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Mahakashyapa and the Flower

Mahakashyapa and the Flower

Buddha comes one day with a flower in his hand.  He is to give a sermon, but he remains silent. Those who have come

to listen to him begin to wonder what he is doing. Time is passing. It has never happened like this - what is he

doing? They wonder wether he is going to speak or not.

Someone asked "What are you doing? Have your forgotten we have come to listen to you?"

Buddha says, " I have communicated something. Have you heard it?"

One unknown disciple, a bhikkhu named Mahakashyapa laughed loudly.  Buddha says, "Mahakashyapa, come to me, I give

you this flower.".

Bankei, the great Zen teacher, said, "Buddha said nothing. Mahakashyapa heard nothing"
Someone asked him "Buddha said nothing?"
"Yes" Bankei said nothing was said, nothing was heard. It was said and it was heard. I am a witness."
Someone then said, "You were not there."
Bankei said, "When nothing was communicated, no one is needed to be a witness. I was not there and yet I am a

witness." Someone laughed, and Bankei said, "He was also a witness."

Mirdad on Love

Am reading "The book of Mirdad" by Mikhail Naimy.  It is justifiably a classic of spiritual literature.  Mirdad on Love:

Love is he Law of God.  You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required of Man.

And what is it to love but for the lover to absorb forever the beloved so that the twain be one?

And whom, or what, is one to love? Is one to choose a certain leaf upon the Tree of life and pour upon it all one's heart? What of the branch that bears the leaf? What of the stem that holds the branch? What of the bark that shields the stem? What of the roots that feed the the bark, the stem, the branches and the leaves? What of the soil embosoming the roots? What of the sun, and sea, and air that fertilise the soil?

If one small leaf upon a tree be worthy of your love how much more so the tree in its entirety? The love that singles out a fraction of the whole foredooms itself to grief.

You say, "But there be leaves and leaves upon a single tree. Some are healthy, some are sick; some are beautiful, some ugly; some are giants, some dwarfs. How can we help but pick and choose."

I say to you, Out of the paleness of the sick proceeds the freshness of the healthy. I further say to you that ugliness is Beauty's palette, paint and brush; and the dwarf would not have been a dwarf had he not given his stature to the giant.

You are the tree of life. Beware of fractioning yourselves. Set not a fruit against a fruit, a leaf against a leaf, a bough against a bough; nor set the stem against the roots; nor set the tree against the mother soil. That is precisely what you do when you love one part more than the rest, or to the exclusion of the rest.

You are the Tree of Life. Your roots are everywhere.  Your bough and leaves are everywhere. Your fruits are in every mouth. Whatever be the fruits upon that tree; whatever be its bough and leaves ; whatever be its roots, they are your fruits; they are your leaves and boughs; they are your roots.  If you would have the tree bear sweet and fragrant fruit, if you would have it be strong and green, see to the sap wherewith you feed the roots.

...

A yellow leaf upon your tree is but a Love-weaned leaf Blame not the yellow leaf...A putrid fruit is but a Hatred-suckled fruit.  Blame not the putrid fruit. But rather blame your blind and stingy heart that would dole out the sap of life to few and would deny it to many, thereby denying it to itself.

No love is possible except the love of self. No self is real except the All embracing Self. Therefore is God all Love, because he loves Himself.

So long as you are pained by Love, you have not found your real self, nor have you found the golden key of Love. Because you love an ephemeral self your love is ephemeral.

The love of Man for woman is not love. It is thereof a very distant token.  The love of parent for the child is but the threshold to Love's holy temple. Till every man be every woman's lover, and the reverse; till every child be every parent's child, and the reverse, let men and woman brag of flesh and bone clinging to flesh and bone, but never speak the sacred name of love. For that is Blasphemy.

...

Love is not a Virtue. Love is a necessity; more so than bread and water; more so than light and air.

Let no one pride himself on loving. But rather breathe in love and breathe it out just as unconsciously and freely as you breathe the air and breathe it out.

For love needs no one to exalt it.  Love will exalt the heart that it finds worthy of itself.

Seek no rewards for Love.  Love is reward sufficient unto Love, as Hate is punishment sufficient unto Hate.

Nor keep any accounts with Love.  For Love accounts to no one but itself.

Love neither lends nor borrows; Love neither buys nor sells; but when it gives it gives its all;  and when it takes,  it takes its all.  Its very taking is a giving.  Its very giving is a taking.  Therefore it is the same to-day,  to-morrow and forevermore.

