Lstening to Anoushka Shankar's, ( the daughter of the Sitar master Ravi Shankar), Homage to Yehudy Menuhin, ( a close friend of Ravi Shankar and used to play with him), presented in Konzerthaus, Berlin. Indian classical music especially played with the sitar is most soothing and meditative for the spirit. Anoushka Shankar has always been one of my favorite musicians who has carried the classical Indian instrument into the future of musical entertainment. The melodic sound of the Sitar can be both soothing and at the same time melancholic like the feeling of time slipping away into the past and can never be regained. Hence the tunes were to be enjoyed to the fullest in the moment without any thought or interruptions; it is a continuous unbroken flow of sound and vibrations that stimulates your inner being with harmony.
The classical Indian music often begins is a very slow rhythm and gradually gathers momentum building up to a rapid and glorious crescendo as the Sitar accompanied by the Veenar and Tabla each complementing the other like in a long conversation. Nothing like a harmonious tune to pick up your spirits even when the energy is low and there is the need to re-energize and revitalize. Sounds in the form of vibrations is an important ingredient to meditation, to the alignment of the energy frequencies Aldous Huxley wrote, "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressable is music." Some music are more potent and affects the frequencies of the human body that allows for a smooth flow of energy distribution throughout the entire physical, psychological as well as the spiritual system. Even the loud and funky music has the same effects relatively for the better or for the worse depending upon the individual's health and personality or what kind pf drug he was under the influence of. Scientists in the related field have made discoveries of how sound affects our human system inside out, like how every cell reacts to certain resonance while on some other cases how the neurons becomes more settled to certain tones of music.
Meditators often makes use of sound in the form of repetitious chanting or simply repeating a sound like most famously sound of Om as used by the Hindus. For those who have been doing long term of meditation throughout their lives would agree that the sound or sounds that they employ can transport their consciousness to a much higher level of awakening or at the very least their physical sense awareness. When combined with mindfulness breathing exercises, the energy flow carried by the vibrational sound can be felt flowing up and down the spinal column while at the same time releasing all blocked points like the shoulders would drop automatically or the neck would lock into position and so forth. Bells used in most Buddhist temples to start off a sitting session in the Zendo helps to set this vibratory resonance into motion for the alignment of those sitting, it sort of gathers together all the seventy eighty odd peoples' consciousness into one focal vibratory sound, just like a starter's gun sitting off the runners.
Needless to say, one needs to avoid as much as possible any form of noise that disrupts and even damage the senses in one way or another. Factory workers and laborers handling heavy drilling tools or chainsaws for example, not only suffers their eardrums but more so in their inner organs. One of the reasons why the wearing of proper safety equipment when performing any work involving loud noises is crucial. The detrimental effect of 'bad noise', may not be immediately notice, however over a long repetitive exposure the effect will creep up on one when age and physical decadence starts to set in. The sure way of compensating the bombardments of obnoxious loud noises from a work related environment for a laborer is to arrive home and after a good meal falls off to deep. In deep sleep much of the repair happens in deep sleep the body revives itself to some degree. Meditation is a more sure way and has a more long term effect in healing the body and the senses resulting from work related exposure. Just as any drug has a short term effect in relieving any pain or pressure, meditation has prolong healing effect and only improves with time.
#anoushkashankar,#aldoushuxley,#meditation
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Sunday, July 26, 2020
I woke up one Day in Green Bay, Wisocnsin.
I am the one that observes and witness all that is and all that is is a manifestation of my own mental formations, my projections and my perceptions and imaginations. I am the unborn and death does not touch me except in when the time time to change happens and i move on for this physical form to another perhaps in a whole other dimension of existence, until comes a time when I find liberation from this cycle of life death and rebirth. I am the continuing golden thread that penetrates through eternity unbroken, I am the eternal soul that the Lord had created and sent forth into this realm of causal effects, the realm trials and tribulations we call life. I am neither attached to nor detached from this existence, I am the observer, the witness of the Dharma unfolding and disappearing, rising and falling away. I am just a window through which that which is within sees what is out there; I belong to none and nothing belongs to me, I place none above me nor any below.
This is how i see myself as I am not this body nor am I even the mind. The mind and body are my tools of expression, of manifestation of touching what is before me real or otherwise. This is what I have understood to be my goal in practicing meditation and mindfulness in my daily activities. I observe life with detached involvement not stained by what I experience one way or another, seeing all is illusion, unreal although seemed real. I avoid as much I can from clinging on to what is the impermanent and let go of what is of no relevance to my growth in spirit and soul. Life is my testing ground to live to the fullest of possibilities and yet not being sucked into its karmic pull and become an added baggage to my already full load. There is no escape to gathering 'stuff along this path we are treading as we live our daily life since the day we were conceived. Through learning, adapting and assimilating we grow into adulthood accumulating stuff adding t our mind the stimulus played out before our eyes, our senses. The whole idea of meditation is to unburden, to let go of to discard and detach from all the stimulants that we experience day in day out.
I can safely say that my second awakening happened when i saw snowflakes floating down from the dark grey empty skies of Wisconsin cold; I experienced the deepest jolt of energy that had helped me to survive the years of my life living in the United States. I was sitting on the thick carpet floor of mother in law's house, The late Beatrie Goerst who took my family and I in our first year or so of our beginning in the US. Green Bay, Wisconsin a town, city that sits right on the edge of Lake Michigan, where the coldest and meanest winters can be experienced. My mother in law worked for the Farrs family at Farr's Grove, in Duck Creek, Brown County, Green Bay. The Farrs were my adopted family who cared for my family and my welfare in one way or another. All these acceptance happened after I had my mini Satori, I would like to call it. As I watched the snowflakes drifting like ball of cotton the size of my palm snapped my consciousness into a standstill mode where I felt like I am present in a vacuum state. The sounds from the TV of the Gilligan's Island, black and white series simply went silent, I only emptiness within and without, I snapped, I got up dressed in my sarong and T-Shirt I rushed outside past my first wife doing the dishes in the kitchen, only catching the tail end of something she was yelling about at me and I stepped out on to the small patch of green lawn behind my mother in law's house. I stood in the center with y arms spread and my head pointed up at the sky with my mouth wide open and tongue sticking out, I tried to catch the snowflakes in my mouth. I was dancing in circles with outstretched arms until i hear a loud yell from Beatrice Goerst, who was standing with her hands on her hips; I felt at home immediately!
I do not wish to go into the details of it because I must have written this episode in my life several times already in the past post of this Blog. I just love the fact that I was on the brink of madness and insanity was made to awakened from the nightmare I was in; Green Bay became my second home henceforth, three and half years a a meat cutter in the Packing house, almost five years worth of College life as a student at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, a Security Guard Services, J and J Securities and the rest was living the life of a Bum and today I call being and artist, the Art of Living,(as an artist). In this life I direct my own movies, I am the Director of my mini series, my life in Green Bay was one of pride and passion of what Van Gogh might have felt in his life or trials and tribulations to be taken seriously as an artist and a visionary. It has taken me over seventy years to make this claims but they are claims made for me by me. I have proven to myself that i can make some sense out of all these nonsense, to at the very least know for myself who I truly am, how far or how near am I to that which I long for. On that afternoon of my first year of winter in green bay Wisconsin, I became a man who stepped out of his skin as a boy.
