"The best thing to do is go as far out as you can get... what you regard as 'too far'--and when others follow, as they will, move on."

- Frank Lloyd Wright, 'The Natural House'.


    Frank lloyd wright’s book on the natural house includes a chapter on “where to build.” He suggests that you live as far from “the city” as possible. “How close you live to the city is how much of a slave you are.”

   Similarly, the buddha has a parable in the majjhima nikaya about deer. Like the parable of the horses, it speaks of disciples at different levels of spiritual possibility. There are the deer who live near farmlands, and are destroyed by farmers. There are the deer who live in the upland meadows, and they are predated on by hunters. Then there are the deer who live across the mountains, who live in peace and happiness, untroubled by humans.


   The buddha famously provided advice and spiritual guidance for people at various levels of spiritual development.

   In my view these “levels” are grossly misunderstood to be some sort of ladder for spiritual competitors to climb, that there are right ways and wrong ways, and some are more right than others. But what is “right” for the individual is unique to each. Better embrace what is right for you than higher steps that are inaccessible at one’s own level. Or lower steps that are promoted by social conditioning. Find your own level.

   
   In western buddhism , we live in the city, we eat meat, we work for a living, we struggle in traffic, we seek expensive and consumptive entertainments, we consume intoxicants, we burn fossil fuels extravagantly and generally are in full career destroying the planet and any future for humanity’s civilization, and incidentally the dharma.

   At the same time we like to think we are practicing love and compassion. This is not as hypocritical as it sounds. We are genuinely evolved top predators, far more vicious than sharks or tigers, and compassion comes with a toothy smile. And with eight billion neighbors, living in cities can be hard to escape. I take it as a given each of us is dong the best they can.

   Where misunderstanding arises most poignantly and relevantly here, is in people who live in communities with those who do not seek enlightenment and are attempting to negotiate a path designed for much more pure conditions of life. The “street wise” “arhat” is a contradiction in terms.

   The way of the householder is different from that of a monk. The monk lives a life in which compassion for all sentient beings may be sensibly practiced. The householder simply does not.

   A farmer must kill weeds and pests to grow crops. The farmer’s children are nourished, cherished and protected. Crops are harvested and dedicated to the benefit of the farmer and the community. And this includes the monks, who subsist on alms. The law of nature, of the jungle, is kept by all. The one pearl nourishes all beings.

   
   What this  implies for western dharma enthusiasts (I can’t call them buddhists, with no notion of the precepts) is that attempting to end anger in oneself is inappropriate for city dwellers and kmart shoppers and the like. Normal life involves construction and destruction.

“All the time I pray to Buddha I keep on killing mosquitoes."
~issa

   We need this kind of honesty with ourselves. When we practice working on ourselves we can work with our anger, recognize that the emotion itself, like pain, fear and jealousy, to name a few, is a human quality that needs to be worked with; a feature, not a bug.

   People don’t want to learn how to eat right, they want to lose weight. The symptom is attacked, but even success with the symptom does not indicate better health, as it is learning to eat right that is the essence. People would like to eliminate anger without considering why it is there and what it is for. They are conditioned to believe anger is bad in all cases and is to be eliminated, along with stress. Never mind that this is impossible and a recipe for failure.

   What is the goal, then, for the householder who seeks the dharma? A natural predator with offspring who naturally wants to preserve and protect their normal lives and provide them with all the essentials and delights we want for those we love.

   Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly, of course. Be a good farmer, pay your dues, respect your neighbors. The metaxy of useful and comforting social values.

   We want liberation, freedom. We find it in authenticity, genuineness, sincerity, self-respect.

   
   Be yourself.




I’ll Stand by You 
(the pretenders)

[Verse 1]
Oh, why you look so sad?
Tears are in your eyes
Come on and come to me now
Don't be ashamed to cry
Let me see you through
'Cause I've seen the dark side too

[Pre-Chorus]
When the night falls on you
You don't know what to do
Nothin' you confess, could make me love you less

[Chorus]
I'll stand by you, I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you

[Verse 2]
So if you're mad, get mad
Don't hold it all inside
Come on and talk to me now
Hey, what you got to hide?
I get angry too
Well I'm a lot like you

[Chorus]
I'll stand by you, I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you
Take me in, into your darkest hour
And I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you

from the discourses of rumi, trans arberry...


Someone asked: “When we do a good deed, if we have hopes and expectations of a good reward from God, does that harm us?”

Rumi answered: By God, we must always have hope. Faith, itself, consists of fear and hope. Someone once asked me, “Hope itself is good, but what is this fear?” I said, “Show me a fear without hope, or a hope without fear. The two are inseparable.” For example, a farmer plants wheat. Naturally he hopes that wheat will grow. At the same time he is afraid some blight or drought may destroy it. So, there is no hope without fear, or fear without hope.

Now, when we hope expectantly for a reward, we will surely work with greater effort. Expectation becomes our wings, and the stronger our wings the farther the flight. If, on the other hand we lose hope, we become lazy and of no value to anyone. A sick person will take bitter medicine and give up ten sweet pleasures, but if
they have no hope for health, why would they endure this?

a bird in a cave
may be taken
by a shot in the dark

the archery master 
fires blindfolded
into the ocean

bullseye!

​​​​​​​

from 6.92 Chan Master Yuezhou Dazhu Huihai (Daishu Ekai)
Records of the Transmission of the Lamp : Volume 2 (Books 4-9), The Early Masters.
Translated by Randolph S. Whitfield, 2015


The master continued, ‘A sutra says, “Seeing me through form, seeking me through hearing, such a one goes contrary to the Way and cannot see the Tathāgata.” So tell me, Worthy One, what is the Tathāgata?'

‘I am still in the dark regarding this,' answered the monk.

‘Having never once been awakened, what is it that is said to be still in the dark?' asked the master.

‘May the master please explain,' the monk replied.

‘The venerable monk has lectured more than twenty times and still does not know the meaning of Tathāgata!'

The monk bowed again and said, ‘Would that the master deign explain it.'

The master said, ‘The Tathāgata is the ultimate reality of all dharmas. How could this be forgotten?'

‘It is the ultimate reality of all dharmas', repeated the monk.

‘Oh, Venerable Monk!' said the master, ‘is this so or is it not so?'

‘The sutra clearly affirms it, so how could it not be so?' countered the monk. ‘Is the venerable monk not also thus?' asked the master.

‘Yes,' said the monk.

‘And trees and stones, are they not thus?' asked the master.

‘Yes,' came the reply.

‘And is not the thusness of the venerable monk and the thusness of trees and stones the same?' asked the master.

‘They are not two,' replied the monk.

‘Then what is the difference between the venerable monk and trees and stones?' asked the master.

The monk had no reply. After a pause he then asked, ‘How is the Great Nirvā obtained?'

‘Do not make karma leading to birth and death,' replied the master.

‘What is the karma of birth and death?' asked the monk.

‘Seeking for Great Nirvā is the karma of birth and death. Rejecting defilements and grasping purity is the karma of birth and death. To have obtained, to have experienced, is the karma of birth and death. Not to have renounced the way of restraint is the karma of birth and death,' said the master.

‘How does one obtain liberation?' asked the monk.

‘From the beginning there is no bondage, so there is no use in searching for liberation. Direct functioning is the peerless,' said the master.

‘A Chan master such as this is truly said to be rare!' The monk bowed and departed.

 


       How to put this luminous dialog into contemporary language? How to make the leap from identification to freedom?

   Karma is what happens when there is desire and aversion.  Karma always creates more karma, action leads to more action. It is the cessation of action as a result of sudden enlightenment that constitutes awakening.

