C T

brush, paper and ink! Tools for masquerading art or to paint faces..

check the smooth clean lines know they won't last forever nothing stays the same...

The Buddha said, "Not nakedness, not platted hair, not dirt, not fasting, or lying on the earth, not rubbing with dust, not sitting motionless, can purify a mortal who has not overcome desires." (The Dhammapada) A friend of mine once told me that cultivating the quality of Non-Attachment for him is the same as being given a giant inflatable cushion, but it comes deflated at the start. As the practice becomes more stable, the cushion slowly gets inflated, and begins to do what its meant to do, to cushion one from becoming overly attached to transient things. Desires are quite natural, and for most people, it is not a problem. It only becomes problematic when we impose our will on them, in other words we tend to go chasing after the good desires and try hard to fulfill them, and run away from bad desires, thinking they will harm us if we do not avoid them. From the Buddhist view, both are born from the same root. Hence the practice of Non-Attachment, from a Buddhist perspective, allows one to view this with clarity, and as a result, learn to abstain from both after having understood that life is basically impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self, so to chase after one while trying to avoid the other goes against the grain of this fundamental principle of life. To gain some insight into Non-Attachment, it will be helpful to read the account of Steven Callaghan, lost at sea for 76 days! In his book 'Adrift -- Seventy-six Days Lost At Sea', he recounts poignantly: "Deprivation seems a strange sort of gift. I find food in a couple of hours fishing each day, and i seek shelter in a rubber tent. How unnecessarily complicated my past life seems. For the first time i clearly see the difference between human needs and human wants. Before this voyage i always had what i needed - food, shelter, clothing, and companionship - yet i was often dissatisfied when i didn't get everything i wanted, when people did not meet my expectations, when a goal was thwarted, or when i couldn't acquire some material goody. My plight has given me a strange kind of wealth, the most important kind. I value each moment that is not spent in pain, desperation, hunger, thirst or loneliness." To me, what Callaghan went through is almost similar to the practice of N-A. Can you imagine how valuable it is to have cultivated Non-Attachment in a situation like this? Each time i reflect on it, there arises a clear picture about how life ought to be regarded. It provides strong motivation to treat life with respect, to value the time i have, and put it to good use. (As i was writing this my puppy quietly stole my cellphone, hid herself, and began chewing on it happily. Now all i have is a phone that partly functions due to the screen being crushed. Life can be strangely funny at times! Taught me 2 lessons here... one, 'whole' things can become unwholesome in a matter of minutes, and two, dont write stuff that is not thread-related or i will 'enjoy' instant karmic consequences!! )

Not. First practice to attain the Buddha-mind of absolute equanimity, then exercise your free-will, not the other way round. If you cling to free-will first, and thru that practice attempt to attain Buddha-mind, then you will be faced with a ton of pressure, forever needing to discriminate how best to exercise this free-will. When the mind becomes spacious and free, all acts will spontaneously follow accordingly, in harmony with the understanding that all beings want to be free from sorrow and unhappiness. When this view is fully stabilized, only then can one act without being selective. The compassionate quality becomes pervasive. Without this quality first recognized and stabilized, how is it possible for your will to be free of partiality? Total free-will denotes unbounded freedom. Otherwise all wills and actions will still be tainted with the 3 poisons, arising from the clinging to a self that appears 'free' when in truth, it is not, by virtue that the 'self' is not 'self' as an independent entity, rather is dependent on composite factors to arise. Hence free-will can never be complete in this sense. To have unbounded free-will, there need to be an equal dose of impartial and pervasive equanimity, imo, and to achieve this, one has to first do the practices.