" I felt a gentle voice telling me, you are now in a new environment where no too many really know who you are or what you can become if and when you put your mind to it,"Tepok dada, tanya selera!" as the Malay saying goes. Beat your chest and fulfill your appetite, hold nothing back. No one knows how weak or how strong you are or what you are capable of. I was time to drop all my old youthful baggage and took a giant step in the adult father life to afour month old boy, my first born and his mother who patiently stood by all my errors and failings as I later dealt with as I stepped into Green Bay Meats and Cold Storage owned by the Frankenthal Family. I was being baptized with the blood of cattle daily sometimes for eleven hours a day. The experience of working in a meat packing plant along with rows of some eighty men and women boning beef was my lesson of both survival and decadence. I was battering my soul for the temporary of getting drunk after work with the guys and thinking it was all for the survival of my family. I was just another salary man as the Japanese would call me; in short I became worse than the cattle that i was boning, physically, mentally and worse of all spiritually.
It was not until i was talked into joining the University as a student and see where it would take me. By then my wife and I had decided it was best to lead our own lives separately for the benefit of all involved especially my son. I did not contest for custody as I had told my wife before we decided to divorce, that she would need him more than I will. I think I had made the right decision as my first went on to become a Flight Captain for the Emirates Air out of Dubai and my wife is doing very well. I have drifted far from what i had intended to share and well it does not really matter anymore...for now.
#greenbaywisconsin,#uwgb, farrsgrovegr.bay,
This is how i see myself as I am not this body nor am I even the mind. The mind and body are my tools of expression, of manifestation of touching what is before me real or otherwise. This is what I have understood to be my goal in practicing meditation and mindfulness in my daily activities. I observe life with detached involvement not stained by what I experience one way or another, seeing all is illusion, unreal although seemed real. I avoid as much I can from clinging on to what is the impermanent and let go of what is of no relevance to my growth in spirit and soul. Life is my testing ground to live to the fullest of possibilities and yet not being sucked into its karmic pull and become an added baggage to my already full load. There is no escape to gathering 'stuff along this path we are treading as we live our daily life since the day we were conceived. Through learning, adapting and assimilating we grow into adulthood accumulating stuff adding t our mind the stimulus played out before our eyes, our senses. The whole idea of meditation is to unburden, to let go of to discard and detach from all the stimulants that we experience day in day out.
I can safely say that my second awakening happened when i saw snowflakes floating down from the dark grey empty skies of Wisconsin cold; I experienced the deepest jolt of energy that had helped me to survive the years of my life living in the United States. I was sitting on the thick carpet floor of mother in law's house, The late Beatrie Goerst who took my family and I in our first year or so of our beginning in the US. Green Bay, Wisconsin a town, city that sits right on the edge of Lake Michigan, where the coldest and meanest winters can be experienced. My mother in law worked for the Farrs family at Farr's Grove, in Duck Creek, Brown County, Green Bay. The Farrs were my adopted family who cared for my family and my welfare in one way or another. All these acceptance happened after I had my mini Satori, I would like to call it. As I watched the snowflakes drifting like ball of cotton the size of my palm snapped my consciousness into a standstill mode where I felt like I am present in a vacuum state. The sounds from the TV of the Gilligan's Island, black and white series simply went silent, I only emptiness within and without, I snapped, I got up dressed in my sarong and T-Shirt I rushed outside past my first wife doing the dishes in the kitchen, only catching the tail end of something she was yelling about at me and I stepped out on to the small patch of green lawn behind my mother in law's house. I stood in the center with y arms spread and my head pointed up at the sky with my mouth wide open and tongue sticking out, I tried to catch the snowflakes in my mouth. I was dancing in circles with outstretched arms until i hear a loud yell from Beatrice Goerst, who was standing with her hands on her hips; I felt at home immediately!
I do not wish to go into the details of it because I must have written this episode in my life several times already in the past post of this Blog. I just love the fact that I was on the brink of madness and insanity was made to awakened from the nightmare I was in; Green Bay became my second home henceforth, three and half years a a meat cutter in the Packing house, almost five years worth of College life as a student at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, a Security Guard Services, J and J Securities and the rest was living the life of a Bum and today I call being and artist, the Art of Living,(as an artist). In this life I direct my own movies, I am the Director of my mini series, my life in Green Bay was one of pride and passion of what Van Gogh might have felt in his life or trials and tribulations to be taken seriously as an artist and a visionary. It has taken me over seventy years to make this claims but they are claims made for me by me. I have proven to myself that i can make some sense out of all these nonsense, to at the very least know for myself who I truly am, how far or how near am I to that which I long for. On that afternoon of my first year of winter in green bay Wisconsin, I became a man who stepped out of his skin as a boy.
" I felt a gentle voice telling me, you are now in a new environment where no too many really know who you are or what you can become if and when you put your mind to it,"Tepok dada, tanya selera!" as the Malay saying goes. Beat your chest and fulfill your appetite, hold nothing back. No one knows how weak or how strong you are or what you are capable of. I was time to drop all my old youthful baggage and took a giant step in the adult father life to afour month old boy, my first born and his mother who patiently stood by all my errors and failings as I later dealt with as I stepped into Green Bay Meats and Cold Storage owned by the Frankenthal Family. I was being baptized with the blood of cattle daily sometimes for eleven hours a day. The experience of working in a meat packing plant along with rows of some eighty men and women boning beef was my lesson of both survival and decadence. I was battering my soul for the temporary of getting drunk after work with the guys and thinking it was all for the survival of my family. I was just another salary man as the Japanese would call me; in short I became worse than the cattle that i was boning, physically, mentally and worse of all spiritually.
It was not until i was talked into joining the University as a student and see where it would take me. By then my wife and I had decided it was best to lead our own lives separately for the benefit of all involved especially my son. I did not contest for custody as I had told my wife before we decided to divorce, that she would need him more than I will. I think I had made the right decision as my first went on to become a Flight Captain for the Emirates Air out of Dubai and my wife is doing very well. I have drifted far from what i had intended to share and well it does not really matter anymore...for now.
#greenbaywisconsin,#uwgb, farrsgrovegr.bay,
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
In the Forest of my mind, I sit alone.
And what have we got to yap about today that would be meaningful, insightful and motivating to the rest of the world? If I know what it is beforehand i know it is not really worth writing, it is stale and the world out there has already found out, i am too late someone else has written it and done a better job. But I cannot resist my need to write like everything else in my life it is about addiction; I am addicted to putting my thoughts in writing and not that because it would me vast number of hits from readers who got nothing better to do then read a piece of waste laid out before them but because it helps me personally to watch the inner workings of my own body, mind and spirit,( perhaps i will call it my consciousness). Yeah, that's about he gist of it of why I keep rambling on even if there is no one out there reading anymore. A cliche, but I always loved it, "The heart is a Lonely Hunter," yes and how lonely it can get, one just has to put it to the test as a Sadhu, or a mendicant monk, become a hermit or a vagabond living on the street, you will experience loneliness; being alone-ness, however is a different story.
To know how to be alone and have a good time at it is an art not too many can appreciate much less accomplish. Hence the heart is a lonely hunter when in seeking for a space to be alone, undisturbed, and not bothered by others in any shape or form; like being in your final resting place, that hole in the ground. It is the ultimate in social distancing and unless one is unfortunate enough to die in a mass extinction program of one pandemic or one war of ethnic cleansing, or genocide or simply a victim of collective fumigation by choice, under normal circumstances one buried individually. However even graveyards are running out of space for this purpose and more often than not you will be buried one on top of the other without the permission of the previous tenant, so much for social distancing. Malays in Malaysia who are primarily Muslims will never cremate the dead and Chinese pride themselves in who can afford the largest plot of burial spot in the whole cemetery, cremation is an option for them. The Hindus are more into cremation as one can see in documentaries of the Ghats along the Ganges River in India. Then there are the Christians and they are either made up of Eurasians and Chinese with fancy western names. How do they dispose off their dead?