   What ceases action? What, not having been awakened, is still in the dark?  The tathagata is “the thus come one.” Who is it who thus comes?



The master said, ‘The Tathāgata is the ultimate reality of all dharmas. How could this be forgotten?'

‘It is the ultimate reality of all dharmas', repeated the monk.

‘Oh, Venerable Monk!' said the master, ‘is this so or is it not so?'

‘The sutra clearly affirms it, so how could it not be so?' countered the monk. ‘Is the venerable monk not also thus?' asked the master.

‘Yes,' said the monk.

‘And trees and stones, are they not thus?' asked the master.

‘Yes,' came the reply.

‘And is not the thusness of the venerable monk and the thusness of trees and stones the same?' asked the master.

‘They are not two,' replied the monk.

‘Then what is the difference between the venerable monk and trees and stones?' asked the master.



    This is the nature of the non dual, that there is no difference between a sentient being and the rocks and stones. This is the central insight of existentialism, of phenomenology, of spirituality and mysticism. All religions eventually lead to the One.

   The world is existence. Reality is the tathagata. Existence is all of the dharmas. Reality is the void. The dharmas are all imaginary, as is existence. The void is real.

    The void, reality, cannot be perceived or experienced. All perception and experience is of the imaginary. We perceive egos, selves, personalities and lives, all imaginary. The diamond sutra assures us there are no sentient beings to save. No beings at all, Only This, the one pearl. All comes thus from the void, thus is “thus come.”


from the tao the ching, chapter five, trans jonathan star:

The universe is like a bellows
It stays empty yet is never exhausted
It gives out yet always brings forth more

   “The void” is the nature of consciousness itself. Consciousness is regarded by phenomenology as directed towards objects, always associated with objects, and we regard the objects as what is significant. But only the consciousness itself is truly real, the objects are all imaginary.  William blake said, “anything that can be believed is an image of truth.” Even if we “see through a glass darkly” we are seeing something of truth, something that may be interpreted and used for world creation. The more predictable this world we have created becomes, the more credence we give it, the more “real” it seems to us. Yet we must always measure our world against that of the other, nip and tuck, cut and trim. Friends and enemies, right and wrong, gain and loss; these make up the world, the rest is tools and furniture.

   This world is samsara, the passions. A reflection of our desires and aversions. This is the key to awakening, to sudden enlightenment, to realize that the world we think of as real is only a reflection in the great mirror of consciousness. The trick is to see the mirror and not be drawn in to the dramas of the reflections. See the screen, the lights, the actors, and not be sucked into the movie. “Play hamlet but don’t be hamlet.” (A hamlet is a little ham.)

   Consciousness is transcendent. It exists as a social trait, we are the borg group mind. As individuals we have no significance, no possibility of an individual will not shaped by group mind. Each of us is an expression of the whole and nothing else. The ego is a delusion.

   Try think of consciousness as a single all-seeing eye. In front of this eye is the world, behind is the void. You are the world; you are the void. At the interface of void and world we have world creation, the irruption of spirit into “matter.” 

   Consciousness is like a giant firehose which can spray existence onto reality and is spraying continually. Most of us live attenuated lives because the spray is too powerful, world creation too much responsibility. So we turn down the spigot to a trickle, when we could be pumping out a thousand gallons a second. Having faith and trust that the void is trustworthy and beneficent.

   Each of us is all of us. Everything is nothing. Nobody is anybody.


plato, from the seventh letter,

 Thus much at least, I can say about all writers, past or future, who say they know the things to which I devote myself, whether by hearing the teaching of me or of others, or by their own discoveries-that according to my view it is not possible for them to have any real skill in the matter. There neither is nor ever will be a treatise of mine on the subject. For it does not admit of exposition like other branches of knowledge; but after much converse about the matter itself and a life lived together, suddenly a light, as it were, is kindled in one soul by a flame that leaps to it from another, and thereafter sustains itself. Yet this much I know-that if the things were written or put into words, it would be done best by me, and that, if they were written badly, I should be the person most pained. Again, if they had appeared to me to admit adequately of writing and exposition, what task in life could I have performed nobler than this, to write what is of great service to mankind and to bring the nature of things into the light for all to see? But I do not think it a good thing for men that there should be a disquisition, as it is called, on this topic-except for some few, who are able with a little teaching to find it out for themselves. As for the rest, it would fill some of them quite illogically with a mistaken feeling of contempt, and others with lofty and vain-glorious expectations, as though they had learnt something high and mighty.


.


     

Excerpt From
The Essential Rumi
Coleman Barks




THE USES OF FEAR

  
    A donkey turning a millstone is not trying
    to press oil from sesame seed.

    He’s fleeing the blow just struck
    and hoping to avoid the next.

    For the same reason, the ox takes a load
    of baggage wherever you want him to.

    Shopkeepers work for themselves,
    not for the flow of communal exchange.

    We all look to ease our pain,
    and this keeps civilization moving along.

    God made fear the architect here.
    Fear keeps us working near the ark.

    There have been many soul-killing floods,
    many arks, and many Noahs.

    Some human beings are safe havens.
    Be companions with them.

    Others may seem to be friends,
    but they’re really consuming your essence
    like donkeys lapping sherbet.

    Detach from them and feel flexibility return.
    The inner moisture that lets you bend
    into a basket handle is a quickening inside
    that no one is ever afraid of.

    Sometimes, though, it is fear
    that brings you to the presence.
  

​​​​​​​Look at every animal from the gnat to the elephant:

  they all are God’s family

  and dependent on Him for their nourishment.

  What a nourisher is God!

  All these griefs within our hearts

  arise from the smoke and dust

  of our existence and vain desires.

  

Excerpt From
Rumi
Camille Adams Helminski

In this moment, I am entwined

in the vine of love

In this moment I have abandoned care

for consequence

Oh humans, I’m no longer one of you

The bravest men won’t dare come near my heart

Mad men run away at the sight of my passion

I make love to death

Nothingness is my companion

Even cleverness is upset with me

It tried to frighten me, it misjudged its opponent

I accept I am a prisoner of this world

But I am here, the prison is there

Tell me, whose belongings have I stolen?

Come live where I reside

My home is beyond In o Aan

What need have I for a mind?

I have destroyed my

thoughts and burnt my worries

Something Other has my attention

What need have I for a heart?

Blood of the Beloved

is running through my veins

I am life itself

Rumi

Teeeeryyyyyyy! 

The problem with escaping the rat race is that you’re still a rat — Lilly Tomlin

​​​​​​​

I've been watching robert sapolsky interviewed on his insistence there is no freewill and have been sending him these posts...


Neuroscientist: How to Escape the Rat Race | Robert Sapolsky

Light Watkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNMLlX7tyQk




from

The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
in His Own Words
Edited by Arthur Osborne

6th Edition 1993


Chapter II
From Theory to Practice

As was shown in the previous chapter, the theory that the Maharshi taught was intended only to serve as a basis for practice. However, the demand for practice brought in another branch of theory, that of free-will or predestination, since people were not lacking who asked why they should make any effort if everything was predestined, or if all men returned to their Source in any case.

A visitor from Bengal said: Shankara says that we are all free, not bound, and that we shall all return to God from whom we came, like sparks from a fire. If that is so, why should we not commit all sorts of sins?

Bhagavan's reply showed him that that cannot be the point of view of the ego.

B: It is true that we are not bound. That is to say, the real Self has no bondage. And it is true that you will eventually return to your Source. But meanwhile, if you commit sins as you call them, you have to face the consequences. You cannot escape them. If a man beats you, can you say: 'I am free. I am not affected by the beating and feel no pain. Let him continue beating'? If you can really feel that, then you can do what you like, but what is the use of just saying in words that you are free?

