[ January 16, 2001 ' Those excerpts from Emissary of Light which I mentioned in yesterday's journal ... click here - I updated the links section and found some intrsting stuff ... :) Fairly quiet at both Forums, I post that quote from the Tao Te Ching, which ironically I first read in James Twyman's book, 'He who knows doesn't speak. He who speaks doesn't know.' And for those who don't yet 'know', there's another adage few people seriously practice - 'If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'. Okay, you can say it's trite or even corny but just consider for a moment how different the world would be if each of us consciously exercised that choice ... politics ... personal relationships ... gossip ... hmmm ... Today's mantra: 'My doctor carefuls up to his own niceness of life' Yes, from that interview ... 'There is nothing else that I want other than the experience of holiness and peace' ... sounds like a kindred spirit ... well, really, we are all kindred spirits even though you'd often doubt it from the surface manifestations of behaviour & personality ... Also found this site while looking for info on the Gyuto monks - here 57592 - in another funny mood ... Interesting translation of the Tao Te Ching in colloquial language - here - part of the 'funny' message sent to forum ... 'who am I to be giving people instructions ... we're all infinitely varied ... thank God ...' ... it actually expresses the gist of a lot of the 'stuff' I've always felt about goals & 'getting yourself worked up' and the way of things ... {Well, Geoff, Tao does mean 'the way' J} Watching a news report on a cult ... it suddenly occurs to me for the first time ... the two different meanings of the homonym (is that how you spell it? - two words which sound identical but spell quite differently) ... the word(s) in question being praying & preying ... as well as the almost obligatory use of the word 'bizarre' which is attached to any behaviour or view-of-reality which ventures beyond the claustrophobic confines of the conventional ... :) Interesting trip to city, which would not have ocurred unless I had that dream ... interesting dillemma - if you profess to have 'reverence for ALL life' ... what about fleas and your dog ... what about microbes and viruses that harm humans ... hmmm ... :) Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'} [ January 17, 2001 ' If I do ever get around to putting all this stuff into a book ... one way of avoiding the conventional idea of a plot and characters - just call it A few random thoughts on the experience of being human I mean there's ample material in these journals and the small pieces I have written over the years - especailly 'Fragments of a converstaion' ... and 'Passing Thoughts' or 'Incomplete Thoughts' ... I wonder what people would make of it all ... I suppose that's up to them ... J Found a website based on the text of Varieties of religious experience by William James ... and a PDF version of it which I have yet to read ... More intersting emails ... esp one trying to find the 'writer who went to India to photograph and research different people on their spiritual paths. It sounded great. He ask each 5 questions. What is faith? What is reality? What is truth? What is love? and What is samadhi which relates to the attempt to experience pure consciousness? Sounds really interesting.' ... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ... With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Fairly quiet at both Forums, I post that quote from the Tao Te Ching, which ironically I first read in James Twyman's book, 'He who knows doesn't speak. He who speaks doesn't know.' And for those who don't yet 'know', there's another adage few people seriously practice - 'If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'. Okay, you can say it's trite or even corny but just consider for a moment how different the world would be if each of us consciously exercised that choice ... politics ... personal relationships ... gossip ... hmmm ... Today's mantra: 'My doctor carefuls up to his own niceness of life' Yes, from that interview ... 'There is nothing else that I want other than the experience of holiness and peace' ... sounds like a kindred spirit ... well, really, we are all kindred spirits even though you'd often doubt it from the surface manifestations of behaviour & personality ...
Today's mantra: 'My doctor carefuls up to his own niceness of life' Yes, from that interview ... 'There is nothing else that I want other than the experience of holiness and peace' ... sounds like a kindred spirit ... well, really, we are all kindred spirits even though you'd often doubt it from the surface manifestations of behaviour & personality ...
Yes, from that interview ... 'There is nothing else that I want other than the experience of holiness and peace' ... sounds like a kindred spirit ... well, really, we are all kindred spirits even though you'd often doubt it from the surface manifestations of behaviour & personality ...