"Interest in Self correction lies at the heart of all true learning. It characterizes a community in which individuals learn, not merely to be open to persuasion, but to consider that one's most outspoken opponent, regardless of his racial and ethnic tradition maybe the instrument of new insight leading one to rethink everything hitherto viewed to as 'normal' in one's science. The sight of someone who see things otherwise is never an incitement to rage or to protective maneuvering, to withdrawal behind bastions of defense...
It is the conviction of the present writer, that people deeply rooted in the teachings of the Lord Buddha will be in the vanguard in the present emergency of mankind, quietly offering the solvent for emotional and social fixations, and by precepts and example leading members of power structures, social classes, ethnic and racial traditions, status groups, ideologies and creeds, to find their sense of personal worth and affiliation in the new self corrective community that is spreading very rapidly throughout the globe..."
Nolan Pliny Jacobson,
Buddhist Elements in the coming World Civilization.
The Eastern Buddhist - vol;5 No.2 Oct.1972.
The quotation was taken from my Sketchbook Journal dated 1985 -done in San Francisco.
From the earliest time in history of Buddhism, devotees ,monks and nuns, were aware of nature and its influence on meditation and the solitary life. After observing the ways of a Bull Elephant in the forest, the Buddha commented;
"Herein agreeth Mind with mind,
Of Sage and Elephant,
Whose task are like a plough pole.
Since both alike love forest solitude."
To know how to be alone and have a good time at it is an art not too many can appreciate much less accomplish. Hence the heart is a lonely hunter when in seeking for a space to be alone, undisturbed, and not bothered by others in any shape or form; like being in your final resting place, that hole in the ground. It is the ultimate in social distancing and unless one is unfortunate enough to die in a mass extinction program of one pandemic or one war of ethnic cleansing, or genocide or simply a victim of collective fumigation by choice, under normal circumstances one buried individually. However even graveyards are running out of space for this purpose and more often than not you will be buried one on top of the other without the permission of the previous tenant, so much for social distancing. Malays in Malaysia who are primarily Muslims will never cremate the dead and Chinese pride themselves in who can afford the largest plot of burial spot in the whole cemetery, cremation is an option for them. The Hindus are more into cremation as one can see in documentaries of the Ghats along the Ganges River in India. Then there are the Christians and they are either made up of Eurasians and Chinese with fancy western names. How do they dispose off their dead?
"Interest in Self correction lies at the heart of all true learning. It characterizes a community in which individuals learn, not merely to be open to persuasion, but to consider that one's most outspoken opponent, regardless of his racial and ethnic tradition maybe the instrument of new insight leading one to rethink everything hitherto viewed to as 'normal' in one's science. The sight of someone who see things otherwise is never an incitement to rage or to protective maneuvering, to withdrawal behind bastions of defense...
It is the conviction of the present writer, that people deeply rooted in the teachings of the Lord Buddha will be in the vanguard in the present emergency of mankind, quietly offering the solvent for emotional and social fixations, and by precepts and example leading members of power structures, social classes, ethnic and racial traditions, status groups, ideologies and creeds, to find their sense of personal worth and affiliation in the new self corrective community that is spreading very rapidly throughout the globe..."
Nolan Pliny Jacobson,
Buddhist Elements in the coming World Civilization.
The Eastern Buddhist - vol;5 No.2 Oct.1972.
The quotation was taken from my Sketchbook Journal dated 1985 -done in San Francisco.
From the earliest time in history of Buddhism, devotees ,monks and nuns, were aware of nature and its influence on meditation and the solitary life. After observing the ways of a Bull Elephant in the forest, the Buddha commented;
"Herein agreeth Mind with mind,
Of Sage and Elephant,
Whose task are like a plough pole.
Since both alike love forest solitude."
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Think Inner and act Outer...what is out there is in here...
For most of us the words Love, Empathy and Compassion has become blase just words with no depth to meaning. Just as the word God or the Divine or the feeling of awesomeness or the sense of wonder. In our day to day pursuit of livelihood we have become jaded to the virtues of what it means to love, to empathize or to feel compassionate towards one another, towards humanity itself or even the planet that we live in, these words rarely comes from our hearts. It seems to me that as we become more 'civilized' we become less sensitive and caring about what it is to be human, conversely we have become more and more crass and inhuman towards our fellow creatures. Perhaps this is what is the decadence of our society the path that is leading us towards our own demise, the end of our days as in the Biblical sense, For decades if not longer man has lived at odds with one another, for reasons that sometimes defies our intelligence, like color and creed, religions and border expansions, we still exist like our forefathers with tribal mentality.
Atrocities committed by man towards his fellow man has become pandemic and it has spread beyond just territorial and religious conflicts, it has now involve heinous to satisfy inhuman cravings such as pedophilia and human trafficking. Our human nature has no doubt taken a turn for the worse making us often times the worse of God's creatures on earth. Some of us blames it on the fact that we have more and more irreligious having no fear of God's or karmic retributions; we are not answerable o our actions in the afterlife as science and atheism is proving more and so that there is no afterlife; once you are dead it all over with. There are others who blames it on drugs and greed or whatever else that modern man is afflicted with in this our modern day. Whatever the reason, it is a sad state that we are in and our educational system is failing to address as science and technology takes precedence over spiritual and humanities in schools. This pandemic is spreading ravenously across the globe like a cancerous virus. Most of humanity has chosen to live in denial of this conundrum being comfortably numb of its effects on our lives; just so long as it does not happen to me or my family, it is of no consequence and a waste of time to dwell upon.
To put it mildly, we are digging our own graves while lying to ourselves that all is well or as it should be. Perhaps it is and there is not much that can be done as we have passed the point of no return in our journey as a specie on its path towards self annihilation. However there are those who still cling positively to the hope that we can do something about it. it may be a long haul to undo most of what has been done to get us into this negative state of existence, but human intelligence and spiritual wisdom still has its potential to heal humanity and turn our destiny from destructive to a more creative mode. It is a battle of good over evil, light over darkness as the ancients would have warned us and it is for us as a Collective Spirit to prevail or perish; the choice is still yours and mine. Hence it is imperative that we make the right choice in order that we may preserve whatever is left of our so called humanity, if not for us,for our children and theirs. To attain knowledge with right understanding is paramount to our salvation in this day and age and understanding our human nature is critical to the equation; only through right understanding of who or what our true nature is can we become a force of healing ourselves as a whole.
Without the thorough understanding of who we truly are we are merely drifting in this realm of existence, we are like a cork being carried here and there at the will of the external elements, just another flotsam drifting along with no identity or even a personality to relate to; we become grist for the mill. The battles we fight is not out there but within us, we are victims of our own ignorance and desires. We fail to realize our interdependence and interrelationship with one another, that taking care of number one alone is never enough. We need to realize fully that our existence is a collective existence and the more we live in servitude towards our fellow man the stronger we become collectively and this is not rocket science to realize.
Atrocities committed by man towards his fellow man has become pandemic and it has spread beyond just territorial and religious conflicts, it has now involve heinous to satisfy inhuman cravings such as pedophilia and human trafficking. Our human nature has no doubt taken a turn for the worse making us often times the worse of God's creatures on earth. Some of us blames it on the fact that we have more and more irreligious having no fear of God's or karmic retributions; we are not answerable o our actions in the afterlife as science and atheism is proving more and so that there is no afterlife; once you are dead it all over with. There are others who blames it on drugs and greed or whatever else that modern man is afflicted with in this our modern day. Whatever the reason, it is a sad state that we are in and our educational system is failing to address as science and technology takes precedence over spiritual and humanities in schools. This pandemic is spreading ravenously across the globe like a cancerous virus. Most of humanity has chosen to live in denial of this conundrum being comfortably numb of its effects on our lives; just so long as it does not happen to me or my family, it is of no consequence and a waste of time to dwell upon.
