Tao Wow

Bodhidharma, the startling awakening

2020-09-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

"If you want to abandon the unreal and turn to the real, sit steadily and gaze at a wall. Self and other, ordinary people and enlightened ones, are one and the same. Sit firmly without moving, no longer following spoken instructions. In this you are identical with the hidden form of the true principle, a stillness without name." Bodhidharma, Two entrances and Four practices. *

"Ordinary people and enlightened ones, are one and the same." (not remotely hard to accept, naturally true)

"In this you are identical with the hidden form of the true principle, a stillness without name." (BOOM!)

Clearly the swirl of what was, what is, and what will be, are precisely "this", as what else?

Naturally, the swirl appearing here, [this meness] can't be anything other. As is anything seen, not seen, known or not known.

Statements have sent me over the edge before and into a satori-like place from where I have naturally wobbled back. Such visits to the other side have kept me checking back for more, finding such statements in books or falling out of my own head when walking, sitting or whatever, that too nudge or throw me over to the other side. Only the mind brought me back each time.

This statement did not send me over the edge, it nudged me so that I found myself perfectly balanced on it, like a flywheel spinning so fast that it could not fall one way or the other and ran on the edge in a line so sure it was beyond description!

The certainty and uniquely interesting difference here is that, yes, you can be thrown towards, near to, or over the edge many times by just the right words, or events, and the mind will pull you back with its doubts, habits and mischief. Here though it was not just the statement sending me perfectly to the balance, but that I knew, certainly, that the mind would never get me back, it was beaten, it didn't try, and while I played with the idea, only smiles returned.

The mind can't get me back and it knows it. The state is firm as the argument is so precise. The knowing far beyond description.

Words are inadequate to describe, so I'm not expecting you to get my point, but I'll ramble on a bit.

Starting with entry level Buddhism or Taoism, let's appreciate a mountain. Begin with a flat land and pile up some rock. Great, a mountain. Start again with flat land and this time carve two big valleys into the land. A mountain emerges between them. So both times we got a mountain AND valley, just first time we may have missed the negative space required to have a mountain. Form and space are equally required. Form cannot be without space, space cannot be without form. Extremes are not possible. If something was entirely something but not absent of anything else, it couldn't exist. Short needs long, happy needs sad.

So it is not to be entirely anything, like enlightened, or to be entirely free of anything, like imperfection. It's not to have stillness of mind and live in a cave. Your naturally active mind only exists in harmony with the pure still mind. Wanting a still mind is an active mind at play. An active mind is a perfect mind with stillness perfectly in place.

I've played with such thoughts as I'm sure you have too, and when a great master writes a phrase or poem that beautifully states such a thing, it can throw us over into satori, for a while.

Consider though, the nameless, descriptionless, ????ness that must be. That simply must be. This non thing that we can't name, describe or know by knowing. Just as the mountain is the valley, and you are the swirl of events flowing through right now, you're undeniably this ????ness. You were this before birth, will be it when dead, undenibly must be it now. What more convincing does the mind need to sit on the edge and be unable to reason a way back?

*It's only right that I share the book where I found this Bodhidharma quote, it is, The Spirit of Zen by Sam van Schaik. Great reading.

The path to a contented life

2020-08-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

Emptiness (and other names)

Consider your first memory. Consider your first non-memory. Consider Emptiness of memory. Before birth, even after birth and before much conceptualisation was going on in your head, there was a world of things and people, but you had no idea.

Consider your mind after death.

The universe has qualities, we assign it qualities, before and after life, we know of none.

Unlikely existences

It is unlikely that a human is born happy, lives each moment in happiness and dies happy.

It is unlikely that a human is born sad, lives each moment in sadness and dies sad - having never seen any happiness.

Happiness and sadness define one another and exist as the crests and troughs of waves. They cannot exist independently.

The peak of the happiness wave relies on the seed of the trough drawing upon it. Sadness is known to exist only because a concept of happiness exists within it.

Common Existences - and its apparent parts

The common existence is to ride from happy to sad, and while doing so, to wish for happiness to last and for sadness to pass by quickly.

Conflict

When desire and reality clash, there is conflict. The want for happiness in times of sadness, the wish to be somewhere else other than here.

Resolution

Boil everything down to the bare facts: Life is born of emptiness and so is full and wondrous. Within this wonder are humans who, like all life, attempt to avoid pain and to seek happiness. Happiness and sadness are interdependent so cannot exist alone, one is known by the seed of the other being present. The acts of grasping onto happiness and rejecting sadness, create conflict. So, resolution is plain and clear, just somehow difficult to accept.

Life in this mode

Please note that, for example, cooking, drinking wine, and dancing to music, will seem like happiness and may well be. You’re distracting yourself though. Happiness is there in this moment if you are truly in the moment. Human though, your mind will soon wander. This moment will only be happiness if you can maintain the distractions. This method may give happiness, and such fun is not to be avoided, you must see though, that it is not a recipe for lasting happiness as it cannot be maintained.

Lost in the act of reading, you do not know of an alternate act, so you’re content.

Reading while considering what you could or should be doing as an alternative, you’re in conflict and sad.

Cooking, chopping, smelling the ingredients, you’re content.

Cooking, listening to the TV, living out an imaginary argument with your coworker, you’re in conflict and sad.

Sitting, breathing, letting your heart beat, feeling one hand touch the other, you’re content.

Sitting, wondering if you should be elsewhere, you’re in conflict and sad.

Each step in more detail

You don’t need to read this, you know first hand the truth of this as you live it. Here though we can see how others get it wrong, and learn from them as we are the same. There are no special humans, we all have the same basic traits. We seek pleasure and we seek to avoid pain.

Imagine in your own way, pulling upwards above yourself, your home, your town, your country, the ocean, the atmosphere, the planet. Down there on earth are billions of humans. You spend nearly every thought on why your life is such a way, how to prevent bad things and how to gain some comfort. Each other human does the same. We take the extremes first: The few very rich, and the vast number of very poor. The very poor are stuck facing their concern, often to get enough food, or to manage pain or loss. Their seeking and rejecting are plain to see and easy to understand. The rich are always busy. Perhaps busy doing nothing, but truly never nothing - they are funding a constant stream of distractions, distracting from sadness and attempting to extend happiness. Both parties and in truth all the billions of humans down there on earth are performing the same act. You too, you’re not remotely special or different.