Also found this site while looking for info on the Gyuto monks - here 57592 - in another funny mood ... Interesting translation of the Tao Te Ching in colloquial language - here - part of the 'funny' message sent to forum ... 'who am I to be giving people instructions ... we're all infinitely varied ... thank God ...' ... it actually expresses the gist of a lot of the 'stuff' I've always felt about goals & 'getting yourself worked up' and the way of things ... {Well, Geoff, Tao does mean 'the way' J} Watching a news report on a cult ... it suddenly occurs to me for the first time ... the two different meanings of the homonym (is that how you spell it? - two words which sound identical but spell quite differently) ... the word(s) in question being praying & preying ... as well as the almost obligatory use of the word 'bizarre' which is attached to any behaviour or view-of-reality which ventures beyond the claustrophobic confines of the conventional ... :) Interesting trip to city, which would not have ocurred unless I had that dream ... interesting dillemma - if you profess to have 'reverence for ALL life' ... what about fleas and your dog ... what about microbes and viruses that harm humans ... hmmm ... :) Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'} [ January 17, 2001 ' If I do ever get around to putting all this stuff into a book ... one way of avoiding the conventional idea of a plot and characters - just call it A few random thoughts on the experience of being human I mean there's ample material in these journals and the small pieces I have written over the years - especailly 'Fragments of a converstaion' ... and 'Passing Thoughts' or 'Incomplete Thoughts' ... I wonder what people would make of it all ... I suppose that's up to them ... J Found a website based on the text of Varieties of religious experience by William James ... and a PDF version of it which I have yet to read ... More intersting emails ... esp one trying to find the 'writer who went to India to photograph and research different people on their spiritual paths. It sounded great. He ask each 5 questions. What is faith? What is reality? What is truth? What is love? and What is samadhi which relates to the attempt to experience pure consciousness? Sounds really interesting.' ... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ... With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
57592 - in another funny mood ... Interesting translation of the Tao Te Ching in colloquial language - here - part of the 'funny' message sent to forum ... 'who am I to be giving people instructions ... we're all infinitely varied ... thank God ...' ... it actually expresses the gist of a lot of the 'stuff' I've always felt about goals & 'getting yourself worked up' and the way of things ... {Well, Geoff, Tao does mean 'the way' J} Watching a news report on a cult ... it suddenly occurs to me for the first time ... the two different meanings of the homonym (is that how you spell it? - two words which sound identical but spell quite differently) ... the word(s) in question being praying & preying ... as well as the almost obligatory use of the word 'bizarre' which is attached to any behaviour or view-of-reality which ventures beyond the claustrophobic confines of the conventional ... :) Interesting trip to city, which would not have ocurred unless I had that dream ... interesting dillemma - if you profess to have 'reverence for ALL life' ... what about fleas and your dog ... what about microbes and viruses that harm humans ... hmmm ... :) Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'} [ January 17, 2001 ' If I do ever get around to putting all this stuff into a book ... one way of avoiding the conventional idea of a plot and characters - just call it A few random thoughts on the experience of being human I mean there's ample material in these journals and the small pieces I have written over the years - especailly 'Fragments of a converstaion' ... and 'Passing Thoughts' or 'Incomplete Thoughts' ... I wonder what people would make of it all ... I suppose that's up to them ... J Found a website based on the text of Varieties of religious experience by William James ... and a PDF version of it which I have yet to read ... More intersting emails ... esp one trying to find the 'writer who went to India to photograph and research different people on their spiritual paths. It sounded great. He ask each 5 questions. What is faith? What is reality? What is truth? What is love? and What is samadhi which relates to the attempt to experience pure consciousness? Sounds really interesting.' ... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ... With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Interesting translation of the Tao Te Ching in colloquial language - here - part of the 'funny' message sent to forum ... 'who am I to be giving people instructions ... we're all infinitely varied ... thank God ...' ... it actually expresses the gist of a lot of the 'stuff' I've always felt about goals & 'getting yourself worked up' and the way of things ... {Well, Geoff, Tao does mean 'the way' J} Watching a news report on a cult ... it suddenly occurs to me for the first time ... the two different meanings of the homonym (is that how you spell it? - two words which sound identical but spell quite differently) ... the word(s) in question being praying & preying ... as well as the almost obligatory use of the word 'bizarre' which is attached to any behaviour or view-of-reality which ventures beyond the claustrophobic confines of the conventional ... :) Interesting trip to city, which would not have ocurred unless I had that dream ... interesting dillemma - if you profess to have 'reverence for ALL life' ... what about fleas and your dog ... what about microbes and viruses that harm humans ... hmmm ... :) Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
... it actually expresses the gist of a lot of the 'stuff' I've always felt about goals & 'getting yourself worked up' and the way of things ... {Well, Geoff, Tao does mean 'the way' J}