To put it mildly, we are digging our own graves while lying to ourselves that all is well or as it should be. Perhaps it is and there is not much that can be done as we have passed the point of no return in our journey as a specie on its path towards self annihilation. However there are those who still cling positively to the hope that we can do something about it. it may be a long haul to undo most of what has been done to get us into this negative state of existence, but human intelligence and spiritual wisdom still has its potential to heal humanity and turn our destiny from destructive to a more creative mode. It is a battle of good over evil, light over darkness as the ancients would have warned us and it is for us as a Collective Spirit to prevail or perish; the choice is still yours and mine. Hence it is imperative that we make the right choice in order that we may preserve whatever is left of our so called humanity, if not for us,for our children and theirs. To attain knowledge with right understanding is paramount to our salvation in this day and age and understanding our human nature is critical to the equation; only through right understanding of who or what our true nature is can we become a force of healing ourselves as a whole.
Without the thorough understanding of who we truly are we are merely drifting in this realm of existence, we are like a cork being carried here and there at the will of the external elements, just another flotsam drifting along with no identity or even a personality to relate to; we become grist for the mill. The battles we fight is not out there but within us, we are victims of our own ignorance and desires. We fail to realize our interdependence and interrelationship with one another, that taking care of number one alone is never enough. We need to realize fully that our existence is a collective existence and the more we live in servitude towards our fellow man the stronger we become collectively and this is not rocket science to realize.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
America _ Karma still sucks.
A friend, a good Christian sent a video through messenger of a preacher announcing a gathering happening sometime in September like 40 days before the general election in the United States. The Video entitled,"The Return," calls for a massive prayer gathering to ask for Divine intervention upon the calamities that is occurring all over the US and things getting worse by the day. Out of respect for my friend who is from Green bay, Wisconsin I told him that it is all for nothing as Americans mostly lives a life of self denial and a warped sense of hypocrisy rather than democracy when it comes to humanity and moral virtues. For so long as the the US Government supports the Zionist Regime of Israel in its genocidal intentions of the Palestinian population, the country will never find peace divine or otherwise. This is but one karmic payback that the Nation as a whole has to content with, history itself has the rest, from the genocidal attempt upon the Native Americans to the treatment of the Black Slaves upon who backs the nation was built. Yes for so long as Americans, whatever denomination they be, choose to give a blind eye to the brutalities being committed all around the world by the US military might all in the name of Democracy; America will implode; I pray not.
Whenever the issue of the US arises in my consciousness I always say Karma sucks! America is guilty of a few major transgression as a whole. It is well known of how the Native Americans and the Negro suffered in the hands of the Whites, listening to the debate between William F. Buckley and James Baldwin held in London, in Cambridge University more than fifty years ago, on You Tube, would open our eyes to the issue. Having lived in the country for 21 years of my life I feel more than connected to its people and my children were born there. I believe Americans should not be shamed of their history hut to fully understand it with an open heart and mind. Not to feel guilty but to work harder towards healing the present from the wounds of the past. Sacrifices will have to be made on both sides of the divide including acceptance, the act of forgiveness and building a better future through reparations where reparations are due. It is critical to acknowledge the presence of negative elements involved especially via those with vested interest in seeing that the country remain divided and in chaos. Racism is an illness and it can destroy a nation if not fully tackled; this is where my country Malaysia is headed being a multiracial country.
Most religions of the world admits that life is suffering and the question is what do we do about it? J.Krishnamurti once said that , you cannot change the world but you can change yourself and that you are the world. We are all suffering one form or another however the very least we can do is to not make it worse or as a friend once said, we can suffer without bitterness in our hearts. The Buddha spelled it out in his Four Noble Truths of the truth of suffering or of life some 2500 years ago and it is still valid more so today. With the help modern technology just about anyone can learn with the help of the Internet just about all the knowledge and wisdom of modern and old alike is available at the finger tips, all i takes is the desire to learn. Man's greatest gift is his mind and what good is the mind if it is not being put to use to overcome suffering and worse make things even more harder to cope with for ourselves and others? We may not reap the karma we sow today, but our children and theirs will; yes karma sucks.
#karmasucks,# fournobletruths,#zionistregime#jamesbaldwin,
Whenever the issue of the US arises in my consciousness I always say Karma sucks! America is guilty of a few major transgression as a whole. It is well known of how the Native Americans and the Negro suffered in the hands of the Whites, listening to the debate between William F. Buckley and James Baldwin held in London, in Cambridge University more than fifty years ago, on You Tube, would open our eyes to the issue. Having lived in the country for 21 years of my life I feel more than connected to its people and my children were born there. I believe Americans should not be shamed of their history hut to fully understand it with an open heart and mind. Not to feel guilty but to work harder towards healing the present from the wounds of the past. Sacrifices will have to be made on both sides of the divide including acceptance, the act of forgiveness and building a better future through reparations where reparations are due. It is critical to acknowledge the presence of negative elements involved especially via those with vested interest in seeing that the country remain divided and in chaos. Racism is an illness and it can destroy a nation if not fully tackled; this is where my country Malaysia is headed being a multiracial country.
Most religions of the world admits that life is suffering and the question is what do we do about it? J.Krishnamurti once said that , you cannot change the world but you can change yourself and that you are the world. We are all suffering one form or another however the very least we can do is to not make it worse or as a friend once said, we can suffer without bitterness in our hearts. The Buddha spelled it out in his Four Noble Truths of the truth of suffering or of life some 2500 years ago and it is still valid more so today. With the help modern technology just about anyone can learn with the help of the Internet just about all the knowledge and wisdom of modern and old alike is available at the finger tips, all i takes is the desire to learn. Man's greatest gift is his mind and what good is the mind if it is not being put to use to overcome suffering and worse make things even more harder to cope with for ourselves and others? We may not reap the karma we sow today, but our children and theirs will; yes karma sucks.
#karmasucks,# fournobletruths,#zionistregime#jamesbaldwin,
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Stay in the game or step out -your choice.
Every morning I wake up thinking what to do to fill the day up with creative and productive activities that would benefit me from drifting into a state slothfulness and boredom which would lead to depression. One of the things i kept myself busy with is to stick to my daily routine of take care of my children's need like getting them ready for work with coffee and takeaway food as they often do not like to eat breakfast as it is too early to eat as they decided for themselves. Then I do the laundry and whenever I feel up to it clean the house. I have been doing this for many years now ever since i lived with my daughter and now my son too has joined us. I try to figure out how or what to prepare food wise for their dinner by checking what is available to cook in the refrigerator and often worry about our financial situation ever since the COVID-19 displacement of our lives like everyone else all over the world. Life is no doubt hitting the rock bottom for most of my friends and the shift caused by the pandemic in everyone's life especially in financial situation has turned many a normal situation and relationships sour except for those who are well established already.
The well to do, the rich have many excuses not to help the poor citing giving a fishing rod instead of a fish analogy whenever they express this reasoning and it is the not so well to do that finds themselves scouring deeper into their pockets for change to help the needy. We have millionaires and billionaires in my country whose interests from their assets alone can support a whole community of poor people but chooses to further enrich themselves in the name of being successful in life. Most will tell you how they had come from very poor and humble beginnings and how they had striven to make it to what they are and thus everyone else should follow their ways. It is as though everyone has the same mindset and opportunities like them. Having made it big in life they soon forget their humble beginnings and hard work to become misers hoarding as much as they can. Gone are their humility and compassion towards the less fortunate making sure that their hard earned wealth stays and keeps growing till need becomes greed. This is the world we live in, a life of dog eat dog world.