Grab the most poor person and the most rich and swap their minds. The rich person will instantly suffer, the poor person (now living through the rich person's body) will be temporarily happy, and perhaps a little shocked. The poor person (living in the rich body) will be able to satisfy many needs, mainly to eat, perhaps seek medical attention, perhaps live out a fantasy or two. Then, they will feel the seed of sadness taking root. They will begin to reject that seed of sadness and seek for the next distraction that will perpetuate happiness.

The newly rich (previously poor) person seeks their next happy moment in fear that the seed of sadness will grow too much.

The newly poor (previously rich) person rejects their sadness and seeks for happiness.

Each other person on the planet does the same, though less extreme. Most average people have enough to get by, they have more today than the wealthy of years gone by. They have adequate resources to be content, but they still seek something elsewhere. Each lifeform with sense organs and some ability to select a future does the same. Plants turn to face the sunlight.

One of the most commonly shared fantasies is to be rich enough to buy enough distractions to ride the crest of the wave, to be near to the top of the happiness wave and never come down. The drive is the constant knowledge of the wave trough drawing you towards it.

Richness is of course relative. If everyone was rich, then no one would be rich. By looking into the lives of the very rich, we can see that they still seek to do, to act, to distract themselves from sadness. If asked to imagine a perfectly happy being, we do not truthfully picture a rich person, but a simple content person. True happiness is in wisdom, in being content with here and now and simply knowing that change is unavoidable.

If a sad person, say someone you love, comes to you with a story of sadness, how do you help, and what is it that brings about happiness? You help by distracting them, or providing an alternate perspective. They are happy when they have accepted or moved forward from their situation. You are never able to alter the past for them, or change the way they feel in the moment they present themselves to you, you seek to alter the next nearest moment you can. With simple problems, perhaps the next moment is nearby, with hard problems the next moment is far away, but we must arrive there.

Why read on?

The fact of the matter was stated on page one, and you agreed with it. It is one of those things so simple that we say “of course it is true” but until we feel it deeply, or recognise several times as it happens directly to us, that we don’t accept it as both true and with no alternative. We read on as we insist there is an alternative. We read on as we want to be endlessly happy. We are, for now, quite silly. It is absurd, selfish, quite normal and quite laughable.

You could well throw this book aside for two quite good and quite opposite reasons. You may throw it aside as it is not offering you a magical recipe to everlasting happiness. You could throw it aside as you’ve suddenly and deeply felt the truth of the matter. You may read on with a dogged determination that, though you sort of get the point, you want a better, less painful version of it.

Brilliantly, by persisting, you’re opening up to the bones of the matter. You’re demanding to see the deeper mechanisms and by doing so, you will see, in fact, this is true.

We are born from emptiness and return to it. Like all life, we avoid pain and seek pleasure. By wanting for an alternative to the present moment, we give rise to conflict. We are smart enough to know the resolution to this.

Assuming you’re still here, you’re just unsatisfied with this fact. Thus, proving it to be true. And now upset and more driven than ever to disprove it.

By attempting to disprove it, you will prove it. And you’ll circle a few times, perhaps many, with each lap, proving it further.

On being Happy

2020-08-21T00:41:00.002-07:00

You can't have a perfect past. You can't have a predictable future. Somehow you want both, but given a little thought, you accept the past can't be changed, and the future is unknown.

You may just want to be happy and at peace. So just be happy and at peace!

Are you cured? Of course not.

It is though the fact of the matter: That past you can't change, is gone. That future you can't know, isn't here. It is simply now, and there is nothing wrong with now.

Is there?

What is ruining this present moment? Thoughts of the past or dreams of the future. We can boil it all down to 3 things:

Things we reject

Things we want

And pure fantasy

Fantasy will look like an unnecessary addition later, but for now it's an important category to explore and it contains: Those arguments you have in your head that you never get to live out. The things you'll do when you win the lottery. The job or relationship you'd be in if it wasn't for that unfortunate event.

These fantasies make up for a lot of what goes on in your mind and, as they've done this for most of your waking and even sleeping hours, they will be hardest to shake.

They are though why you're seeking happiness and not just simply being happy.

Fantasies are a waste. You'll never be free of them though, and some will be fun, so you'll never convince yourself to stop fantasising, nor could you ever prevent your mind from having them. The only trick you'll learn, is to recognise when the mind is in a useless place, forgiving yourself for the inevitable, and moving on.

The same will happen for rejecting and wanting. They will happen, but you'll train yourself to recognise them and let them go.

Take care here not to reject those thoughts you don't like. As that's rejecting. You just need to notice them, with the smallest brush of attention, and move on.

In bad times we reject what is happening. In good times we want what is happening to last. At other times we wish for good times and we also wish for bad things to not occur. Yet we have never altered the past or brought a future into being. We're a little bit silly. We do not learn and we are not alone.

Content, peaceful and happy are not things that benefit you at any other time than the present moment. And the present moment is short. If you notice that the present moment is contaminated in some way, you can let it go in a moment and have a pleasant next moment.

Focus just on your next in breath. Relax as you breathe out. Breathe in again, and smile through your eyes as you exhale. Breathe in again, and out.

3 breaths. Happy, content and at peace.

Then what? Likely back normal.

The present moment is it. That's where we experience, that's where we are, that's the only place that happiness matters, and it's the only place that happiness exists. Our only job is to fix the present moment. And repeat.

As the mind wanders and sets about with business as usual: wanting this, rejecting that, dreaming of this, wishing for that, the same simple trick is the solution. You don't try to extend that fleeting moment of happiness from before, you don't reject that invasive thought that occurred, you breathe, and let go.