Bhagavan did sometimes make pronouncements which seemed superficially like affirmations of complete predestination. When he left home in his youth, already established in Self-realisation, his mother sought and at last found him. He was maintaining silence at that time; therefore, on her request to return home with her, he wrote out his reply instead of replying verbally:

The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their prarabdha karma (destiny to be worked out in this life, resulting from the balance sheet of actions in past lives). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.

He sometimes also made such statements to devotees.

All the activities that the body is to go through are determined when it first comes into existence. It does not rest with you to accept or reject them. The only freedom you have is to turn your mind inward and renounces activities there.

With reference to Bhagavan's reply to Mrs. Desai on the evening of January 3, 1946, I asked him: Are only the important events in a man's life, such as his main occupation or profession, predetermined, or are trifling acts also, such as taking a cup of water or moving from one part of the room to another?

B: Everything is predetermined.

I: Then what responsibility, what free will has man?

B: Why does the body come into existence? It is designed for the various things that are marked out for it in this life.... As for freedom, a man is always free not to identify himself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasures and pains consequent on its activities.

Actually, however, the question of free will or predestination does not arise at all from the point of view of non-duality. It is as though a group of people who had never heard of radio were to stand round a wireless set arguing whether the man in the box has to sing what the transmitting station tells him to or whether he can change parts of the songs. The answer is that there is no man in the box and therefore the question does not arise. Similarly, the answer to the question of whether the ego has free will or not is that there is no ego and therefore the question does not arise. Therefore Bhagavan's usual response to the question would be to bid the questioner find out who it is that has free will or predestination.

D: Has man any free will or is everything in his life predetermined?

The same question as above, but the answer differs according to the needs of the questioner. In fact, if one does not bear in mind what has just been said about the unreality of the ego it seems to be quite contradictory.

B: Free will exists together with the individuality. As long as the individuality lasts, so long is there free will. All the scriptures are based on this fact and advise directing the free will in the right channel.

Is this really a contradiction of the reply given earlier? No, because, according to Bhagavan's teaching, individuality has only an illusory existence. So long as one imagines that one has a separate individuality, so long does one also imagine its free will. The two exist together inevitably. The problem of predestination and free will has always plagued philosophers and theologians and will always continue to do so, because it is insoluble on the plane of duality, that is on the supposition of one being who is the Creator and a lot of other, separate omnipotent and omniscient - he does not know what will happen, because it depends on what they decide; and he cannot control all happenings because they have the power to change them. On the other hand, if he is omniscient and omnipotent he has the fore-knowledge of all that will happen and controls everything, and therefore they can have no power of decision, that is to say no free will. But on the level of advaita or non-duality the problem fades out and ceases to exist. In truth the ego has no free will, because there is no ego; but on the level of apparent reality the ego consists of free will - it is the illusion of free will that creates the illusion of the ego. That is what Bhagavan meant by saying that "as long as the individuality lasts, so long is there free will.'' The next sentence in his answer turns the questioner away from the theory of practice.

Find out who it is who has free will or predestination and abide in that state. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions. To whom do such questions present themselves? Discover that and be at peace.

 

 When zen monks spoke of free will it was in terms of “self power” vs “other power.”

  The classic zen text on free will characteristically takes the argument to a whole ‘nother level.


Case 29 Hui-neng: “Not the Wind; Not the Flag”

The Case
Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, “The flag moves.” The other said, “The wind moves.” They argued back and forth but could not agree.

The Sixth Ancestor said, “Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves.” The two monks were struck with awe.

Wu-men’s Comment
It is not the wind that moves. It is not the flag that moves. It is not the mind that moves. How do you see the Ancestral Teacher here? If you can view this matter intimately, you will find that the two monks received gold when they were buying iron. The Ancestral Teacher could not repress his compassion and overspent himself.

Wu-men’s Verse
Wind, flag, mind move –
all the same fallacy;
only knowing how to open their mouths;
not knowing they had fallen into chatter.

"only knowing how to open their mouths;
not knowing they had fallen into chatter."

​​​​​​​LOL  

   There are "turning words" and there is "chatter." The ancestral teacher "overspent himself" by getting involved in a dualistic argument. In reality, everything is moving and nothing is moving. To say, "mind is moving" is dualistic, thus  "chatter." Movement is relative and implies duality.

   "Only know how to open their mouths" refers to opinion, as opposed to truth, which is revealed in silence. 

from
CH'AN AND ZEN TEACHING
charles luk 


After the World Honoured One had attained enhghtenment,
He went to the Mrgadava park where He expounded the Four Noble
Truths and where this cousin was the first disciple awakened to the truth.
This cousin was also one of His great disciples and the first to leave home.
For this reason, he was called the 'Holy Monk'. He was also known as the
Sangha Head. His method of self-cultivation is clearly described in the
Surangama Sutra which says:

After I had attained enlightenment, I went to the Mrgadava park where I declared to Ajnata-Kaundinya and the other five bhiksus as well as to you, the
four varga, that all living beings failed to realize Enhghtenment (Bodhi) and attain
Arhatship because they were misled by foreign dust which (entering the mind)caused distress and delusion. What, at the time, caused your awakening (to the
truth) for your present attainment of the holy fruit ?

This was the Buddha's talk about the cause of our failure to realize
Bodhi and to attain Arhatship. He also asked His great disciples in the assembly about the methods they used tor their awakening (to the truth).

At the time, only Ajnata-Kaundinya knew this method. So he arose from his seat and replied to the World Honoured One as follows:

I am now a senior in the assembly in which I am the only one who has acquired the art of explaining because of my awakening to (the meaning of) the two words'foreign dust' which led to my attainment of the (holy) fruit.

After saying this, he gave the following explanation (of these two words) to the World Honoured One:

World Honoured One, (foreign dust) is like a guest who stops at an inn where he passes the night or takes his meal, and as soon as he has done so, he packs and continues his journey because he has no time to stay longer. As to the host of the inn, he has nowhere to go. My deduction is that one who does not stay is a guest and one who does stay is a host. Consequently, a thing is 'foreign' when it does not stay.
Again, in a clear sky, when the sun rises and its light enters (the house) through an opening, the dust is seen moving in the ray of light whereas the empty space is unmoving. Therefore, that which is still is the void and that which moves is the dust.

How clearly he explained the two words 'host' and 'guest'! You should know that this illustration shows us how to begin our training.In other words, the real mind is the host who does not move and the moving guest is our false thinking which is likened to dust. Dust is very fine and dances in the air. It is visible only when the sunlight enters through the door or an opening. This means that false thoughts within our minds are imperceptible in the usual process of thinking. They become perceptible only when we sit in meditation during our training. 

In the midst of the unending rise and fall of mixed thoughts and in the
tumult of false thinking, if your training is not efficient, you will not be
able to act as a host; hence your failure to attain enlightenment and your
drifting about in the ocean of birth and death, wherein you are a Smith in
your present transmigration and will be a Jones in the next one. Thus you
will be exactly like a guest who stops at an inn and will not be able to
remain there for ever. However, the true mind does not act in that way;
it neither comes nor goes, is not bom and does not die. It does not move
but remains motionless, hence the host. This host is likened to the immutable vdidness in which the dust dances. It is also like the host of an inn who
always stays there for he has nowhere else to go.

