become it, because they identify with their bodies.

It is the ego that wants to know. When you begin to feel that you know less, that is a good sign, because you know less about the world and more about the self. The more confounded you become, the more the ego breaks up.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

War ?

*note* war or not?...you choose..
But in the end you kill yourself.
Love yourself,instead,maybe all the people of the globe will be one nation..not based on nation.
Based on unity of nations.
-added by danny-
...................

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Supramundane Nibbana

*note* this is the most accurate description of the states of the ,,buddhist jhanas,, I found on the net.
I quote,, After this arising phenomenon ends, then one will experience the cessation of the dependent origination, which goes: When old age and death cease then birth ceases, when birth ceases then being ceases, when being ceases clinging ceases, when clinging ceases then craving ceases, when craving ceases feeling ceases, when feeling ceases then contact ceases, when contact ceases the six-fold sense base ceases, when the six-fold sense base ceases then mentality-materiality ceases, when mentality-materiality ceases then consciousness ceases, when consciousness ceases then formations cease, when formations cease then ignorance ceases....The seeing of dependent origination both forwards and backwards leads the mind to the attainment of the 'Supramundane Nibbana'...note that the author insists that the dependent origination( of matter to spirit,and spirit to mind..or whatever you want to call it) must be done ,,forwards and back,, for the process must be complete.
-added by danny-

Being mindful is a term that always had a kind of slippery meaning and it is not what most people think. Its meaning is very simple and precise when it is seen as observing mind, or attention, or alertness of attention. Being truly mindful means to see what the mind is doing at all times, then let go of the things that cause tension to arise in the head, relax and tranquilize both body and mind. It includes observing how this whole process works and allows it to be, without getting involved in the drama of things. Not getting involved with the drama of things means, to not identify with, or take personally this impersonal process or try to control the present moment.

Being mindful means to lovingly open one's mind and let go of all identification with that distraction, then relax the tension in the head and in the mind, so that one can see things clearly and calmly. Whenever one tries to resist or control what is happening in the present moment, they are at that time, fighting with the 'Dhamma' or 'Truth of the Present Moment.'

This fighting with the reality of the moment causes so much unsatisfactoriness and suffering to arise. However, when one is mindful and see clearly that this is just a phenomena arising and passing away, they can open up and accept it, without hardening their mind or resisting in any way. At this time, joyful interest is very important because when the mind has some joy in it there is no anger, jealousy, aversion, fear, or anxiety, etc. Joyful interest helps the meditator to have the proper perspective of seeing what happens in the moment impersonally. When the mind is uplifted, one sees that whatever arises is just part of a continuing process which they can learn from. Joy causes the mind to be uplifted, which is why it is an enlightenment factor and very important to one's practice. Also, when joy is in one's mind, they are pleasant to be around. Remember, the acronym that is very helpful to use is DROPS. It stands for Don't Resist Or Push, SMILE and Soften the mind and accept everything when it occurs, because that is the "Dhamma of the Moment".

When one continues on with their practice, their mind will eventually attain to the higher and more subtle stages of meditations (arupa jhanas). At that time, one's mind experiences the realm of 'nothingness'. This is what is called cessation. It is called this because there is nothing more to watch outside of the mind. When one experiences the realm of 'nothingness', their mind is watching nothing. But the mind is still there and the different enlightenment factors can arise along with the five aggregates which are affected by clinging. Also, some hindrances can still arise and knock one out of that exalted state. Thus, there is nothing for the mind to watch outside of itself, and yet, there is still lots to see. This is how one's mindfulness enlightenment factor is supported by cessation.

When one experiences the realm of neither-perception nor non-perception, and keeps opening and relaxing the mind, eventually they will experience the cessation of perception and feeling (Nirodha-Samapatti). During this occurrence, one will not know this turning off of consciousness because they have no perception or feeling at all! This is the only stage of meditation where this phenomena occurs. This meditation state is still mundane, it is not the Supramundane Nibbana yet. How can one know what is happening without perception or feeling? It is only when the perception and feeling come back, and if the mindfulness is sharp enough, will one sees directly, each and every link of dependent origination forwards, one by one as they occur. Even this is not the Supramundane State of Nibbana. The links are: When ignorance arises then formations arise, when formations arise then consciousness arises, when consciousness arises mentality-materiality arises, when mentality-materiality arises then the six-fold sense base arises, when the six-fold sense base arises contact arises, when contact arises feeling arises, when feeling arises craving arises, when craving arises then clinging arises, when clinging arises then being arises, when being arises birth arises, when birth arises then old age, death arises.

After this arising phenomenon ends, then one will experience the cessation of the dependent origination, which goes: When old age and death cease then birth ceases, when birth ceases then being ceases, when being ceases clinging ceases, when clinging ceases then craving ceases, when craving ceases feeling ceases, when feeling ceases then contact ceases, when contact ceases the six-fold sense base ceases, when the six-fold sense base ceases then mentality-materiality ceases, when mentality-materiality ceases then consciousness ceases, when consciousness ceases then formations cease, when formations cease then ignorance ceases.

The seeing of dependent origination both forwards and backwards leads the mind to the attainment of the 'Supramundane Nibbana'. This is where there is a major change in one's outlook. One's mind at that time, becomes dispassionate about the belief in a permanent everlasting ego or self. They see from first hand experiential knowledge, that this is just an impersonal process and there is no one controlling the way phenomena arise. These arise because conditions are right for them to arise. In Buddhist terms, this is called 'anatta' or not self nature of existence. One also realizes that no one can possibly attain sainthood by the practice of mere chanting words or phrases or suttas, or the practice of having rites and rituals done for them by someone else or by themselves.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Ballroom Blitz

*note* Ballroom Blitz. .you must kill the bad guy in this universe to show that you are good..but the guy is you,all the time....you are the good,the bad,and the ugly all the time,and all you try to kill outside ..is something in yourself.. love and kisses..
-added by danny-
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Sunday, November 09, 2008

The boddhi light

*note*..true kundalini awakening looks like this boddhi image...it is a radiant power...full of joy as one is also fully aware of whom one is.There are no words to describe it.It is God knowing itself,when it's shadows become enlightened..love to all,and kisses.However,it is not a person,nore a thing,nore anything your mind could ponder.It is the source of those.It is NOT also the witness,but the witnessing.
-added by danny-
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Saturday, November 08, 2008

Stand by me

*note* no comments..stand By me,, " is the title of a song performed by Ben E. King and written by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Since its release, there have been many cover versions of the song, though none have achieved the fame of the original....however,this clip is made of pics from the movie ,Stand by Me(1986)..where this song was used as a soundtrack.
-added by danny-

How will you handle the 11th Army of Mara ?