Just read this on someone's blog, and found it to be quite relevant here. I AM THE ACTION OF THE UNIVERSE The universe is universing and doing all acts. Wherever and whenever it makes something of interest, and wants to then monitor what is going on, it activates the black-box recording unit - you call this your mind or your 'self'. As the black-box unit sees and emotes all acts just after they happen and records them, it thinks it is seeing and emoting in real-time, and associates with the actions, sensations and the emotions, as if inseparably one with these displays. Like the plane - it turns left, and the black-box has to record the event, and to do so optimally, it has to simulate the action, as if it too is also turning left. This does not mean that without the black box, the plane does not exist, or cannot turn left. The black-box in a plane thinks it is flying the plane, just like you think you are acting out your life. It is actually being acted out in total oneness, you are simply like a monitoring unit fooling yourself that you are somehow in-charge of your directions. When you come to realize that you are actually the actions of the universe and not this monitoring unit recording every detail (in case you 'fail' there is a sort of back-up), you will start to go beyond the scope of the senses. Rather than "I hear the rain, see the wall", it becomes "I am the rain, the wall, the garden, the sun, the air, the earth, the human, all acting in unison." In a different thread, the writer says, "The eyes do not look. They simply absorb. The mind is responsible for the 'looking'; its failure here is the splitting up of one of the sensory inputs into value judgements - good and bad/evil, long and short, dark and light and so on. All values are reflections. If you cling to the reflections, you will miss the main event. These selective values exist due to the mind itself - here lies the source of all illusions." "Your empty mind is your full life; the impenetrable solid reality is the ungraspable mind!" (T.T)

Actually you are only partly making the coffee Marbles...

The person does not make the coffee. Its the coffee that 'makes' the drinker of the coffee, or makes one desire such a thing as coffee. If this world had no coffee, the desire for coffee would never have arisen. There is really no separation in this sense. This is not useless debate. It is very useful actually, because when the mind is pushed in all absurd directions, it creates this massive confusion of sorts, then when the activity finally ceases, there one can rest in a prolonged gap of "Wow" with nothing else to encroach on that space, and its very liberating like that. In principle its the same as one big massive koan. Very useful.

A return contemplation for your hard work TzuJanLi: "The man of Tao remains unknown Perfect virtue produces nothing No-Self is True-Self And the greatest man is nobody." (The Way of Chuang Tzu, trans. Thomas Merton)

Namaste Bob. Gracious and generous, as always. Very much appreciated. _/\_

we stop and listen yet the mind ceaselessly churn raising the dead past...

Hey MH, Here is the gift of an ounce of inspiration related to your topic: Its called the Pursuit of Understanding, Happiness and Virtue! Have a great weekend mate!

The past cannot be undone. It is forever gone. It has brought you to the present, but it does not have the power to determine the future. Only the deeds of the present will determine that. By seeking to remain in the vicious thoughts of past deeds, present deeds can be easily corrupted. When present deeds succumb to corruption, it will be easy to also taint future deeds with corruption. We cannot change the past, but we most certainly can change the way we think about the past. When we can transform the way we think about the past, we can then be free of the mental weight of the past. Actually we are already free of the past, but we are afraid to let go of the familiar. Somehow, we make the wrong assumption that the past determines who and what we are. So there is a tendency for people to cling ever so tightly to the past, as though it was something valuable and entertaining. Even if its not, people find it hard to shake off the past due to the forces of habitual tendencies at work. However, these forces can be transformed with the proper 'mental' tools. Correct mindfulness is one such tool. In mindfulness, we will clearly see that it is our present choices that actually decide who and what we are going to become. Freedom does not lie in the ability to undo the past - where it lies is in the ability to choose the right motives, the right thoughts and the right actions, right now, in this present moment. There is actually no 'good' or 'bad' past karma. Only karma. Positive or negative karma always only occur in the present, which then determines future outcomes. So please think and act with as much mindfulness as you can. Be safe.

Eventually everything becomes One Taste.

So the choice is yours to remain or to depart. May all choose wisely...