Lovingly and forgivingly, watch thoughts pass by. Don't judge or rate your mind for having thoughts or get caught up in how good or bad you think you are at letting them go. Breathe, and move on.

The Marrow of Zen

2020-08-21T00:35:00.002-07:00

The Marrow of Zen

Insight Meditation

Three, two, Tao

2016-07-01T21:59:00.001-07:00

3. Thinking about life

2. Thinking about Tao

1. Living life.

engaging with zhuang zi

2015-10-10T23:34:00.001-07:00

This here blog is worth a look for sure, but you won't see many new posts.

For a fresh set of eyes on Zhuang Zi, you should check out http://www.engagingwithzhuangzi.com/ where the ever more intelligent Scott Bradley now has his home. He always wrote embarrassingly well about our favorite Taoist, Zhuang Zi, and now he has a(another) book out.

Bliss is no Secret

2015-01-31T17:12:00.003-08:00

A free book on happiness via science.

Bliss is no Secret (free PDF)

Not asking for anything on faith but reaching the same promise offered by spirituality.

Whether it is understood or not. It is still as it is.

2014-01-24T22:34:00.001-08:00

The fascinating truth is that, whatever this is: call it; life, universe, mystery or scientific fact - Can only be just as it currently is.

There is no alternative to right now. You couldn't have done anything differently, you can't influence the present state. It is automatic with no controller. It just is.

Understanding all, or being completely ignorant are both perfectly valid. Being apparently successful or an apparent failure are perfectly valid. The universe is forever changing state. We attach to passing forms. Your mind can become trapped.

Conflict in the mind is due to what the mind sees and what it wishes to see being different. Zen, Taoism and so on would have you see that what the mind wishes to see may as well be what it does see. And thus no conflict.

Even that is if you see great horror, that's what it appears to be. The desire for an alternative is where the mind foolishly, egotistically, places itself as sole actor and creator of reality, and convinces itself it could, should or can have an alternative.

The old "acceptance" - "yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery" cliche.

Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be will be, the futures not ours to see. Que Sera Sera!

Wealth, beauty and wisdom

2013-05-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

The richest person is surrounded by poverty, the most beautiful surrounded by ugliness, the most wise surrounded by stupidity.

new umbrella plagarism

2013-05-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Man "invents" umbrella- makes millions.

Clearly the idea was stolen..

Poor guy got peanuts.

materialism vs enlightenmemt

2013-05-05T03:03:00.000-07:00

It is said that when a person seeks happiness through material goods that they are in an endless game. Material goods naturally degrade and any happiness gained in the initial ownership soon fades.

As material seeking is seen this way by many people then a common conclusion is that some kind of spiritual quest would be more fulfilling. A common name for this is the quest for enlightenment.

Common to both quests, material or spiritual, is the goal of ongoing happiness. The material quest is recognized as flawed by the simple nature of things and so the quest for enlightenment is taken to be the wise path.

When we examine the goal though we see that the quests are equally flawed. Spiritual seeking is no greater than material seeking - it is the very same thing - a desire for control. A desire for an average more happiness than sadness, often a desire for only happiness. Not asking much are we?!

Could you maintain happiness for extended periods without feeling drained? Not the kind of happiness that comes from material goods, spiritual highs or any other means you couldn't. Let us be honest friends here, not out to fool one another or make false claims. Ongoing happiness has never once occurred in anyone anywhere. And we're not special.

The quest for enlightenment is just like the quest for happiness by material means. You seek a book, teacher, video, exercise, diet, method, philosophy, gem of wisdom, that is going to fill the space you have waiting for it. You've never quite found it so you continue. How is this different or any better than the path of materiality?

If you see that it is not whether such a thing as endless happiness exists, but that the desire for it is the very root of suffering then - you've cracked the code. Happiness and misery are yours to behold. You're enlightened! Apologies that it wasn't what you were expecting.

Yes, ongoing happiness is simply an impossible goal and accepting that - while it seems like a dead simple truism of no worth in uttering, one any fool could realize - is the only enlightenment there is.

Taoist cuts god to size

2013-04-27T18:23:00.001-07:00

"You say there can be no god within infinity because - well whatever silly reason you give... Yet there is a you. Why no god? "

"Choose the largest most ferocious animal on earth, in fact, invent one, give it the most voracious appetite - can it eat the world?"

"No to be in the world you can't then consume the entire world. Does this answer my question?"

"I think so yes. Can the sharpest blade, of the grandest knife, thrust with the greatest force, slice space?"

Being at the birth of religion

2013-04-13T19:04:00.002-07:00

Here's the trap - Religion is full of contradiction - yet - the universe is clearly magical - we can see exactly why religion would come to be.

The place to be would be the open awe, the recognition of the magic, but with no predefined way of explaining the mystery. And as soon as the urge to explain rise - it be instantly quashed.

An open mind taking in the universe, with no story, no justification, no rationale. Recognising a deep beauty and maintaining that beauty by refusing to taint it with even one thought.

Is there such a thing as nonduality?

2013-04-09T14:45:00.001-07:00

After Nonduality comes Taoism. There is oneness, which is everything 'one with no two' but that - seems - to give rise to life and death, up and down, right and wrong. Nonduality commonly denies these elements but no human does. Taoism accepts the apparent duality and then points out that they arise together and so resolve back into oneness. [As described so perfectly, requiring no words, by the Tai Chi]

We can deny all dualities, we can aim to live in perpetual bliss - as that is we are told that non-dual masters have - but we won't. You may listen to the great 5 syllable mantra for hour upon hour, breathe deeply, eat the freshest new growth, relax your body and mind, have nothing to do with the mundane world at large - but shit will happen. You may detach from this and continue in your perfect state, you may, you may.... But you won't. Accept life just as it appears to be and, that's Taoism. Nonduality that accepts the apparent duality. [After all - nonduality itself is a dual concept in opposition to the term duality. Taoism resolves this via the Tai Chi back to one]

Enlightenment is accepting your nature [not trying to define it] …

For more deep questions and answers see whyhowdeep.

the answers to life's biggest questions

2013-03-31T04:43:00.000-07:00

A new blog has begun. Why How Deep

Once a day for as long as it lasts one deep question will be answered.