This is how the average dual thinking mind perceives life in a day to day state of existence, right and wrong, good and bad, black and white, rich and poor...opposites. An awakened mind strives to become free from being stuck in this rut day in day out until it seems like there is no way out and one is destined to rot in the same hole one has dug for oneself all these years; and awakened mind would rather die than submit to such a bondage. However in many instances one is held back or trapped by circumstances that is the result of past commitments or perhaps a sense of responsibility or duty towards any given situation that stops one from total renunciation of life as it is. One simply cannot up and leave it all without ramifications for oneself and to others. Perhaps this is the sacrifice that is required for one to embark upon the road towards the ultimate self liberation. To become free of all attachments to family and friends, to home and comfort, to security and well being, this is what the sadhus and Sunnyasi India has committed themselves to, a life of complete detachment from this physical world and existence.
When choosing to step out of the game it is no more looking back, no more regrets or reflections over what has been and all the bridges are burned behind you, this is true detachment. The human mind is not capable of undertaking such a tall order, a mind that has become comfortably numbed by soft and comfortable living we have been pillowed with. The Western mind especially will find it much harder to make such a choice and being homeless in the West is not the same as letting go of the physical to embrace the spiritual like it is practiced in the East. In the West being in the state of homelessness or destitute is not by choice but from economic downturn or in some case due to one form of addiction or another. A true renunciate is one who have lived life fully having gone through the thick and thin, trials and tribulations and walk out of the game with full intention of seeking the ultimate sate of liberation from this cycle of life, death and rebirth.
The well to do, the rich have many excuses not to help the poor citing giving a fishing rod instead of a fish analogy whenever they express this reasoning and it is the not so well to do that finds themselves scouring deeper into their pockets for change to help the needy. We have millionaires and billionaires in my country whose interests from their assets alone can support a whole community of poor people but chooses to further enrich themselves in the name of being successful in life. Most will tell you how they had come from very poor and humble beginnings and how they had striven to make it to what they are and thus everyone else should follow their ways. It is as though everyone has the same mindset and opportunities like them. Having made it big in life they soon forget their humble beginnings and hard work to become misers hoarding as much as they can. Gone are their humility and compassion towards the less fortunate making sure that their hard earned wealth stays and keeps growing till need becomes greed. This is the world we live in, a life of dog eat dog world.
This is how the average dual thinking mind perceives life in a day to day state of existence, right and wrong, good and bad, black and white, rich and poor...opposites. An awakened mind strives to become free from being stuck in this rut day in day out until it seems like there is no way out and one is destined to rot in the same hole one has dug for oneself all these years; and awakened mind would rather die than submit to such a bondage. However in many instances one is held back or trapped by circumstances that is the result of past commitments or perhaps a sense of responsibility or duty towards any given situation that stops one from total renunciation of life as it is. One simply cannot up and leave it all without ramifications for oneself and to others. Perhaps this is the sacrifice that is required for one to embark upon the road towards the ultimate self liberation. To become free of all attachments to family and friends, to home and comfort, to security and well being, this is what the sadhus and Sunnyasi India has committed themselves to, a life of complete detachment from this physical world and existence.
When choosing to step out of the game it is no more looking back, no more regrets or reflections over what has been and all the bridges are burned behind you, this is true detachment. The human mind is not capable of undertaking such a tall order, a mind that has become comfortably numbed by soft and comfortable living we have been pillowed with. The Western mind especially will find it much harder to make such a choice and being homeless in the West is not the same as letting go of the physical to embrace the spiritual like it is practiced in the East. In the West being in the state of homelessness or destitute is not by choice but from economic downturn or in some case due to one form of addiction or another. A true renunciate is one who have lived life fully having gone through the thick and thin, trials and tribulations and walk out of the game with full intention of seeking the ultimate sate of liberation from this cycle of life, death and rebirth.
Sunday, July 12, 2020
Out of the Body Experience - Magic Mushroom.-Part 2
The second out of body experience I had was after I was walked home to my lodging, which was my two man tent pitched within an unused horse stable. Rayo my friend from Argentina had made sure that I got home okay after having ingested a large portion of the 'King Mushroom'. I was am unforgettable event in itself that i have written earlier in this Blog. Briefly speaking my short walk home as a fiesta of people and animals, a bustling of women and children running all over the street and even a somber elderly gentleman sat erect on a white horse in full regalia of a Don wearing a huge black sombrero, he reminded me Cervantes Don Quixote. It seemed like everyone knew Rayo, 'Ola Senor!" came from young and old from the doorways and windows on both side of the cobbled stone street. It was a stark opposite of the scenery I had first experienced while on the way to their abandoned coral lodging, where I saw no one not a dog, not a soul in sight and the whole area was somber and chilly; almost depressing it was.
Rayo left me with the owner lady who spoke English as she was once and airline stewardess and they spoke quietly to each other before he waved goodbye to me. My stomach was at its worse as I walked past the only toilet in the place and the sight of it scared me into holding back what needed to be released. I only had a piece of banana since the morning as the house ran out of food and so I was in bad shape where my tummy was concern. As I was about to reach my tent I heard someone calling me and I turned around and noticed a guy standing by the trough looked like he was doing his laundry. He looked familiar but I could not place where we had met. "We met in the small town of Sylvia in Colombia, don't you remember? I had long hair back then but decided to took it off when I arrived here." "Brian from Canada! I remember you. Come join me for a smoke, I have a bag of Colombian Gold I bought from two French girls yesterday evening, they said they needed money and me a sucker for helping others decided what the heck!"
So we ended up in my tent and were smoking a fat joint between us. After a few tokes I felt light headed and passed the joint to Brian. I felt my body slowly falling backwards and laid down staring at the colorful tent to see red and blue serpents moving right before my eyes. I heard Brian asking if I was alright and bounced back up to my sitting position and told him not to worry. I grabbed my small towel and my cowboy hat and crawled out of the tent and stood up clutching on to a small rope that tied my tent to a post to steady myself. As soon as I was upright it hit me. I felt like I was in a vortex, the whole world seemed to spin around me accompanied by a loud sound, I was in a whirlwind. I heard Brian calling out loud at me as he poked his head out of the tent and the whole whirlwind phenomena came to an abrupt stop like a hand brake was pulled. I was myself again and I told Brian not to worry or interfere but just watch, while in my mind I was telling myself to breath. As soon as I could move I stepped out into the corn patch and started walking on the grass towards the middle of the small rows of baby corn growing.
After taking a few steps on the grass I felt myself again falling backwards in a slow motion as this was happening I found myself again about forty feet up in the air and looking down a myself. I remember telling myself, how ridiculous I looked with my cowboy hat and the white towel slung over my shoulder in my dark blue sweater and brown pants. From a distance came Brian's loud voice calling out to me if I was okay and found myself back into my body and my hand reaching back to brace myself from falling on my back. As soon as my fingers touched the grass I felt my whole body rebounded effortlessly to an upright position. I shouted back at Brian not to worry and continued walking into the corn patch and lowered my pants and squatted between two rows of baby corns and unleashed the most disgusting load of crap that I had been holding back and as I was doing this it rained on top of me out of the blue just for a few minutes. Soaking wet I felt fresh and light while my eyes were glued to the bright sun in the deep blue sky.