*note* this guy speaks the truth..really. I quote from him"adults who do not even have the capacity for formal abstract thinking will likely consider you very crazy, intimidating, or at best something to be avoided".. Marvelous and so true,it hurts..it hurts them of course,because they do not introspect.
-added by danny-
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How will we handle the 11th Army of Mara ?

In the Introduction to the Jataka, or "birth stories" of the Buddha, it says that the Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree in powerful, one-pointed meditation, resisted the 10 armies of Mara, perceived the truth of things, and attained to full and un-excelled awakening. For those of you not familiar with standard Buddhist icons, Mara is the personification of the temptation of the world, the lord of all that is impermanent, simultaneously a satanic and trickster figure who does his very best to thwart those who would escape from his dominion and go beyond birth and death. During the heroic struggle of the Buddha on that day, he transforms and overcomes a great number of assaults by Mara and his armies through his steadiness on the Ten Perfections. The Ten Perfections can be translated a number of ways, and I list them as generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolute determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity.

These assaults by the Armies of Mara in the story are relatively fantastic, and while quite a mythologized and anthropomorphized bit of work still makes for fun reading. They consist of a whirlwind, a great rain-storm, showers of flaming rocks, weapons and hot ashes, sand, and mud, profound darkness, and a great discus hurled from a huge elephant. The Buddha was steady in his contemplation, deeply rooted in the Ten Perfections, having perfected his karma and mind for countless lifetimes before. Through the power of his actions and abilities, these assaults were transformed into flowers, celestial ointment, and the like.

Later on, the Ten Armies of Mara came to be listed as: 1) sensual pleasures, 2) discontent, 3) hunger and thirst, 4) craving, 5) sloth and torpor, 6) fear, 7) doubt, 8) conceit and ingratitude, 9) gain, renown, honor and falsely received fame, 10) self-exaltation and dispararaging others. These are now useful guidelines for difficulties that must be avoided when possible and seen as they are for meditators to progress on the path of wisdom. They tend to occur in roughly that order, cycling as does everything else. No eleventh army is listed.

However, it says in Sutta #26 of the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha that soon after the Buddha's enlightenment, it occurred to him that there was no one else that could understand what he had understood. He thought to himself that this dharma was too profound, too subtle, too against the worldly tide, and too difficult. Teaching it would only cause him trouble, as it would be to a generation obsessed with lust and hate, mired in worldliness, incapable of understanding it. And so he decided to keep quiet.

There are other texts that say that it was Mara who came to the Buddha and said to him basically, "Alright, you win. You have gone beyond birth, death, and my realm. Who will understand what you have to teach? Who else can do this? Who will believe you? Nobody." The Buddha, as we have said, agreed without qualification. This I call the 11th Army of Mara, Mara's last temptation, the temptation to keep quiet. The 11th Army of Mara consists of the vast and profound difficulties those who are realized face in describing, explaining, and promoting real liberating insights.

The story continues in its typical style. The great Brahma Sahampati, a relatively high god, understood through his powerful mind that the Buddha had attained to full awakening and yet chosen silence and inaction. This was surprising considering that the Buddha had vowed to attain to that which was beyond birth and death so as to liberate all beings. The Brahma Sahampati appeared to the Buddha and begged him to teach the dharma so that those with little dust in their eyes might see. The story goes that he asked the Buddha to look at the world and see that there were in fact a few who would understand what he had to teach. The Buddha used his psychic powers to survey the world, and indeed he saw that he had been wrong, that there were a few who would understand, whose faculties were keen, whose eyes were only barely clouded. So, he wandered off in search of them and he found some of them. He taught them, they understood, and those teachings have been passed down in a direct line of practitioners that has lasted over 2,500 years.

While the ancient and modern commentators go to great lengths to rationalize why this was all part of the plan, that the Buddha just pretended to not want to teach for various reasons, I take a different, perhaps more cautious and probably realistic view. If we look at what happened as the Buddha tried to go and teach the dharma, we must admit that it was a long, difficult road. He had profound family problems, logistical problems, ran into bandits, had numerous conflicts with opposing sects as well as within his own order. People tried to kill him, his own order fractured at points because of extreme sects and views, people made power plays to take over the order, and so on and so forth. At one point he got so frustrated with his monks that he left them on their own for the whole three month rains retreat and went to be in the forest by himself.

Due to the continued bad and foolish behavior of his monks and nuns in the last 25 years of his teaching, he laid down the kind of restrictive rules usually reserved for vile dictatorships run by raving nut-cases. Clearly he did so reluctantly, as there were no such rules for the first 20 years of the order. The point here being that even for the Buddha, whose teaching ability was clearly of the rarest variety and who had an unduplicated knack for helpful and precise conceptual frameworks, there was nothing easy at all about spreading the dharma.

It is worth remembering that that however mythologized we feel the Buddha was, clearly he as a completely astounding person. He met his struggles with spectacular reserves of intellect, wisdom, stamina and determination. Few of us are so blessed, and the difficulties we face are largely the same as those faced by the Buddha.

I will now begin a short list of basic difficulties faced in trying to spread the dharma by those who know it for themselves. I list them in no particular order. The downside is that I have no great solutions to these problems, but as the AA kids say, admitting you have a problem is the first step.