Watching a news report on a cult ... it suddenly occurs to me for the first time ... the two different meanings of the homonym (is that how you spell it? - two words which sound identical but spell quite differently) ... the word(s) in question being praying & preying ... as well as the almost obligatory use of the word 'bizarre' which is attached to any behaviour or view-of-reality which ventures beyond the claustrophobic confines of the conventional ... :) Interesting trip to city, which would not have ocurred unless I had that dream ... interesting dillemma - if you profess to have 'reverence for ALL life' ... what about fleas and your dog ... what about microbes and viruses that harm humans ... hmmm ... :) Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Interesting trip to city, which would not have ocurred unless I had that dream ... interesting dillemma - if you profess to have 'reverence for ALL life' ... what about fleas and your dog ... what about microbes and viruses that harm humans ... hmmm ... :) Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Revamped the most recent sites list {here} - especially after recommending it to others ... some interesting 'codes' with the wingdings fonts and dividers ... :) Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Yes, re-reading some stuff I wrote barely 6 months ago ... and having only a vague recollection of writing it all down (dolphin link) ... much of the stuff I have written over the past year or so has been like those insects that skate across the surface of the pond ... gave me an idea for the first line of a poem - Thoughts dance across the surface of my mind - rhymes with kind - blind - unwind - lined - confined - aligned - fined - remind - Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Plus a few contemplations on our use of language ... words such as 'appealing' and 'fondness' ... and our habit of categorising our fellow beings and then deciding how 'appealing' each of them is to us and thus how fondly we think of them ... and if you genuinely probe those decisions they have no basis whatsoever but we keep doing it ... we never learn ... With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
With the Gyuto monks in town (I wonder what they are making of this heat! probably doesn't make them as cranky as the average joe) ... yes, even after you realise it is a choice, it can still be tough to make the right choice. In other words, it is always a choice how you react to ANY and EVERY situation or circumstance. You can choose to respond with annoyance or resignation or optimism or anger or compassion or forgiveness or gratitude or whatever. Actually it might be better to say 'healthy choice' rather than 'right choice'. And it can ONLY be a choice rather than a conditioned response if you live consciously and resolve not to take ANYTHING personally which can be a daunting decision - esp when most around you are not living consciously ... :) Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Oh, I left 'boredom' off that list of choices. Especially when 'nothing (exciting) is happening' ... Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Mantra for today: 'If the world is a tiny little seed, you can always bleed and you can always feed ...' Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Interesting that someone else should select just about my favourite paragraph from that Osho piece on What is love? ... So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential. ... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
So the second thing to remember is: never demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don't demand anything - because he has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle. But people are not thrilled. For small things they will destroy all possibilities of love. They are not interested much in love and the joy of it. They are more interested in other ego trips. Be concerned with your joy. Be utterly concerned with your joy, be only concerned with your joy. Everything else is non-essential.
... yes, most of us are generally far too busy making demands or forming expectations or indulging in blame and judgement to be genuinely thrilled ... Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
Today's mantra: "My little doctor taught me how to believe in the ancient weirdness of life." "WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
"WILL WE EVER KNOW ABOUT OUR LIFETIMES" {could add 'when' or 'what'}
I mean there's ample material in these journals and the small pieces I have written over the years - especailly 'Fragments of a converstaion' ... and 'Passing Thoughts' or 'Incomplete Thoughts' ... I wonder what people would make of it all ... I suppose that's up to them ... J Found a website based on the text of Varieties of religious experience by William James ... and a PDF version of it which I have yet to read ... More intersting emails ... esp one trying to find the 'writer who went to India to photograph and research different people on their spiritual paths. It sounded great. He ask each 5 questions. What is faith? What is reality? What is truth? What is love? and What is samadhi which relates to the attempt to experience pure consciousness? Sounds really interesting.' ... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ... With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Found a website based on the text of Varieties of religious experience by William James ... and a PDF version of it which I have yet to read ... More intersting emails ... esp one trying to find the 'writer who went to India to photograph and research different people on their spiritual paths. It sounded great. He ask each 5 questions. What is faith? What is reality? What is truth? What is love? and What is samadhi which relates to the attempt to experience pure consciousness? Sounds really interesting.' ... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ... With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
More intersting emails ... esp one trying to find the 'writer who went to India to photograph and research different people on their spiritual paths. It sounded great. He ask each 5 questions. What is faith? What is reality? What is truth? What is love? and What is samadhi which relates to the attempt to experience pure consciousness? Sounds really interesting.' ... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ... With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... so I respond with osho link ... and those questions for smart-alecs ... I mean some questions cannot be answered unless both parties already know the answer ?? ... IT also occured to me that most people like to think they know what love is but the world would not be in its current state if human beings genuinely loved each other ... so maybe a LOT of people are confused or misguided ...