I've noticed in life that many bonobo's and people alike concern themselves with mystifying questions so I've decided to answer each and every one that comes my way.

[First post will be April 2nd at some point]

Infinite consciousness... And stuff

2013-03-26T14:04:00.002-07:00

A fear of death, a sense of self, a feeling of free will are valuable to encouraging an organism to avoid harm, and so live to pass on genes. Evolutionarily this makes complete sense.

All are though stories concocted as ways to make sense of a world produced by the same apparatus as that telling the stories. So then the feelings of; a fear of death, a sense of self and a feeling of free will are stories not reality.

There is a oneness you see, moving in a way, changing in a way. No description of this is down right true. Perhaps the descriptions and stories are useful (scientific discoveries, genuine wisdom), often they're not (ignorance, superstition).

Am I in the universe or is the universe in my mind?

Is consciousness one in the universe and I am within that or does my brain have consciousness which sees the world?

Does my brain produce consciousness from its biology or does it tap an infinite consciousness like a modem with WiFi?

You could phrase this question many ways.... and whichever version you choose and whichever answer you take, none are right.

The material world is not produced in consciousness. Consciousness does not give rise to a material world.

Devoid of either quality, so called conscious or so called material, is this, nameless. Consciousness and materialness are mere fabrications an 'either or' made from none. A left and right when seen from center.

Questions of 'this or that' arise with relentless frequency in the mind and they have no resolution except Wu! Negation. Negation of even negation. No dual question of this or that has resolution.

When the mind is not telling stories, in stillness, that's it.

And in the end.... The reason these folk do this and those folk do that and we understand a little and we don't... Is that the one is infinite and so must by nature give rise to all possibility, not just the bit you like.

Maybe

2013-03-22T13:36:00.001-07:00

The best way to realize the realization is to realize how little the realized people have realized.

Taoist and Buddhist Tweets

2013-03-14T04:07:00.001-07:00

~

Life, the stream. The people, the bubbles.
Pop! goes one. And the stream still flow.

~

Of course this is all a dream with no dreamer. (The one you thought to be dreamer is in the dream too.)

~

If anything has an opposite, then it is a product of the mind.

~

You do not become a liberated being, but liberated from being.

~

You are reality, you do not experience reality.

~

You don't attain truth, you unattain false.
Bit by bit, one by one, cast the false aside.
What is left is.

~

When doubt or pain arise, alter focus.
When war and death seem widespread, broaden your horizons.
Never in the infinite is one matter so important that it deserves attention.
Attention only on the root of attention can bring you to touch the supreme self of birthless, deathless, timeless, bliss.
The mind then is unable to cast a false world of suffering, and so your universe reconfigures.

~

Suffering, stress, and hatred are man made human disease, terminal in nature.

~

You made the universe from your ideas.
It is your creation.
Why is it full of problems?
Well, it is not, but your universe contains problems because they are in your mind.
It will take time to be absent of problems in mind, but when you are, so too, your universe will shine perfectly.

~

be here now? ...
yet, they do something now, to achieve in the future.
Thus clouding the now they seek and waiting for something that never arrives.

~

Who is on the path to enlightenment?
When is it expected to take place?
It can only be, and it can only be now.
Not when and not by whom.

~

Ask the question internally then completely forget about it. The answer will come when it is ready, interaction will spoil the clarity of the reply.
Interaction is not useful as it splits the mind and generates new interference patterns. Clarity comes from the ability to leave alone.

~

In the world of mind there is reincarnation. It is this whole that reincarnates with every new moment, each new moment is creation and each new moment is the rebirth of the previous moment. All is change, that is all.

~

The mind is nothing without memory. Memories though are imperfect. The mind relies on the imperfect and unreal to formulate a now to which it likes or dislikes.
The mind in this way forms a body, a world and a person!
It forms others. We all share this mind-dream of a world people-ing when in truth this manifestation is built from false memories of past and future. This now is an idea.

~

The highest guru lives within. All other gurus are compared to this inner guru and in time the inner guru realizes its perfection.
So there is room for the imperfect guru. Room for all imperfection, all error, all the trials that may come your way - they are all encouraging the inner guru to realize its perfection.

~

To lose your mind is a true gift!
As long as it is not replaced by another one.

~

When you recognise inner peace, that is just the mind recognising peace. This is why it is seen as pleasant and why it can come and go.

~

How much more real is now, as compared to one hour from now?
And for the past hour?
Do we agree that now is vastly more real than any other time, past or future?
This is it.

~

The most advanced alien life, say a dolphin, lion, garden shrub, bacteria, fly, rat; all are actually as well advanced as every other. Only the human, feeling advanced with its tools, is in folly due to the wish to explain itself, where every other just is.

~

Nothing exists "of itself" but only in relation to everything other than itself.
Yet they are one. Impossible, to correctly conceive, alone.

~

You are essential. You exist in your role, because you are part of the whole;
And so exist forever.
So you were un-"born" for no "time" and will be "dead" for no "time".
Knowing you are witness to that entire process, and the reason for it, is mind-blowing.
But then as you are it, and it is you, so there is no mind to blow.

~

No one is apart from absolute perfection. They just become better and better at convincing themselves that they are not (absolute perfection)!

~

Pride is a flaw not a quality.
I say!
Pride is a flaw, not a quality and humility is controlled pride.

~

Embrace war and evil.
Sounds odd, yet to embrace them will aid in their removal. If you oppose them, you enforce them. Take them on board, consider them. It was someone who was against something who brought about war. So only those who embrace all can put an end to it.

~

Why?
About aged 2 you learned this word “why” and started using it.
It is time to stop asking why.
Never say or ask why again.
There is nothing to be explained, nothing that could be any other way.

~

“a book”
is already 5 letters too long in explaining anything.

~

I can’t fight against war – as then I’m at war.
I can’t make rules for politicians – as then I’m being political.
For peace the only action I may make is to be peaceful.
Note that these rules are for conceptual people as the true I is not split so in no position to act at all.