I undressed to my underwear and hung my cloths to dry. Crept into my tent and laid myself to sleep while listening to bird chatting with each other almost understanding what they were about. This was followed by sounds of other creature like pigs and dogs and lastly humans. Thus ended my Mushroom experience and the feeling I had of being out of the body remained with me till today. The conclusion I came to was that I am not my body but I exist in my body like the wise men of old had been telling me. I was hallucinating no doubt but it felt more real than had I not been. My consciousness is relative to the external reactions, sounds, smells etc. and Brian's voice that had kept pulling me back into the present moment, back into my physical self. One thing I could say about the whole event was that i was not afraid at all and all the while I had kept reminding myself to breath.
#Magicmushroom, #outofbodyexperience,#
Rayo left me with the owner lady who spoke English as she was once and airline stewardess and they spoke quietly to each other before he waved goodbye to me. My stomach was at its worse as I walked past the only toilet in the place and the sight of it scared me into holding back what needed to be released. I only had a piece of banana since the morning as the house ran out of food and so I was in bad shape where my tummy was concern. As I was about to reach my tent I heard someone calling me and I turned around and noticed a guy standing by the trough looked like he was doing his laundry. He looked familiar but I could not place where we had met. "We met in the small town of Sylvia in Colombia, don't you remember? I had long hair back then but decided to took it off when I arrived here." "Brian from Canada! I remember you. Come join me for a smoke, I have a bag of Colombian Gold I bought from two French girls yesterday evening, they said they needed money and me a sucker for helping others decided what the heck!"
So we ended up in my tent and were smoking a fat joint between us. After a few tokes I felt light headed and passed the joint to Brian. I felt my body slowly falling backwards and laid down staring at the colorful tent to see red and blue serpents moving right before my eyes. I heard Brian asking if I was alright and bounced back up to my sitting position and told him not to worry. I grabbed my small towel and my cowboy hat and crawled out of the tent and stood up clutching on to a small rope that tied my tent to a post to steady myself. As soon as I was upright it hit me. I felt like I was in a vortex, the whole world seemed to spin around me accompanied by a loud sound, I was in a whirlwind. I heard Brian calling out loud at me as he poked his head out of the tent and the whole whirlwind phenomena came to an abrupt stop like a hand brake was pulled. I was myself again and I told Brian not to worry or interfere but just watch, while in my mind I was telling myself to breath. As soon as I could move I stepped out into the corn patch and started walking on the grass towards the middle of the small rows of baby corn growing.
After taking a few steps on the grass I felt myself again falling backwards in a slow motion as this was happening I found myself again about forty feet up in the air and looking down a myself. I remember telling myself, how ridiculous I looked with my cowboy hat and the white towel slung over my shoulder in my dark blue sweater and brown pants. From a distance came Brian's loud voice calling out to me if I was okay and found myself back into my body and my hand reaching back to brace myself from falling on my back. As soon as my fingers touched the grass I felt my whole body rebounded effortlessly to an upright position. I shouted back at Brian not to worry and continued walking into the corn patch and lowered my pants and squatted between two rows of baby corns and unleashed the most disgusting load of crap that I had been holding back and as I was doing this it rained on top of me out of the blue just for a few minutes. Soaking wet I felt fresh and light while my eyes were glued to the bright sun in the deep blue sky.
I undressed to my underwear and hung my cloths to dry. Crept into my tent and laid myself to sleep while listening to bird chatting with each other almost understanding what they were about. This was followed by sounds of other creature like pigs and dogs and lastly humans. Thus ended my Mushroom experience and the feeling I had of being out of the body remained with me till today. The conclusion I came to was that I am not my body but I exist in my body like the wise men of old had been telling me. I was hallucinating no doubt but it felt more real than had I not been. My consciousness is relative to the external reactions, sounds, smells etc. and Brian's voice that had kept pulling me back into the present moment, back into my physical self. One thing I could say about the whole event was that i was not afraid at all and all the while I had kept reminding myself to breath.
#Magicmushroom, #outofbodyexperience,#
Thursday, July 09, 2020
Out of the Body Experiences - Part one - Magic Mushrooms.
I had experienced being out of this body twice when I was intoxicated on a type of mushroom while I was in a little village called Esperanza high up in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. The first episode happened just after I had eaten the upper half a piece what my friends with me had called the 'King Mushroom' , because of its size. The top part was as large as a saucer for a tea cup and thick. It looked very much like the edible mushroom I found in the corn fiedls behind my farm house in Green Bay, Wisconsin during the spring. but those had no side effects as these. I was warned by the Argentinian gentle through his Brazilian wife who spoke English not to consume the whole mushroom. I had met the wife traveling on the bus with her little girl from a Small town called Otavallo and found out later that the family were on their way to Europe to sell their leather products. The husband whose name was Rayo was a master leather craftsman who made designed bags and purses etc. out of leather.
I had found three mushroom growing together from a large cow dung hill. The largest was in between two others half its size, I had given the smaller two to the husband and wife and I ate the larger one. A soon as I had eaten the mushroom I went and sat at the edge of the floor of the broken down horse corral that the couple has chosen to stay in, while Rayo took my brown leather cowboy hat I was wearing and went to one corner of the building and sat tow work on my hat with a kind of chisel and hammer. The wife took my flute and sat at the opposite corner and started playing it. Soon there was a rhythm between the sound sound of the hammer and chisel to that of the flute and there was a music in the air; the Sound Andes. I sat with my sketchbook on my lap and stared at the blind white pages and after a while I noticed what looked like long white worms tarted crawling all over my pages. I was surprised and looked up straight at the skies above me. The Andes Mountain air was pure and clean and so the white clouds above me appeared like huge mountains of cotton against a pure blue sky.
It was at this moment that i found myself sitting high above in the air looking down at me with my sketch book on my lap and my small white towel hanging from my shoulder I had a long sleeve dark blues sweater and a dark brown corduroy and a pair of hiking boosts on. I was shocked by this occurrence and found myself back into my physical body sitting at the edge of the floor. The first thing i did was to turn my head to look at Rayo who had stopped tapping away with the hammer and chisel on to the brim of my hat and he was looking straight back at me and nodded his head with a smile and an understanding nod. I turned to his wife and she was smiling at me and asked, "Are you Okay, Senor?"
Before i proceed to the second phase of the out of body experience I would like to explain why I am sharing this. I am fully aware that i am not the body nor am I the mind, I do not say this I heard it said or the Vedas and the rest of the Hindu scriptures said it or that the Buddha might have mentioned or Alan Watts or Krishnamurti or that I want to sound like I am in the know. No Know I am not this body or mind from experience and years of observation of how both works. I am not saying that it is an easy fact to follow on a day to day existence especially when one has to attend to myriads of interactions from without and within the body itself. However my consciousness accepts the fact, no, I am not this physical form nor am I this formless mind. Thus one of those memorable experiences that had posed as a challenge to this acceptance was my out of this body experiences of which I an remember vividly had occurred four times in my life. I have related these experiences in the past in this Blog and so am not wasting my time repeating them.
to be contd.
I had found three mushroom growing together from a large cow dung hill. The largest was in between two others half its size, I had given the smaller two to the husband and wife and I ate the larger one. A soon as I had eaten the mushroom I went and sat at the edge of the floor of the broken down horse corral that the couple has chosen to stay in, while Rayo took my brown leather cowboy hat I was wearing and went to one corner of the building and sat tow work on my hat with a kind of chisel and hammer. The wife took my flute and sat at the opposite corner and started playing it. Soon there was a rhythm between the sound sound of the hammer and chisel to that of the flute and there was a music in the air; the Sound Andes. I sat with my sketchbook on my lap and stared at the blind white pages and after a while I noticed what looked like long white worms tarted crawling all over my pages. I was surprised and looked up straight at the skies above me. The Andes Mountain air was pure and clean and so the white clouds above me appeared like huge mountains of cotton against a pure blue sky.