One of the most profound difficulties in supporting liberating insights is the difficulty in language. It simply cannot explain realization, though it can point to techniques that make it much more likely. Real insight goes beyond the conceptual frameworks of the dualistic mind. Anything you say about it is only partly true at best. The smarter the practitioner, the more frustrating they may find dharma language. The approximately 50% of adults who do not even have the capacity for formal abstract thinking will likely consider you very crazy, intimidating, or at best something to be avoided.

On a related note, if you actually are enlightened, then what is so glaringly obvious to you simply isn't to everybody else, and the longer you have seen it, the stranger it becomes that everyone else doesn't see it also. It can become harder and harder to remember what it was like to sit down on a cushion and not even be able to attain the first jhana, much less cycle effortlessly from the 4th to 16th ñanas. For those who have attained arahatship, the luminosity and centerlessness of perspective becomes such a natural part of one's perception that is seems incredible that it was ever otherwise.

On the flip side of the same coin, one may remember the profound struggles, the thousands of hours of back and knee pain, the extreme subtlety of perception needed, the endless stretching of one's perceptual thresholds, and the relentless determination and tolerance for pain and one's own humanity that was required to finally see it. We may remember the spent vacation time, financial difficulties, relationship issues, logistical complexities and difficulties with teachers and fellow meditators that are often necessary to endure for long retreats and extended daily practice. We may marvel that we were able to do it at all, much less imagine anyone else actually giving up all that they might have to give up and face all that they might have to face to do it. Are we really going to go around shaking people out of their cozy little lives for something we can't even explain?

That brings me to the question of audience. At any given time and place, there are only a handful at best that are ready to hear deep dharma and then convert that knowledge into liberating practice. This was true in the time of the Buddha and continues to be true today. Even among monks and nuns, you will not find many that are enlightened or even aspire to actually be enlightened in this lifetime.

Your best shot is those who have already crossed the Arising and Passing Away, though the complexities of the Dark Night can give them such a complex love-hate relationship to practice and dharma that you may not be able to reach them at all, or perhaps not until they have seasoned in it for years. You may never reach them, as they may not resonate with your personality, teaching style, or your own conceptual and linguistic baggage. You may not even be able to find them, though if you hang out some sort of shingle you will likely cross paths with at least a couple.

Meditation groups are flourishing around the country. You can find them in any mid-sized to larger city, and occasionally in more rural areas in more liberal parts of the country. And yet, very few of these people will actually take the time to get serious about meditation. In truth, few are interested in this at all. Most of these groups function essentially as sectarian churches, venues of social support with a unifying dogma and nice moral lessons, inspiring readings, sharing time, comfortable and satisfying rituals, a little meditation, and often overt or subtle worship and deification of Thich Nhat Hanh, Trungpa, the Dali Lama, Lama Zopa, or some other figure purported to have done it.

Very few will aspire to real mastery themselves. Very few will take the time to learn even the basics of meditation theory. Even fewer will actually go on retreats. Of those that do, only a handful will get their concentration strong enough to attain to basic jhanas or ñanas. Of these, only a couple will be able to cross the A&P, handle and investigate the Dark Night, attain to Equanimity and get Stream Entry. Of those who attain to Stream Entry, a reasonable number will progress to the middle paths, but not many will attain to Arahatship. Call me cynical, but this was true in the Buddha's time and it is true now.

You might think that you could approach these groups and say, "Hey, I know how it's done. Why read the dead books of some guy far away who you are unlikely to have any real contact with when there is someone right here who can help you understand it for yourself? Sure, you might have to bust your butt, but this is what you are all shootin' for, isn't it?"

Unfortunately, likely reactions include: complete disbelief, profound skepticism, confusion, alienation, intimidation, jealousy, anger, territoriality, competitiveness, and the lingering doubts created by having to face the fact that actually doing it is not what they are into at all. People hate feeling these things, and are more likely to blow you off than deal with these feelings. The chances of group or even an individual saying, "Great, I've been looking for a real friend in the dharma for years, and now there is one right here. Tell me how it's done and I'll go do it!" are essentially next to nothing. That said, miracles do occur, and occasionally we do actually run into the few who have little dust in their eyes.

If you are really into finding them, you are likely going to have to meet a lot of people who are not ready yet, even if you are lucky enough to teach at a major retreat center. This can be frustrating. If we look at the life of the Buddha, after the first dozen or so people he taught, he had to walk long distances to even find one person who might get what he was saying. Luckily, he was willing to do this.

How will we handle the 11th Army of Mara? Hopefully the Buddha's story will continue to inspire us to try harder.

MONTUGA - Sofia

*note* nice song from Montuga ..lol
-added by danny-
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The Arising and Passing Away, Some Tales from the Path

*note* Daniel Ingram(buddhist tradition) talks about rising and passing away(of thoughts and phenomenas) ....he also wrote a very nice online book,the links are below.
-added by danny-
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The Arising and Passing Away, Some Tales from the Path(from Daniel Ingram)

I tend to get a lot of questions about a stage of practice called The Arising and Passing Away (A&P), which I cover extensively in my blook and book. However, people keep asking about what it is like, so I have included a few descriptions of my experiences to illustrate a few points.

The first point is that the content of the event can vary widely, meaning that it can look like all sorts of things in its particulars, though the key elements of the pattern tend to be relatively consistent. The second point is that the context of the event can vary widely, meaning that it can occur on or off retreat, with or without meditative training, at all sorts of ages, and often without warning or the person's knowledge of what happened. The third point is that the Dark Night follows the A&P like thunder follows lightening. Thus, each A&P event is followed by a brief description of the relatively dramatic life changes that I made shortly after crossing it. The pattern was not obvious at the time, but on retrospect is glaring. Were these maps part of standard elementary school education, as I wish they were, I think I would have had a much easier time.