~

When two are at war and a 3rd enters the battle, what good can happen? Now 3 are wrong.
Peace is lived through peaceful action. Eat what was not killed, consume what is renewable, leave no trace.
The enlightened don’t need telling how to act, they don’t act.

~

There is no-thing outside of the conceptual universe as all things are conceptual.

~

When you think that “things should be different” then you are trapped by the mind. When you are here-now-present then you see things as they truly are.

~

In tough times, when things seem impossible; Remember who you are, that you move mountains with wind, support galaxies with space, and importantly – that life does itself.

~

You won’t ever understand until you see that understanding is limited.
Given all information until complete understanding, to have all so that infinity is mapped completely, and allowing for that new understanding to also be understood so that nothing, not even the current motion of now is missed, you’d see. This is how it is.

~

They always encourage you to be wary of the world “look out for yourself” they say.
Well no, I say: “look in for yourself”
Always keep focused on the within and you’ll never be without.

~

Do you see enlightenment as your desired destination or recognize it as the sweet ongoing path?

~

Whether there is terror or splendor in the world of mind, being itself is a mind blowing miracle.

~

stress is always rooted in mistaken identity.

~

That Illusive thing you seek, no matter what it may be, is always just behind the one looking.

~

Life * is a distraction.
(*as you know it)

~

For every act of evil, there is an act of beauty. You Can't Change the World, Only Your Attitude Towards It.

~

Drop the desire for enlightenment and then you are "not-I" and you regain your original face.
Anyone seeking enlightenment is of course not enlightened. Nor could anyone ever be enlightened, as on enlightenment, there is no I.
"I seeking enlightenment" is bound.
"Enlightened" is no-I, free.
So drop the idea you could ever achieve, as that achiever is not even possibly real. Drop the idea of an achieving entity so there is no longer a desirer; and then you reach the non-I, and there is enlightenment...

~

Don’t get any big ideas.

~

It isn’t what it was. It isn’t what you plan, it isn’t what you think, it isn’t what you have in mind.

~

The universe is ever perfect.
As look, see?
From a human perspective it may seem imperfect,
but this is because the human is not seeing the universe.
Only a small constructed abstraction.

~

I support the universe, the compression of sea beds, keep suns in space and mountains from crumbling.
Absolutely effortlessly.

~

I am.
..and by which..
The universe Hum.

~

What is the difference between enlightenment and happiness?
That you mind.

~

Aggression is often met with retaliation.
Reason more often met with understanding.

~

Memory is a painting and the mind is the painter. Comparing fresh paint to old paint is cognition.

~

It is bad luck to be superstitious.

~

The mere thought of changing a thing is bondage.

~

What came before both chicken and egg was someone to make that distinction.
Mind over matter?
Before both was the perceiver of these.
Space and time, require a knower.
World and life and death and a universe and an infinity, require, before them, the self who they happen in the awareness of.
Your body came of the world, you preceded both and all.

~

The desire to have happiness for all results in inevitable suffering when sadness is seen.
The desire to be well makes being unwell difficult.
The desire for enlightenment and release breeds constant anguish as the state of ignorance persists.
Free from desire, the perfect way, all happens yet is not suffered.

~

Practice is perfection.
As truth is non-dual;
You can only BE it,
..not have it.

~

I am complete without ideas.
Ideas break me into many.

~

To know anything, even truth, maybe especially truth, is false.
As knowledge requires knower.
Truth can only be,
and not be known.

~

I had a dream, in the dream, I was not free,
I had a dream, but that dream, was not me.
Now I come to see, the whole of reality,
Now I can see this is all that can be.

~

Don't take the road to Nirvana without realizing that the road is Nirvana.

~

There are only 3 things that spoil perfection:
Memories,
Plans
Concepts

~

Why do I see pain and suffering?
Because you seek pleasure.
Not seeking,
Not found.

~

Now. Awakened. And every moment, every action, every act, every sight of the eye, sound of the ear, sense of the heart, is only the truth.
Then you need no time, no place to be or go, nothing to seek and nothing missing.
The man at prayer, the woman singing praise, are not wrong in your eyes but as filled with truth as the moo of a cow and the wind in the trees, no more or less.
The grass under your feet is a great as the space above your head and both contain each other as the universe contains itself and you are all things.
Breathing, you are dead. Living you decay. As dust you feed life. As new life you return to life.

~

When I have perfect wisdom then all shall be released.
I can not achieve this any other time than now,
Therefore all beings are perfectly awake,
and I have perfect clarity.

~

We each step back from the infinite fractal of which we are one. And from each stance we naturally have a unique perspective. Some people have it all worked out, some have no idea, many see it in similar ways, many in complete contradiction.
And so it is, infinite, and one.
So when we read the words of another, one who has all the answers, we must remember, great or not, they offer only a perspective. No matter how true these words are to one, they will only ever point partially for another.
Each truth is unique, ultimately, beyond the words though, they are the same.

~

You know what was there? Right in the heart, right at the root, right there where it all began, that which envelops the infinite..
The answer: Something indefinable with words, incalculable, unimaginable, un-sayable.
It was the truth, and in meeting it: all further chatter, all attempts at definition, all mind-games that say this and that - were permanently, extinguished.
It was simple, it came before words.

~

Perhaps one of the nastiest snags on the path is to feel you "have it".
Then these people go about attempting to push their ideas on others.
Or sniggering at how wrong everyone else is.

~

The world does not owe you anything, can not give you anything.
The idea that the world should give you happiness, when the world does not have happiness as one of its constituent parts, is apparently false. The world is made of mind and mind can only recognise happy and sad, not produce them.
Happiness must emerge from the only true reality, that before mind.

~

Most of them are at work.
Making money.
To buy things.
That help them forget about work.

~

Here we both are.
Our lives have taken so many different twists and turns.
Your life so different to mine.
Yet, Here we are!

~

You can think "things are like this" (good or awful)
and be bound by that,
Or it may set you free.