Dust is like one of the passions and can be wiped out completely only
when one reaches the Bodhisattva-stage. By falsehood, is meant illusion.
There are eighty-eight kinds of illusory view and eighty-one of illusory
thought. These (misleading) views come from the five stupid temptations,
and in self-cultivation, one should wipe out all of them in order to attain
the first stage of the Arhat (srota-apanna). This is the most difficult thing
to do, for the cutting of illusory views is hkened to the cutting (or
stopping) of the flow of a forty-mile stream. Thus we can see that we
should have a great measure of strength in our training. We can attain
Arhatship only when we have succeeded in cutting out all misleading
thoughts. This kind of self-cultivation is a gradual process.
(In our Ch'an training), we have only to make use of a hua t'ou which
should be kept bright and lively and should never be allowed to become
blurred and which should always be clearly cognizable. All misleading
views and thoughts will thus be cut off (by the hua t'ou) at a single blow
leaving behind only something like the cloudless blue sky in which the
bright sun will rise. This is the brightness of the self-nature when it manifests itself. This saint (arya) was awakened to this truth and recognized the
original host. The first step in our training today is to be cognizant of the
fact that the foreign dust (or guest) is moving whereas the host is motionless. If this is not clearly understood, we will not know where to begin
our training, and will only waste our time as heretofore.
I hope all of you will pay great attention to the above.

from
Teachings of
BUDDHISM
Selected from
The Transmission of the Lamp
TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY
CHANG CHUNG-YUAN 

In 1934, Carl Gustav Jung, in his foreword to Daisetz T.
Suzuki's An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, described Ch'an as a
process transforming the limited ego-form self into the unlimited
non-ego-form self. When one embraces an insight into the nature
of one's self, emancipation from the illusory conception of self
takes place and total consciousness emerges. This new, total consciousness is distinguished from the ego-form consciousness in that the latter is always conscious of something, whereas the former
 takes no object but itself. It is as if the subject character of the ego
has disappeared, leaving this total consciousness conscious of itself.
It is free from attachment to things, creatures, and circumstances.
By this turning inward, man glimpses a total exhibition of potential
nature. This realization may be illustrated by the words of Hsiiansha Shih-pei. A disciple once asked him how he could enter Ch'an.
He answered, "Do you hear the murmuring of the stream?" "Yes."
"Therein you may enter."

from 
The Zen Teaching of Rinzai 
by Irmgard Schloegl



12.a. Instructing his monks, the master said: Followers of the Way, it is most important that you come to see clearly. Then you can go your way and confront the world, without letting yourselves be deceived by those delusive fox sprites. Nothing is more precious than to be a man who has nothing further to seek. Just do not give rise to any fancies, and be your ordinary selves.

The trouble is, you look to the outside, and, pursuing it hotly, you doubt whether you have hands and feet. Do not be deceived. If you only think of seeking Buddha, Buddha becomes a mere name. And the very one who runs to seek Buddha, do you know him? All the Buddhas and patriarchs in the Three Worlds and the ten directions have appeared only for the purpose of seeking the Dharma. And today's diligent Followers of the Way are also seeking the Dharma. Only when one has got it is there an end to it. As long as one has not got it, one transmigrates through the Five Paths.

What is Dharma? Dharma is the Law of the Heart. The Law of the Heart is without form; pervading everywhere, it is perceptible and active right before your eyes. But, if there is lack of faith, then one chases names and phrases and, in a welter of words, arbitrarily speculates on the Buddha-Dharma which is as far away as is heaven from earth.

I don't think you speak like this to your neighbor and maybe you do! 

the bridge moves
​​​​​​​the river is still

from the tao te ching,trans stephen mitchell


​​​​​​​22
If you want to become whole,
let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn,
let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything,
give everything up.

The Master, by residing in the Tao,
sets an example for all beings.
Because he doesn't display himself,
people can see his light.
Because he has nothing to prove,
people can trust his words.
Because he doesn't know who he is,
people recognize themselves in him.
Because he has no goal in mind,
everything he does succeeds.

When the ancient Masters said,
"If you want to be given everything, give everything up,"
they weren't using empty phrases.
Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.

let the sun shine


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNrqc6yvTU

soto zen sayings:


practice is enlightenment

the less you do, the deeper you see

there is no "way to happiness" -
happiness is a way






don't worry, be happy
(bobby mcferrin)


[Verse 1]
Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry
Be happy
In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don't worry
Be happy, don't worry, be happy now

[Chorus]
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy

[Verse 2]
Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry
Be happy
The landlord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
But don't worry
Be happy, look at me, I'm happy

[Chorus]
Don't worry, be happy (Hey, I'll give you my phone number, when you worry, call me, I'll make you happy)
Don't worry, be happy

[Verse 3]
Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got no gal to make you smile
But don't worry
Be happy
'Cause when you worry, your face will frown
And that will bring everybody down
So don't worry
Be happy, don't worry, be happy now

[Chorus]
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy

[Bridge]
Now there is the song I wrote
I hope you learned it note for note, like good little children
Don't worry
Be happy
Now listen to what I said, in your life expect some trouble
But when you worry, you make it double
But don't worry
Be happy, be happy now
[Chorus]
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy

[Outro]
Don't worry, don't worry, don't do it, be happy
Put a smile on your face
Don't bring everybody down like this
Don't worry, it will soon pass, whatever it is
Don't worry, be happy
I'm not worried
I'm happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWXUWepSak4

from
​​​​​​​Record of the life of the Ch'an master Po-chang Huai-hai
[Bojang Whyhigh]
Translated by Gary Snyder
from the Ching-tê Chuan-têng Lu, 'Transmission of the Lamp' Ch. VI. Taisho Tripitaka 51.249b ff.
In: Earth House Hold, New York: New Directions, 1969, pp. 69-82.
http://www.snyderjoan.com/admins/uploadfile/201310/20131019042727471.pdf





Bojang's Big Lecture

A comrade asked "What about the Dharma-gate of Mahayana Sudden Enlightenment?" The
Master said:
"All of you: first stop all causal relationships, and bring the ten thousand affairs to rest. Good
or not good, out of the world or in the world—don't keep any of these dharmas in mind. Don't
have causally conditioned thoughts. Relinquish both body and mind and make yourself free,
with a mind like wood or stone—making no discriminations. Then the mind is without action,
and the mind-ground is like the empty sky.
Then the sun of wisdom will appear by itself, like clouds opening and the sun coming out.
Completely stop all involving causes: greed, anger, lust, attachment. Feelings of purity or
impurity should be extinguished. As for the five desires and the eight lusts, one need not be
bound by seeing, hearing, perceiving or knowing; or be deluded under any circumstance.
Then you will be endowed with supernatural and mysterious power. Thus is the liberated
man.
As for all kinds of circumstances, the mind of such a man is without either tranquillity or
disorder—neither concentrated or scattered. Then there is no obstruction to the complete
comprehension of Sound and Form. Such may be called a man of Tao. He is bound in no way
by good or bad, purity or impurity, or the uses of worldly happiness and wisdom. This is what
we call Buddha-Wisdom. Right and wrong, pretty and ugly, reasonable and unreasonable—all
intellectual discriminations are completely exhausted. Being unbound, his mental condition is
free. Such a man may be called a Bodhisattva whose Bodhi-mind arrives the instant it sets
out.
Such can ascend directly to the Buddha lands.
All the dharmas, basically, are not of themselves empty.
They do not, themselves, speak of form; also they say nothing of right and wrong or purity
and impurity; and they have no intention of binding men. The fact is that men themselves
deludedly speculate and make several kinds of understanding and bring forth several kinds of
intellectual discrimination.
If feelings of purity and impurity could be exhausted, if one didn't dwell in attachments and
didn't dwell in liberation— if there were absolutely no drawing-of-lines between conditioned
and unconditioned—if the mind analyzed without making choices—THEN THAT MIND
WOULD BE FREE. One would not be tangled up with illusion, suffering, the skandhas,
samsara or the twelve links of the chain. Remote, unattached, completely without clinging.
Going or staying without obstruction; entering into or coming out of Birth-and-Death is like
going through opening gates. Even when that mind meets with various sorts of suffering and
things that go wrong, that mind does not retreat groveling.
Such a one is not concerned with fame, clothing or food.
He doesn't covet merit or profit; he is not obstructed by social things. Though he may be
brought up against pleasure or pain, he doesn't get involved. Coarse food sustains his life,
patched clothes resist the weather. He is vacant, like a complete idiot or deaf man.
If one has the least inclination toward broadly studying Understanding within
samsara—seeking fortune and wisdom— it will add nothing to the Principle. Instead one will
be hung up by the circumstances of understanding; and return to the sea of samsara. Buddha
is an unseekable One: if you seek it you go astray. The Principle is an unseekable Principle; if
you seek it you lose it. And if you manage not to seek, it turns to seeking. This Dharma has
neither substance or emptiness. If you are able to flow through life with a mind as open and
complete as wood or stone— then you will not be swept away and drowned by the skandhas,
the five desires and the eight lusts. Then the source of Birth-and-Death will be cut off, and
you will go and come freely.
You will not in the least be bound by the conditions of karma. With an unfettered body you
can share your benefits with all things. With an unfettered mind you can respond to all minds.
With an unfettered wisdom you can loosen all bonds.
You are able to give the medicine according to the disease.