It was at this moment that i found myself sitting high above in the air looking down at me with my sketch book on my lap and my small white towel hanging from my shoulder I had a long sleeve dark blues sweater and a dark brown corduroy and a pair of hiking boosts on. I was shocked by this occurrence and found myself back into my physical body sitting at the edge of the floor. The first thing i did was to turn my head to look at Rayo who had stopped tapping away with the hammer and chisel on to the brim of my hat and he was looking straight back at me and nodded his head with a smile and an understanding nod. I turned to his wife and she was smiling at me and asked, "Are you Okay, Senor?"
Before i proceed to the second phase of the out of body experience I would like to explain why I am sharing this. I am fully aware that i am not the body nor am I the mind, I do not say this I heard it said or the Vedas and the rest of the Hindu scriptures said it or that the Buddha might have mentioned or Alan Watts or Krishnamurti or that I want to sound like I am in the know. No Know I am not this body or mind from experience and years of observation of how both works. I am not saying that it is an easy fact to follow on a day to day existence especially when one has to attend to myriads of interactions from without and within the body itself. However my consciousness accepts the fact, no, I am not this physical form nor am I this formless mind. Thus one of those memorable experiences that had posed as a challenge to this acceptance was my out of this body experiences of which I an remember vividly had occurred four times in my life. I have related these experiences in the past in this Blog and so am not wasting my time repeating them.
to be contd.
Saturday, July 04, 2020
Gratitude - Alhamdullilah
The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end – you don’t come to an achievement; you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river. Jiddu Krishnamurti
Alhamdullilah HiRabbil-Alaminn... my gratitude to You Lord of Creation. For non Muslim s, not to freak out simply because I said Thank you to my Maker for all that He/She has given me in this life even if for most I know i do not deserve; you aught to do the same with your God or whatever that you look up to as your Source. The feeling of gratitude towards the unseen even if you deem the Universe Itself is a meritorious virtue that is healing and beneficial for the soul, unless you do not believe in the soul itself. IN most countries in the East one can see people doing this by replenishing their shrines with offerings of food and incense and the Muslims automatically do this in their early morning prayers.
Al-Fātiḥah (Arabic: الْفَاتِحَة, "The Opening" or "The Opener") is the first chapter (sūrah) of the Quran. Its seven verses (āyāt) are a prayer for the guidance, lordship, and mercy of God.[1] This chapter has an essential role in Islamic prayer (salāt). The primary literal meaning of the expression "al-Fātiḥah" is "The Opener," which could refer to this Surah being "the opener of the Book" (Fātiḥat al-kitāb), to its being the first Surah recited in full in every prayer cycle (rakʿah), or to the manner in which it serves as an opening for many functions in everyday Islamic life. Some Muslims interpret it as a reference to an implied ability of the Surah to open a person to faith in God.[2]
The above Surah or verse is fundamental in every prayer performed by a Muslim in his daily life or activity and most important of verses when performing the Solat five times a day. In reciting the verse one feels the an inner gratitude towards that which one holds to be the Giver of Love and Mercy, the Bountiful and the Lord of All Creation; unless one is an atheist and has lived life denying that which is worship through faith alone; the Unseen. Sometimes I say Alhamdullilah even when I am tested by ill tidings or ill fate, the suffering that I dace in the course of my daily existence if nothing else simply to remind that the good as well as the bad comes from the Giver or the Source to help me find my way out of the darkness of the moment into the light; there are times when life's trials and tribulations are simply beyond my will to handle or overcome and by turning inwards and addressing that which resides within me I often feel the strength to face all odds or at the very least by surrendering my will I feel less alone or lost.
Al Fatihah:
1) In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
(2) Praise be to Allah, The Lord of the universe.
(3) The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
(4) Master of The Day of Judgment.
(5) You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help.
(6) Guide us {to} the straight path.
(7) The path of those on whom You have bestowed Your grace, not of those who earned {Your} wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.
The word Allah alone would freak out a non-Muslim like it is a taboo to be avoided at all cost. However the meaning of this word is simply -The God
Thursday, July 02, 2020
Shedding some light on mind/Mind and how it works - Jung.
"Knowledge of that which is vulgarly called mind is widespread." This clearly refers to the conscious mind of everybody, in contrast to the One Mind which is unknown, i.e., unconscious. These teachings will also be sought after by ordinary individuals who, not knowing the One Mind, do not themselves." Self knowledge is here definitely identified with knowing the One Mind, which means that knowledge of the unconscious is essential for any understanding one's own psychology. The desire for such knowledge is a well established fact in the Wast as evidenced by the rise in psychology in our time and a growing interests in these matters...Even if one wishes," to know the mind as it is, one fails...because it is unconscious...The One Mind is the unconscious, since it is characterized as "eternal, unknown, not visible,not recognized...However yet ever clear, ever existing, radiant and unobscured...the more one one concentrates on one's unconscious content the more they become charged with energy; they become vitalized as if illuminated from within...The 'seeing of reality' clearly refers to Mind as the supreme reality...The 'seeing of the Mind' implies self liberation...the more weight were attach to unconscious processes the more we detach ourselves from the world of desires and of separated opposites, and the nearer we draw to the state of unconsciousness which is the quality of oneness, indefiniteness and timelessness. This is truly a liberation of the self from its bondage to strife and suffering."By this method one's mind is understood."
I came upon the above long quote by C.G.Jung from reading his text on a commentary he wrote for the, Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. I read this early this morning and I felt like the 'Poet of the Mind', himself came to my aid in trying to figure out how to further explain what the Mind/mind is in order to continue my posting from the previous night. Yes, of late i find that the knowledge i seek for comes to me ever so readily and I try not to get too excited about the coincidences or small miracles as I would call them. I am no researcher and so i do not go around looking for information before i write, I allow for them to come, or not. However i would highly recommend for those who are interested in knowing more to read Jung's work, Psychology and the East. It would of great benefit for Westerners, those who have the desire to further understand the difference between East and Western thoughts on spirituality and perhaps be able to bridge the two for one's own benefit of Right Understanding.
I will not venture to go beyond what I have already extracted from Jung's work for now but will do so at a later date if and when needed. I have yet to fully grasp at the true meaning of his works and so will not venture any further except with careful steps lest i am led to confusion and misinterpretation. Thus far i know i have been gifted towards a little realization as to what I am aiming at in understanding the workings of my own mind, a mind that has embraced the life style of both East and West over the years. I do not consider myself and eastern or western thinker but I hold a greater understanding of both through my life experiences having lived in the East and the West and making my studies through both sources of east and western thoughts and ideas of great minds of both sides of the coin. East and West are no more a dichotomy to my mental, and spiritual perception having lived both in the east and west for a good many years of my life. An added dimension to this was the fact that I had lived for three years in Japan where I consider it to be the transition point on my life before i returned to the east after having spent twenty one years in the United States.
I have always accepted that my mind is not your average mind of an average person who is born and raised under normal circumstances like parents of the same racial group, raised in an environment of close family ties and religious faith, same village same type of people. I was born as a twin and given away for adoption at birth while my twin brother was raised by my parents. I was raised as a Buddhist by my uncle who adopted me and for twelve years of my life remained so. In a house full of Muslim relatives my uncle and I were the only Buddhist, however in order to fit in I also practiced Islam unknown to my uncle. In short my childhood life was a mess as far as faith and religion was concern, I was playing hide and seek with everyone around me including those in school as I grew up. At the risk of repetition I will say no more on the matter but suffice to say I am the way I am simply because I has been exposed to the subject of religion, faith and spirituality at a very young age.
