The blogg is a journal/diary that is part of an ongoing process spanning over thrity years of soul searching. It covers a life spent including 30 odd years in Malaysia, 21 years in The USA and 3 years spent in Japan. It is also a Global research paper at the human level.
Above the toil of life my soul is a bird of fire winging the Infinite. Sri Chinmoy. As one stand and watch the sun setting upon the distant horizon with the glorious display of colors blazing the skies, one is mesmerized and transported into the realm of infinity, of complete absorption, transfixed in space and time where not a single thought is present; this is the 'Complete State of Being -Consciousness'; this is who you truly are. The moment thought enters the picture even as an expression of "Ahh!" or "Wow!": the real you is no more and the glorious sunset is just another sunset out of myriads of sunsets in your daily life. The desire to capture the moment of the sun setting in its infinite glory with a camera comes next and the wish that someone else was there to share it with you and so on further removes the the authentic or the real experience of who you from the actual moment when there was only a glorious sunset before you with all its infinite glory. When the observer and the observed is one without any barrier in any form or consciousness, the Pure Essence of Being manifest Itself, where space and time melts away and the five senses merge in complete unity to become Pure Consciousness, this is called; Satori or Dhyana, Samadhi, or Rapture, Tafakur.
Tafakur is like the bee who at first hovers around the flower and then finally buries himself completely in the heart of the flower, drinking blissfully the sweet nectar. If we continue this practice we will reach the state of continuous tafakur, whether we are alone or with others, whether we are “standing, sitting, or lying down.” We remain centered in the heart and become the arena of open consciousness. Maintain this awareness throughout your day, whatever else you may be doing. Know that Allah is making tafakur upon you and that your tafakur is really Allah’s.
Tafakur of the highest level is the state in which the dervish is completely and consciously absorbed in Truth. The gnostic eye of the dervish is open, gazing upon Divine Reality. At this level, Allah is the One who sees, as only Allah can see Allah. Regarding this state the Prophet has said, “One hour of contemplation is better than a lifetime of worship.” Once you come to this place, the Koran will sing to you, and you will see its teachings and wisdom with your own eyes. Everything in creation will speak to you of Allah. You will see Allah’s face wherever you turn. The renowned Rabia Adawiyya had also reached the level of a pure witness, which is the true meaning of shahid. It is reported that her companion, Mariam, once invited her out of her simple dwelling on a beautiful day to witness the splendor of Allah’s creation, and she replied, “Why do I need to look upon creation when I am witnessing the Creator directly?” - Technology of the Heart. Noble teachings of Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufis. (good read)
rapture
(ˈræptʃə)
n
1. thestate of mindresultingfromfeelings of highemotion;joyousecstasy
2. (oftenplural) an expression of ecstaticjoy
3. theact of transporting a personfromonesphere of existence to another,espfromearth to heaven
vb
4. (tr) to entrance;enrapture
Examples of RAPTURE
We listened with rapture as the orchestra played.
He listened to the wind in the trees, his eyes closed in rapture.
Samādhi (Sanskrit: समाधि, Hindi pronunciation: [səˈmaːd̪ʱi]), also called samāpatti, in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is the last stage or ultimate stage of meditation, when the person is out of physical consciousness. In samādhi the mind and soul are in equal balance. It is meditative absorption, attained by the practice of dhyāna.[1] In samādhi the mind becomes still. It is a state of being totally aware of the present moment; a one-pointedness of mind[web 1]. When someone dies in India, it is not uncommon to say, that person has gone to 'Samādhi'. The tombstone area is also referred to as a place of 'samādhi'.
In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to the experience of kenshō,[2] "seeing into one's true nature". Ken means "seeing," shō means "nature" or "essence."[2]
To attain to these highest levels of consciousness in our daily lives is the most fundamental of all spiritual practices regardless of religions or Ways of life. It is imperative that we humans are endowed with the highest form of knowledge that can lead us to our very own salvation from the trials and rigors of life. And it is through these knowledge too that we can bring about changes to the very state of humanity itself and save our planet from destruction.
To be in absolute silent is the key towards arriving at Complete Consciousness, most of the great teachers and Gurus would expound on the subject of Meditation or Consciousness. It is the key towards attaining to higher levels of consciousness from our mundane day to day routine of thought filled states of mental business. Do we rally need this? Do we really need to make the effort to free our mind from being sucked into the busy highways of life with all its traffic jams and breakdowns. its road rages and concern for higher and higher toll rates imposed upon us for travelling. Perhaps not for most of us as it has become a part of so called living, this is who we have become, we are busy and in order to lead a busy life we have to abide by all that is that makes for life as it is. However if we are among those who have come to accept that enough is enough and agreed upon that we are really getting nowhere in our running back and forth being busy, we need to find an alternative state, an alternate state whereby we can step aside and let the busy world rush by us and we merely observe. In the Hinayana tradition of Buddhism, developing what is known as 'Bare attention' is part of practice towards bringing to mind to a quiet state. Bare attention is like watching the frog jumping into the pond and creating the ripples in the water while not wondering what species of frog it is or why it jumped into the pond or where it is headed or if it is edible and the list can go on as far as the 'busy mind' is concern. Bare attention is seeing a beautiful young voluptuous lady strolling by and not getting attached to how well endowed she is, or if she is Chinese or Korean or Japanese as they all look alike; bare attention merely sees a being passing by. In the practice of bare attention the adept or disciple is training to curb the mind from getting attached to the phenomenal world and thus not adding more business to itself. It is also a form of withdrawing from the external and looking inwards a step in meditation. Bare attention allows for the mind to carry less baggage or excess food and fodder for the mind to digest while still is present in the here and now of its surrounding. "A Monk once asked the teacher, " What is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism?" the master replied 'Attention.' The student dissatisfied with the answer said, " I was't asking about attention but was wanting to know about the essential teaching in Buddhism.' The master replied, 'Attention, Attention Attention.' So it can be appreciated that the essence of Buddhist practice is to be found in the word 'Attention'." - Ven Pannyavaro on The Art of Attention. When we allow ourselves to be involved with other people's personalities, their idiosyncrasies, their soap operas and their dramas whether it is good or not so, we become a part of that scenario and will end up having to play out our rolls in these events one way or another and thus adding to our thinking mind more garbage to chew on and i find this happening to myself as i see myself getting sucked into more than just a passing comment or off the cuff remark simply to keep in touch in my external relationships. It is habitual to do this for me as i like to be in the circle so to speak. That believe that says 'no man is an island', is often taken too seriously and lost in interpretation or understanding. "The art of this bare attention is to simply register the predominant object in one's experience as it rises without preference or interference, as a witness. That is just registering or noting the changing phenomenon without reaction - be it sensation, sound, thought or mind - state. However if there is a reaction during the observation as is natural for the untrained mind, then that too must be noted." Ven. Pannyavaro - The Art of Attention
Spent all day long with my daughter painting a giant Double Cheeseburger on the main entrance of the Merchant Hotel where she is employed. It is one of her project an so i was there to give a moral support and taking the advantage of doing a little Art.