My first time crossing it was around age 15. I was and still am a big fan of flying dreams, and so quite without instruction or guidance, I decided that I would practice flying before going to sleep so as to maximize the chances of me having them. I began to try to visualize planets of various colors, which ended up being like 50 foot wide billiard balls in space, some black, some red, some ivory, and in trying to do this I began to notice all sorts of things. I began to notice that there was a delay between the intention to visualize and the image arising. I noticed that it was very difficult to sustain any image, as it would arise and vanish. I began to notice it was nearly impossible to give attention to a sphere without going toward it. I noticed that the delay, the constant effort, the arising and vanishing of the images, and some other strained aspect of the process were strangely irritating. In short, I realized the first three stages of insight practice, but had no idea that these were stock, standard, expected, predictable, and had been mapped by some traditions for over 2,500 years, nor did I know what to expect next.

I can't remember the exact timing, but I know that it was not that many nights of this sort of practice later that I had the following dream. I was standing on a long, straight, dusty, country road with tall wild rose bushes lining either side as far as the eye could see. I was about three feet tall, dressed in a silver space-suit, holding a ray-gun, and beside me were two similarly dressed people of similar height. We were all staring down the road, waiting for something to happen. The sunlight was so bright that it was difficult to see, and its brilliance washed out the color of everything to some pale shade of yellow, green or white. Suddenly a dust cloud appeared far down the road, and out of it emerged a huge witch dressed in black riding a charging black horse. We stood our ground. The witch pointed her wand at us, a brilliant flash of light shot from its tip and engulfed us, and suddenly my world exploded, so that my body seemed like fireworks, flying all over space in sizzling flashes, and I suddenly transitioned from dreaming to waking. However, it took several seconds for my consciousness and sensate reality to reassemble itself into something coherent, and then I was buzzing all over and extremely alert. It would be 10 years before I would have any idea of what that was or what it meant. It is hard from this distant vantage point to get a grasp of exactly how this first event changed my life, as my mid-teens were a complex time in general.

The next time I remember crossing it was the summer after my junior year in college. I had been philosophizing heavily, hanging out with my friend who had also crossed the A&P and didn't know what it was, and we had been discussing the question of the observer or Watcher and how this this related to the question of non-duality. So, one day I was just sitting on the couch, when I decided to take on the watcher directly. I began trying to catch it, second after second, really going after the visceral, perceptual experience of what was observing, and before I knew it, got into this rapid-fire back and forth, super-concentrated state of everything vibrating in my head, and the whole thing zapped back through my skull at very high speed into some black space, and it was done. I broke up with my girlfriend, moved into an appartment alone, and was pretty dark for a while.

The third time I remember occurred during the year after graduation from college. I was dancing in a club, and I began spinning around and got into some sort of very altered state, dancing wildly, with tremendous energy, feeling some kind of long-sought freedom, like something I had forgotten, and up through my being welled this amazing bliss and sense of power, taking over the dancing, moving me effortlessly but with this core of raw power in the center around which the world and my body were spinning and moving quite on thier own, and then it peaked in joy and intensity and was done. After that I began to have to meditate to feel normal. I would go outside before work and lay down on the ground and breathe really slowly and somehow it would help a little. Shortly thereafter I quit the band I was running sound for and moved to California for a while.

The next time I don't remember, but I know the effect it had: I suddenly needed to go on retreats, so I did. I had done really no formal meditaion practice, knew little of Buddhism, but on the advice of a friend I went on a 9-day intensive insight meditation retreat at the Insight Meditation Society. About 6 days into it, after all sorts of back, neck and jaw pain, I was just stiting there, and all of a sudden I noticed that my body was not solid, but instead made of zillions of little particles of energy, all moving around, zipping in and out of reality, and my body exploded, everything flashed black and white, and I felt as if I had been dropped back onto my cushion from space. After that I was hyper-energetic, hyper-philosophical and yet convinced that philosophy held no further answers, but I had no idea what to do next. No one told me what had happened or what it could do to you, and shortly thereafter I quit my electrical engineering program and went to India.

The next time was about 6 months after the previous one, on retreat in India during a 17-day course at the Thai Monastery in Bodh Gaya. I don't really remember much about it, except that it left me feeling very inspired about practice and very dark about the world. I lasted 5 months doing volunteer service in Calcutta before I had to go on retreat again, so I went to Malaysia and sat in the Malaysian Buddhist Meditation Centre, and that is when I really learned to practice. It was 10 years from the first time I had crossed the A&P, and I was about to learn what the Arising and Passing Away was, which seems a bit late, but that's the world we live in, isn't it?

I was practicing very strict noting technique, and very shortly my breath began to move with the noting. I would note "rising" or "falling" and the breath would rise or fall in nearly perfect synchrony with the duration of the note and then stop, so each stuttering breath took many notes, otherwise it would just stop. The rapidity of this got faster and more powerful, so that I shook, sniffed, sweated and noted for days, and in between bouts I would plunge down with the breath as it went down and down and down into a realm of extremely slowed perception and time, like reality was moving through thick, narcotic syrup, and then the energy would come back, the rapid noting, sniffing, and now powerful vibratory energy would return, and it would cycle like this again and again. I was sitting for 2-3 hours at a time with amazing posture, barely sleeping 2 hours per night, and finally the whole thing died down. I was hungry for sex and chocolate, felt exhausted and sluggish, within a day I could barely sit for 5 minutes, and my mind felt like a hive of angry bees.

That night the abbot played an old, scratchy tape of a Burmesse monk describing the stages of insight, and suddenly all was clear. I knew what had happened, knew where I was, and knew what to do about it. You can read about the rest in my book if you wish, but the summary points are these: 1) the maps helped me practice in the face of the Dark Night so that I got to Equanimity, 2) the tape failed to mention the post-retreat/real-world implications of crossing the A&P and entering the Dark Night (they call them "Dukkha Ñanas"), and at that point, despite having crossed the thing many times already, I was unprepared for what would happen next. Shortly thereafter, I canceled all of my medical school interviews so that I could go on a 1-year retreat.

I tell the rest of the story in my book, but hopefully these added shorts will give some idea of the basic points I wanted to illustrate, those being that the context and content can vary widely, but there are relatively predictable and identifiable key elements to the way it happens and what is likely to follow.

