from Elizabeth:

well Xenophon's certainly about the high drama, but not probably historically accurate.

Excerpts from Theramenes' defense speech:

" . . . would the man who openly gives this advice appropriately be considered a loyalist or a traitor? Those who prevent making more adversaries, who show instead ways to obtain the most supporters, these do not make one's enemies stronger, Critias, but rather those who unjustly take away money and who kill those who do no wrong, these are the ones who make the opposition more numerous and who betray not only their friends but also themselves for the sake of the sordid love of gain (aischrocherdeia). 2.3.43

En route to being served hemlock: When dragged through the agora, Theramenes was yelling what was happening to him, and one of his captors, Satyros, is reported as telling Theramenes that if he did not keep quiet he'd regret it. Theramenes replied, "And if I do keep quiet, will I not regret it?"

Hemlock actually looks like a carrot when immature, and grows to several feet tall. It is chemically similar to nicotene, and produces stimulant-like effects followed by a gradual extinguishing of the nervous system, usually producing shaking. This was not included in the Phaedrus (the Platonic speech in which Socrates dies!;( ).

Ending lines in Xenophon (Theramenes' ending lines, i.e.): "Here's a toast to the beautiful Critias!" Various interps of the meaning of beautiful here of course. The "better people" or aristocrats were supposed to be kalon, meaning "beautiful, noble."

He's a tricky bugger. So easy to romanticize all of this. The Greeks liked high drama like they liked wet t-shirt contests. There's actually a title kalirnos or something, which means "of the beautiful rear-end," and is often applied to Aphrodite.

Well love to all.
Elizer

From: alice
Date: Sat Dec 23, 2000 2:02 am
Subject: Re: [Negative-Capability] fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is best explain via chakras. Fund belongs to 1st n 2nd - literalism n fear of change/security. it means well but gets stuck in idolatry of concretism n literalism.

hence the wisdom of parables - they work on all levels. the danger is in getting stuck at the bottom!

if u look at the caduceus n mark one bott tail A n the other B, u will see that they switch on the next level n so 2 people can both be right but talking on 2 diff leves=the dilemma of levels. this is the process of mercury, trickster, at work.

Fund is a very real danger in the coming yrs - not just Christ but in all faiths - n until humanity learns how to convert nouns into verbs, whats into hows, we all will feel threatened. that's the bad news. the good news is, u cannot stop the thrust of a new aion! but like nasdaq is being pruned, so will a lot of the kookiness of new agers be swept away. jung was no kook n we will have to live our lives as examples not just talking - unless we embody, incarnate, our understanding - such as it may be - we cannot truly represent what the harbingers of the future are teaching. offhand, i wld have to say buddhism - in the light of not proselytizing but offering a 'method' or process n jung's insight ab the inner discovery of the Self [div Guest] by the ego/who we consc identify with - offer hope for the futurem, as do the ESOTERIC aspects of all the religions sufism, kabbalah, celtic christianity, genuine shamanism etc.

the Eastern religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism are infinitely more advanced in the techniques of using the body as a battery for higher consc [for the few ready for it] but the West also has in its suppliants a humility n dependence on the wisdom of nature n the grace of God to offer. Love is also a force. 'a new commandment do I bring u - that ye love one another even as i have loved you.'

just some reflections n now to bed!

love, what else?

ao

the coniunctio of east n west will make us global beings n ready to take our place in the cosmos....

in the meantime, back at the ranch - Texas ranch - stay tuned for the nitty-gritty of conflict of the opposites!

so, deb, diunna fash yersel' too much n have a warm n loving Xmas

something i wish u all!

time for bed!

ao

From: mike
Date: Sat Dec 23, 2000 9:58 am
Subject: Re: [Negative-Capability] Who's got the blues???

Beautiful one here, Anand:
> Vishnu / Krishna is the one who is blue, not Shiva. Shiva is the "blue-
throated" > one, from swallowing deadly poison to save the world.<

*Be it said, however, that Shiva is often represented in his form as an ascetic yogin as grey-coloured, because rubbed with the ashes of the cremation- grounds. This aspect carrires over into many of the Buddhist 'Heruka' - the wrathful deities - where (as opposed to the version given in TV travelogues where it is assumed it's some kind of sun-screen) the cremation ash signifies freedom from space-time... freedom from the illusion of becoming, and hence from both birth and death...