What could be a better activity than spending time with two young ladies who calls you Dad.
In a sense I am also leaving my Cheeseburger Buddha trademark right in the Center of Downtown Georgetown.
The girls were in a good mood now that dad was there to help out.
Our friend Raymond Chan was three to keep us company.
Anf karim came by to say hi as he works a block away from the Hotel.
It is almost impossible to stop the mind from thinking and thoughts will go on rambling for as long as it takes just as this blogging is a manifest of mind thinking itself out and manifesting nit he form of written words. It is said that only in deep sleep is the mind free from any form of thinking where as even in light sleep thew mind is much active in the form of dreaming and we humans can dream of weird things in our sleeping state. The primary teaching of the Buddha hinges upon the cessation of thoughts and its relative processes and this in itself is a long and involved process that the Buddha had laid out for man to practice, however the essence of the Buddha's teaching in the cessation of thoughts and other forms of vexations is through Dhyana or Meditation, as the Chinese word Chan and the Japanese word Zen carries the same derivation of this word. Hence the Right Understanding of Meditation is the key towards silencing the or at the very least bringing it to be quiet and not rattling on and on. If one observes how th mind rattles on, one would often notice that sometimes it is over things or subjects that makes very little sense or irrelevant to one's status at the moment. In my limited amount of knowledge and understanding i have tried to share what I could of what meditation is and how to go about getting it done right, however today. all one has to is Google it and one will find one needs to learn from the masters modern and ancient. Ignorance is no more an excuse when it comes to acquiring knowledge in this day and age and laziness or apathy is the cause of suffering next to ignorance. Today more than anytime in the history of man, there is a greater need to have a thorough understanding of the how, why or what of our 'Dual' thinking mind. Dual thinking being the fact that we think of left and right, good and bad, black and white and so forth. The opposite nature of all that we can think of comes into play when we think and this has a great effect on how we see ourselves and others; them and us. We think in dichotomy making every thought a comparison of one as opposed to the other, hence good and evil will always walk as a pair in our mind like the flip side of a coin and one cannot exist without the other; we are trapped in this dichotomy of the dual thinking mind. The Buddha sought to end this bondage by Right Understanding of the workings of our human consciousness transcending that of the workings of the dual thinking mind and thought processes. In most of the Sutras of the Buddhas there are lessons in how one can achieve to this state of freedom from our mental delusions due to ignorance. As the world spins out of control with all the chaos and wars and destruction starvation and over population, as suffering has become of a grand scale for most of us, the need to come to have a good understanding of who we are and where we stand in the scheme of things as far as the Planet is concern is crucial for our very survival. We cannot remain blind to it all as we are exposed to what is happening around us are being laid out and brought to our awareness; we cannot exist in denial any longer. The ancient Masters had revealed through their teaching methods to overcome our individual suffering as well as that of of our environment and fellow human and it is up to us to wake up and be aware of these teachings if not put them to practice or be prepared to perish. While science is still scratching the surface of Consciousness, the human spirit has been made aware of its limitless powers if and when it is put to practice through right understanding. At the highest level of His teachings the Buddha imparted all there is o know about meta physics and how the human mind governs the natural world.READ! REALIZE! REVEAL! Let it be known, let it be heard! The more of humanity awaken the more chances there is of our very survival and that of the Planet's as we cannot fight bullets with bullets nor can we stop the demise of our rivers and forests with power and might, but we can turn our history back into the Golden Age if we can all take a more realistic and serious understanding of our very nature; that we are inherently Divine. We are the Masters of our Universe, our Environment, our Destiny; it is our Birth Right! It does not matter who are black or white, rich or poor, strong or weak, together as a Whole we are a an Omnipotent Being of Collective Consciousness. Today there is nothing more relevant, more important, more significant that to have this Realization for the collective whole to survive.