A few more brief stories from other points on my path...

I was meditating in my living room and suddenly could see thorugh my closed eyelids. The room looked largely the same, except the color and light were somewhat different. This didn't last long, and in a sit shortly thereafter my body exploded again, very much as it had done before. By this time I knew what it was, and so I was prepared for what came next. I didn't quit my job or end a relationship. Instead I practiced well and shortly thereafter attained to second path in the break room at work during a training lecture.

I was taking a yoga class and had been strangely stiff and tense during it. Every movement was much more difficult than usual, my awareness of the pain in my body more acute. This faded towards the end of the 2-hour class, and then suddenly while bending back into a camel pose, this massive and very startling bolt of energy shot up my spine, causing me to flip suddenly forwards out of the pose. Shortly thereafter I decided to go on retreat during the coming summer in England.

I hope this additional information will help people realize what may have happened to them and/or recognize it when it does happen, and thus be more able to do something useful with their own experiences of these stages and avoid being blindsided by the emotional effects that can result from them.

Practice well.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Stand firm in that which you are

*note* beautiful poems from Kabir...from The Kabir Book : Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir
by Robert Bly (Editor)
-added by danny-
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Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine

rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.
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to Kabir Main Page
to Indra's Prose, Poetry & Haiku

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or

nesting?
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no

ford!

And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the

soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a sold place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of

imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

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There's a moon in my body, but I can't see it!
A moon and a sun.
A drum never touched by hands, beating, and I can't hear it!

As long as a human being worries about when he will die,

and what he has that is his,
all of his works are zero.
When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead,
then the work of the Teacher is over.

The purpose of labor is to learn;
when you know it, the labor is over.
The apple blossom exists to create fruit; when that

comes, the petal falls.

The musk is inside the deer, but the deer does not

look for it:
it wander around looking for grass.

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Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think...and think... while you are alive.

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten --
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City

of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life

you will have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,

Believe in the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,

it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that

does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

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Monday, November 03, 2008

What Is Chan ?

*note* Master Sheng-yen explains what Chan is..I quote"This method was transmitted from India to China, and then to Japan. In India it was called dhyana, which is pronounced "Chan" in Chinese, and "Zen" in Japanese. Actually, all three are identical."
However,I propose you this koan ,,If Chen Chan was doing Zen,is Chen Chan's Chan... Chan or Zen?,,??...eghh?...now let's do Chan and be happy.
-added by danny-
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I wish to start by telling you that Chan is not the same as knowledge, yet knowledge is not completely apart from Chan. Chan is not just religion, yet the achievements of religion can be reached through Chan. Chan is not philosophy, yet philosophy can in no way exceed the scope of Chan. Chan is not science, yet the spirit of emphasising reality and experience is also required in Chan. Therefore, please do not try to explore the content of Chan motivated by mere curiosity, for Chan is not something new brought here [to the USA] by Orientals; Chan is present everywhere, in space without limit and time without end. However before the Buddhism of the East was propagated in the western world, the people of the West never knew of the existence of Chan. The Chan taught by Orientals in the West is not, in fact, the real Chan. It is the method to realise Chan. Chan was first discovered by a prince named Siddhartha Gautama (called Shakyamuni after his enlightenment), who was born in India about 2500 years ago. After he became enlightened and was called a Buddha, he taught us the method to know Chan. This method was transmitted from India to China, and then to Japan. In India it was called dhyana, which is pronounced "Chan" in Chinese, and "Zen" in Japanese. Actually, all three are identical.

Chan has universal and eternal existence. It has no need of any teacher to transmit it; what is transmitted by teachers is just the method by which one can personally experience this Chan.

Some people mistakenly understand Chan to be some kind of mysterious experience; others think that one can attain supernatural powers through the experience of Chan. Of course, the process of practising Chan meditation may cause various kinds of strange occurrences on the level of mental and physical sensation; and also, through the practice of unifying body and mind, one may be able to attain the mental power to control or alter external things. But such phenomena, which are looked upon as mysteries of religion, are not the aim of Chan practice, because they can only satisfy one's curiosity or megalomania, and cannot solve the actual problems of peoples lives.

Chan starts from the root of the problem. It does not start with the idea of conquering the external social and material environments, but starts with gaining thorough knowledge of one's own self. The moment you know what your self is, this "I" that you now take to be yourself will simultaneously disappear. We call this new knowledge of the notion of self "enlightenment" or "seeing ones basic nature". This is the beginning of helping you to thoroughly solve real problems. In the end, you will discover that you the individual, together with the whole of existence, are but one totality which cannot be divided.

Because you yourself have imperfections, you therefore feel the environment is imperfect. It is like a mirror with an uneven surface, the images reflected in it are also distorted. Or, it is like the surface of water disturbed by ripples, the moon reflected in it is irregular and unsettled. If the surface of the mirror is clear and smooth, or if the air on the surface of the water is still and the ripples calmed, then the reflection in the mirror and the moon in the water will be clear and exact. Therefore, from the point of view of Chan, the major cause of the pain and misfortune suffered by humanity is not the treacherous environment of the world in which we live, nor the dreadful society of humankind, but the fact that we have never been able to recognise our basic nature. So the method of Chan is not to direct us to evade reality, nor to shut our eyes like the African ostrich when enemies come, and bury our heads in the sand, thinking all problems are solved. Chan is not a self-hypnotising idealism.

By the practise of Chan one can eliminate the "I"; not only the selfish, small "I", but also the large "I", which in philosophy is called "Truth" or "the Essence". Only then is there absolute freedom. Thus an accomplished Chan practitioner never feels that any responsibility is a burden, nor does he feel the pressure that the conditions of life exert on people. He only feels that he is perpetually bringing the vitality of life into full activity. This is the expression of absolute freedom. Therefore the life of Chan is inevitably normal and positive, happy and open. The reason for this is that the practise of Chan will continually provide you with a means to excavate your precious mine of wisdom. The deeper the excavation, the higher the wisdom that is attained, until eventually you obtain all the wisdom of the entire universe. At that time, there is not a single thing in all of time and space that is not contained within the scope of your wisdom. At that stage wisdom becomes absolute; and since it is absolute, the term wisdom serves no further purpose. To be sure, at that stage the "I" that motivated you to pursue such things as fame, wealth and power, or to escape from suffering and danger, has completely disappeared. What is more, even the wisdom which eliminated your "I" becomes an unnecessary concept to you.

