FmAm

Every plant is an expression of full natural capacity. There is nothing but the full, inexhaustible whole with it's conditioned expressions which we call by names. In certain conditions there is the potential for a certain plant to live. And those conditions need their conditions, etc. ad infinitum. A plant doesn't have natural capacity. It's just an non-volitional and impersonal event. A phenomenon. So are the valuations and fears we have, which cause us to judge things. A dying plant is just a phenomenon among others. It isn't good or bad. Full bloom and a stunting plant are what they are. If I give water to a dying plant and save it, it's just an event, including all 'my' motives, feelings, and movements. It's like rain or a dust devil. They can't be anything else but what they are at a certain moment. I use to observe this: I sit and observe plants, rocks, wind and my thoughts and ask myself, can they be something else but what they are right now? The answer is always 'no'. Everything is what it is right now.

I know we've been there before, but: are the plants actively searching suitable conditions and resources? No. They are expressions of those conditions and resources they are part of. Following those conditions and resources far enough eventually exposes the whole universe. There's no way separating a flower from its conditions. Before the flower was 'born', it was air, water, sun, earth etc. It's the same with us human beings. We are our actions and our thoughts. Our actions, consciousness, thoughts, body and feelings are impersonal and non-volitional events in the whole. Which leads logically to non-conditional and non-logical. We are just like flowers. How to separate us from the flowers?

A: 'There's a secret to be found.' Q: 'Have you found it yourself?' A: 'Yes.' Q: 'Can you show it to me?' A : 'No, you have to find it yourself.' Q: 'Can you tell me where it is?' A: 'No. It's not that simple.' A conversation like that tells me instantly that there's no secret found. A person who has found the secret can show it immediately, no matter where he is. There's no such spiritual secret that someone could make use of. (Of course, the above conversation is fair if it's about someones saxophone playing skills, and he can't show his skills until he has picked up his saxophone.)

Matter is underrated. It isn't evil. And no one knows what it is. Appropriately combined, it produces consciousness. (These are just concepts.) Everything is just an epic and impersonal coincidence. Placebo is a change in brain electrics and chemistry. So is the effect of a real drug. A belief in placebo is an electrochemical happening, too - producing changes in endocrine system etc. There's nothing personal going on in placebo or in taking active drugs. There's no one believing in placebo, but there's the feeling of active believing and doing. It's just matter doing its impersonal business, with consciousness along feeling those things happening.

All people are equally free, all the time, always. All beings and things have always been equally free. Clinging to ego is freedom. Enlightenment is freedom. Suffering is freedom. Someone not having heard of any spiritual possibilities whatsoever is fully free. Someone thinking he is in control of himself and of the whole world is fully free. Being this body and these thoughts is an accident which no one is responsible for. Now, there is that other (sometimes annoying) body with its thoughts. The other body is clearly in pains with its thoughts and attitudes. All the bodies in this world are like volcanoes. Brains are erupting consciousness with thoughts and feelings all the time (mind). Is there free lava and non-free lava? Is the volcano inferior to the mind? Is the volcano inferior to the brains just because it's erupting lava instead of mind-stuff? Is the volcano controlling the lava flow? Is the brain controlling the thought flow? Is the brain controlling the controlling of [...] thought flow? Is a thought better than lava just because it can't be seen? There are no free or non-free thoughts (or lava). There are just thoughts. No cause, things happen. There's freedom, but there's no one to be free from anything. There's mind and there's a rock. Both may be appearances. "What is buddha? Yun-men said: Dried shit stick."

Tao can't win or lose. Tao just happens. Eventually sun will run out of fuel and all life on earth will end. That's tao. If humankind learns finer balance, that's tao. If humankind destroys life on earth, that's tao. There's no balance in the ecosystems. They're changing all the time. Species die out, new species are born. Same thing happens to ecosystems and to entire galaxies. That's tao. And a mother nursing and loving her baby is tao.

"The enlightened man is one with the law of causation." (Hyakujo's Fox) Again, comparing to the Bible: stepping outside the law of causation, considering oneself (falsely) as a moral agent, is the Fall of Genesis. That's when the Good and the Evil begins. "When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other." (Tao Te Ching, tr. Stephen Mitchell) From the Genesis: "You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die."

I'm a nitpicker and a preacher, so I have to correct: world is full of things not to do. There ain't a single thing to do. Still, world is full of spontaneous events and doing. Living is happening. I haven't done anything today. However, I have experienced me brushing my teeth and me walking 6 miles today.