When the Buddha said that ,"Life is Suffering hes was referring to our physical as well as psychological human form that has evolved throughout the millennium into who we are today. We who claim ourselves to b civilized and above and beyond other sentient beings on this planet. We who have survived all that is thrown at us as a species and lived to see the 21st. century in all its glory and its chaos. The Buddha came into the world to wake us up from our sleeping state of consciousness so that we can be more prepared in dealing with what is to come for our kind. Life is suffering and suffering has a cause and the main cause of suffering is 'Desire'. The need, the crave, the wanting the clinging on to, the greed and the delusion that man is inflicted with. Our very survival thus far is only because throughout the ages we have been forewarned by Saints and sages alike, prophets and Messengers of the Divine so that we turn away from our prone towards self destruction and towards self realization. "In this human form, do not waste time!" the Buddha extolled some 2500 years ago, for it is in this form that one is most capable of attaining liberation. One does not need to believe in the theory of Karma and Transmigration of the Soul in order to understand what is Reincarnation and its significance in our human evolution. A well developed conscious mind there is a deep understanding of where we as humans stands in the hierarchy of the evolution of species and we are not just at the top of the food chain but we are higher and above the laws that govern existence itself if we can fathom the mysteries of our Mind and Consciousness that today science in all its infinite glory are only beginning to touch the surface of the extent of its limitless power. Yes it may sound far fetched and bombastic a claim but, why not and how far or how near are we really towards understanding the nature of out limitless Consciousness. The Buddha was among those who have made this self discovery and transcended life itself to go beyond, beyond that which is the concept of the word beyond itself. Having lived for 66 years more or less, i have come to finally realize how little i know of how my mind works and how badly influenced by it I have been and often to the detriment of my being. I have been living with the perception that i am who i thought myself to be and have been enduring all kinds of trials and tribulations the life had to offer based upon this understanding. I set myself up to be at the mercy of my own bloody ignorance and often flaying myself for all kinds of guilt and conscience that I self created through wrong perceptions and faulty thoughts. I was my own judge, jury and executioner and I blamed others around me for my own failures. I lived an ignorant life, blind from the truth that was staring at me all the time until I discovered the true teachings of the Buddha; the teachings that dealt with life itself. Life is Suffering and the cause of suffering is desire and to have desire there has to be one who desires and when there ceases to be this one then there is no more suffering; how do we end the one who suffers? His final words upon attaining to what is known as PariNirvana or the Great Liberation the Buddha uttered," I, Am No More!" he did not say i am dead or my end has come, he said I, am no more! Like he has ceased being the 'I'. In other words the 'person' is finished, gone, annihilated and so what remains? Hence, when the Buddha said ,suffering Is but none who suffers, this is perhaps what he meant. How can one suffer if there is no one there to suffer or if the personality is no more there to endure the suffering. Suffering Is, because You are.
Why did the Buddha declare that life is suffering? I am going to look back in revision of my understanding of the Buddha's teachings from the beginning simply because I have the urge to have a deeper look into what I have learned over the years and see if i am still on the right track. The Buddha's words has always been my guide through out my adult life ever since my father told me of the Triple Gems and taking refuge in the teachings of the World and Time Honored One. Perhaps this is also my final analysis of the teachings and my way of saying thank you and farewell to the Great Teacher whose Way had helped me seen through many a great hurdle in life, pulled me out of many deep wells of delusions and saved me from my own self destructive nature. Yes, I have had my share of tumbles and had it not been for the light shed upon me by the teachings of Buddhism I will not be where I am today. My first real encounter with the Buddha's teaching was through the works of D.T. Suzuki and later followed by the works of Alan Watts followed by the works by Sunryu Suzuki and The Dalai Lama and many more great contemporary teachers like Trungpa Rinpoche and Thich Naht Hahn. I took upon myself to study the religion as far as it would take me to fully comprehend what it is all about and it brought me to the San Francisco Zen Center at Green Gulch Farm also known as, The Green Dragon Zen Temple where I was a student for over two years. At the Zen center I became acquainted with all those who were looking for their understanding of what the Buddha's teaching was all about and they came all walks of life like myself lost and was looking for answers. I read all i could and sat as much as I could in meditation the Zen Buddhist style. While at the Monastery i let go of myself although not as easily at the beginning but slowly but surely the teachings got to me and got me settled into its comforting rhythm and I was hooked. There reason for this revision is also because, this was when I first experienced to the awakening of my understanding to the the nature of my consciousness and what it meant to me. I was a drug addict and an alcoholic, I had many broken relationships and my life was in a shamble and I when I walked inot Green Gulch Zen Community I could barely take three steps without gasping for breath as i was suffering from Pleurisy - The signs and symptoms of pleurisy might include: Chest pain that worsens when you breathe, cough or sneeze. Shortness of breath — because you are trying to minimize breathing in and out. A cough — only in some cases. A fever — only in some cases. Death would have been a blessing but i was not going to allowed to escape so easily and my only hope was to surrender my heart and soul to the Zen Community as i had no where else to turn during the time. Yes I was suffering and in every form and meaning of the word when i stood at the gate of The Green Dragon Zen Temple facing my later would be Zen teacher by the name of Paul Discoe.
Oakland, California - Founder / Chief Designer at Paul Discoe Design Studio
I am a Japanese master builder and Zen Buddhist teacher. I studied architecture as a Buddhist temple builder in Kyoto, Japan for five years during the 1970s.
I was on the verge of going down on my knees begging him to allow me to enter the Monastery and recuperate and he was not too eager to allow me to stay as i was not in any shape to survive the rigorous life of the GG Zen Community, but he relented in the end and thus i began my life as a Zen Buddhist student. Paul Discoe became my task master and put through rigorous work schedules along with the other students who were doing the practice period. I became his assistant or more like helper spending time at the wood shed cutting up large timbers into planks and later turning them into some of the finest woodwork i have ever seen including beautiful altars and rostrums for the City Zen Center and a Kaisando, or Memorial Hall at Tassajara - The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Ventana Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest, southeast of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, is the oldest Japanese Buddhist Sōtō Zen monastery in the United States.Wikipedia. Within a year of my stay at Green Gulch I was cured of my Pleurisy and became a rough tough farm worker growing organic food which supplied most of San Francisco's organic restaurant and produce markets. I worked alongside Peter Ruddnik and his wife Wendy Johnson, both the original community members of the Zen Community and are masters at what they do.- Wendy Johnson lived and trained at Green Gulch Farm from 1975-2000. She is one of the founders of the Organic Farm and Garden Program at Green Gulch, a lay dharma teacher, and the author of Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate (Bantam, 2008). Wendy is a garden mentor to the Edible Schoolyard program and a College of Marin instructor in the Environmental Landscape program at the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden project.