> Vishnu is space (the blue sky), at the Vishuddhi (throat) Chakra; Shiva is time, at the Agnya (third eye on forehead) chakra ; the interaction of the two (time penetrating space) gives rise to our world (of the senses). Hence Vishnu often takes the form of an incomparably beautiful woman (Mohini the enchantress; who is the cause of our Maya or enchantment / delusion); esoterically, Vishnu (in the form of Balaji) is identified with the Goddess — the womb / sphere of space, with Shiva the male (linear; motion of time). Their intercourse (the motion of time in space) leads to the future moving into the past. Shiva is often depicted as white /pale; he is "shava" (corpse) without the life-giving contact of shakti (lit. power; a name for Devi, i.e., the Goddess). Time can't move except through space; and also, Shiva as pure consciousness is inert without an animating power / When the kundalini rises above the throat chakra, the aspirant transcends space or distance between objects ("Thou art that"); this is Arjuna's vision in the Bhagavad Gita— a partial realization. When the kundalini further rises above the third eye, the aspirant transcends even time. The latter is the harder task; I am reminded of Mike's recent posting of a story with impossibly complex Buddhist names, where there is a similiar structure (the one that was reposted in Jung-Fire).<

*Whaddaya mean, 'impossibly complex', buddy? You impugnin'?... But of course it *is* true. What one understands, and the terms in which one has come to understand it seem very clear to *you*, the 'understander'. However, these terms very often mean little and even nothing (experiential *or* intellectual) to one's interlocutor. Forgive my crass assumption.

> Krishna is the aspect of Vishnu who resides in the heart, and represents the universalization of love. (Hence his simultaneously making love to 1008 milkmaids, by duplicating himself 1008 times, so each milkmaid receives his love, and each thinks she is the sole and special object of his attentions.) One must first experience love to all (sensient and insensient) equally and without discrimination — the kundalini rising above the heart chakra — before one may transcend space and time.<

*Govinda - 'The Cowherd (Skt. 'go')'. My eldest son's name is Govinda.

>possessiveness is the enemy of the universalization of love. (Letting go is so hard to do!) This is the basis for and aim of sexual tantrik practices — chakra pujas [worship (puja) withthe aspirants assembled in the form of a wheel or circle (chakra)]. <

*From another context (discussing menstruation), I extract the following blather by the highly enlightened yours truly... "...However, certain highly advanced yogins with almost perfect control over their subtle energies do practice the yoga of union (which has almost nothing to do with sex - and especially what is nowadays called 'tantrik sex') at this time among others. The yoga of union is a subtle energy practice and has to do with the discovery and opening up of the subtle energy channels within the body, with the movement of these energies along those channels and the dissolution of all attachment to structure on an extremely subtle level (makes what generally passes for kundalini yoga look fairly wogga-wogga)...

Part of this dissolution of attachment does, of course, have to do with the tabu on the menstrual fluids and with cutting through one's attachment to ideas of pure and impure and of defilement and shame, but it also goes much deeper - the substances involved all have very specific and so to speak puissant energies whose alchemical combination and relationship are the subject matter of some extraordinarily abstruse thinking. The language used is very often symbolic and evocative rather than descriptive and knowledge - understanding - comes from practice - personal experience refined and polished over time under the careful tutelage of the teacher.

The tabu itself is related to the dark, the dark period of the moon, the fearsome and unknown, and I think stems from an extremely archaic stratum of womens' magic at a period when men were totally unaware of the part they had to play in 'paternity'. We look at these things now, unfortunately, through the eyes of 'enlightened moderns', but we have in fact almost no knowledge of our own embodiment as a living and dynamic process. The ancients and the so-called primitives were and are much closer to being and not-being than most of us will ever get: their knowledge is not based on observing dead examples of becoming, but on feeling out and appreciating the process in its very exposition... The difference between a Tibetan and an Occidental description of the instant of conception or of foetus growth is quite singularly revealing..."

> The difficulty with our sense organs is that they are limited by time and space— they serve as "local magnifiers" / filters. But I am going off on a tangent here... >

*The beauty of the sense organs is that they perceive directly and without the slightest agenda. The interpretation of and attachment of meaning to these sense-data is where things begin to go awry. As Tilopa says, it is not THINGS that create obstacles to enlightenment, but only one's attachments (positive and negative) to things. Maya is not 'that', but a much closer 'this'.

m

From: mike
Date: Sat Dec 23, 2000 9:58 am
Subject: Re: [Negative-Capability] Krishna

Aren't we talking of Krishns not Vishnu?