Just as a mighty river emptying itself into the sea is e'er replenished by the sea,  so you must empty yourselves in Love that you may be ever filled with Love.  The pool that would withhold the sea-gift from the sea becomes a stagnant pool.

There is no 'more' or 'less' in Love.  The moment you attempt to grade and measure Love it slips away leaving behind it bitter memories.

Nor is there 'now' and 'then',  nor 'here' and 'there' in Love.  All seasons are Love seasons.  All spots are fit abodes for Love.

Love knows no boundaries or bars.  A love whose course is checked by any obstacle whatever is not yet worthy of the name Love.

I often hear you say that Love is Blind,  meaning it can see no fault in the beloved.  That kind of blindness is the height of seeing.  Would you were always so blind as to behold no fault in anything.

Nay, clear and penetrating is the eye of Love.  Therefore it sees no fault.  When Love has purged your sight, then would you see nothing at all unworthy of your love...

Minimalist design

The new minimalist design is due to the downgrading of the weblog subscription to save money...Hope y'all don't mind.  I think its okay but will try to use more pictures to perk it up.

Seem to have become incredibly financially inept of late. Can't wait until the gift economy arrives :-).

Secret tribes coming out of the woodwork!

First the Kogi  come forward and share theior secret wisdom, now this remote Siberian tribe. This is because we are reaching the end times of this World Age (and is yet more evidence for the shift.).  2012 is approaching and those who can help are revealing what they know...

People of a Siberian tribe live for not less than 100 years and never suffer from diseases

When children of the tribe see people outside the settlements for the first time they got shocked that so many people drink alcohol and smoke. The tribe is in fact isolated from the rest of the world. The settlers say they feel sorry for other people living in the world because their life is wicked. There are 5,759 people in the tribe; all of them are vegetarians.

Elina Davydova is a woman who was born in a remote secret settlement of very old Raskolnik Christians in the Siberian taiga; these people have been living there for 15 centuries already. Elina's mission is to teach people the right way of living and cure them with the help of her unique inborn talent. Unlike the numerous healers and swindlers claiming they are healers Elina never takes money for her help to people.

Elina Davydova is sure that people on the planet may live the way that people of her taiga tribe do: they never fall ill and celebrate the first birthday at the age of 100. The people religiously follow the Bible commandments. They know the authentic history of the planet and know the secret of the Egypt pyramids, of Stonehenge and Noah's Ark.

Elina has devoted her life to a major mission of helping people to pass to the sixth civilization. She learnt about her mission at the age of three. She is the seventh and the last woman in the clan having the unique talent. Before that, there were seven men of the clan having the talent. Elina's grandmother told her that she would be the last woman with the unique talent and after that people would pass to the sixth civilization.

read the rest in Pravada online: http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/15841_tribe.html

Sacred Partnership

For me nothing is harder to give up.  The dream of a holy partnership a love divine. The perfected man and the

perfected woman together in the ultimate holy union.  Shiva & Parvati, Jesus and Mary Magdalene, Krishna & Rada...

I've had this dream for as long as I can remember, and indeed for moments I have glimpsed the possibility of this

love. It never lasted but still perhaps I am not ripe.  Perhaps the right partner has not yet been met...

--The pearl of great price--

I have travelled far to reach the well
Nettles and thorns have taught me well

For just a sip I've travelled for years
battling my demons, overcoming my fears

My staff and shoes I've long lost
But the well is nigh - damn the cost

Just one sip and wisdom divine
will flow within these veins of mine

As I step forward and work the wheel
Mimir appeared - "break not the seal!"

"First you must pay the price I ask"
"What is it? Some heroic task?"

"No you must give up that you cannot."
"Anything, Anything. I'll surrender the lot."

"The price is love of woman" said the crone
And I let out a mournful groan

"No partner will you have, no union of the soul
This is my price, this is the toll"

She knew this crone the ultimate price
My heart in twain she'd begun to slice

"Take my eye like Odin."
"no."
"Take my hand,"
"no."
"take both hands"
"no."
"take my health"
"no."
"Take my penis, take my courage, take my mind."
"no, no, no."

"Alright crone, take it then.
I give up love for wisdom's ken"

Mimir chuckled and gave the faintest smile
"Come back when you mean it...you may be a while."