I cannot write enough of how much I owe to this couple who took me into their lives and their home and helped me heal my wounded soul, cure me of most of my neurotic tendencies and kept my mind in the soil. They helped me cultivate my spirit from that of a lost and angry soul into one that saw no mountain too high and no ocean too deep to overcome. At Green Gulch I met the Buddha in many shapes and forms, heard him in voices in the wind as it blew cold from the Pacific ocean up through the valley all the way up to Hope Cottage. At Green Gulch I met the Buddha in the form of an ancient Japanese Tea Master by the name of Nakamura Sensei who called me Shampoo instead of Shamsul and there I met great men and women who gave it all their mind and spirit in their practice of Zen Buddhism. At green Gulch I was healed of my fear of dogs by an elderly white Labrador by the name of Sierra aka. 'Sea Dog' as she loved to dive into the cold Pacific every chance she got. To be Continued:
I feel like a fifteen year old trying to act like i am 66 without even knowing it sometimes. Realized this a few minutes ago when i made a comment to a friend's Face Book posting of him and his younger sister visiting him in Berkeley, California. I assume she was his new girlfriend and made a funny remark added a sticker with it to emphasize the effect. Now on looking back I realize how my mind is every so often very childish and often looks for ways to express itself like a fifteen year old taking pokes at others and not caring much for the consequences it might have incurred. In other words every no and then i also find myself reminding me that i am now and old man and should be more weary of how what i say to people; should I? What a shame to loose that freedom to be able to express spontaneously like a fifteen year old who has just discovered the freedom of speech, or how words can make others feel about any given situation in life. A fifteen year old more often than not looks obn the brighter side of life and his or her comment is often mad to cheer things up rather than to mellow things down like 66 year old, at least this has been my unwritten assumption. Now that i have been brought to my attention of this one habit of mine, I feel like i am growing old, ageing is a process of natural arrests of one's habitual actions and tendencies? I should stop doing this or doing that because i am no more fifteen, I should wear this and not that because i am no more fifteeen...I should grow up and act my age! What was I like when i was fifteen? I was busy reading novels like, "The Carpet Beggars" by Harold Robins, "Fear is The Key", by Alstair McClain. "The Before Midnight Scholar" by LI Yu Tang and D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chartterley's Lover." I was a voracious reader and still am and thanks to my eldest brother I had ample supply of books to read, books by the likes of Wilbur Smith and later on Eric Van Lastbader and Robert Ludlum series. Along with the myriad of novels that i consumed in those days of the early sixties into seventies, I listened to Jazz and Folk Music and was familiar with the likes of, Miles Davis and Ela Fitzgerald, to Cannonball Adderley and Louis Armstrong, Ahmad Jamal and Nat King Cole. I was exposed to the younger Joan Baez and Peter Paul and Marry, to Bob Dylan and soon followed by the Beatles; i was only fifteen by then living along the shores of the South China Sea with so much to do which by comparison today would be the envy most teenager. I would go snorkeling just about every weekend with the adults of my time all over the islands off the East Coast of Terengganu. Islands like Kapas and Perhentian, Bidong and Pulau Yu and Pulau Lima where in those day there was hardly a soul on some of them, unlike today. We, my brothers and my school teachers, my mentors and my martial arts instructors had the run of the State where recreational activities were concern albeit in the forest or the seas. When I was fifteen, the house i grew up was located along the Padi fields and a soon as I woke up to take a piss I was looking at the long stretch of rice fields filled with birds that you seldom or don't see anymore today for as far as your eyes can see from the water way in front of you to the foothills in the far distance. The waterway was filled with fresh water fish of all kinds that you can rarely find today as most are becoming extinct due to modern ways of rice cultivation that employs chemicals. Like the birds, the fishes too have become rare and hard to find anywhere in the country except where civilization has not yet engulfed the environment. When I was fifteen, man and nature still coexisted in harmony; I was blessed, I had the best of both worlds, East and West. Hence how can i easily give up my age of fifteen and settle for a grouchy and weary old man riddled with anger and frustrations, worries and anxieties?
The Muslim is not one who is named after his prophet. Unlike the other religions. Judaism is named after Judah who was the father of the Jews. Buddhism is named after Buddha who was the father of that religion. Christianity is named after Christ who they claimed was the son of God. But Islam is unique in it does not call to a personality. It calls to a concept. And that concept is "La Ilaha IllAllah"
Once that concept is in vibed in the human heart it becomes more than a concept. It becomes a reality by which the human being is able to walk on the earth as khalifah of Allah SWT and nothing less.
And yet that "La Ilaha IllAllah" can never be separated by the fact that it was brought by a human being. And because of that Allah SWT has made a second part to this message. And that message is "Muhammadur Rasulullah". It is not a call to the prophet Muhammad SAW but it is a recognition that human beings are guided to their Lord through human beings that are chosen by their Lord to guide them.
And because they are chosen, because they are "mustafa" we are commanded to show them great honour and great respect. To honour them by following them and to honour them by praising them and to honour them by carrying their message to others. So we do not call to the personality of our beloved prophet Muhammad SAW. But we call to his reality as the greatest slave of Allah SWT, Abdullah Wa Rosuluhu.
And this is what we call to because he is the exemplar. You have in the messenger of Allah the greatest example for those who desire their Lord, who hope for their Lord.
The Muslim is not one who is named after his prophet. Unlike the other religions. Judaism is named after Judah who was the father of the Jews. Buddhism is named after Buddha who was the father of that religion. Christianity is named after Christ who they claimed was the son of God. But Islam is unique in it does not call to a personality. It calls to a concept. And that concept is "La Ilaha IllAllah"
Once that concept is in vibed in the human heart it becomes more than a concept. It becomes a reality by which the human being is able to walk on the earth as khalifah of Allah SWT and nothing less.