*Both. Krishna is avatar of Vishnu.
m


From: marysk...
Date: Tue Dec 26, 2000 3:55 pm
Subject: Re: [Negative-Capability] Millennial Anxiety and Timeless Gnosis

(note: I'd mentioned a website. Mary L's response below is to that.  Deborah )

Hi, Deb, Yeah, I used to know some of those folks.  A few were great, but I suspect some of them of being crypto-fascistic.  Too conspiratorial, in my experience.  I met a whole troupe (troop) of them (Occitanie-variety) at midnight on the Solstice up in the ruins of the chateau of Montsegur - where I had thought I was vigiling alone on my birthday.  They set up their altar and candles below me as I watched, astounded, then removed their brown robes and stood in serried ranks all in pure white military uniforms around one in the morning!  And when I revealed myself, with joy and bad French, they treated me with reluctant friendship - but stole my film while I slept! 

To me, the base - the root - level of the Tree of Life often informs the rest more than the other way around.

M. (Mary)

From: mary
Date: Tue Dec 26, 2000 5:42 pm
Subject: Re: RE: [Negative-Capability] Who's got the blues???

Hi, Anand,

There isn't a separate Sikh version. [Sikhism originated as a martial component of Hindu society to defend against invaders from the North West.] Yes, I got that while I was there.  All the mad bus drivers are Sikhs!  Very fierce, proud, upright!  And gorgeous.

...I was sort of remembering the little shrine wall at Manikaran.  It was up on the hillside above, and may not have been connected!   The Hindu version was that Parvati got so angry after losing her mani (ear stone) that Shiva had given her into the river that all sorts of hot springs, earthquakes and so on erupted all over the place.  Re-reading what I wrote from the Sikh wall at the Gurudwara, it speaks of Nanak-dev-ji on a visit to Manikaran. He said, "Oh, Mardana, say Wahguru and lift the stone."  Mardana did, and found a hot spring, stuffed a chappati into it and found it baked.  And yes, we had a lovely meal there for a few rupees, a totally voluntary donation, of course!

...I spent a week in his ashram at Puttaparthi one Christmas, sang bajahns  (sp.?) with him, did daily darshan in the great square, packed in with hundreds, maybe thousands of Indian and other women, the men on the other side.  He's real!

M. (Mary)

 From: C Bishop : Wed Dec 27, 2000 1:09 pm
Subject: Re: [Negative-Capability] Millennial Anxiety and Timeless Gnosis

Mary writes -Yeah, I used to know some of those folks.  A few were great, but I suspect some of them of being crypto-fascistic.  Too conspiratorial, in my experience.  I met a whole troupe (troop) of them (Occitanie-variety) at midnight on the Solstice up in the ruins of the chateau of Montsegur - where I had thought I was vigiling alone on my birthday.  They set up their altar and candles below me as I watched, astounded, then removed their brown robes and stood in serried ranks all in pure white military uniforms around one in the morning!  And when I revealed myself, with joy and bad French, they treated me with reluctant friendship - but stole my film while I slept!  To me, the base - the root - level of the Tree of Life often informs the rest more than the other way around.

Mary,
Your story reminds me of the end of Parsifal the opera (I've only seen it once but it made an enduring impression).  Very dramatic, and very uneasy-making.

Last time I really thought about that was when I saw the huge Anselm Kiefer called Parsifal 2, which occupies an inner wall in the Zurich Art Museum.  I don't think I've ever had such a reaction to a painting before.  I'll see if I can scan it — I have a few copies though none of them has the physical impact of turning a corner and walking into the original.  There's quite a lot about it in Rafael Lopez-Pedraza's book, ANSELM KIEFER, a Jungian study off Kiefer's work.  If I can get a good image of the painting I'll copy some of Lopez-Pedraza's remarks.

Those Teutonic white knights — Lohengrin too — are one of the many reasons I think purity is such a dubious virtue.  When it gets connected to the Grail (as it does in Eschenbach particularly) leads to worrisome things.  Pure blood for instance.

The words that go with the Grail image in Kiefer, from Wagner, are "Redemption to the Redeemer" — that I think is a wonderful idea and a very Jungian one — but it comes across as arrogance if not blasphemy in the opera.  That this should be the task of a Teutonic white knight alone?  There's something deeply offensive about the assumption.  It's a fascistic idea, the elitist hero?  I'm groping here....

C
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phoebe wrote:

>mike, the Tibetian Book of the Dead — is that an honest translation of the title?  Thinking about this because, of course, what the German archaeologists called the Egyptian Book of the Dead is properly rendered The Book of Coming Forth by Day (or Light), a totally different concept. <

mike:

*No, Phoebe, it's not. Any more than was Budge's translation of Per Em Hru. The actual title of the text (which is a vast corpus of which Dawa Samdup translated only a minuscule part... Wentz's Books 'of the Dead' and 'of the Great Liberation', but as I have it in Tibetan, two volumes of 593 and 957 pages, respectively, and I'm not sure I've got the entire thing)... The actual title of the entire (Budhist) cycle (because there is an equally extensive B npo one) is something like ''Self-liberation through Hearing - the Profound Doctrine of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities", generally referred to by the Tibetans as the Bardo T' dr l, which means "Self-liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate State" (there are 6 basic intermediate states although, of course, any period between two others is an intermediate state, what, in Sanskrit, is called an antarabhava) or the Karling Shi-Tr'o, "The Peaceful and Wrathful of Karma Lingpa". Karma Lingpa (14th. c. CE) was the discoverer of this cycle.