I came upon the above long quote by C.G.Jung from reading his text on a commentary he wrote for the, Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. I read this early this morning and I felt like the 'Poet of the Mind', himself came to my aid in trying to figure out how to further explain what the Mind/mind is in order to continue my posting from the previous night. Yes, of late i find that the knowledge i seek for comes to me ever so readily and I try not to get too excited about the coincidences or small miracles as I would call them. I am no researcher and so i do not go around looking for information before i write, I allow for them to come, or not. However i would highly recommend for those who are interested in knowing more to read Jung's work, Psychology and the East. It would of great benefit for Westerners, those who have the desire to further understand the difference between East and Western thoughts on spirituality and perhaps be able to bridge the two for one's own benefit of Right Understanding.
I will not venture to go beyond what I have already extracted from Jung's work for now but will do so at a later date if and when needed. I have yet to fully grasp at the true meaning of his works and so will not venture any further except with careful steps lest i am led to confusion and misinterpretation. Thus far i know i have been gifted towards a little realization as to what I am aiming at in understanding the workings of my own mind, a mind that has embraced the life style of both East and West over the years. I do not consider myself and eastern or western thinker but I hold a greater understanding of both through my life experiences having lived in the East and the West and making my studies through both sources of east and western thoughts and ideas of great minds of both sides of the coin. East and West are no more a dichotomy to my mental, and spiritual perception having lived both in the east and west for a good many years of my life. An added dimension to this was the fact that I had lived for three years in Japan where I consider it to be the transition point on my life before i returned to the east after having spent twenty one years in the United States.
I have always accepted that my mind is not your average mind of an average person who is born and raised under normal circumstances like parents of the same racial group, raised in an environment of close family ties and religious faith, same village same type of people. I was born as a twin and given away for adoption at birth while my twin brother was raised by my parents. I was raised as a Buddhist by my uncle who adopted me and for twelve years of my life remained so. In a house full of Muslim relatives my uncle and I were the only Buddhist, however in order to fit in I also practiced Islam unknown to my uncle. In short my childhood life was a mess as far as faith and religion was concern, I was playing hide and seek with everyone around me including those in school as I grew up. At the risk of repetition I will say no more on the matter but suffice to say I am the way I am simply because I has been exposed to the subject of religion, faith and spirituality at a very young age.
Buddhism for beginner- as I understand it.
A man has got to do what a man has got to do, may seem like a Forest Gump simplistic sort of response to the complexity of human life; it was also the Buddha's approach some two thousand six hundred years ago. The essence of the Historical Buddha's message was to not complicate life more than it already is and to as much as possible take a balanced approach or what He called the Middle Way, neither too strict nor too loose. Suffering lies in being extreme in our approach to our daily choices in life; Greed, Hate and Ignorance is the result of our extremism. Man, said the Buddha is inflicted by these three illnesses since the beginning and for as long as he is identified with a sense of I, me or mine, or his ego he will be bounded by these illnesses; this is the cause of suffering according to the teachings of Buddhism.
Desire is primarily the cause of suffering so much so that the desire to end desire itself is also the cause of suffering. The desire for more than what is needed to sustain one's life, the desire to accumulate and hoard, to cling on to and covet what one has already attain, the inability to let go of to be able to say enough is enough, has led man to cause more suffering in this life than any other motive in life. This happens when man fails to acknowledge the impermanence of life, that at the end of life one leaves behind all that he has struggled to own and depart empty handed just as when he had arrived at birth. In so doing he failed to realize what is the permanent and eternal, that which is his Buddha Nature. Every living soul is a potential Buddha in the making and as we evolve through this existence we either climb to higher state or descend to a lower through our realization of this karmic law of existence. Hence Ignorance is also the cause of suffering. Ignorance is not only the lack knowledge or wisdom but also the refusal to learn and understand one's predicament in this life due to being unable to differentiate between what is permanent and what is temporal,(relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs; secular
The practice of Dhyana or meditation is one of the simplest form of remedy for man to overcome his craving for more, the need to indulge in excessive and often redundant quest in his life. In the practice of Dhyana ((in Hindu and Buddhist practice) profound meditation which is the penultimate stage of yoga) the mind or mental faculty is being carefully observed of its tendencies and transcended where ignorance, hate an greed is found to be the driving force in any given situation. The human mind is the most potent tool that governs our human traits and habits and when left to its own devices will lead us on to the causes of suffering in this life. The human mind is like fire, a good servant but a destructive master. Right and wrong said the Buddha is a sickness of the mind. Hence Right Understanding is the first of the Eighthfold Path of the healing process that the Buddha has expounded in order to overcome ignorance. Right understanding of the workings of the human mind is paramount to the Buddha's teaching as the human mind is the primary tool that man is endowed with in this life to live and to survive as a specie, that which differentiate us from other life forms.
Our thoughts, impulses, consciousness etc. is governed by a dual thinking mind. a mind of right and wrong, good and bad, black and white, a mind of opposites. To transcend the opposite one has to transcend the mind or bring it to a halt, silence the mind and this is achieved through the practice of Dhyana or meditation. It is in the silencing of the mind that one is able to perceive reality as it is, neither right nor wrong, neither this or that but is is just as it is...a simple tool of expression.
#Buddhism,# Buddha,# Dhyana,#Buddha Nature,#Mind,Dual thinking mind.
Desire is primarily the cause of suffering so much so that the desire to end desire itself is also the cause of suffering. The desire for more than what is needed to sustain one's life, the desire to accumulate and hoard, to cling on to and covet what one has already attain, the inability to let go of to be able to say enough is enough, has led man to cause more suffering in this life than any other motive in life. This happens when man fails to acknowledge the impermanence of life, that at the end of life one leaves behind all that he has struggled to own and depart empty handed just as when he had arrived at birth. In so doing he failed to realize what is the permanent and eternal, that which is his Buddha Nature. Every living soul is a potential Buddha in the making and as we evolve through this existence we either climb to higher state or descend to a lower through our realization of this karmic law of existence. Hence Ignorance is also the cause of suffering. Ignorance is not only the lack knowledge or wisdom but also the refusal to learn and understand one's predicament in this life due to being unable to differentiate between what is permanent and what is temporal,(relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs; secular
The practice of Dhyana or meditation is one of the simplest form of remedy for man to overcome his craving for more, the need to indulge in excessive and often redundant quest in his life. In the practice of Dhyana ((in Hindu and Buddhist practice) profound meditation which is the penultimate stage of yoga) the mind or mental faculty is being carefully observed of its tendencies and transcended where ignorance, hate an greed is found to be the driving force in any given situation. The human mind is the most potent tool that governs our human traits and habits and when left to its own devices will lead us on to the causes of suffering in this life. The human mind is like fire, a good servant but a destructive master. Right and wrong said the Buddha is a sickness of the mind. Hence Right Understanding is the first of the Eighthfold Path of the healing process that the Buddha has expounded in order to overcome ignorance. Right understanding of the workings of the human mind is paramount to the Buddha's teaching as the human mind is the primary tool that man is endowed with in this life to live and to survive as a specie, that which differentiate us from other life forms.
Our thoughts, impulses, consciousness etc. is governed by a dual thinking mind. a mind of right and wrong, good and bad, black and white, a mind of opposites. To transcend the opposite one has to transcend the mind or bring it to a halt, silence the mind and this is achieved through the practice of Dhyana or meditation. It is in the silencing of the mind that one is able to perceive reality as it is, neither right nor wrong, neither this or that but is is just as it is...a simple tool of expression.
#Buddhism,# Buddha,# Dhyana,#Buddha Nature,#Mind,Dual thinking mind.
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