And yet that "La Ilaha IllAllah" can never be separated by the fact that it was brought by a human being. And because of that Allah SWT has made a second part to this message. And that message is "Muhammadur Rasulullah". It is not a call to the prophet Muhammad SAW but it is a recognition that human beings are guided to their Lord through human beings that are chosen by their Lord to guide them.
And because they are chosen, because they are "mustafa" we are commanded to show them great honour and great respect. To honour them by following them and to honour them by praising them and to honour them by carrying their message to others. So we do not call to the personality of our beloved prophet Muhammad SAW. But we call to his reality as the greatest slave of Allah SWT, Abdullah Wa Rosuluhu.
And this is what we call to because he is the exemplar. You have in the messenger of Allah the greatest example for those who desire their Lord, who hope for their Lord.
The brain from its atomic and sub atomic state, the myriads individual cells to the mass of 'gray matter', is no doubt the most complex organ of the human body and it is through this organ that the whole organic system of the universe manifest itself in the human form. Through the brain the human form manifest itself evolving into a more and more complex entity that has begun to fully understand itself and its function in the universe. It is through the brain and its ability to create, destroy and recreate that the evolution of the Universe moves from one state into the next, from one form into another from one essence into another in never ending cycles of birth, death and rebirth while the whole process is being observed by itself as a whole, independent nature called awareness;it is aware of itself evolving. The brain is merely a tool by which this whole process of self-observation evolves. The 'It', some calls God, some simply calls it Great Spirit, some calls it 'The soul' some even more simply calls it 'The I'; I Am That...I Am; is Consciousness. In essence Consciousness has no references, no identity, no form, and is not subject to matter. space or time; it is omnipotent, omniscience, omnipresent; It simply Is. Human evolution, the evolution of the entire Universe itself is towards this realization, that It is All Consciousness, of being Conscious of itself, being aware of that which is the Permanent and that which is Temporal; this is the Realization of Immortality of the Spirit and the death of the ego (the Self). We see this whole through myriads of self created images, experiences and knowledge and we evolve through time to arrive at this state of 'Complete Enlightenment' of the Spirit an in so doing dissolves into the Wholesomeness of Being; Complete Cosmic Consciousness. What good is all these in the everyday life? What can we do with this knowledge or this achievement of understanding the nature of our being? Not a thing; we are who we are and what we manifest is how much it is worth for as far as we as individuals are concern, nothing unusual, nothing special. We may be deem intelligent, knowledgeable or even a mystic or a saint and in some culture, even prophets, but it is still all just a matter of how far or how near we are in our self discovery of who we truly are. The farmer's understanding of the nature of the land and its resources and productivity, its power to give and to take is no better than the fisherman's understanding of the sea, however collectively they both become the understanding of the four basic elements of nature, that of earth and water. wind and fire; the building blocks of form and emptiness. The scientists takes this knowledge further into its molecular nature until its secrets are revealed in minute details as into the sub-atomic levels, thus harnessing even great use for these elements and understanding of how they function in the Universe. The spiritualists, saints and mystics, the yogi and the dervishes delve deep into the mysteries unraveling what makes it all come to life in the formless state just as the scientists does in the material state. In understanding the basic principles of the elements in nature we have come to understand who we are, at least in our physical form and what makes us tick and why. What is exactly the purpose of us being here in this time and space we call life. What is each and everyone of us made up of and how potent are we as a specie in manifesting our environment as we see fit for our very own survival or demise. In Islam it is said that we were appointed custodians of this Planet we have inherit from the beginning of time and we have evolved into this specie that we are today surpassing all other species in our understanding of who we are and what we are capable of in creating and destroying our own environment. It is sad that today we are on the verge of our environmental and our own self destruction as we approach the critical stage of our evolution where we are merging form and emptiness, where all our differences have the potential to become a Collective Whole or a Complete Annihilation the very fabric of existence itself.
"The process begins when the prevalent paradigm encounters an anomaly—an observation that the current worldview can’t explain. As far as today’s scientific paradigm is concerned, consciousness is certainly one big anomaly. It is the most obvious fact of life: the fact that we are aware and experience an internal world of images, sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Yet there is nothing more difficult to explain. It is easier to explain how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to human beings than it is to explain why any of us should ever have a single inner experience. How does all that electro-chemical activity in the physical matter of the brain ever give rise to conscious experience? Why doesn’t it all just go on in the dark?...
The continued failure of our attempts to account for consciousness suggests that we too should question our basic assumptions. The current scientific worldview holds that the material world—the world of space, time and matter—is the primary reality. It is therefore assumed that the internal world of mind must somehow emerge from the world of matter. But if this assumption is getting us nowhere, perhaps we should consider alternatives..
One alternative that is gaining increasing attention is the view that the capacity for experience is not itself a product of the brain. This is not to say that the brain is not responsible for what we experience—there is ample evidence for a strong correlation between what goes on in the brain and what goes on in the mind—only that the brain is not responsible for experience itself. Instead, the capacity for consciousness is an inherent quality of life itself....
In this model, consciousness is like the light in a film projector. The film needs the light in order for an image to appear, but it does not create the light. In a similar way, the brain creates the images, thoughts, feelings and other experiences of which we are aware, but awareness itself is already present."..
.The anomaly of Consciousness and why Mainstreat Science Ignores It...byPeter Russell.7 comments.
Throughout my practice or observations of how my mind functions, my coming to an understanding of what is consciousness I have accepted that consciousness is free of the mental states or the mind or the brain functions; consciousness governs all of these or dictates their functions. The brain cells receives instructions from consciousness through the senses and manifests whatever responses into the physical realm and based upon past experiences projects forms and images that the mind can relate to and in turn reacts to or reciprocates accordingly. The waking mind is the storage bank of experiences, memories, images and imaginations, dreams and so forth, it is also the emotional and psychological conduit for the brain. Off course it much much more complex than it is as i am no scientist, I see what i see as a lay man can only see based upon limited personal studies and observations made over a long period of time.