The six major intermediate states are, to quote the text by my own teacher:

What is termed the bardo or intermediate state is something which is neither here nor there but refers to a state existing in-between. What, then, are these six states? Specifically enumerated, they are

(1) the natural bardo of birth and existence (rang bzhin skye gnas kyi bar do),

(2)the dream bardo of delusory mental activity (rmi lam nying 'khrul gyi bar do),

(3) the tranquil meditation bardo of spontaneous appearance (rang snang bsam gtan gyi bar do),

(4) the bardo of suffering at the moment of death ('chi kha sdug bsngal gyi bar do,

(5) the clear-light bardo of the quintessence of reality (chos nyid 'od gsal gyi bar do),

and (6) the karmic-activity bardo of phenomenal existence (srid pa las kyi bar do).

The last three and first of these are the subject matter of the so-called 'Book of the Dead', but much of the commentarial material speaks of all six. I hope one of these days to translate my teacher's brief explication of this - I've started, but, as the subject is not a little recondite, have paused for reflection (not to mention breath!)...

m (mike)

From:phoebe
date:  Wed Apr 18, 2001  12:16 pm
Subject:  5 dimensions
 

Faster than you can say "Ekpyrotic Universe," a movement has taken hold — albeit like fingers on a ledge of eternal skepticism — that would blow one of the basic tenets of the Big Bang to smithereens. Think parallel branes and five dimensions. Science never sounded so cool. The new idea would not replace the Big Bang, which has for more than 50 years dominated cosmologists' thinking over how the universe began and evolved. But instead of a universe springing forth in a violent instant from an infinitely small point of infinite density, the new view argues that our universe was created when two parallel "membranes" collided cataclysmically after evolving slowly in five-dimensional space over an exceedingly long period of time.— Night Sights

From: mike
*This is fascinating whether you eat your carrots or not. I've always revolted against the idea of a big bang (with or without capitals) as the starting-point of it all - After all, if there were one on one level, it stands to reason, does it not, that if there is any such a thing as consistency in this universe (and beyond it), there would be others on other levels, but, right down to the ultra-microscopic and, one might suppose, beyond, this phenomenon of exploding into existence, with or without anterior cause, is conspicuous only in its absence. I'm not sure I go for this one as much as I do for string-theory (which also has as many holes in it as a Swiss cheese), but... yes... there HAS to be another explanation, and - indeed - encoded in much that would appear mythical/religious, - there is... even 'are'... Many. And far more plausible.

I personally tend to the opinion that 'universe' is coterminous with - identical with - 'knowing', and that they arose simultaneously, which is to say that they are a 'wrinkle' in 'real time', 'real space', 'real knowing' and have never either really come into existence or not come into existence. We tend to stick on the level that 'knowing' is inherent only in the animal realm, and that the vegetable and mineral realms of 'lesser' and 'no' awareness are the only others that exist, but 'knowing' - and on a far vaster than merely day-to-day human scale - has always been deemed by the more sensitive among us to exist, and even to exist equally well on an eternal and infinite as well as momentary and infinitessimal scale - that they are necessary aspects, the one of the other.

'Knowing' is the conscious vector of 'time-space', 'space' the presentingness vector of experienced awareness; and 'time' the duration of any given awareness of presence and/or absence - They are utterly - and unutterably - inextricable, the one from the other, as are the facets of each of these vectors - the beforenesses, afternesses and nownesses, leftnesses, rightnesses, centrenesses and before-and-behindnesses, and mere- awarenesses, conscious-awarenesses and un-awarenesses - each from each other. Time and space are, as it were, the 'opacity' of our knowing. Knowing *outside* of time and space, or - differently put - in 'real' time and 'real' space, is of a completely different nature.

Alice often speaks of the dimensionless point at the centre of the circle, but that point is so vast that any given one of them completely pervades the entire universe, completely pervades all circles to the extent that they themselves become nothing more than dancing motes of rainbow light upon its infinite surface. And this is just the beginning of the thing!...

F. Russ Trated I think I'm going to toss this on the fire too...

From: Deborah

Date:  Thu Apr 16, 2001  3:01 am
Subject:  Re: [Negative-Capability] 5 dimensions

Aah.  They're all just models.  Poems.  Dissolve and coagulate.  Bird burns, burn rises, bird burns, bird rises... bird swings on chandelier.  