~

You may watch something grow, you may watch something decay.
Yet in all of infinity, the essence did not shift one bit.
Remain focused on the essence.
Then, as you observe them again, growth and decay are not different.

~

What?

~

Like using a telescope to look for your eye.
You wont find truth.
If it did not already exist in you, how could you have looked at all?
You're looking for something,
That if you did not already have,
You'd be unable to begin in looking,
See ?

~

He was said to have the best memory of all.
It had nothing in it.

~

Not: "why this why that why me why why why?"
Just: "This that is and it is it is it is!"

~

If ego is seeking then truth will be kept at bay. If person is seeking for gratification, position, accumulation, then truth will be ever absent.

~

Every book you ever cherished will be ashes in your fire when truth burns through.

~

The big wave who wanted to be as vast as the ocean - eventually gave up trying to get bigger and bigger - it dropped down, forgot itself and became.

~

Always replying spontaneously with the truth, never needing to lie, you have to rely less on memory.
Relying less on memory or cunning keeps you in the present and living spontaneously.
Fresh and free and true.

~

No action, such as trying to become 'not the doer', trying to achieve oneness, attempting meditation, doing yoga, is in itself useful and it can even be detrimental.
These actions are only of use when the result is unity.
More likely they occur when unity is already the case:
"Ah, this is it! I sit!"
and not:
"I must sit and act what I am not."

~

There is nothing to talk about, say or do.
All action and talk should be simplified, not built upon.
Able to simplify, and simplify, and simplify, and reduce to none.
Is the wisest person of all.

~

Seeking happiness, is sadness.
Seeking pleasure, is suffering.
Can we now see what the Buddha said?
Living (for most people) is suffering.

~

Where you go is the way.
When you map it out it makes no sense, and those who follow those maps are lost forever.

~

If you have a bad finger, then later in the day you will hit it again.
If you have a bad outlook, then things will come to frustrate you.

~

There will come a day when [insert item here] is no longer important.

~

A wise person once said "I don't know" and he was so so so right that everyone ignored him and went to find something more complicated instead.

~

Philosophy: When you settle on a label, you loose your suppleness. You stiffen up and wait for the world to consume you.

~

Was the best thing, at the best time, the most excellent fun time, just the greatest part of the most wonderful great thing that ever happened to you… planned?

~

As soon as we are talking about them and us, peace can only deteriorate.

~

I asked my dog what she'd like to do for her birthday and she said she had nothing to wear and no money but wanted to have a nice run by the river and chew a stick or two.
I thought this was a great idea.
I asked my sister and she said her husband had exams, they were moving house soon, work was stressful and she may not get home in time to even have a rest before her birthday was out.
I thought "and you, human, are the smart one?"

~

Anyone recognising the truth could not bear for someone to act as if inferior, would laugh at someone acting superior, and would respect all in nature from fly to fish as a living equal in Tao.

~

The cat or dog is given a mirror and they become fascinated by the reflection, scratching at the mirror, jumping around, running to the back of the mirror, seeing nothing they return to the front, nudge it, on and on..
So it is also with the person when they first see the world.
With time they may realise the world is a reflection of themselves and smile.

~

It seems so unhealthy and alien to seek truth when it has already become apparent. Suddenly looking makes no sense whatsoever and instead one is drawn to view the life around them and be in a sustained state of awe and wonder.

~

You believe "I am unawakened" because you believe in "I".

~

Hanging the washing out to dry.
Painting birds onto the sky.
Drawing images with my mind.
That in a moments time,
I'll no longer find.

~

Greed is infinitely empty. Unfulfillable.

~

Those with a little, yet enough, are content.
Rich rarely so.
Wealth does not buy freedom from attachment.
And true riches are immaterial.

~

When desire opposes the situation then conflict appears.

~

It turned out all along that water buffalo were in charge of philosophy and man was on cake duty.

~

The great ones sip from the cup with an empty mind.

~

Those who seek enlightenment as something for them to have and hold are attempting to force duality to be real.

~

Not desiring to awaken to truth, is to awaken to truth.
(Are you trying to not try now?)

~

No concept of now is truly now.
Present is absent of the idea.

~

Are you trying to make yourself completely happy?
This is the action of the ego!
Strive only to hold onto the one.
Ego gone, no longer identified with – is the true state.

~

Wishing for riches or material things is a sure sign of depression and imbalance.
When all is well these are the last of your concerns.
True wealth is not something that can be gained or lost.
It can only be ignored or embraced.
And is ever present.

~

It is not to become the whole.
It is to stop identifying with parts.

~

At rest, with the sky as a blanket and the land as bed.
Bliss and fulfilment.

~

Rivers and weather can be explained in words and so can spiritual ideas.
The more words used the less the description resembles the truth of just sitting, by the river, in the moon light.

~

Truth penetrates stone, fits between rays of light, encompasses universes and swallows your mind.

~

Sun and a cool breeze, A clap of thunder and a torrent of rain.
Same Sky.
So too you. Often Calm, can blow up, react!
Here too, be like the sky; open and empty, never holding on, not lingering.

~

Nothing to say, nothing to think, nothing to do.
Ah, you have it!

~

The flower turns to the light. The tree grows towards the sky.
So too you act perfectly well.

~

When they can take space and make it emptier by adding.
When they can take clear waters and make them clearer by stirring.
When they can speak and make silence quieter: they have spoken truth.

~

To make sure of a good trip, check for calm seas.
For a wise decision, allow the mind to settle first.

~

The loss of self and the finding of the one true self in a motion: the discovery of infinite bliss.

~

Why am I in bondage?
That thought.

~

So you think you are analytical - I think you are staring at the wall.
So you think you are spiritual - I think you speak mumbo-jumbo.
So you think you are religious - I think you have a closed off mind.
So you think you are happy - I say stop thinking and you will be.
So you think I have it all worked out - I know for sure you can't.
And this is why I exist in bliss,
knowing the only certainty,
is this.

~

Follow leaders and be forever in the shade of stupidity and greed.
Follow the learned and be forever confused.