Think of Pure Consciousness as boundless potential existing as a continuum of understanding, knowing and realization. What has been understood, known and realized, if one clings on to these as though they were substantially real and concrete, will eventually permeate into the realm of self-consciousness where intellectual foundations and values get ascribed, and will therefore take on a reflective past and a projected future. The process of ascribing values and judgements based on the understood, the known and the realized creates clinging, and sows the seeds of future karmic consequences. Where there is clinging, dualistic views are unavoidable. Hence the allusion that if a person wants to attain total freedom, there has to be an equally total abandonment of all acquired knowledge, and all past experiences, good or bad, have to be seen thru as empty - without any power over the present. Pure Consciousness on the other hand, i believe, exists always as the potential of Nowness, and therefore can never be a "known" phenomena. It is like an ongoing presence of Being. Every moment we can choose our thoughts and directions, IF we are mindful of mind. Positive, negative or neutral intent, emotions, thoughts and feelings can all be liberated only in this one present moment, never in the past or at some time in the future. These two states are the illusional glue that keeps one bound to the wheel of samsara.

now i must rewire? Review your options you must! Choose or be chosen...

The Cow of course! Beyond the shadow of a doubt!!

The center welcomes everyone! One of the best places for a quiet getaway, to recuperate, to reconnect with oneself, to contemplate and meditate. Or one can choose to do absolutely nothing here, except breathe in the presence of wonder! Its a magnificent location to spend a couple of weeks. You are free to do your own thing, and there are no expectations placed on any visitor/guest to the center. Those who enjoy walking/trekking will find this a superb destination, with excellent treks and lovely walks all around the peninsula. The carpeted meditation hall (see pic) is open to visitors most days and offers a panoramic 180d view of the ocean! Visitors can often be seen doing their personal practice here, be it taichi, yoga, pilates, qi gong or simply sitting, or some walking meditation. I have never seen a meditation hall that is more conducive for practices!

The gap between 2 thoughts... excellent example! Absolute spaciousness, boundless emptiness, yet unbounded potential exists in that gap! The wider this gap in Being, the closer one 'gets' to the realization of inseparability, or Absolute Selflessness. In that little gap beyond forms, or bardo, is found the deathless nature of enlightenment!!! This 'space without thoughts' is the meeting place of the Groundless Mother and the Unconditioned Child, and when one can rest pervasively and limitlessly in this state beyond all names, then it is here that re-Union is reached. All the saints and boddhisattvas reside in this gap, also known as Transcendent Wisdom, or Prajnaparamita. Practicing the correct meditations gives us opportunities to get a 'taste' of this re-union, to feel what ultimate freedom is, and eventually, after such feelings become a part of our habit, we too, can begin to rest in this unbounded spaceless space, and attain to abiding Transcendent Wisdom. In this abiding, all notions of Samsara and Nirvana are seen thru as existing without any basis. What the Taoists call Immortality exists in this gap - it is here where Heaven and Earth merge. The sole purpose of the Taoist Emptiness Meditation is to help the practitioner establish a familiarity with this 'deathless' and 'birthless' yet nameless state of Being. The 'Wu' i think, made known to me by Marblehead . Disclaimer: Just my personal opinion here. Does not reflect whatsoever the views of any other system.

my chakras, hurray! we are all reconnected as we rewire... (SORRY for borrowing artform's signature -not feeling very inspired this afternoon! , and A7's contribution ain't helping any!! )

I suppose they are taking the phrase "More power to you" to a more "electrifying" level?

Well changes are imminent i think. Some of those in position are beginning to bear up to their responsibilities. Its a major issue here in Ireland. The local Bishop where i am recently resigned due to his "waking up" to the plight of his flock, and accounted for the mistakes of his priests.

What sort of duration are you thinking about? There is a retreat center in Ireland set in the hills, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, that i think you will like. Great energy abounds here. Its a Tibetan Buddhist center, but then it welcomes people from all diverse walks of life. They do take volunteers from time to time, depending on what skills they can bring with them. Check this out if you are interested: http://www.dzogchenbeara.org/ All the best!

I personally know 2 "abused" victims, and it spurred me to practice even harder to develop a compassionate heart. I could make the choice to be angry, to cry out in total disgust, and direct this emotion towards the ignorant abusers, but i cant see how this will alleviate my own ignorance in any meaningful way.