With the Gyuto monks in town ... someone asks me about Tonglen meditation - again it's one of those things you 'know' but often struggle to convey accurately in words - which is why we have teachers on this planet right now ... so I type up the excellent description from Awakening The Buddha Within ... and there is MORE to it than I had thought ... isn't that always the way ... anywhow, you can read thee excerpts here ... especially the reminder that compassion is incomplete if it does not include your self ... J ... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ... ... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... and 'helps train us to be genuinely present with difficult situations ... without excessive reactivity' ... I like that phrase 'without excessive reactivity' ... would be nice to see it adopted more widely ... along with 'do unto others' and 'cast the first stone' and a few others ...
... if we consciously lived those simple principles every moment we couldn't go far wrong ... but we forget ourselves and allow ourselves to be distracted ... I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
I also recommended The Madman to somebody who like me was searching for the exact phrasing of that 'walk a mile in his mocassins' ... I clearly remember it being on a plaque in our kitchen when I was just a lad ... but really it's generally not until you have lived a while on this planet and seen a few things and experienced a bit of the 'human condition' that the idea really sinks in ... unless of course you happen to be a reincarnated Tibetan Lama or something ... that was from the Inspiration Peak Forums which I have not frequented in a while ... I suppose the Buddhists would say equanimity embraces that idea and goes further ... yes, equanimity alone if consciously embraced would alter this world so radically it would make your head spin ... Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ... More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ... [ January 18, 2001 ' Added a few more excerpts to Awakening the Buddha within after that Tonglen meditation and opening it again at 'random' - a fuller explanation and advice about bodhicitta ... yes, if you had told me 2 years ago I'd get RIGHT into Buddhism along with all the other spiritual thought ... I'd have said you are bonkers ... but it is quite beautiful in a way I would never have previously suspected ... ther's probly nothing more annoying than a reformed atheist ... J yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :) Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Here's a link to those Forums where I asked about the mocassins quote - here ... also a "What's New" page which has some good stuff ...
More dialogue from rescent scraps of paper around the house - "No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??} "I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
"No ... I would say that MOST of the tension in this world can be attributed to the fact that people do not generally feel as if they have unconditional worth. So, everyone is constantly seeking to 'earn' this worth generally in terms of the approval or 'esteem' of those around them. This is the surest way of driving yourself nuts that there is. It has been this way for centuries and it's probly about time we stopped this nonsense once and for all ... " {Needs work ... what was that quote about MUTUAL self-esteem by Ken Wilber? at the DeoxyRiboNucleic HyperDimension site??}
"I've simply decided to focus my energies on joy & wonder & being thrilled by the miracle as well as forgiveness & compassion & gratitude ... and everyone else is entirely free to make a similar decision ..." "Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
"Do yourself a favour and try to evolve beyond your rigid programming ... you'll be so glad you did ..." "For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
"For all our so-called progress, I 'd have to say that we have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of the way things work at this level of existence ..." "Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
"Yes, but some people might find that suffocating and I would question whether it is in fact love at all." "What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
"What am I doing? I'm expanding my consciousness. Right now it's only out as far as the edge of the solar system but I'm aiming to go a lot further. Thankyou for your interest." Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
Many of the above were directly or tangentially sparked by a LONG conversation about 'mental illness' which I haven't been focusing on a lot lately since no ERMHA ... hmmm ... and there are so many tricky aspects ... I can be a trifle hard on psychiatrists & the 'system' at times but they have a near impossible job ... just as a for instance, the 'capacity for work' - a person may be traveling quite nicely with their current amount of stress but a return to work may escalate the levels of stress beyond their capability to handle healthily and the downward spiral can be fairly swift ... and who can possibly make that assessment reliably with any degree of certainty ... it's like assessing whether somebody is 'likely to be a danger to themselves or others' ... hmmm ... ... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