From: Phoebe
In a message dated 4/18/01 10:32:03 AM, mike writes:

<< Alice often speaks of the dimensionless point at the centre of the circle, but that point is so vast that any given one of them completely pervades the entire universe, completely pervades all circles to the extent that they themselves become nothing more than dancing motes of rainbow light upon its infinite surface. And this is just the beginning of the thing!... >>

Whole post well spoke, lad!  Made me smile thinking of a time in my graduate cultural history class when I got suckered into explaining "Is and Is-Not". We had read pieces of the Tao Te Ching and my students were confused. I think they were more confused at the end of the discussion.

On my path, Mike, we call it The Boat of Millions of Years... meaning the continuum going in all directions.

love,
ph
 

From: alice
mike, u come very close....
 

the prob, as i see it, is that as long as we are trying to solve the prob with our consc minds, we will fail! for the simple reason that thinking is based on duality:beginn n ends. i.e. one cannot really think of infinity n grasp it.

as u pt out , we can discover bigger n bigger n smaller n smaller - the closest perhaps is fractals wh prove processes - so we are caught in a koan

BUT perhaps in evolution we may yet develop an organ that we have in potentia that can deal w/this question. like am radio growing into fm....

i have no doubt that there may be a few enlight beings already so equipped i'm thinking of ADAM KADMON n how does a visiting atom in my big toe know me or how can i as an atom in the body of AK or God know them.

The ocean is not afraid of the drop's philosophy......Upanishads?

but the disc of 2 membranes parallel sounds quite erotic! well, love makes the world go round as Dante n Goethe remind us

we cld call it the orgasmic theory of creation - the real BIG BANG!!!

yr giggling

ao!
 

 From:Deb
Date:  Thu Apr 16, 2001  12:29 pm
Subject:  Re: [Negative-Capability] 5 dimensions

what time is it?it is by every star

what time is it?it is by every star
a different time,and each most falsely true;
or so subhuman superminds declare

—nor all their times encompass me and you:

when are we never,but forever now
(hosts of eternity;not guests of seem)
believe me,dear,clocks have enough to do

without confusing timelessness and times.

Time connot children,poets,lovers tell—
measure imagine,mystery,a kiss
—not though mankind would rather know than feel;

mistrusting utterly that timelessness

whose absence would make your whole life and my
(and infinite our)merely to undie  -e.e.cummings
 

I think I understand what alice was saying.  The leaf knows the tree. Chiaro's soul in Rossetti's story puts it: One drop of rain is as another, and the sun's prism in all: and shalt not thou be as he, whose lives are the breath of One? Like Campbell and others said, we are the eyes and ears of Gaia.

And—all that missing Dark Matter needed to make the columns add up to fit our understanding. We learn again that we need another way of seeing. The laws of thermodynamics, say, fit our little existence quite well — especially the second law. :) But now — we see there's more to see. Much escapes us. Most. And yet — the tendency is to defend the old vision. Always shortsighted. And so many foundations to teach the prejudice. HERITAGE FOUNDATION-ISM. I like the little human animal and would hate to see him destroyed by his stubborn materialism of things intellectual and spiritual.

Persephone (who was Night, the consort of Apollo in the original tantric source of this myth) eating the pomegranate seeds that bind her between creative/destructive Eros — Psyche ( Cupid and Psyche) who is put through Love's agony because she insisted on seeing her divine lover — Orpheus who loses his love finally because he 'looks back' — all of these myths are warning us of the fatal foolishness of taking spiritual 'truths' literally. The dangers and derangement of Fundamentalism.

But I like the Big Bang.  It's a fitting myth for the experience of life.  Blooming and then shutting down for the night.  The One breathing.  Matter coming from stars, all the elements in your very body, in a planet, coming from those brave lights. The One giving its flesh and remaking itself in endless ways.  Creating time and space with its flesh.  But that's a projection of consciousness, too. But why should that intuition be wrong?

Rose of All the World
I am here myself; as though this heave of effort
At starting other life, fulfilled my own;
Rose-leaves that whirl in color round a core
Of seed-specks kindled lately and softly blown

By all the blood of the rose-bush into being -
Strange, that the urgent will in me, to set
My mouth on hers in kisses, and so softly
To bring together two strange sparks, beget

Another life from our lives, so should send
The innermost fire of my own dim soul out-spinning
And whirling in blossom of flame and being upon me!
That my completion of manhood should be the beginning

Another life from mine! For so it looks.
The seed is purpose, blossom accident.
The seed is all in all, the blossom lent
To crown the triumph of this new descent.

