06/27/12 ~ knowlege is important

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Death Begins at 30 (reflections)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Unknown No comments

Is Jenny McCarthy enough to field TV offers and another Playboy cover at 39? (mix969.com)

But Life Soon Resumes

Cartman to Maury: "I do what I want!"

REFLECTIONS ON TURNING 30 - I grew up on the lyrics, "Live fast, die young" and the idea "Never trust anyone over 30." I was an "adult" at 15 -- when I became active, as free as Cartman on Maury Povich to do what I want, and I thought I knew it all (or all I was ever going to need to know).

Childhood in the United States now extends until at least 26, when insurance companies force us off our parents' plan. And school takes so long, racking up lifelong debt. There I was 27 and finished in one sense but going nowhere fast in another. Maybe I should have compared myself to Jenny McCarthy rather than the ever rotating crop of girls on the beach.

Meditation had gone well, while most everyone much older was still struggling. I finished college, but the possibility of grad school loomed. It is an option if I am willing to re-interpret "debt" to mean "investment."

Comparing to every batch of un-aging bathers

What was I to do? I burned a bridge. I pulled out all the stops. I hit the Improbability Drive button and landed somewhere nice, still standing, perfectly safe in my attainment. The Heart Sutra says the Perfection of Wisdom "is the great spell (mantra), the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong?" It's true. What could go wrong?

Morning came. My 30th birthday. I took the day off. Midweek. I eat right, having taken all the hidden sugar and stimulants out. Evening came. And in the cave of the mind/heart everything was still all right. But outside, "I disconnect." How Scandinavian of me. Communication:

For those who have seen the goal and applied themselves,

For those diligent and mindful rooted in virtue,

For those led by worthy guides...

I owe my life to the Dharma, the Buddha, and the Noble Sangha. And others say I look as beautiful as I ever did. The whole board is moving. I had imagined that everyone would stay young and I alone would walk the Trail of Tears under a ravaging sun. But we were all marching. The board along with the other pieces I was comparing myself to were moving. All of us were moving to dissolution, hurtling towards destruction, the impermanence inherent in all things.

Am I over the hill yet?

We were all marching. Sakka, the Deva King, was throwing another party. The Immaterial Sphere was quiet. And ghosts among us were going hungry. I could see them if I wanted.

I'll get 364 more sunrises to wake up three-decades-old on the planet, having died young and left a pretty corpse as useless as a log the last time I was here.

I have my baby. I have this diamond. I have my perfect hubby. I have these business cards. And from here to the End, I'll always have the Dharma. Maybe 30 is pretty good with 69 more years to go if Bhumi (Gaia) is kept healthy enough to have an operating ecosystem. Now there are no more excuses. I'm all grown up, codependent no more. I'll be a "Hunter."

"Hunter"
Bjork
If travel is searching
And home what's been found
I'm not stopping

I'm going hunting, I'm the hunter
I'll bring back the goods
But i don't know when

I thought I could organize freedom
How Scandinavian of me
You sussed it out, didn't you?

You could smell it
So you left me on my own
To complete the mission
Now, I'm leaving it all behind...

"Do You Know Where You're Going To?" (Diana Ross "Mahogany" theme)

A Higher Teaching: Consciousness

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Unknown No comments

Dharmachari Seven and Amber Dorrian, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

(lifehack.org)

How could consciousness (or anything) be a self, a soul, an "I"? It is constantly passing away and utterly dependent on the other groups of transient phenomena (forms, feelings, perceptions, and formations) mistaken for "self."

Seeing oneness (nonduality) is wonderful! To see us ALL united, as in the same boat, as made of the same thing, is beautiful! But it is not enlightenment.

Dukkha: annoyance to agony (superiorpics.com)

So long as one is still identifying and clinging in ignorance to things like views, one is far from the way things really are -- dharma. One is not on the path to being freed from suffering and rebirth. This may seem like a fine or useless distinction. But it is the key to enlightenment.

How can one let go to see things as they really are? One cannot directly let go by an act of will. (The hand will open, yet the heart will still cling). But it can be done indirectly.

By turning concentrated attention -- intensified by four states of absorption or "right concentration" (samma samadhi) -- by being mindful of objects conducive to insight, the heart/mind lets go. This is described in the "Four Foundations of Mindfulness" sutra. The mind/heart pulls back like a feather or plastic dropped into a flame. And one is liberated by wisdom.

Self did not do this, and the question "Who just got liberated?" does not arise, does not occur to the mind. The paradox we feel so certain of in ignorance is resolved: freedom is but not the one who is freed.

Instead, what is clearly known-and-seen is that, "Suffering [stress, woe, ill, trouble, disappointment rooted in ignorance] arises, and just this suffering passes away."

All insight is good. All epiphanies (satoris) are thrilling. All spiritual achievements are a partial liberation from the tyranny of materiality and the illusion that what is seen all around is all there is. There is more, much more. The normally unseen world is much bigger than the normally seen world we cling to.

Do all religions teach the same thing?

To confound ancient Brahminical/Hindu notions with what Shakyamuni Buddha taught is a mistake. To call those dharmas "the Dharma" after the Buddha rejected them is tragic. Most Mahayanists neglect to capitalize the Sanskrit word dharma, which is good because then it can equally refer to any "teaching" or "doctrine."

Dharma is capitalized to distinguish the Buddha-Dharma from competing doctrines in India like Vedic Brahmanism, modern Hinduism (which calls itself the sanatan dharma, the "eternal law"), and Jainism.