... which led onto a discussion of why things happen to some people & not to others ... karma ... and the good versus bad aspects of he experience of being 'psychotic' and that brings home to me how relatively few seem to have had the 'upside' that I have ... and whether thers is somethin else going on anyway ... I suppose that in a rehab system you are MOST likely to encounter those whose experience has been overwhelming and mainly negative ... I mean if you were experiencing soaring ecstatic highs and only the occasional downside you'd hardly be seeking 'treatment' would you ... J
And you realise that the suggestion that 'there are no victims' would not be likely to be embraced ... those who are fully immersed in the victim mentality (either in seeing themselves as victims or being saddened by all the victims they see) ... they's most likely want to rip your head of ... and I would have agreed with them totally just 2 years ago ... hmmm ... ... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
... plus a bit of reflecting on the old 'cruel' me who would possibly have delighted in pointing out to those who call themselves Christians that the seem to have missed the central point of the death on the Cross - it's the most extraordinary act of forgiveness imaginable - to be tortured to death and then say 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' ... so you'd think a major focus of a 'Christian' would be to forgive evryone ... doesn't seem to go that way ... I mean if Jesus can forgive THAT then surely his followers can forgive the tiny 'injuries' and hurts they experience ... MIND you, this is JUST me looking BACK on what I might have said at one point in my life ... actually, I might have said a LOT worse than that ... A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
A bit of discussion about what a shame it is that some people never expand their horizons or their consciousness and thus have 'wasted' their lives ... who's to say ... what a soul may have learned or derived from the experience of a so-called 'wasted' life ... we leap to these conclusions because we have imperfect perception and an very imperfect understanding of how the whole shebang works ... I mean there are many who claim there is 'perfection in the process' ... that we're designed to be 'perfectly imperfect' for a reason ... besides which, the only decision you have to make is whether to judge them as having lived a 'wasted' life or whether to love them anyway ... which may indeed be the very reason they lived such a life ... Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
Did a spot more browsing as I spent some of my vouchers on 'Super Human' - the book from the superb BBC series ... saw a boo by Jonar C Nader - something like 'How to lose friends and infuriate people' ... as well as Susan Jeffers 'I'm okay, you're a brat' - on the myths of parenthood and people feeling guilty or inadequate or being blamed all because of the persisitence of these myths and the subsequent 'peer pressure' (which is also nonsense by the way) ... plus an interesting Rumi pack with a book and daily meditation cards ...
yes, the five hindrances, more details on Atisha ... well, the book is 450 pages or more and there's hardly a dud page among them ... :)
Found this site while looking for links for the tonglen parctice - here And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
And here's Jonar C Nader's website - here That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
That book about samadhi - found the author's name, Derek Biermann - Samadhi Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Also, looking for that website on sand mandalas ... found another one instead - here {From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...} Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
{From memory it was a simple search for the words 'sand mandala' ...}
Yes, looking at the Gyuto monks activities - chanting (CD) - mandala - building a stupa - mani stones - prayer flags - rolling mantras - sharing their wisdom ... our culture with its focus on superficiality and 'celebrity' and 'image' does seem a trifle pale ... okay, comparisons are odious but still ... and apparently many kids involved - get them young while their minds ar still open and receptive ... Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Today's mantra: 'I don't think the general public has access to enough accurate information about their own lifetimes' {Tone of voice is all important - midway between playful and serious} Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com [ January 19, 2001 ' Off to see the Gyuto monks today ... some great stuff at the forum around 57,650 to 700 ... then again ... 'eye of the beholder' ... about whhether it's necessary to go 'mad' to become enlightened ... I throw my two cents worth in around 691 ... mentioned that book 'Are you becoming enlightened or losing your mind' Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ... ... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Here is a review of the movie 'Afterlife' Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ... ... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com
Yes, it's a fascinating question - if you could carry one memory from a single moment of your present life for all eternity ... what might your choice be ...