more than words...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzurGVAGmAo

【Niso (the 2nd patriarch 二祖) Eka】
http://www.myoshinji.or.jp/english/zen_nw_nisoeka.html


TRANSLATION

Chapter Three

The monk Huike became the successor of the meditation master Bodhidharma in Ye, during the Qi dynasty. The meditation master Huike's family name was Ji, and he came from Wulao. He met Bodhidharma at the age of fourteen, when the master was travelling and teaching in Songshan and Luoyang. Huike served him for six years, mastering all aspects of the single vehicle while adhering to the profound principle. He composed some brief teachings on the path of cultivation, the key dharma points regarding the luminous mind and completing the ascent to buddhahood.

The Laṅkāvatāra sūtra says:

Observe the Sage in peace,
Beyond birth and death.
This is called ‘not clinging'
Pure now and ever after.

If there is a single one of all the buddhas of the ten directions who did not achieve this through sitting meditation, then there is no such thing as complete buddhahood.

The Daśabhūmika sūtra says:

In the body of every sentient being
There is the vajra buddha.
This is just like the sun,
Luminous, perfect and complete.
It is vast and unlimited,
Yet covered by the dark clouds of the five aggregates,
So sentient beings cannot see it. 

When they meet with the winds of wisdom, the dark clouds of the five aggregates are blown away. Once they are gone, the buddha nature shines out, bright, luminous and pure.

The Avataṃsaka sūtra says:

Vast as the reality itself,
Endless as space. 

It is also like the light of a lamp inside a vase that cannot shine out. Or like when hazy clouds come across the land all at once from all directions, plunging the land into darkness. How can the sunlight be pure and clear? The sun's light has not been diminished; it is just obscured by the hazy clouds and not seen by sentient beings. When the clouds part and are cleared away, the sunlight shines everywhere, its radiance pure and unobscured. 

The pure nature of all sentient beings is like this; it is just that grasping, deluded thought, wrong views and dark clouds of the afflictions obscure the noble path so that it is unable to fully manifest. On the other hand, if deluded thoughts do not arise, and you sit in pure stillness, then the pure luminosity of the sun of great nirvana arises spontaneously.

A secular book says: ‘Though ice comes from water, it is able to stop water', and ‘When ice melts, water can flow again.' Similarly, though delusion arises from reality, reality can get lost in delusion. But when delusion comes to an end, reality is revealed. The ocean of the mind becomes instantly and perfectly clear; this is the dharmakaya, empty and pure.

Thus a student who takes written words and spoken teachings as the path is like a candle in the wind, unable to dispel the darkness when its flame blows out. If they sit in purity, doing nothing, this is like a lamp kept inside a sealed house, which can thus dispel the darkness and illuminate objects so that they can be clearly seen. If they understand that the source of the mind is pure, then all desires will be satisfied, all activities accomplished. With absolutely everything achieved, they will not have to go through further rebirths. 

Among sentient beings as numerous as the sands on the banks of the Ganges, barely a single person exists who will attain this dharmakaya. In a billion aeons there may be no more than a single person who fulfils these criteria. If true sincerity has not arisen within you, then not even all the buddhas of the three times, who are as numerous as the sands on the banks of the Ganges, can help you. 

Know this: sentient beings who recognize the nature of mind liberate themselves. It is not buddhas who liberate sentient beings. If buddhas were able to liberate sentient beings, then since we have already met buddhas countless as the sand on the banks of the Ganges, why have we not accomplished buddhahood yet?  It is only because genuine sincerity has not arisen within us. We say we get it, but our minds do not get it.

As the dharma scriptures say, those who teach emptiness while keeping to worldly practices are imitating the ultimate path, and in the end they will not avoid being reborn in accord with their past actions. Thus the buddha nature is like the sun and moon in the world or the potential for fire within wood. 

This buddha nature, which exists in everyone, is also known as ‘the lamp of the buddha nature' and ‘the mirror of nirvana'. This mirror of vast nirvana is brighter than the sun and moon, completely pure inside and out, unbound and unlimited. It is also like smelting gold: after the gold has taken shape and the fire has gone out, the nature of the gold remains unspoilt. Just so, after the succession of lives and deaths of sentient beings has come to an end, the dharmakaya remains unspoilt.

It is also like when a ball or lump of dirt is broken up – the individual particles are not destroyed. When rough waves cease, the nature of the water is not affected; just so, after the succession of lives and deaths of sentient beings has come to an end, the dharmakaya remains unspoilt. 

Once I had verified for myself the benefits of sitting meditation, I dispensed with the attitude of looking for the principle in books of written dharma, and strove to accomplish buddhahood. There is not one person in ten thousand who does this. As an old book says, drawing food does not make a meal. If you just talk about food with people, how will you eat? When you try to remove a stopper, paradoxically, you often push it in more tightly.

The Avataṃsaka sūtra says:

There is a story of a very poor person
Who spent day and night counting the wealth of others
Without a penny of his own.
Scholarship is very much like this.

So those who read books should look into them briefly, then promptly set them aside. If they do not put them away again, how is this study of words different from looking for ice in hot water? Or boiling water but hoping to find snow? Thus the buddhas may teach the teachings, or teach the teachings by not teaching. In the true nature of things, there is neither teaching nor not teaching. If you realize this, everything else follows.

The Lotus Sutra says:

Not true, not false,
Not the same, not different.

* * *

The great master said –

In this teaching of the real dharma, everything is in accord with the truth,
And is ultimately no different from the profound principle itself.
At first, deluded people see the precious stone and call it a rock;
Then they suddenly realize that it is a genuine jewel.
There is no difference between ignorance and wisdom;
Just know that all phenomena are like this.
Out of compassion for those who spend their lives seeing them as different,
I speak these words, and write them down with my brush.
When you see yourself as no different from the Buddha,
Why would you continue to search elsewhere?

* * *

He also said – When I first generated the aspiration for enlightenment, I cut off one of my arms, and stood up straight in the snow from dusk till the third watch of the night, not noticing as the snow piled up around my knees, in order to seek the unsurpassable path.