Confounding Buddhism with other wonderful Eastern philosophies is to say that the Buddha contributed nothing new or unique.

Issa (Jesus) is said to have come not to change one iota of the Old Law (Talmudic Judaism) but only to fulfill it (and apparently make a new deal or covenant). The same might well be said of Hindu avatars. But a buddha comes to reinstate what has been lost, neglected, fallen into darkness, utterly forgotten. He does not revive an existing tradition.

The Buddha was not born a Hindu, as so many say. He was born into the warrior caste when Brahmins considered themselves the elites. They tried to monopolize spirituality and transcendental wisdom, but they could not corner the spiritual market. There were always wanderers, independent seekers who rejected convention and tradition.

Would anyone say the world and religion were just fine, and a fully enlightened teacher (samma sambuddha) arose to merely repeat what others could see and were teaching?

A Higher Teaching

No, he proclaimed something profound, something subtle, something extremely very hard to see, sublime, marvelous, and incomprehensible by way of mere reasoning.

A part of what he taught was based on the realization of what came to be known as "Dependent Origination" -- the timeless truth that every "thing" that arises depends on its constituent factors. It is not independent of them (including the self) and does not govern the process.

When Ananda said this particularly subtle teaching made sense and was clear, the Buddha admonished him:

"Do not say so, Ananda! Do not say so! This Dependent Origination is profound and appears profound. It is through not understanding, not penetrating this dharma [timeless truth] that this generation has become like a tangled ball of string, covered as with a blight, tangled with something like coarse grass, unable to pass beyond states of woe [destinations inferior to the human plane], the ill-destiny, ruin, and the round of birth-and-death."

Is there or is there not a self?

Of course, there is a "self" -- with form (a body), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness -- BUT what is the nature of this "self," the nature of these constituent-parts referred to as a self?

Body and mind, the psychophysical organism, is what we cling to as self, soul. We identify with it, derive our identity from it.

The astonishing thing is that it is impersonal (not self), impermanent (constantly becoming something else), and disappointing (unsatisfactory). That is to say, this collection of groups (these materials that form a body, these sensations, perceptions, formations, and knowings) are not at all what we usually assume. Rather than self, they are not self.

And when the mind/heart sees that, it lets go and pulls away. This allows insight to step in and uproot the fetters, defilements, cankers, taints, hindrances. One is instantly freed of illusion and suffering.

Clinging to illusions drags one and drowns one, as every experience is regarded as personal and happening to "me." It is "my" problem, a danger to me, a delight for me, something for me to hold onto.

The truth shall set [...] free. Set who free? No one in an ultimate sense. It is an unraveling or unbinding of a functionally-integrated set of conditional, unsatisfactory, ultimately not-mine factors that cling to themselves as if they were a real and reliable "self." They cling.

But, but...

It is on account of wrong view (miccha ditthi) that the idea of a separate self or essence (independent of constituent parts) arises, conventionally speaking. Who feels? Ultimately, feelings feel. Who perceives? The process of perception perceives. Who wills? Formations (such as volition) will. Who is conscious? Consciousness is conscious.

This is NOT a truth to "accept" or place "faith" in. It is a liberating teaching to realize. Until it is realized, there is no end to suffering. For all suffering, ultimately, is grounded in ignorance. And enlightenment is the solution to ignorance the Buddha pointed out.

Science: It's a girl thing! (comedy video)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Unknown 1 comment

Wisdom Quarterly; Alba502 (EU video)
What might a sexist commercial about men look like if society wanted less science out of us and more self-defeating behavior like alcohol and pornography addiction?

The following public service announcement (PSA) was published by the science commission of the European Union. It is part of a campaign designed to attract more females to a career in science. The commission says the inadvertently sexist video has to "speak their language to get their attention."

They add that it was intended to be "fun, catchy" and strike a chord with young people. "I would encourage everyone to have a look at the wider campaign and the many videos already online of female researchers talking about their jobs and lives," the commission added.

(Seattle P.I.) A European Union PSA was supposed to encourage girls to consider a career in the sciences. Instead, it turned out to be a big embarrassment, with critics (and pretty much everyone) saying it’s sexist and insulting... peppered with the words “lipstick,” “stiletto,” and “gawking dude.” More

Pussy Riot: Punks Against Putin (video)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Unknown No comments

TheWorld.org; Guardian.co.uk; Wisdom Quarterly

Russia was never actually atheist. That was just an official position. Siberia is Buddhist as was the USSR in Central Asia (including the only indigenously Buddhist part of Europe: Kalmykia. But "Russians" are Christians who conquered neighboring lands for empire. It is a country of blue-eyed blondes. It tried to do the right thing and live communally. But corruption ruined it. Punks call out its new emperor, Putin, a KGB chief and uber-hypocrite to rival US leaders.

The all-female Russian punk band Pussy Riot ran afoul of the Kremlin with protest performances [in church]. Their impromptu show in one of Moscow’s holiest sanctuaries, the [Eastern Orthodox] Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was pretty wild. They sang their tune, “Holy Mother, Throw Putin Out!” The women were arrested in February and have been in jail since [after their video of the stunt garnered too much attention and they became a scapegoat for Putin’s dilemma].

Last week a judge ordered them to remain in custody to await their July trial. And if they’re eventually convicted, they face up to seven years in prison. The Moscow News Deputy Editor Natalia Antonova wrote in The Guardian last week that the women are “scapegoats for Russia’s political crisis.” She tells [TheWorld.org’s] anchor Marco Werman why: More