Is that it, woman? Does it strike you so?
The Great Breath blowing a tiny seed of fire
Fans out your petals for excess of flame,
Till all your being smokes with fine desire?

Or are we kindled, you and I, to be
One rose of wonderment upon the tree
Of perfect life, and is our possible seed
But the residuum of the ecstasy?

How will you have it? - the rose is all in all,
Or the ripe rose-fruits of the luscious fall?
The sharp begetting, or the child begot?
Our consummation matters, or does it not?

To me it seems the seed is just left over
From the red rose-flowers' fiery transience;
Just orts and slats; berries that smoulder in the bush
Which burnt just now with marvellous immanence.

Blossom, my darling, blossom, be a rose
Of roses unchidden and purposeless; a rose
For rosiness only, without an ulterior motive;
For me it is more than enough if the flower unclose.
~D. H. Lawrence
summa felicitas,
Deborah

From: mike
Date:  Thu Apr 19, 2001  5:12 pm
Subject:  Re: [Negative-Capability] Re: [ dimensions+
 

>aoh wrote: The ocean is not afraid of the drop's philosophy......Upanishads?>

*Yes, indeed.
But what I'm trying to say is that there's a way of knowing *beyond* 'knowing', of timing beyond 'time' and spacing beyond 'space'... That 'here and now' is not necessarily only 'this time and this place' as seen via a single focus-pull but can be simultaneously infinitely vast and infinitessimally tiny without any obstruction.

This knowing has nothing to do with duality because what knows and what is being known are nothing but aspects of each other. The vastness aspect is its essence, the knowingness aspect its quintessential nature and the known/active aspect its all-encompassing compassionate energy. It has nothing to do with subject and object, known and unknown, choice and unchoice, even with being and unbeing, but is of a completely different order and hence inexpressible, ineffible IN TERMS OF prealotted meaning or even meaningfulness, but this does not mean that it cannot be known. On the contrary.

Two things veil it from us, if you like: negativity and obscuring mental defilement on the one hand, and primitive beliefs about reality on the other. I don't know if I sent you all Khyentse Rinpoche's pith-instructions of Dzogchen meditation, which is to say meditation upon the innate great perfection beyond all notions of duality so I'm going to add it here just in case.

Pith Instructions on the Great Perfection

His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

". . .The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions, and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralises into oneself.

This produces a tremendous energy which usually is locked up in the process of mental evasion and a general running away from life experiences. Clarity of awareness may, in its initial stages, be unpleasant or fear- inspiring; if so, then one should open oneself completely to the pain or the fear and welcome it. In this way the barriers created by one's own habitual emotional reactions and prejudices are broken down.

When performing the meditation practice one should develop the feeling of opening oneself completely to the whole universe with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind, ridding oneself of all protecting barriers. Don't mentally split into two when meditating, one part of the mind watching the other like a cat watching a mouse. One should realise that one does not meditate to go deeply within oneself and withdraw from the world. In Buddhist yoga, even when meditating on chakras there is no introspection concentration: complete openness of mind is the essential point.

The ground of samsara and nirvana is the alaya, the beginning and the end of confusion and realisation, the nature of universal shunyata and of all apparent phenomena. It is even more fundamental than the trikaya and is free from bias toward enlightenment. It is sometimes called the ‘pure’ or ‘original’ mind.

Although prajña (wisdom) sees in it no basis for such concepts as different aspects, the fundamental aspects of complete openness, natural perfection, and absolute spontaneity are distinguished by upaya (skilful means) as useful devices.

All aspects of every phenomenon are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is open and unobstructed, everything mutually interpenetrating. Seeing all things nakedly, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or realise. The nature of things naturally appears and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness; this is complete openness. Everything is perfect just as it is, completely pure and undefiled. All phenomena naturally appear in their uniquely correct modes and situations, forming ever-changing patterns full of meaning and significance, like participants in a great dance. Everything is a symbol, yet there is no difference between the symbol and the truth symbolised. With no effort of practice whatsoever, liberation, enlightenment, and buddhahood are already fully developed and perfected. This is natural perfection.

The everyday practice is just ordinary, is life itself. Since the underdeveloped state does not exist there is no need to behave in any special way or try to attain or practice anything. There should be no need of
striving to reach some exalted goal or higher state; this simply produces something conditional or artificial that will act as an obstruction to the free flow of the mind. One should never think of oneself as ‘sinful’ or worthless, but as naturally pure and perfect, lacking nothing.