Of course, from the viewpoint of sudden enlightenment it is very easy for a Chan practitioner to reach this stage; nevertheless before reaching the gate of sudden enlightenment one must exert a great deal of effort on the journey. Otherwise the methods of Chan would be useless.

The Three Stages of Chan Meditation

At present, the methods of meditation that I am teaching in the United States are divided into three stages.

Stage 1: To balance the development of body and mind in order to attain mental and physical health

With regard to the body, we stress the demonstration and correction of the postures of walking, standing, sitting and reclining. At the same time we teach various methods of physical exercise for walking, standing, sitting and reclining. They are unique exercise methods combining Indian Hatha Yoga and Chinese Tao-yin, and can bring physical health as well as results in meditation. Thus, one who practises Chan and has obtained good results will definitely have a strong body capable of enduring hardship. For the mind we emphasise the elimination of impatience, suspicion, anxiety, fear and frustration, so as to establish a state of self-confidence, determination, optimism, peace and stability.

A good student, after five or ten lessons here, will reach the first stage and be able to obtain results in the above two areas. One of our student's reports stated: ≥This kind of Chan class is especially good for someone like myself who, by profession or habit, has been used to having the brain functioning just about every minute of the day. I often find this Chan sitting very helpful as rest or relief. So even for no greater purpose, this Chan class has been very useful and should be highly recommended.≤ [from Chan Magazine Vol.1; No.1]

In the first lesson of each class, I always ask each of the students individually his or her purpose in learning Chan whether he or she hoped to benefit the body, or sought help for the mind. The answers show that the latter were in the majority. This indicates that people living in American society today, under the strain and pressure of the present environment, suffer excessive tension, and many have lost their mental balance. Some are so severely tense that they have to consult a psychiatrist. Among those who come to learn Chan, I have one woman student, an outstanding lecturer in a well-known university, who asked me at the first meeting if I could help to relieve her from tense and uneasy moods. I told her that for a Chan practitioner this is a very simple matter. After five lessons she felt that Chan was a great blessing to her life.

The method of the first stage is very simple. Mainly it requires you to relax all the muscles and nerves of your entire body, and concentrate your attention on the method you have just learned. Because the tension of your muscles and nerves affects the activity of the brain, the key is therefore to reduce the burden on your brain. When your wandering thoughts and illusions decrease, your brain will gradually get a little rest. As its need of blood is reduced, more blood will circulate through the entire body. Meanwhile, because of the relaxation of the brain, all the muscles also relax; thus your blood vessels expand, you feel comfortable all over, your spirit feels fresh and alert, and your mental responses are naturally lighter and more lively.

If one's object of study is just to acquire physical and mental balance, and not to study meditation proper, then one will probably feel that the completion of the first stage is enough; but many students are not content with this, and indeed, some from the outset are looking for the goal of the second stage.

Stage 2: From the sense of the small "I"

The first stage only helps to bring concentration to your confused mind; but when you practise concentration, other scattered thoughts continue to appear in your mind - sometimes many, sometimes a few. The concept of your purpose in practising Chan is for mental and physical benefits. This is a stage where your concept is purely self-centred. There is no mention of philosophical ideals or religious experience. When you reach the second stage, it will enable you to liberate yourself from the narrow view of the "I". In the second stage you begin to enter the stage of meditation. When you practise the method of cultivation taught by your teacher, you will enlarge the sphere of the outlook of the small "I" until it coincides with time and space. The small "I" merges into the entire universe, forming a unity. When you look inward, the depth is limitless; when you look outward, the breadth is limitless. Since you have joined and become one with universe, the world of your own body and mind no longer exists. What exists is the universe, which is infinite in depth and breadth. You yourself are not only a part of the universe, but also the totality of it.

When you achieve this experience in your Chan sitting, you will then understand what is meant in philosophy by principle or basic substance, and also what phenomenal existence is. All phenomena are the floating surface or perceptible layer of basic substance. From the shallow point of view, the phenomena have innumerable distinctions and each has different characteristics; in reality, the differences between the phenomena do not impair the totality of basic substance. For instance, on the planet on which we live, there are countless kinds of animals, plants, minerals, vapours, liquids and solids which incessantly arise, change and perish, constituting the phenomena of the earth. However, seen from another planet, the earth is just one body. When we have the opportunity to free ourselves from the bonds of self or subjective views, to assume the objective standpoint of the whole and observe all phenomena together, we can eliminate opposing and contradictory views. Take a tree as an example. From the standpoint of the individual leaves and branches, they are all distinct from one another, and can also be perceived to rub against one another. However, from the standpoint of the trunk and roots, all parts without exception are of one unified whole.

In the course of this second stage, you have realised that you not only have an independent individual existence, but you also have a universal existence together with this limitlessly deep and wide cosmos, and therefore the confrontation between you and the surrounding environment exists no more. Discontent, hatred, love, desire - in other words dispositions of rejecting and grasping disappear naturally, and you sense a feeling of peace and satisfaction. Because you have eliminated the selfish small "I", you are able to look upon all people and all things as if they were phenomena produced from your own substance, and so you will love all people and all things in the same way you loved and watched over your small "I". This is the mind of a great philosopher.