Do you mean Platonism or Neoplatonism? I think what is needed is an emotional reformation; a shift away from egoism. A change in the "heart". Holism can't be assimilated externally. It has to be lived. We have to deeply understand that when we humans are researching nature as scientists, the nature is actually researching itself. This is an intellectual no-brainer, but it's really hard to internalize, even to scientists. Because in a way it means giving up the chance of finding the Absolute. And it doesn't actually matter whether we think in a materialistic way or not. Materialistic logic leads to holism. - - - (Science has been idealistic for a long time: http://milesmathis.com/quant.html)

Chasing reality is like running in a dream. You run and run, but can't get anywhere. Same thing may be happening in cosmology and quantum physics. That's why I like to think we are living in dreams, and those dreams could be all that exists. Imagine you were a physicist in a dream, trying to find out the secrets of reality. What kind of results would you get in that dream? Probably absurd results, with nothing really to hold on. Just like in this reality.

Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs; the sage is ruthless, and treats the people as straw dogs. (Tao Te Ching, from Chapter 5, tr. D.C. Lau 1963) This one reminds me of the book of Job. (My interpretation of that verse would be: Heaven and earth are indifferent, and treat the myriad creatures as puppets; the sage is indifferent, and sees the people as puppets.)

That's just the problem with the practical and reality-affirming approach Foster is taking on spirituality. Who's going to tell to a newborn baby that it wakes up; that something happens; that there's past, present or future; that there's a mystery or that he/she is someone? These kind of things are non-existent to a newborn baby. I have to add that there's many things I like about Foster's writings. Compassion is one of them.

"Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving." (Huineng)

http://ethicalfocus.org/free-will-the-last-great-lie/ http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blame-moral-responsibility-philosophy-law

Things happen. You write, I write, neurons go on and off, wind blows, earth revolves. No cause or infinite cause. But where's the past? There can be no proof about it. The proof is always here and now. But where's here and now? There is no "now". It isn't better than past or better than future. Present is overrated. So did things happen, after all? Where's the possibility for you and me as free agents? There's no possibility in logic. Pragmaticism is logic. No possibility in time and space. No possibility in causality. No possibility in unity. No possibility in no-logic, because there is no causality in no-logic. How could we decide and choose?

I have to say that for me the question of free will has been in crucial role in understanding spiritual texts and practice. It's been something considered intellectually and intuitively self-evident for me for a long time that free will doesn't exist in any way. Nowadays it's also spiritually clear. I gave belief in free will a chance, particularly when reading religious and spiritual writings (and when meditating). But it just didn't work, so I stopped fighting against my intuition eventually. Many of the texts didn't unfold at all when there was the assumption of required belief in free will in order to understand spirituality. There was just a pile of complicated belief systems and pseudo-problems in front of me. But no-free will and no-self were the keys for understanding. For me. I just don't know why I didn't give no-free will a chance earlier in the spiritual and practical side of my life, although it had been an intellectual reality for a long time.

Detachment doesn't imply passivity. The tiger is detached and yet very awake. I'm not trying to sell you anything. I was just trying to offer you infinite and eternal freedom instead of free will. Nothing more (see how modest and high-minded I am?). But it's your own choice.

I would say that in the state of wu wei one is aware of what is happening "inside" us and "around" us. And whatever is happening, is the natural flow. How could there be someone opposing the natural flow?

Different traditions, many similarities.

There are two Masters sitting together on the river bank. They both see a child drowning. Master1 jumps into the water, swims to the child and rescues him. Master2 just sits idly without being concerned in any way. After the incident Masters continue their sitting together on the river bank. A short conversation takes place. They notice that what happened was that Master1 saved the child, while Master2 just yawned on the river bank. They see the river flowing, without anyone ever steering the flow.

All is permitted in your life. What happens, are those limits you have set and fences you have built. What happens, is permitted everywhere. No escape from that freedom. (I don't know if this was exactly what you meant.)

Watch things happening. Whatever you think or do, watch and feel it happening. If you're feeling anxious and full of effort, watch it happening. I use to watch leaves falling from trees in the autumn. How they spin and sway in the air. They are just like our actions, thoughts and feelings. They just happen and spin and sway without us causing them. In other words, the Way alone has always been, and nothing else. Wu wei is just understanding that fact. Even when there's no understanding, it is the Way, though unknown.

Ego separating things is the reality in action.

I was just wondering. Nothing else. I'm not following or going to follow any path. And don't worry, my time can't be wasted.