When performing meditation practice one should think of it as just a natural function of everyday living, like eating or breathing, not as a special, formal event to be undertaken with great seriousness and solemnity. One must realise that to meditate is to pass beyond effort, beyond practice, beyond aims and goals,and beyond the dualism of bondage and liberation.

Meditation is always perfect, so there is no need to correct anything. Since Everything that arises is simply the play of the mind, there are no ‘bad’ meditation session and no need to judge thoughts as good or evil. Therefore one should not sit down to meditate with various hopes or fears about the outcome: one just does it with no self-conscious feeling of ‘I am meditating’ and without attempting to control or force the mind, and without trying to become peaceful. If one finds that one is going astray in any of these ways, one should stop meditating and simply rest and relax for awhile before resuming.

If, either during or after meditation, one has experiences that one interprets as results, they should not be made into anything special; recognize that they are just phenomena and simply observe them. Above all, do not attempt to recreate them as this opposes the natural spontaneity of the mind.

All phenomena are completely new and fresh and absolutely unique, entirely free from all concepts of past, present, and future as if experienced in another dimension of time; this is absolute spontaneity. The continual stream of new discovery and fresh revelation and inspiration that arises at every moment is the manifestation of the eternal youth of the living dharma and its wonders; splendour and spontaneity is the play or dance aspect of the universe as guru.

One should learn to see everyday life as a mandala in which one is at the centre, and be free of the bias and prejudice of past conditioning, present desires, and hopes and expectations about the future.

The figures of the mandala are the day-to-day objects of one's life experiences moving in the great dance of the play of the universe, the symbolism by which the guru reveals profound and ultimate meaning and significance.

Therefore, be natural and spontaneous; accept and learn from everything. See the comical, amusing side of irritating situations. In meditation, see through the illusion of past, present, and future. The past is but a present memory or condition, the future but a present projection, and the present itself vanishes before it can be grasped.

One should put an end to conceptions about meditation and free oneself from memories of the past. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of potentiality of new discovery so one is incapable of judging meditation by past experience or by theory.

Simply plunge straight into meditation at this very moment with your whole mind, and be free from hesitation, boredom, or excitement. When meditating it is traditional and best, if possible, to sit cross-legged with the back erect but not rigid. However, it is most important to feel comfortable, so it is better to sit in a chair if sitting cross-legged is painful. One's mental attitude should be inspired by the three fundamental aspects, whether the meditation is with or without form, and it may often prove desirable, if not essential, to precede a period of formless meditation by a period of meditation with form.

To provide for this eventuality many classes of preliminary meditation practices have been developed over centuries of Buddhist practice, the most important being meditations on breathing, mantra recitation, and visualisation techniques. To engage in the second and third of these classes, personal instruction from one's guru is required, but a few words on the first would not be out of place here as the method used varies little from person to person.

First, let the mind follow the movement of the breath, in and out, until it becomes calm and tranquil. Then increasingly rest the mind on the breath until one's whole being seems identified with it.

Finally become aware of the breath leaving the body and going out into space, and gradually transfer the attention from the breath to the sensation of spaciousness and expansion. By letting this final sensation merge into complete openness, one moves into the sphere of formless meditation.

In all probability the above description of the three fundamental aspects will seem vague and inadequate. This is inevitable since they attempt to describe what is not only beyond words but beyond thought as well. They invite practice of what it is, essentially, a state of being.

The words are simply a form a upaya, skilful means, a hint which if acted upon, will enable one's innate wisdom and naturally perfect action to arise spontaneously.

Sometimes in meditation one may experience a gap in one's normal consciousness, a sudden and complete openness. This experience arises only when one has ceased to think in terms of meditation and the object of meditation. It is a glimpse of reality, a sudden flash that occurs infrequently at first, and then, with continued practice, more and more frequently. It may not be a particularly shattering or explosive experience at all, just a moment of great simplicity. Do not make the mistake of deliberately trying to force these experiences to recur, for to do so is to betray the naturalness and spontaneity of reality..."

> we cld call it the orgasmic theory of creation - the real BIG BANG!!!>

*It makes more sense in that the blooming of anything, no matter how swift it may seem from without, always takes time in terms of its own focal level.

m

From: alice

thanks for that mike - i call that state being aware it has to do w/distinction between mercury/ thinking consc n uranus - higher oct of merc=intuition; also w/venus =human relationships n neptune, higher oct = vehicle for ineffable.

easiest process to make symbolic is radio am to fm [hearing] then internet [seeing] then color movies on internet sound/vision/colour - each step adding a dimension. but even all this is just a mirror n not the REAL

btw - i do want to protest the image of the body just being a corpse we drag around!! occult anatomy teaches the wondrous gift that the body is - the temple of spirit- n Sophia wld have a fit! every breath we take is a miracle - it is the vehicle for incarnation n by golly we shld appreciate it - just the wonder of a newborn baby w/wee fingernails, eyelashes, eyes! the feminine gives FORM to life!! hence 'mother nature' or Dame Kinde

n i'm appreciat of what i've got left - so there! n i bet mary wld agree

the auld cailleach, grateful that she can still walk, talk, n use 1 fing to
write this!