Naturally, all great religious figures must have gone through the experiences of this second stage, where they free themselves from the confines of the small "I", and discover that their own basic substance is none other than the existence of the entire universe, and that there is no difference between themselves and everything in the universe. All phenomena are manifestations of their own nature. They have the duty to love and watch over all things, and also have the right to manage them; just as we have the duty to love our own children and the right to manage the property that belongs to us. This is the formation of the relationship between the deity and the multitude of things he created. Such people personify the basic substance of the universe which they experience through meditation, and create the belief in God. They substantiate this idea of a large "I" the self-love of God and formulate the mission of being a saviour of the world or an emissary of God. They unify all phenomena and look upon them as objects that were created and are to be saved. Consequently, some religious figures think that the basic nature of their souls is the same as that of the deity, and that they are human incarnations of the deity. In this way, they consider themselves to be saviours of the world. Others think that although the basic nature of their souls is not identical to and inseparable from that of the deity, the phenomenon of their incarnation shows that they were sent to this world by God as messengers to promulgate God's intention.

Generally, when philosophers or religious figures reach the height of the second stage, they feel that their wisdom is unlimited, their power is infinite, and their lives are eternal. When the scope of the "I" enlarges, self-confidence accordingly gets stronger, but this stronger self-confidence is in fact merely the unlimited escalation of a sense of superiority and pride. It is therefore termed large "I", and does not mean that absolute freedom from vexations has been achieved.

Stage 3: From the large "I" to no "I"

When one reaches the height of the second stage, he realises that the concept of the "I" does not exist. But he has only abandoned the small "I" and has not negated the concept of basic substance or the existence of God; you may call it Truth, the one and only God, the Almighty, the Unchanging Principle, or even the Buddha of Buddhism. If you think that it is real, then you are still in the realm of the big "I" and have not left the sphere of philosophy and religion.

I must emphasise that the content of Chan does not appear until the third stage. Chan is unimaginable. It is neither a concept nor a feeling. It is impossible to describe it in any terms abstract or concrete. Though meditation is ordinarily the proper path leading to Chan, once you have arrived at the door of Chan, even the method of meditation is rendered useless. It is like using various means of transportation on a long journey. When you reach the final destination, you find a steep cliff standing right in front of you. It is so high you cannot see its top, and so wide that its side cannot be found. At this time a person who has been to the other side of the cliff comes to tell you that on the other side lies the world of Chan. When you scale it you will enter Chan. And yet, he tells you not to depend on any means of transportation to fly over, bypass, or penetrate through it, because it is infinity itself, and there is no way to scale it.

Even an outstanding Chan master able to bring his student to this place will find himself unable to help any more. Although he has been to the other side, he cannot take you there with him, just as a mother's own eating and drinking cannot take the hunger away from the child who refuses to eat or drink. At that time, the only help he can give you is to tell you to discard all your experiences, your knowledge, and all the things and ideas that you think are the most reliable, most magnificent, and most real, even including your hope to get to the world of Chan. It is as if you were entering a sacred building. Before you do so, the guard tells you that you must not carry any weapon, that you must take off all your clothes, and that not only must you be completely naked you also have to leave your body and soul behind. Then you can enter.

Because Chan is a world where there is no self, if there is still any attachment at all in your mind, there is no way you can harmonise with Chan. Therefore, Chan is the territory of the wise, and the territory of the brave. Not being wise, one would not believe that after he has abandoned all attachments another world could appear before him. Not being brave, one would find it very hard to discard everything he has accumulated in this life - ideals and knowledge, spiritual and material things.

You may ask what benefit we would get after making such great sacrifices to enter the world of Chan. Let me tell you that you cannot enter the world of Chan while this question is still with you. Looking for benefit, either for self or for others, is in the "I"-oriented stage. The sixth patriarch of the Chan sect in China taught people that the way to enter the enlightenment of the realm of Chan is: "Neither think of good, nor think of evil." That is, you eliminate such opposing views as self and other, inner and outer, being and non-being, large and small, good and bad, vexation and Bodhi, illusion and enlightenment, false and true, or suffering of birth and death and joy of emancipation. Only then can the realm of Chan or enlightenment appear and bring you a new life.

This new life you have had all along, and yet you have never discovered it. In the Chan sect we call it your original face before you were born. This is not the small "I" of body and mind, nor the large "I" of the world and universe. This is absolute freedom, free from the misery of all vexations and bonds. To enter Chan as described above is not easy. Many people have studied and meditated for decades, and still have never gained entrance to the door of Chan. It will not be difficult, however, when your causes and conditions are mature, or if you happen to have a good Chan master who guides you with full attention. This Master may adopt various attitudes, actions and verbal expressions which may seem ridiculous to you, as indirect means of assisting you to achieve your goal speedily. And when the Master tells you that you have now entered the gate, you will suddenly realise that there is no gate to Chan. Before entering, you cannot see where the gate is, and after entering you find the gate non-existent. Otherwise there will be the distinction between inside and outside, the enlightened and the ignorant; and if there are such distinctions, then it is still not Chan.

When you are in the second stage, although you feel that the "I" does not exist, the basic substance of the universe, or the Supreme Truth, still exists. Although you recognise that all the different phenomena are the extension of this basic substance or Supreme Truth, yet there still exists the opposition of basic substance versus external phenomena. Not until the distinctions of all phenomena disappear, and everything goes back to truth or Heaven, will you have absolute peace and unity. As long as the world of phenomena is still active, you cannot do away with conflict, calamity, suffering and crime. Therefore, although philosophers and religious figures perceive the peace of the original substance, they still have no way to get rid of the confusion of phenomena.

One who has entered Chan does not see basic substance and phenomena as two things standing in opposition to each other. They cannot even be illustrated as being the back and palm of a hand. This is because phenomena themselves are basic substance, and apart from phenomena there is no basic substance to be found. The reality of basic substance exists right in the unreality of phenomena, which change ceaselessly and have no constant form. This is the Truth. When you experience that phenomena are unreal, you will then be free from the concept of self and other, right and wrong, and free from the vexations of greed, hatred, worry and pride. You will not need to search for peace and purity, and you will not need to detest evil vexations and impurity. Although you live in the world of phenomenal reality, to you, any environment is a Buddha's Pure Land. To an unenlightened person, you are but an ordinary person. To you, all ordinary people are identical with Buddha. You will feel that your own self-nature is the same as that of all Buddhas, and the self-nature of Buddhas is universal throughout time and space. You will spontaneously apply your wisdom and wealth, giving to all sentient beings everywhere, throughout all time and space.