Awareness to me is a sense of presence. The complete state of being in the moment as some contemporary philosophers such as Eckhardt Tolle and Baba Ram Dass has been expounding in their works .."Be here Now" or "The Power of Now", points towards this phenomena whereby the human consciousness is an open ever present essence of 'feeling' of being in the complete here and now. It is devoid of any attachment to an entity or a personality or an observer making an observation; It just is.,'bare attention'.Pure consciousness is a state of complete absorption similar to an annihilation of the so called human spirit or the self from the picture; there is no one there making or experiencing the feeling; feeling simply is. observer and observation is one. I am the majestic 'sunrise', it is me.
Whenever there is the observer,the 'I', the witness or the personality involve, space, time and matter becomes tangible; hence from the Buddhist perspective there is suffering, there is delusion. The self becomes the observer and whatever is being experienced, manifested, dreamed ad so forth becomes the stuff of the Universe; the observed. When there is complete awareness, or as the ancients would call it, Supra - Consciousness or as some might term as Cosmic Consciousness, the Universe ceases to be and only Consciousness is present and aware of Itself ; like God. However the very moment the feeling or thought, 'like God' comes into the consciousness; the universe comes into being as so is suffering.
The state of enlightenment or as in Japanese Satori or as in the Hindu tradition Moksha, or that feeling called the Awakened State and so forth. is this state of complete state of consciousness that man has striven to master or at the very least have a taste of at least once in a life time. Until modern science can map what is absolute consciousness and share it with the rest of humanity, I will just have to trust my way in the ways of the ancients as well as the modern mystics and philosophers, savants and saints, prophets and dervishes for my guides. I am merely just another channel, another conduit, that nature expresses itself and observe itself with.
We grew up with saying, "New friends are silver and old friends are gold", and "Friends are there when you need them" Sometimes your best friends are those who are not there when you need them. Because then you have to go beyond need and you will find something much more profound than the comfort your mind seeks; because then you have to go beyond need. It takes some time for his whole idea to sink in after the initial conception of the idea to detach myself from all those that I have come to depend on for my needs. Close friends family and relatives. Whether it is for financial, or for physical and emotional comfort I had decided to remain as detached as i possibly could although not absolutely free as it is almost impossible to exist totally independent from others as others are dependent on you. The laws of nature is such that no entity is absolutely free from being a part of the whole unless it is dead or deceased and no longer a part of the living whole. However one has to be true to the experiment and try to be as committed to the idea of being nothing as possible, whatever it takes which most of the time would entail, being hungry, loneliness, trepidation, and all that negative feeling leading to fear and despair. It has been almost three months now that i have not earned a single cent, I am unemployed and live on the merit of surviving on my reputation alone. Not the best place nor the best feeling but still it is getting to be an interesting state where i am more closely observing myself and my reactions towards what others see of feel about who I am. I get by financially with handouts from my kids which mostly went to pay for basic necessities like soap and shampoo and stuff we all share. Food is never short of in exchange for being the 'watchman' every night, i get to eat at the restaurant downstairs and some left overs for the evening meals. Yes I am no better than a beggar. Why, for whatever it is worth do i still persist to take on this experiment of becoming a modern day Sunnyasi or mendicant monk without the props such as filthy cloths and scraggly hair full of lice? Or wear the saffron robe and walk about with a begging bowl. I do not believe in extremism, the Buddhas of old did all that for me and i have learned from them and do not need to repeat the experiment they already passed down to me; I do it simply to check my ego. To have a taste of what it is like not to have anything, no fame nor fortune, to be at the mercy of what others say or feel about you, especially your children. To go to the extreme would defeat the purpose of my experiment as it would deprive my being able to communicate or keep record of my progress while sharing it with those who read my musings. It is not that i cannot do it if it comes down to it, but it would be like taking a plunge for no good reason and causing those who love you unnecessary concern; then again I might still take off and do it, who can say. I have always wanted to travel through India and head on to Mecca for the Umrah on foot. I might not make it all the way but i would love to try as far as i can make it or even die along the way trying. To me it is no more important that i get there and perform the Umrah or the haj it is the journey itself that would be the crown my lifelong quest towards understanding who I truly am. It would be a true pilgrimage if my health would allow me to venture from one country to another till i get to my destination. Many have done this before but it is not the same as i doing it myself. When you come to my age i guess one becomes a little eccentric in one's visions. What else is there to do but to keep on dreaming and drumming up more out of the ordinary ideas that one can or perish into oblivion while sucking one's thumb awaiting death to happen.