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
ao

from mike

aoh wrote: > thanks for that - i call that state being aware <

*'Natural pure awareness' is a fair translation of the Tibetan word, 'rigpa' -'vidya' in Sanskrit, from which stem 'wissen' and 'wit' (via 'to wit') - which is the essence of the great perfection view, so... yes, definitely...

> it has to do w/distinction between mercury/ thinking consc n uranus -higher oct of merc=intuition; also w/venus =human relationships n neptune, higher > oct = vehicle for ineffable.
 

*That's certainly the way I would describe the resonances of these 'outer' planets. I'm amazed you do, too.

>easiest process to make symbolic is radio am to fm [hearing] then internet [seeing] then color movies on internet sound/vision/colour - each step adding a dimension. but even all this is just a mirror n not the REAL>

*In the same way that the analogy of sunlight within infinite space is just a finger pointing... They are crutches... The thing has nothing to do with 'understanding'...

> btw - i do want to protest the image of the body just being a corpse we drag around!!>

*Good.
It's there for exactly that reason.

> occult anatomy teaches the wondrous gift that the body is - the temple of spirit- n Sophia wld have a fit! every breath we take is a miracle - it is the vehicle for incarnation n by golly we shld appreciate it - just the wonder of a newborn baby w/wee fingernails, eyelashes, eyes! the feminine gives FORM to life!! hence 'mother nature' or Dame Kinde

*The tantric view is that the body, speech and mind and all their products are all perfect mandalas of deities, and, as such, should not be damaged or discredited in any way. This, however, includes the strange belief seemingly held by many - particularly - occidentals, that the body is some sort of vehicle for the spirit, a sort of frame on which the head wanders about and which needs occasional upkeep. You should see the bulk of first-time t'ai chi students: you'd think they'd never even *seen* a body, let alone had one! Hence the particular wording.

'Who is it that recites the Buddha's name?' is for those who imagine they can convince with word; 'who is dragging this corpse round here, anyway?' for those who have no idea where or what they are; 'who am I?' for 'thinkers'... The point is not the question but the answer.

> n i'm appreciat of what i've got left - so there! n i bet mary wld agree .

*Being which as it ever so may, me dear... all bodies arise, age, sicken and die... The 'person' - the conscious awareness that inhabits body after body, and has done so since the beginningless beginnings of time - also changes and moves on. Only the ultimate quintessence of being - the vast and space-
like awareness - doesn't... everything else is relative, and, in its relativity, subject to change... Of course one appreciates it! It is a miracle.

> the auld cailleach, grateful that she can still walk, talk, n use 1 fing to write this!
> grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

             *Taking Happiness and Suffering as the Path

HO KYI NA GA' TE GE WA TS'OG SU NGO
Rejoicing if I am happy, I shall dedicate it to the accumulation of merit:

P'EN DANG DE WE NAM KA' GANG WAR SHOG
May well-being and joy fill all of space.

DUG NA GA' TE KÜN GYI DUG NGÄL 'KUR
Rejoicing if I am suffering, I shall take upon myself the suffering of all
beings:

DUG NGÄL 'KOR WA'I GYAM TSO TONG WAR SHOG
May the ocean of suffering that is cyclic existence be emptied.

NA NA GA' TE TS'E RAB LE NGEN 'DZE
Rejoicing in illness, I shall consume the evil karma of my series of
previous lives:

LÜ CHEN KÜN GYI NA GO CHÖ PAR SHOG
For all embodied beings may the doorway of illness be eliminated.

SHI NA GA' TE CHÖ NYI NGANG LA 'CHI
Rejoicing in death, I shall die into the state of absolute thusness:

KYE 'CHI 'KOR WA'I TSA WA CHÖ PAR SHOG
May the cycle of births and deaths be cut off at its root.

MI TS'E RING NA GA' TE TS'OG NYI KYI
Rejoicing now that my human life is long, let the goals of myself and all
others be
spontaneously realised

RANG SHEN DÖN NYI LHÜN GYI 'DRUB PAR SHOG
By the twofold accumulation (of merit and wisdom).

Thus, in accordance with the teaching of Kashmiri Mahapandita Shakyashri and others, this was written by Kamalarajadvipa for the daily practice of his own pupils and disciples.

Lots of love,
me (mike)
 

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