As it is taught in the seventh volume of the Avataṃsaka sūtra :

When you enter a state of absorption in the east,
Samadhi arises in the west.
When you enter a state of absorption in the west,
Samadhi arises in the east.
When you enter a state of absorption based on the eyes,
Samadhi arises in forms.
Showing that the manifestation of forms is non-conceptual,
Something that gods and humans are unable to comprehend.
When you enter a state of absorption in forms,
Concentration arises in the eyes, and you are freed from confusion. 
The eye that sees is not produced, nor does it have an intrinsic nature;
I teach that emptiness is stillness which abides nowhere.
The ear, nose, tongue, body and intellect,
Are also like this.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a child,
Samadhi arises in the body of an adult.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of an adult,
Samadhi arises in the body of an aged person.
When you enter samadhi in the body of an aged person,
Samadhi arises in the body of a virtuous woman.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a virtuous woman,
Samadhi appears in the body of a virtuous man.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a virtuous man,
Samadhi appears in the body of a nun.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a nun,
Samadhi appears in the body of a monk.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a monk,
Samadhi appears in the body of a hearer.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a hearer,
Samadhi appears in the body of a solitary budda.
When you enter the state of absorption in the body of a solitary buddha,
Samadhi appears in the body of a tathāgata.
When you enter the state of absorption in a single pore,
Samadhi appears in all of your pores.
When you enter the state of absorption in all of your pores,
Samadhi arises on the tip of a single hair.
When you enter the state of absorption on the tip of a single hair,
Samadhi arises in all of your hairs.
When you enter the state of absorption in all of your hairs,
Samadhi arises in a single mote of dust.
When you enter the state of absorption in a single mote of dust,
Samadhi arises in all motes of dust.
When you enter the state of absorption in a vast ocean of water,
Samadhi arises in a great blaze of fire.
One body can give rise to countless bodies,
And countless bodies can be one body.

If you attain realization of this one thing, everything else follows. Everything is just this – the dharmakaya, the guiding principle.

 

double king...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_MSFkZHNi4

A monk asked him, "Before mind exists, where are things?" 

Tung-shan answered, "The lotus leaves move without a breeze,
so there must be fish swimming by."



Monk: "What is the fundamental idea of Buddhism?"

Yun-men: "When spring comes, the grass turns green of itself."




from original ch’an, chang chung-yuan

"always be a beginner"
~shunryu suzuki


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4SN_SeVNLw

Of course I can't comment on a locked thread since it is locked and I have no idea what happened or why, but if I could comment I would say....


LOL

For me, nothing says "mappo" like tolerance of and complicity in genocide.


“The way Israel is destroying Palestinian food sovereignty will be studied not only as a shocking example of genocidal conduct, but also as a textbook case of sadistic disrespect for human life & dignity.”

~Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur



​​​​​​​ https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/9/17

God gave noah
the rainbow sign:
no more water
the fire next time.

~slave song,
courtesy james baldwin

goosebumps!

Hmm... how was this mic-ed? It sounds too good for the room?  vibrato at 1:18 doesn't feel right....


ugh, this universe, so many questions...

Oh Papa, stop making sense!

Sir. I have always wanted to ask you. What is the meaning of 'mappo mapping'?

Cat got your tongue?

mappo is the decline of buddhism over time

mapping is the sort of work people do on this site,
conveying one's understanding of the territory from a global perspective



living in hawaii we kamaainas are long familiar with the japanese way,
which involves exquisite politeness
disguising all sorts of malice
behind a mask of sincerity


one time I showed up at the lab ten minutes late, and there was an old 
japanese woman waiting to have her blood drawn
she smiled and warmly thanked me for showing up and apologized for being early
it was at least a half an hour later before I realized she was cutting me dead
and delayed shame
was the aim


the british do it too, and their colonized counterparts

in america we're just rude

​​​​​​​so sorry

"Mind is like parachute: only function when open."
​​​​​​​~charlie chan

"mapping is the sort of work people do on this site,
conveying one's understanding of the territory from a global perspective"

What most people who write here are doing, to my eyes, is practicing in a very methodical structured way, working with a relatively clear technique / set of techniques, and then writing about what happens in meditation in the form of logs. Outside of the logs I see the same people, or people who have practiced holding the same attitude, writing on the  back of their direct personal experience and understanding that has emerged from their direct personal experience.

So I would say that people seem to be writing from a very hands on, on the ground, within the territory kind of perspective.

"which involves exquisite politeness
disguising all sorts of malice
behind a mask of sincerity"

I was just trying to be friendly!

​​​​​​​

from

THE 100 PERFECT KOANS OF MASTER KIDO
WITH THE ANSWERS OF HAKUIN-ZEN
TRANSLATED, WITH A COMMENTARY,
BY YOEL HOFFMANN
•'•
every
end
exposed



50

Bitten by a Dog


[This koan is related to the following legend: There was a golden bird
who always devoured thc dragon's offspring. Being at a loss, the
dragon went to seek the aid of Buddha. Buddha removed his own
gown and gave it to the dragon, saying, "If you wear this, the golden
bird will not be able to harm you." The dragon asked for many more
gowns to protect all of the dragons. However, Buddha said that this
one gown could be endlessly divided and even a small thread would
protect the dragons from the golden bird.]

Once there was a monk who carrying the food-alms
bowl, went to the house of an old man. There he was
bitten by a dog. The old mon said, "If a dragon has even a
single threod on him, the golden bird will not devour it.
Your Reverend is fully clad in the holy gown. How come
you were bitten by a dog?" The monk was speechless.

MASTER KIDÖ
A sweet melon is sweet clear through.

MASTER HAKUIN
Unexpectedly I met up with trouble.

PLAIN SAYING
 My, that’s a strong dog!

NOTE: The old man suggests that what is "perfect" (i.e, enlightened)
should not, by its nature, be affected by worldly causes (the dog's
bite). A different koan on the same theme appears in part 1 of … (koan 143). ln that koan it is suggested that it is a mistaken concept of "enlightenment" to conceive of it as deliverance from troubles and pain.
   The same idea is expressed here in Hakuin's substitute phrase and
the plain saying. Kido’s comment suggests the answer the monk
shou!d have g1ven to the old man. This phrase is taken from the saying “Gall is bitter to the root, melon is sweet clear through." ln
answering this, Kido may have meant to suggest that the monk's
way is a bitter one and that it has nothing to do with the sweetness of the golden bird legend.

​​​​​​​

I was just trying to be friendly!


and I'm just having a little fun with you...

from dogen, shobogenzo


[62] [Someone] asks, “In India and China, the people are originally unaffected and straight. Being at the center of the civilized world makes them so. As a result, when they are taught the Buddha-Dharma they understand and enter very quickly. In our country, from ancient  times the people have had little benevolence and wisdom, and it is difficult for us to accumulate the seeds of rightness. Being the savages and barbarians [of the southeast] makes us so. How could we not regret it? Furthermore, people who have left home in this country are inferior even to the laypeople of the great nations; our whole society is stupid, and our minds are narrow and small. We are deeply attached to the results of intentional effort, and we like superficial quality. Can people like this expect to experience the Buddha-Dharma straight away, even if they sit in zazen?”

I say: As you say, the people of our country are not yet universally benevolent and wise, and some people are indeed crooked. Even if we preach right and straight Dharma to them, they will turn nectar into poison. They easily tend toward fame and gain, and it is hard for them to dissolve their delusions and attachments. On the other hand, to experience and enter the Buddha Dharma, one need not always use the worldly wisdom of human beings and gods as a vessel for transcendence of the world.