~

The eyes do not look, they absorb. The mind is responsible for looking.
The failure here is how it divides information from a limited sensory input into values good and bad.
Here is the illusion.

~

Some are lost in life. Some seek spiritual solace.
Some admirable people just live!

~

It is only an argument if you take part.

~

The big mouth causes fear and panic.
In times of fear and panic, people huddle around a leader with a big mouth.

~

Did you see the 200 year old turtle apply wrinkle cream?
Did you see the Lion condition his mane?
Did you see the bird plan her journey?
All trust Nature.

~

Water is always at water level, a persons legs go from ground to hip.
Tea tastes of tea and smells do not enter the ear.
When there is work to do, you can complain, you can rejoice.
Either way, when it is done, it is done.
Did thinking ever change a thing?
It was always going to be this way.

~

You can't force out a government without it being replaced by another.
An ant can't push down a large tree. But he can, with a team, remove its foundation and witness it tumble.

~

Peace is gained by forgetting conflicts.

~

Is it a delight to win, to get your way?
Is victory in war great?
Only from the view of ego can this be good.
On the other side were people too.
People on borders are similar and good friends.
Their remote leaders keep themselves separate.
War is between those who keep separations at heart.
Peace is at the border where men shake hands and children mix freely.

~

A leader with a big mouth makes all the wrong moves.
Govern your life from within. Tell no one of your achievements, tell no one of your failures.
Accept both as the way things are.

~

You'd trust water to evaporate.
So sit until thoughts subside.
Adding water does not aid evaporation.
So no need to help the mind.

~

If one leader had true wisdom.
They'd quit.

~

The mystery so powerful as to form the world.
The thoughts of the mind so limited.
When enough dew has collected, it drips.
When thoughts are dispersed, awakening.

~

By offering 'yourself' to one higher, you are offering something fake (your idea of separate self) to something equally fake, as it has its conceptual reality based on your initial false premise: that idea of a separate self which may be offered.

Yet, to give yourself up...

~

Worry not. - This can be the only way!

~

Layers and realms of the universe and heavens, levels of spiritual mastery or achievement, exist only as pointers to that which is in you.
The truth is never really 'out-there', to be reached for, or so on. All of that, and the truth itself, exist by one root. Being.
All such ideas are mere pointing to ways of uncovering the mystery who's clearest answer is in your own being.

~

Feeling like you don't know, you seek knowledge.
Knowledge from others is not complete and not your own.
So you feel even more like you don't know.
The wise at this point say “I can't know” and shift their attentions to perfecting this wisdom.

~

So now you have seen truth. You have achieved nothing!
Well done! As if you had something you could lose it.
So be safe in the absence and dwell in the bliss of it!

~

That something (call it a universe or any other name) has come about and produced forms, some of which feel separate and the various emotions, you can only feel a deep compassion. Most of all to yourself, as you too are as illusory conceived as the rest.
Any negative must be put aside as to attempt to form a better way whilst being a suffering part can neither benefit you or the whole.
Never make a choice whilst sad. All decisions must arise from happiness and so the future will be based on this.

~

The hardest part of the journey is the beginning as it is a journey..
..the end is a shock as you realise it was not.

~

Don't hold onto bad memories, don't hold on to ideas.
The more you learn that then the less you need.

~

Sit in the shade,
take off your mask,
there is nothing here but infinite bliss.

~

Just stop and the world becomes natural and right.
This can be the only way.

~

The only unrest in the universe is on the minds of some humans.

~

There has been a stream of wisdom passing down the ages and at every turn man has attempted to collect the water into a container so that he can wrap his mind around it.
Those containers don't flow, they stagnate, the flow continues in the stream.
Let go of your stagnation and let it back into the stream to flow.

~

It is enough to accept that all is bliss and that anything else is a misinterpretation.

~

Seeking truth is like stepping forward to achieve standing still.
An impossible method.

~

Guided by the groin they live in endless lustful seeking.
Those guided by the belly suffer unhealthy short days.
Those who take the heart for guide are some of the best people we know, but may often follow false whims and suffer these.
Guided by the mind are the most dangerous; thinking they are right, letting ego dictate ideas, wants and needs. Our common man.
Only they who have the empty cap, the guide in the crown of the head, can truly be seen as balanced. This spiritual perspective is the one who rules them all. No other guide can lead astray when this master has the helm.

~

In just the same way as a lake acts in settling dirt, nourishing life and floating logs - Without doing a thing; always in balance and remaining calm – manage your life.

~

Bliss is: not wanting to change a thing.

~

When you meet normal people they tell you all about themselves.
When you meet the wise they teach you about your self.
For the master, there is nothing but the self.

~

It is not possible to die, only suffer.
It is not possible to die (as you are infinite), only suffer (not knowing this).

~

How, separate, will you see truth, unity?

~

A light reflects, refracts, rebounds.
The resulting refracted light, reflections and so on each too do the same.
The self is similar in the way she refracts to form the appearance of many.
To a point even where separation from source can feel concrete.
Looking back on other reflections this one can feel them wrong, can see in another the enemy.
Draw back to the source, this problem is not there.

~

Why seek happiness?
When the quest only defines sadness!
Breathe deep and sit,
For this is it!

~

All conversations end in silence.

~

Attempting perfection, you show all your faults.
Accepting your faults, is perfection.
Aiming to please, failure.
Being, easy.

~

Governing well is to put away the books and inhale once between each exhale.

~

The fool has a goal.
The gifted person of bliss has no aims.

~

i did metaphysics until I realized there was no me to do it.

~

Drunken Taoist

2013-03-07T13:56:00.001-08:00

Are you listening to these podcasts? http://thedrunkentaoist.com/episodes/archive

Great fun.

Check episode 1 with Duncan Trussell.

Of course:

2013-02-22T15:46:00.001-08:00

Plants and insects communicate in ways we can not quite imagine. We may comprehend or attempt to explain how they murmur signals to one another but that is their world.

That our future ancestors may wonder how we failed to see how planets, suns and comets communicate... well, so too they shall fall to a similar prejudiced focalism of their time.