"Is it possible for the brain to realize that it has no future? We live either in despair or in hope. Hope is part of time. I am unhappy, I am miserable , uncertain, I hope to be happy. Part of time is this destructive nature of hope or the invention of the priests throughout the world -faith. You suffer but have faith in God and everything will be alright. Again that is faith in something involves time. Can you stand- stand in the sense, can you tolerate that there is no tomorrow psychologically? Can you? That is part of the meditation, to find out psychologically there is no tomorrow - hope, faith, movement of the future as tomorrow, is non existent." I have been grappling with the thoughts of J.Krishnamurti ever since i stumble upon his works while in college almost thirty years ago. I was going to school in Green Bay, Wisconsin and worked as a part time librarian to pay my way, it was while shelving books that I discovered one of K's many books and got hooked to his teachings till today. I think it was, the "First and Last freedom," if I am not mistaken. Ever since I have had become an avert reader and student of the great teacher, philosopher and my life became an experiment in human development according to his thoughts and ideas; my development. Most of his ideas are thought provoking and not everyone can digest much less follow what he had professed throughout his lifelong imparting of knowledge with regard to the nature of the human mind of which I was deeply interested while studying in college. Jedu Krishnamurti was thorough to the point of repetitious, tedious and mind boggling detail in his examination of the workings of the human mind especially the nature of thoughts. One can easily fall asleep listening to him talk on You Tube but if you can hold your attention long enough you will become enlightened to what he has to share and become richer for it in how you view life. K does not mince words when it comes to taking on any topic related to the workings of the human mind especially when it comes to the subject of faith and religion and although he never did claim himself and atheist, not to my knowledge, he has waged a thorough war on religions throughout his teachings,(never liked to be called a Guru or a teacher either and addressed himself as 'The Speaker'). India produced many great minds like those of Tagore, Gandhi, Sri Ramanamaharshi and ParamahamsaYogananda; Krishnamurti towers among them. I cannot claim to follow the teachings of Krishnamurti one hundred percent, which is next to impossible, which I doubt the Speaker himself could, but I keep referring to his thoughts and ideas whenever I digress in my practice or develop serious doubts about how or who I am and more often than not i would find some guiding light through reading or listening to the man. When you follow someone long enough you begin to hear them in your head even if they are not there and their words comes to you like small miracles answering what you need to be answered at the moment in time. It is as though the mind has made a connection on its own as to where to move the heart to reach out for the answers without you having to look for them too far; they are at your finger tips. Among the great contemporary thinkers that i have followed, Krinamurti, Eckhardt Tolle, The Dalai Lama, Alan Watts, Mooji and a few others i find K to be the most influential in my life and i find that his thoughts has in many ways influenced the others in their teachings. Hence, "Is it possible for the brain to realize that it has no future?" It is questions like this that sets my mind in motion when i read Krishnamurti. My initial reaction would be, what the hell is the old man talking about now? Then my mind would start to roll and comes up with replies like, sure it can, otherwise it would not be asking the question, or depends on who is asking and to answer this one has to look far back into what there is to know about the mind and even the very brain cells themselves. To understand the question itself would take some thinking and thoughts as K would insist is very limiting, and so we run round and round in circles util we trip and come up with a simple solution in one form or another. The whole process of reaching this 'insight' this state of arriving at an enlightening answer is enlightenment. Zen masters of some schools like the Rinzai Zen would throw a mind provoking question at a student such as"Has dog Buddha Nature?" Either the student answers it immediately or spontaneously or he takes it with him to figure it out until he finds the satisfactory answer and returns to the master and delivers it. It is called in Japanese a Koan and it is meant to jar the student's mind or mental state out of its normal mode of thinking into seeing that there is more ways to see than the 'norm'. This is not what Krishnamurti has in mind when he asks questions like these; he takes one on a journey into discovering the answer through a systematic step by step analysis of the whole implication of the question and arrives at the answer when all is said and done. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a question...yes or no?
Sometimes we take on too much in our lives, planning to live life better than the rest and having more than our share, until we have no idea what to do with what excess we have. Success it seems, is being able to accumulate as much as possible and show the world that we have earned the right to be rich and wealthy because we have taken on more than most in order to own what we have. When we have accumulated a fair share of our hard earned properties and belongings we become misers and and cling on to our wealth like there is no end to it. Often, we become blind to those in need, accusing them of not working hard enough, like we did to become as affluent as we have become. It is a wonder why the rich finds it harder to give than the poor, and i have my family to look at, don't need to look too far for examples and i am pretty sad that as much as i want to cherish and respect their successes in life, i cannot, simply because they have become stingy. If they give, I find there is always a string attached and often followed by a condescending judgement to make the recipient develop low self esteem about themselves, which is often why most often those who are in need refuses to ask. You may call me envious or jealous or vindictive in my accusation, but at my age it does not matter anymore and after all the negative experiences i have had in dealing with my family I know i do not give a damn anymore if they feel whatever it is they feel about me or my children. I realize too, that this is simply my mind needing to regurgitate past dramas and have it all squared away, shoved for good, hopefully, into theback recesses somewhere where they will forever be shelved and not manifest into present consciousness once and for all. These are fears and taboos that the ego is afraid to yell out loud for fear of loosing out on sibling relationship or as the Muslim calls it 'Siratul rahim', that bond between families. These are my skeletons hanging out in my closet and they need to be exposed for better or worse; I do not need them anymore cluttering up my mind and making their presence felt every now and then when I least expect. Guilt conscience is a bad trip and causes more anxieties than any other emotional pressures and I have carried my guilty feelings about my family long enough; it is time to say fuck off! It is over, no more remorse or anger, no more regrets or loss if I do not see any of you the day I die; you have gone your way and I mine. I set myself free from having anything to do with you and yours. It is said that negative thoughts in whatever forms they manifest carry weight or density, and they weigh you down sometimes physically in the form of migraine headaches and acid and indigestion. High anxiety is when you carry too many negative thoughts in your mind, especially in the forms of guilt and defeat or low self-esteem about yourself due to the perception of others on who you are. This you have to eliminate from your consciousness if you are to set yourself free and negative thoughts that keeps popping up into your mind are like a cancerous virus that needs to be removed with a scalpel once and for all; at least do it before you die so you can really rest in peace. These are to the Buddhist, 'deep rooted karmas' and they are stubborn parasites that has been feeding upon your energy making you feel less than you are. Like you scrub your skin every time you take your bath, you need to scrub your mind of all these hungry ghosts that feed on your vital energies. Remove all your excess baggage and don't be afraid to call a spade a spade if you have to as your mental state is as stake here. Wisdom is a double edged sword and it cuts both ways; it is just as compassionate to say black is black or screw you if in admitting so it helps to liberate your own being; just as it is wise to refrain from making any judgment. Fear is the key to all suffering as fear keeps the mind in bondage and a mind in bondage will never find truth. Allow yourself the freedom to be as you see fit, because no one else is going to allow you otherwise. Make sure you look good at the finger that is pointing at others, that it is free from blemish, and if you do point at others, make sure you realize that the other four fingers are pointing back at you. It is not in how long you have lived life but in how well, how rich your life is depends on how much you have given in return. The man who says he is not afraid of death has not lived. God is found at the end of the rainbow, but you must first find the rainbow. The journey of self-discovery is like looking for the rainbow, having found it you will have to cross to the other end where lies the Divine that you are. This is Enlightenment. PEACE - LOVE AND COMPASSION is your only baggage.