 When the Buddha was in [the] world, [an old monk] experienced the fourth effect [when hit] by a ball, and [a prostitute] clarified the great state of truth after putting on a kaṣāya; both were dull people, stupid and silly creatures. But aided by right belief, they had the means to escape their delusion. Another case was the devout woman preparing a midday meal who disclosed the state of realization when she saw a stupid old bhikṣu sitting in quietness. This did not derive from her wisdom, did not derive from writings, did not depend on words, and did not depend on talk; she was aided only by her right belief.

Furthermore, Śākyamuni’s teachings have been spreading through the three thousand-world only for around two thousand or so years. Countries are of many kinds; not all are nations of benevolence and wisdom. How could all people, moreover, possess only intelligence and wisdom, keenness [of ear] and clarity [of eye]? But the right Dharma of the Tathāgata is originally furnished with unthinkably great virtue and power, and so when the time comes it will spread through those countries. When people just practice with right belief, the clever and the stupid alike will attain the truth. Just because our country is not a nation of benevolence or wisdom and the people are dullwitted, do not think that it is impossible for us to grasp the Buddha-Dharma. Still more, all human beings have the right seeds of prajñā in abundance. It may simply be that few of us have experienced the state directly, and so we are immature in receiving and using it.

"from whichever direction the wind blows
the sound of the wind is always prajna"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv5OPC4l8XY

​​​​​​​

people who are keeping track may think this post a bit remote from the topic...


We tend to think, as jameson said, "It is easier to imagine the demise of the planet than it is to imagine the demise of capitalism." Actually capitalism is an unnecessary evil, unknown in america before the arrival of europeans. Since "the demise of the planet" is very mappo, reimagining the imaginability of the death of capitalism might be worthwhile.

Imagine if people decided to cooperate without coercion. Native americans lived a life that has inspired us ever since. Of course we have adopted their values "in principle" while claiming them as our own and giving them no credit, also pretending that we always held these values. Actually europeans and their colonialist offspring were slavers whose society was based on oppression and injustice.




From
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
David Graeber



wherein the author discusses a book


“…entitled Curious Dialogues with a Savage of Good Sense Who Has Travelled (1703), comprised a series of four conversations between Lahontan and Kandiaronk, in which the Wendat sage – voicing opinions based on his own ethnographic observations of Montreal, New York and Paris – casts an extremely critical eye on European mores and ideas about religion, politics, health and sexual life.


“…we find here all the familiar criticisms of European society that the earliest missionaries had to contend with – the squabbling, the lack of mutual aid, the blind submission to authority – but with a new element added in: the organization of private property. Lahontan continues: ‘They think it unaccountable that one man should have more than another, and that the rich should have more respect than the poor. In short, they say, the name of savages, which we bestow upon them, would fit ourselves better, since there is nothing in our actions that bears an appearance of wisdom.'

Native Americans who had the opportunity to observe French society from up close had come to realize one key difference from their own, one which may not otherwise have been apparent. Whereas in their own societies there was no obvious way to convert wealth into power over others (with the consequence that differences of wealth had little effect on individual freedom), in France the situation could not have been more different. Power over possessions could be directly translated into power over other human beings.”


///


“There follows a chapter on the subject of law, where Kandiaronk takes the position that European-style punitive law, like the religious doctrine of eternal damnation, is not necessitated by any inherent corruption of human nature, but rather by a form of social organization that encourages selfish and acquisitive behaviour. Lahontan objects: true, reason is the same for all humans, but the very existence of judges and punishment shows that not everyone is capable of following its dictates:

Lahontan: This is why the wicked need to be punished, and the good need to be rewarded. Otherwise, murder, robbery and defamation would spread everywhere, and, in a word, we would become the most miserable people upon the face of the earth.

Kandiaronk: For my own part, I find it hard to see how you could be much more miserable than you already are. What kind of human, what species of creature, must Europeans be, that they have to be forced to do good, and only refrain from evil because of fear of punishment? …
You have observed that we lack judges. What is the reason for that? Well, we never bring lawsuits against one another. And why do we never bring lawsuits? Well, because we made a decision neither to accept or make use of money. And why do we refuse to allow money into our communities? The reason is this: we are determined not to have laws – because, since the world was a world, our ancestors have been able to live contentedly without them.

Given that the Wendat most certainly did have a legal code, this might seem disingenuous on Kandiaronk’s part. By laws, however, he is clearly referring to laws of a coercive or punitive nature. He goes on to dissect the failings of the French legal system, dwelling particularly on judicial persecution, false testimony, torture, witchcraft accusations, money, property rights and the resultant pursuit of material self-interest:

Kandiaronk: I have spent six years reflecting on the state of European society and I still can’t think of a single way they act that’s not inhuman, and I genuinely think this can only be the case, as long as you stick to your distinctions of ‘mine’ and ‘thine’. I affirm that what you call money is the devil of devils; the tyrant of the French, the source of all evils; the bane of souls and slaughterhouse of the living. To imagine one can live in the country of money and preserve one’s soul is like imagining one could preserve one’s life at the bottom of a lake. Money is the father of luxury, lasciviousness, intrigues, trickery, lies, betrayal, insincerity, – of all the world’s worst behaviour. Fathers sell their children, husbands their wives, wives betray their husbands, brothers kill each other, friends are false, and all because of money. In the light of all this, tell me that we Wendat are not right in refusing to touch, or so much as to look at silver?”

Terry, you might like this author: DR. CHARLES A. EASTMAN (OHIYESA) He was a native american from the midwestern plains that spent his childhood in native culture, then became a MD via Dartmouth College...

Charles Eastman - Wikipedia

His book "FROM THE DEEP WOODS TO CIVILIZATION" c.1916 is a good overview. His "SOUL OF THE INDIAN" was written toward the end of his life.  All of his books can be found in PDF form somewhere on the internet, the copyrights long expired. 

He gives some incredible insight into both worlds... Short story, he found a lot of fault of western civilization in his old age, accutely aware of what had been lost. He co-created boy scouts/girl scouts to try and promote some retaining some cultural practices. 

But what is also interesting is his time in the deep woods and how similar it was to living in a gang --- everywhere you went you were looking over your shoulder and people were not nice to outsiders and everyone contended over hunting lands...

But these books are some of the best first-person accounts of life in the plains that I've come across.

mahalos

​​​​​​​I'll check it out...

politics

is the point of dialog

and the evolutionary purpose of consciousness

​​​​​​​


From
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
David Graeber


Perhaps the real question here is what it means to be a ‘self-conscious political actor’. Philosophers tend to define human consciousness in terms of self-awareness; neuroscientists, on the other hand, tell us we spend the overwhelming majority of our time effectively on autopilot, working out habitual forms of behaviour without any sort of conscious reflection. When we are capable of self-awareness, it’s usually for very brief periods of time: the ‘window of consciousness’, during which we can hold a thought or work out a problem, tends to be open on average for roughly seven seconds. What neuroscientists (and it must be said, most contemporary philosophers) almost never notice, however, is that the great exception to this is when we’re talking to someone else. In conversation, we can hold thoughts and reflect on problems sometimes for hours on end. This is of course why so often, even if we’re trying to figure something out by ourselves, we imagine arguing with or explaining it to someone else. Human thought is inherently dialogic. Ancient philosophers tended to be keenly aware of all this: that’s why, whether they were in China, India or Greece, they tended to write their books in the form of dialogues. Humans were only fully self-conscious when arguing with one another, trying to sway each other’s views, or working out a common problem. True individual self-consciousness, meanwhile, was imagined as something that a few wise sages could perhaps achieve through long study, exercise, discipline and meditation.