What I have said reveals a small part of the feeling of one who has entered the enlightened realm of Chan, and is also the course which one follows in order to depart from the small "I" and arrive at the stage of no "I". Nevertheless, a newly enlightened person who has just entered the realm of Chan is still at the starting section of the entire passage of Chan. He is like one who has just had his first sip of port. He knows its taste now, but the wine will not remain in his mouth forever. The purpose of Chan is not just to let you take one sip, but to have your entire life merge with and dissolve in the wine, even, to the point that you forget the existence of yourself and the wine. After tasting the first sip of egolessness, how much farther must one travel?

What kinds of things remain to be seen?

I will tell you when I have the chance!

Sunday, November 02, 2008

The solution to problems is not "out there"

*note* nice commentaries from Myrko Thum about Confucius...lovely,,The solution to problems is not "out there". It is the Inside-Out approach: success and happiness can only be found by working on ourselves. It also entails the spiritual message to look inside and to discover ourselves fully.''
-added by danny-
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Confucius is one of the most quoted personalities ever. He is so popular that there is a special "Confucius says …" joke-selection, I mean who can say to have this kind of achievement ;)

Confucius, whose name literally means "Master Kong", lived 551-479 BCE. He was a Chinese thinker and philosopher, whose teachings have deeply influenced not only Asian thought and life. He presented himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing" and he really pointed out the importance of learning, which is one reason he is seen by Chinese people as "The Greatest Master".

One of the best known sources of Confucius are The Analects, a collection of his teachings, which was compiled many years after his death. A fountain of extremely mindful quotes springs from these ancient descriptions.

Many of them are universal and timeless in their beautiful and simple truth and they are as valid today as on the day they left Confucius’ mouth. Here we take a look at 10 of the most inspiring quotes by Confucius.

Confucius says …

1. "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."

It’s the "Golden Rule" and the essence of real compassion . Not compassion as in looking down on someone and have pity for another, this is no real compassion. Compassion means seeing another person 100% equal to yourself (in value, not in differentials on the surface which ultimately do not matter). In fact it is seeing yourself in every other person. And therefore you cannot harm anyone without also harming yourself.

It doesn’t mean to lose individuality or self-worth, on the contrary – but the other person earns the same gift.

2. "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance."

That’s my personal favorite quote since it expresses something very profound which also is very useful to know: Ignorance is a willful neglect or refusal to acquire knowledge. It is not widen one’s own perspective in order to see a broader truth. As an example it would be to have racist thoughts and not realizing that all men are equal.

The ultimate truth therefore is where there is absolutely no ignorance, meaning where the perspective or consciousness has become one with all that there is. In Buddhism ignorance (Avidyā) is seen as the primary cause of suffering. Liberation is Enlightenment. Another quote by Confucius here is "Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star."

3. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

Those quotes are just perfect. What he is expressing here is that we have to experience something ourselves in order to really understand it. If we are hearing something it might be interesting. If we are seeing something it might be beautiful. But only if we feel in happening to ourselves we can really know how it is.

Picture something nice as winning an Olympic gold medal or picture something terrifying as the loss of a loved one. Can you know this by hearing it or by seeing it? Or do you have to do it and experience it yourself to really know it?

Along with this realization comes the awareness that you cannot understand someone or his actions from hearing or seeing it from the outside. You have to feel empathic compassion for him to really know what it is like. To know and not to do is really not to know. Only by applying our knowledge we can validate it’s harmony with reality, it’s truth.

4. "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

Amazing. It calls for dropping the inner mask through which we constantly see and evaluate the world, distorted by our wants and belief-systems. Here we have to look at things as they are. Just like a newborn child would look at things. Then we are able to really see again, without instant labeling of what we see and therefore only really seeing our label. If we become able to do this – just for a second without judgment, we can see that everything in nature is as it should be. And in this natural perfection lies beauty.

5. "The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage."

Another quote is "The object of the superior man is truth." It is the value of integrity: Do we act to our best knowledge of truth or do we bend ourselves and violate our integrity in order to gain an advantage? Do we play fair game or use perfidious tactics?

To be truthful to ourselves is also important to the development of (good) character. And it is the only straight way to liberation.

6. "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."

Whatever you do and whatever you commit to, do it fully, give your all – one hundred percent. It is the essence of Carpe Diem – Seizing the day and it’s surely the best way to be satisfied with what we do and get the best results.

7. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."

There is no failure, there are only valuable learning experiences. Or as Thomas Edison about inventing the light bulb said: "I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." The important thing is not giving up, but learning and then improving by using this feedback to get better and ultimately succeed.

A quote expressing the same principle is "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake."

8. "He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger."

Confucius explains the connection of learning and reflection. Reflection of that what we learned by thinking or of the results we get by applying the knowledge. "Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection without study is dangerous" is a similar quote by Confucius. Learning is only useful if we connect the learning within our own minds, with what we already know and what is useful for us. This reflection of any knowledge also saves us from blindly following any knowledge without checking its truthfulness and validity to us.

I think everybody experienced learning when we really want this knowledge and interweave it with what we already know. If there is a need or problem we want to solve, the consume knowledge much more effective than it happens for students in many universities.

9. "He that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools."

This quote calls for planning and preparation. This includes getting and improving the personal skills we need to be successful. If we want to hold speeches we have to become good with communication skills. If we want to win a race we have to train for it. If we want to do a big project we need knowledge in project management. Steven Covey calls it Sharpening the saw, read about it here .

10. "If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?"

It shows that our primary work lies within ourselves: to work on ourselves and improve will automatically take care of the outside world if we use our abilities then. "When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves." The solution to problems is not "out there". It is the Inside-Out approach: success and happiness can only be found by working on ourselves. It also entails the spiritual message to look inside and to discover ourselves fully.

Love-me!

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