This note to myself as i am in the state of stagnation, being in the realm of the limbo where nothing is accomplished and nothing is achieved but just bare attention to what is. This is when i write to myself so as to remind myself of where or what i am at, at the present moment in space and time. Off course i am physically here sitting at the PC and typing away my mental formations and listening to the 3 hours long or repetitious theme from "Last of the Mihicans" by Hans Zimmer as the background music while I make this entry. It helps to drown out the unnecessary noises from the restaurant outside my window. This is when i try to make some sense out of my so called experiment with the idea of not doing anything with life or should I call it, "The Art Being absolutely lazy." I spent the early morning doing the laundry and mostly listening to 'Dharma talks', given by one of my former Zen Instructors, Norman Fischer on You Tube. It was out of curiosity to see how far has my teacher and friend from the Days of Green Gulch Zen Center come to be as a Poet and Zen master. The talks ares till the same Norman Fischer style, morose and dry and the poem I still have hard time grasping to make the connection with the Zen lesson. But Norman, like most of the Zen leaders at the SF Zen Center have connections and being a Jew that means a great deal and carry allot of weight even in the practice of Zen Buddhism. Yes i like Norman, His wife Cathy and the twins Joshua and Noah, brilliant children. I am beginning to experience the effects of my experimental practice of aspiring towards being nothing, doing nothing, hoping for nothing and seeing hat gives and for the last few weeks it has been somewhat a torment as i found myself flip flopping between wanting to be something or otherwise, needing to justify for myself and so forth, and worse of all is the boredom that seems to manifest from this state of nothingness and yes i have hardly touch the real state yet as it is i am still doing something, like making this entry. What others say or i think what they might be saying about me is the worse cause for discomfort and yes it has to do with the ego quite naturally. The ego, what else can i call it, seems to have a hard time letting go of the past, me; my mind is bombarded with the past good and bad. I find i have very many crosses to bear and i crucify myself time and again just to feel like i am sorry for what i had done, or to feel like i do not deserve to feel free form my past. To keep my mind busy and occupied, which i do out of being fed up with the struggle to keep it quiet, with reading my novels about the Roman Empire, as series by Simon Scarrow while not writing or watching a movie or entertaining the Face Book, or i stay in tune with what is going on with the political saga of my country and the world. I keep myself up to date with all the latest Conspiracy theories and the Doomsday revelations with the possibility of Alien Invasions and the coming of the Dajjal or the Anti Christ. All these being the part and parcel of doing nothing or being nothing. I am beginning to accept the fact that unless you can sleep all day long and do the same at night, doing nothing is almost an impossible task. Sometimes one feels like the whole mind, body and spirit is slowly petrifying as though everything is slowly shutting down; there is a lack of zeal for living. When it gets to that stage of feeling numb from being inactive, not unlike getting a mild stroke in the physical sense, then I feel the need to act out something. The great Yogi, Neem Karoli Baba, the Guru who Ram Dass was a student of often comes to mind whenever i have my doubts, but i am far from being a Yogi and especially anywhere near as great as Neem Karoli Baba or even Ram Dass,(Herbert Alpert).
Neem Karoli Baba left his home around the time when his youngest child (daughter) was eleven (1958) and wandered extensively throughout northern India as a sadhu. During this time he was known under many names including Lakshman Das, Handi Wallah Baba, and Tikonia Walla Baba. When he did tapasya and sadhana at Bavaniain Gujarat, he was known as Tallaiya Baba. In Vrindavan, local inhabitants addressed him by the name of Chamatkari Baba (miracle baba).[2]
He was a lifelong adept of bhakti yoga, and encouraged service to others (seva) as the highest form of unconditional devotion to God. In the book Miracle of Love, compiled by Ram Dass, a devotee named Anjani shares the following account:
There can be no biography of him. Facts are few, stories many. He seems to have been known by different names in many parts of India, appearing and disappearing through the years. His non-Indian devotees of recent years knew him as Neem Karoli Baba, but mostly as “Maharajji” – a nickname so commonplace in India that one can often hear a tea vendor addressed thus. Just as he said, he was "nobody". He gave no discourses; the briefest, simplest stories were his teachings. Usually he sat or lay on a wooden bench wrapped in a plaid blanket while a few devotees sat around him. Visitors came and went; they were given food, a few words, a nod, a pat on the head or back, and they were sent away. There was gossip and laughter for he loved to joke. Orders for running the ashram were given, usually in a piercing yell across the compound. Sometimes he sat in silence, absorbed in another world to which we could not follow, but bliss and peace poured down on us. Who he was no more than the experience of him, the nectar of his presence, the totality of his absence...[2]
Neem Karoli Baba reminds me of a 'sloth guru', one who sits or lays around and gets fed and attention like a true Zen master who 'eats when he is hungry, sleeps when he is sleepy and sits and watch the grass grows.He also reminded me of my grand father who had a similar look and manners the years that i knew him before he died. Yes in some ways i aspire to become like these great men, whose life was simplicity itself and not making great efforts to become someone or something, yet they were well loved and respected and people came to listen to them when they talk and looked for their advice and guidance.
My name it means nothing, my age it means less as Bob Dylan sang in one of his ballads. I am a citizen of this planet and have tasted what life has to offer both in the east and West. I am an artist and then some, a buddhist practitioner and then some, a Muslim and a whole lot more than some. I live life in all its glory and decadence. My practice in life is to become the global rennaisance man. There is more to me than even I could imagine but I am satisfied in being who I am just an ordinary mixed up kid singing rudy toot-toot to the moon.