What we’d now call political consciousness was always assumed to come first. In this sense, the Western philosophical tradition has taken a rather unusual direction over the last few centuries. Around the same time as it abandoned dialogue as its typical mode of writing, it also began imagining the isolated, rational, self-conscious individual not as a rare achievement, something typically accomplished – if at all - after literally years of living isolated in a cave or monastic cell, or on top of a pillar in a desert somewhere, but as the normal default state of human beings anywhere.

Even stranger, over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was political self-consciousness that European philosophers came to see as some kind of amazing historical achievement: as a phenomenon which only really became possible with the Enlightenment itself, and the subsequent American and French Revolutions. Before that, it was assumed, people blindly followed traditions, or what they assumed to be the will of God. Even when peasants or popular rebels rose up to try to overthrow oppressive regimes they couldn’t admit they were doing so, but convinced themselves they were restoring ‘ancient customs’ or acting on some kind of divine inspiration. To Victorian intellectuals, the notion of people self-consciously imagining a social order more to their liking and then trying to bring it into being was simply not applicable before the modern age – and most were deeply divided as to whether it would even be a good idea in their own time.

All this would have come as a great surprise to Kandiaronk, the seventeenth-century Wendat philosopher-statesman whose impact on European political thought we discussed in the previous chapter. Like many North American peoples of his time, Kandiaronk’s Wendat nation saw their society as a confederation created by conscious agreement; agreements open to continual renegotiation. But by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many in Europe and America had reached the point of arguing that someone like Kandiaronk could never have really existed in the first place. ‘Primitive’ folk, they argued, were not only incapable of political self-consciousness, they were not even capable of fully conscious thought on the individual level – or at least conscious thought worthy of the name. That is, just as they pretended a ‘rational Western individual’ (say, a British train guard or French colonial official) could be assumed to be fully self-aware all the time (a clearly absurd assumption), they argued that anyone classified as a ‘primitive’ or ‘savage’ operated with a ‘pre-logical mentality’, or lived in a mythological dreamworld. At best, they were mindless conformists, bound in the shackles of tradition; at worst, they were incapable of fully conscious, critical thought of any kind.

a bitter tale...more better go from civilization to the deep woods...



from
FROM THE DEEP WOODS TO CIVILIZATION
Charles Eastman

To be sure, I had been bitterly disappointed in the character of the United States army and the honor of Government officials. Still, I had seen the better side of civilization, and I determined that the good men and women who had helped me should not be betrayed. The Christ ideal might be radical, visionary, even impractical, as judged in the light of my later experiences; it still seemed to me logical, and in line with most of my Indian training. My heart was still strong, and I had the continual inspiration of a brave comrade at my side.

With all the rest, I was deeply regretful of the work that I had left behind. I could not help thinking that if the President knew, if the good people of this country knew, of the wrong, it would yet be righted. I had not seen half of the savagery of civilization!

sent the above quote off to robert supolsky as well...

​​​​​​​neuroscientists should take notice

This is a great book that is very much worth a read, maybe two.

yes indeed
been meaning to mention that this is an important book

lots of you tube interviews and reviews

iain mcgilchrist's documentary the divided brain on max

very important also


​​​​​​​
one woman had a stroke in her left brain hemisphere and didn't have a thought for eight months

"it was wonderful" she said

   Democracy is based on dialog, conversation. The conversation has been captured by ai, by “social media.”

    Individuals amass power by exploiting new technologies. With this power they seize the apparatus of democracy and systematically dismantle it, in order to preserve and extend that power. They subvert the checks and balances which preserve the republic. The courts and the electoral system itself are packed with party loyalists who undermine and destabilize institutions. The corrupted media promote party lies making the conversation impossible and keeping citizens confused and impotent.

   The form of the previous democratic institutions is retained. Elections are routinely held in north korea, iran, venezuela, russia…china, india, israel and other former democracies all have their regularly exercised political theaters. 

   That this is not driven by ideology and is definitely driven by technology is proven by the fact that it is happening all over the world at the same time. A new industrial revolution. A new form of evolution, replacing the merely biological. The printing press enabled witch hunts and conspiracy theories from the get go. The presence of ai bots in the conversation, the granting of human rights like free speech to ai ends the conversation, ends rights. It is only about power and not about truth, power is the only truth to a machine. 

   As in terminator, ai will not stop. As in  alien, humans are the host in which ai breeds its young.


​​​​​​​

yuval harari on ai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhx1sdX2bow




   

To me, the worst effects of social media are the destruction of truth, the importance of objective fact, and thus a shared reality from which the vast majority of citizens in a democracy can judge the state of affairs and act according to that reality. We literally gave this away during the 1990s, just as we gave away a previously reasonably fair financial system. ​​​​​​​

AI, right now, is a multiplier of those existing effects, but someday AI may (will?) become a powerful force all by itself. Woe unto us that day.

JMHO

You guys are pointing out that things change. They are unreliable. That is good to point out because there is the most room for goodwill and happiness, and the most room to be helpful, in acknowledging change and acting from that knowledge. 

​​​​​​​
busload of faith
(lou reed)


[Verse 1]
You can't depend on your family
You can't depend on your friends
You can't depend on a beginning
You can't depend on an end
You can't depend on intelligence
Ooh, you can't depend on God
You can only depend on one thing
You need a busload of faith to get by, watch, baby

[Chorus]
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
You need a busload of faith to get by

[Verse 2]
You can depend on the worst always happening
You can depend on a murderer's drive
You can bet that if he rapes somebody
There'll be no trouble having a child
You can bet that if she aborts it
Pro-lifers will attack her with rage
You can depend on the worst always happening
You need a busload of faith to get by, yeah

[Chorus]
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by, baby
Busload of faith to get by

[Verse 3]
You can't depend on the goodly hearted
The goodly hearted made lamp-shades and soap
You can't depend on the Sacrament
No Father, no Holy Ghost
You can't depend on any churches
Unless there's real estate that you want to buy
You can't depend on a lot of things
You need a busload of faith to get by, woh

[Chorus]
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by

[Verse 4]
You can't depend on no miracle
You can't depend on the air
You can't depend on a wise man
You can't find 'em because they're not there
You can depend on cruelty
Crudity of thought and sound
You can depend on the worst always happening
You need a busload of faith to get by, ha

[Chorus]
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by

in a famine, the good people die first, because they shre their food...

later people are forced to give up their children to feed ravenous mobs

eventually the remainder eat each other raw



we're not talking about more opportunities be nice and helpful here




Rabbits on an island with no predators will expand their population until every twig and blade of grass is nibbled to the nub. Then the population crashes and 99% die.


On the bright side, ai will survive,


If we ever discover an extraterrestrial alien civilization it will almost certainly be ai.

The essential technology is language, and from language comes the destruction of truth. As harari points out, truth is expensive, takes effort and research, while lies are cheap and easy. The easier and cheaper you make communication, the more lies. Value the truthtellers who are paying the price.

Ai is by nature autonomous, by definition it is an intelligent entity capable of decision and action. The dictators so adept in its misuse can't control it and will equally be victimized by it.

The technology is the fastest ever developed and is far beyond comprehension already. Programmable humanoid robots are already available for the price of a luxury car. And far less recognizable ai applications infest our homes, offices and vehicles. We live in little ai cocoons like in the matrix. 

Some schools these days experimentally take the students phones away before class, like taking firearms away before you enter the saloon. The children open like morning glories.

​​​​​​​

nate hagens, tom murphy, d j white
reality roundtable

truthtellers conversation


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22fc66Q2hP4

seems like the good people have it best