Yet none shall be so wise as they who die - seeing that there are not two. just this Dao.

Forget what is, was, could or should be

2013-01-28T23:22:00.003-08:00

Forget what is, was, could or should be. There are great philosophies and science is in progress. Lie down. Be dead.

Lying with your skeleton as it would be if only for gravity and with no resistance from muscle or tissue, die away peacefully to the emptiness. In as great a contrast now as possible to your dead body and mind the universe produces infinite power, deafening noise, blinding light. What is this? No science, no philosophising, no naming.

And untold number of storylines may be given for what is but none true. We can fool ourselves that there are stories that explain, nearly explain, or will just about do but we have no real and true storyline Any story and the constituent language is human. Even the most mystical, even the most mathematical, can only paint a limited tale.

Empty of thoughts, all you have is thoughts. In the greatest stillness, there is nothing but movement. - - So this movement, in mind, in universe, in energy, in body, in life is it. Unexplained from this corpse like pose. This is.

This is the peace, the perfection, what you were missing, what you were seeking, what you were looking for but in so doing were blind to. Imperfectable.

Enlightenment demystified

2013-01-24T13:13:00.001-08:00

Perhaps, rather than planning your escape, or dreaming of the release - instead describe and clearly map your prison.

When, by such inspection, it is seen that there is no prison - the natural, preexisting freedom, will become apparent.

What we seek in seeking is arrived at by one means and one means only. Not seeking.

A cartoon on enlightenment.

2013-01-13T15:21:00.001-08:00

1) (Normal person, getting on with life. Walking through a park, care free, whistling. Bird flying out from near by tree).

2) (Person continues walking) (Appearing in shot - A 'Guru' sitting) "You know there is a way called the enlightened way" says the Guru.

"What does that mean?" asks the person.

3) (person, now standing near the sitting Guru). Guru says "It means that you are asleep, you are in bondage - I am enlightened"

4) (person now sitting, book in hand) Thinks - "It seems I must now look hard and work to become enlightened too. Now I know I'm a separate, unawakened being - I have to get there."

5) (time has passed, person now has beard)

6) (Normal person, getting on with life. Walking through a park (with beard), care free, whistling. Bird flying out from near by tree). "Finally I'm free from this quest for enlightenment - I'm awakened!"

7) (Person continues walking) (Appearing in shot - A 'Guru' sitting) "You know there is a way called the enlightened way" says the Guru.

"Yes, thanks" (continues walking)

8) (and walking...)

How to align with Tao or become enlightened

2013-01-13T12:18:00.001-08:00

How many people in the world are looking to align with Tao? Not so many but enough for an industry. How many people seek an awakening or spiritual enlightenment? Quite a large number, enough for a multi million dollar industry. How many people are looking to be right with God? Millions. Enough for a billion dollar industry.

To align with Tao. To become enlightened. To be right in God's eyes are different enough but the same in a way. A mind made transformation in a time other than now.

One can not be wrong with God, unenlightened or out of line with Tao. Perhaps the works of man in the name of God are most demanding when they say "all is God's way but man chooses to do right or wrong" but if, to save lengthy debate, we say that this also is God's way then we can move forward to the marrow.

The three cases I've raised are a human journey of the mind.

For the sake of my typing, your reading and the blog I'm speaking on I'll now speak of Tao and perhaps enlightenment (as Zen is so commonly spoken of alongside Tao). When I say though that one can not be out of line with Tao, unenlightened or so on, I will be equally and as correctly referring to God, Allah, spirit, nature, the ocean of being, or any other name for the absolute.

The absolute, the all, the everything, in most people's eyes includes them. In truth though there is no 'it and them' but 'it' only. You're it. One can only convince themselves that they are apart or separate by the use of the mischievous mind.

The mind, on hearing of enlightenment or Tao, creates a split. It then sets about trying to resolve the split. Alike to the quest for selflessness which is an entirely selfish act so too the quest for aligning or becoming exist also. As with all tricks on the mind from anxiety to stress, from fear to remorse, they exist in a time other than now. That is, they don't exist, except in the mind.

What is aimed for in the future that can already be nothing but the case already. Our example being: aiming for awakening tomorrow when it can only be the case now - these are insoluble mind tricks. These are the tricks that the million and billion dollar industries play off, are fueled by.

It was already the case before your birth that nature, the universe, Tao was one. At birth, also one. In times of mind made turmoil, also one. Death and after, also one. The mere concept of there being something to get right with produces the seed of separation.

We can not be blamed though. (Why we should be blamed at all is a joke to me but seems it must be addressed.) - long before humans were here, nature had come to have self and other. Even by close example our ape cousins or beloved pets have self and other in their nature. We though, we named and labeled. We took names, labels and concepts to have concrete reality. Years later in our history this ingrained trait is want for abuse as it runs wild unchecked.

The nature of how we can be fooled into taking labels for forms and also labels for nebulous concepts and imbuing them substance is covered in other posts.

Just this unknowable way

2013-01-05T13:31:00.001-08:00

This way ...is best only as a way to realizing and being, wishing for no other way to be the way, than it is looking for what you would otherwise desire to become.

~ ~ ~

Perhaps..

There is 'where you are' and 'where you wish to be'. If these are different then you're unhappy.

Happiness is when 'where you are' and 'where you wish to be' are the same.

It is not though to change where you are or what you think, but realize that wishing to be anywhere else causes unhappiness.

Where you are, right now, is unchangeable, so accept where you are and you'll be happy.

Then the future lives on in this happiness.

When you're not looking to be happy, you can only be happy.

Consequently and apparently - happiness is only sought for by the unhappy. A goal of happiness makes the present location, by definition, unhappiness.

~ ~

Then, there is no chooser, no actor to act, to wish for another way or to accept the current way - there is only the way - no actor, no acted..

Just this unknowable way.

What is. Not what would, could or should be.

The apparent solution to all concern is an awakening, enlightenment. Yet it is the very projection of this 'other way/state' that turns the present perfection into imperfection that must be escaped.