Spiritual Ego

There comes a certain point when other people start recognising your light/energy.  This has started happening.  Get strangers coming up and commenting on the presence they feel when around me, "Thanks for the energy?",  "It's so great to have you here will you come again?", "your presence is a blessing".  Have asked some friends who are also on the path about it and they get the same thing.  The light within begins to shine so that those with the perception can see it.

The big danger here is developing a spiritual ego - "Wow look at what an accomplished spiritual person I am!".  Catch this happening here quite often.  Also catch fantasies of giving satsang or how I could help others on their path.  Then of course one wants to say this is bullshit but doesn't want to be falsely humble!!  The ego is a tricky and insidious thing.

The personal I as opposed to the universal I.  The antidote is realisation that all is thanks to God and it is only through the grace of the divine that anything happens.  the great value of Advaita Vedanta here becomes clear.  Without a strong grounding in the teachings of Ramana, Wei wu Wei, Nisgardatta, and Ramesh the possibility exists for any spiritual practice, meditation or devotion to become another ego game.

Realising that you are not the doer and that there is in fact no one doing anything means practice is less dangerous.  Of course the ego will still be there until the final liberation, becoming more subtle and more flexible along the way.

"Until the final liberation" hehe.  Until implies time and liberation implies something there to be bound.  Words words words yada yada yada...

The Golden Rule 2.0

This is a more funky/freaky version from Nick Herbert...

I have been contacted by alien ambassadors---or so they represented themselves. They took me by surprise, not in mind-merge but as voices in my head. They told me that to travel from star to star, nobody uses metal ships. They use the 2 = 1 experience in which one mind looks out at the world through two bodies. And where these two bodies could be located on different planets or galaxies. All spacefaring races use mind-merge to travel to distant worlds---they teach mind-merge to their young in kindergarten. All space travellers prize the capacity for deep intimacy as the highest possible form of intelligence. Most sentient beings possess no symbolic language at all but are fluent instead in a dozen different styles of mind-merge.

Learning to be a star traveler means practicing reaching out to other minds across the widest emotional gaps imaginable. If you wish to join the galactic club---say the aliens---there is no better practice than reaching without armor into the hearts of your enemies. As paradoxical as it seems, quantum combat may be mankind's ticket to the stars.

I asked the aliens for some hints about practical ways for humans to achieve mind-merge. They laughed and said that there are dozens of nearby alien races who would love to teach mankind the "quantum facts of life" but they are inhibited by a deep cultural taboo. Humans have such an undeveloped capacity for deep intimacy that to mind-merge with us would be the alien equivalent of the sexual molestation of children.

Aliens won't mind-merge with us but they did offer some practical advice for Quantum Diplomats-in-training---a way of thinking that would in their opinion optimize our chances for success in our own tentative attempts to merge minds with other beings: "Give out what you expect to get," was their advice.

"Give out what you expect to get?" I exclaimed. "That's just another version of our Golden Rule, isn't it?"

"Yes it is," the aliens replied, one voice speaking out of many mouths. "Perhaps you could call it Golden Rule 2.0. It may not seem like much to you now, but, believe Us/Them/We, to devise imaginative ways to show off your mastery of Golden Rule 2.0 is mankind's first-class ticket to the stars. Putting out what you expect to get back is also not a bad way of handling non-quantum relations. But preemptive reciprocity will turn out to be crucial when humans learn how 2 = 1 really works, when humans actually learn to reap the consequences of the simplest and most important equation in the universe."

In closing, I would like to thank the aliens for their help in nudging our baby-step physics towards a radically new way of investigating this lovely universe. I hope to meet my alien advisors again some day in deep space where we will play/fight/copulate/study one another in the mutual unconditional surrender of quantum combat. I wish to thank again the Nobel Prize committee for giving its highest award (Nick holds up Nobel medal) to the son of Slovak-American immigrants.

And so, having opened Pandora's Box by handing out the secret of WeaponX to every nation, I am ready to face the War Crimes Tribunal. There is no need for handcuffs, gentlemen. We are not barbarians.

The Golden Rule - The only Morality needed

From http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm

A short essay on the golden rule

      The golden rule is endorsed by all the great world religions; Jesus, Hillel, and Confucius used it to summarize their ethical teachings. And for many centuries the idea has been influential among people of very diverse cultures. These facts suggest that the golden rule may be an important moral truth.

      Let's consider an example of how the rule is used. President Kennedy in 1963 appealed to the golden rule in an anti-segregation speech at the time of the first black enrollment at the University of Alabama. He asked whites to consider what it would be like to be treated as second class citizens because of skin color. Whites were to imagine themselves being black - and being told that they couldn't vote, or go to the best public schools, or eat at most public restaurants, or sit in the front of the bus. Would whites be content to be treated that way? He was sure that they wouldn't - and yet this is how they treated others. He said the "heart of the question is ... whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated."

      The golden rule is best interpreted as saying: "Treat others only in ways that you're willing to be treated in the same exact situation." To apply it, you'd imagine yourself in the exact place of the other person on the receiving end of the action. If you act in a given way toward another, and yet are unwilling to be treated that way in the same circumstances, then you violate the rule.

      To apply the golden rule adequately, we need knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect our actions have on the lives of others. And we need to be able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in the other person's place on the receiving end of the action. With knowledge, imagination, and the golden rule, we can progress far in our moral thinking.

      The golden rule is best seen as a consistency principle. It doesn't replace regular moral norms. It isn't an infallible guide on which actions are right or wrong; it doesn't give all the answers. It only prescribes consistency - that we not have our actions (toward another) be out of harmony with our desires (toward a reversed situation action). It tests our moral coherence. If we violate the golden rule, then we're violating the spirit of fairness and concern that lie at the heart of morality.

      The golden rule, with roots in a wide range of world cultures, is well suited to be a standard to which different cultures could appeal in resolving conflicts. As the world becomes more and more a single interacting global community, the need for such a common standard is becoming more urgent.

Sun Gazing and Gayatri

Right now  am watching the sun rise and set while singing the Gayatri mantra.  This is proving to be a very powerful practise. 

The gayatri mantra is very devotional and totally appropriate for the Sun rise and setting as Gayatri is the goddess in the sun. It is also one of the most powerful transformative mantras - see the e-book "Super Science of the Gayatri Mantra" available here.

Sungazing is also very powerful I do about 20 minutes at each of sunrise and sunset.  The light from the sun enters the eye and stimulates the pineal.

GAYATRI MANTRA - ITS MEANING

AUM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT.

Summary of the Mantra

Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

Word for Word Meaning of the Mantra

Aum = Brahma ;
bhoor = embodiment of vital spiritual energy(pran) ;
bhuwah = destroyer of sufferings ;
swaha = embodiment of happiness ;
tat = that ;
savitur = bright like sun ;
varenyam = best choicest ;
bhargo = destroyer of sins ;
devasya = divine ;
dheemahi = may imbibe ;
dhiyo = intellect ;
yo = who ;
naha = our ;
prachodayat = may inspire!

Meaning of Gayatri Mantra

Rishis selected the words of various Mantras and arranged them so that they not only convey meaning but also create specific power through their utterance.

Gayatri Mantra inspires wisdom. Its meaning is that "May the Almighty God illuminate our intellect to lead us along the righteous path". All the problems of a person are solved if he/she is endowed with the gift of righteous wisdom. Once endowed with far-sighted wisdom, a man is neither entangled in calamity nor does he tread the wrong path. A wise man finds solution to all outstanding problems. Only those persons who do not think correctly find difficulty and take wrong steps due to foolishness.

Chanting of Gayatri Mantra removes this deficiency. The teachings and powers incorporated in the Gayatri Mantra fulfill this purpose. Righteous wisdom starts emerging soon after Jap(recitation) of this Mantra is performed.

2012 - The Shift

The shift of ages is coming in 2012.  There is so much evidence pointing towards this:

• Mayan Calendar
• Encoded information within mythology (cf. Hamlet's Mill)
• Channeled information
• Predictions extrapolated from mainstream science sources (sunspot acticvity, movement of the magnetic pole, increased in seismic and volcanic activity, activity of other planets in the solar system)

The diagnosis2012 website gives the complete case for the 2012 shift.  I and many others find this information compelling but it just reinforces intuitions that many of us have had that the shift is coming.

2012...

That's just 7 years away.  What are you doing to prepare?  What are you doing to increase your awareness?  It is time to stop fucking about. Time to stop chasing money, ambition, sex, romance.

I do not advocate any particular spiritual system or program - follow whatever you seem drawn to but follow it earnestly.  Earnestness is the key.  If you are earnest in your application you will see dramatic results especially now with such strong currents beginning to flow. 

Make the spiritual search your first priority.  No it cannot wait until you are more finacially secure, it cannot wait until you have a girlfriend/boyfriend or have sorted out your relationship, it cannot wait until your health improves.  It cannot wait. We have just seven years. Start today. Be earnest.