... of course, the Buddhists would say that kind of categorisation and evaluation is exactly wht we are doing wrong down here ... to call some moments 'special' and countless other moments as 'forgettable' ... and NOT just moments but people ... But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com
But it would be an appealing notion for those burdened with painful memories and this SINGLE moment would be held and all other memories wiped away ... I could tell you mine - and it happened in a psychiatric ward ... I doubt iif too many people can say that ... J It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com
It was an interesting plot ... the surprise as people's ideas about 'what happens to you after you die' were found to be inaccurate ... the decision making process ... the fact that few people remember anythin prior to age 3 or 4 ... yet some claim to have memories of being in the womb ... or of being a child and feeling secure in a way many adults do not ... Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com
Seems Susan jeffers has a website ... who doesn't these days ... here Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com
Saw some interesting software as I walked past a computer shop - Rubik's puzzles - www.rubiks.com
Then got some interesting results from a search for that book title - here
But the ACTUAL title is slightly different ... Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? ... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ...
... the one thing that I would not dispute is that ONCE you have experienced Unity Consciousness you want to be there ALL the time and you want everyone (without exception) to experience it ... cos I sure as heck NEVER thought I would ... it was/is beyond anything I could have begun to imagine previously ... Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ...
Interesting proposal for 25-over matches - here - makes a LOT of sense ... see 4 teams on one day ... Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ...
Having a little look over the links for that Tonglen page - boy - the bodhicitta vows - 18 main ones and 46 auxiliary ones ... you'd have to be fairly SURE of yourself to undertake all those vows ... hmmm ... click here ... the one that really caught my eye was about changing vehicles ... I wonder why ...
... in fact it's quite a comprehensive library of Buddhist teachings ... then there is the The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas ... most people would look at that and say it's a very tall order ... only because we have learned very well how to diminish ourselves ... and our fellow beings as well ... along the way ... Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Reflecting a bit more on the content of (most) people's conversations {which fairly mirror the content of their thoughts by-and-large} ... yes, gossip - if defined as speaking about a person who is not present, generally in a manner which you would not do if they WERE ... yes, the simple realisation that it helps nobody to do that ... LEAST of all the person who is doing it ... Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ... [ January 20, 2001 ' Added some interesting links to that new page about the Gyuto Monks ... including one about 'Digital Prayer Wheels' - add them as web pages or screen savers or on hard drive ... here ... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Had another peek at those Emissary of Light excerpts ... so spot on ... the bit about not putting ANYone, not even the emissaries themselves onto a pedestal as it creates division & resentment ... boy, when you look at the flimsy, flimsy reasons WE put people on pedestals in a shallow, superficial, materialistically-focused society ... it would make you weep ... Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
Well ... it was an enjoyable day with the Gyuto Monks even if uncomfortbaly warm and I didn't 'get right into it' as I might have envisaged ... ah ... expectations ... :) Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
Will MOST likely do a file fo stuff called gyuto.htm ... if you click on that link and there is an error or not much ... why not send me an email ... I do rather specialise in saying oh yes, I'll ge to that as soon as ... In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
In that file will be details of the history of the Gyuto Tantric University (and sponsoring a monk!) and their activities etc ... and a few of my impressions ... one thing to note - photographs just do not do justice to the sand mandalas as they make it appear 'flat' when it has a wonderful 3D quality ... one might say that's analogous to the way we've been living these past 25 centuries or so ... Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
Interesting timing with the Tonglen meditation (the one hour session was wonderful - expanded greatly on what impression I had of the meditation and some great questions & responses ... like how DO you meditate on 'taking on the suffering of ALL beings' without getting overwhelmed ...) ... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ... ... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
... anyway the interesting timing was the fact that I had not opened Awakening the Buddha within in a while until being asked for some info about Tonglen meditation ... so the book is laying around and I open it at 'random' {AS I have often suggested to people to do with the book Conversations with God and some startling results - one at Suzanne St stands out in my mind ... yes, the skeptics would find that a little hard to explain 'how does THAT work' - which is a fabulous general question ... loooks like this is a day for much tangential thinking ... and that's okay ...
... anyway, what i was about to say was I opened it to page 135 ... about the life of the famous Tibetan poet-mystic-sorcerer Milarepa ... a fabulous example of transformation ... {and just quietly, a tiny bit more inspirational when the 'heroes' of a culture have experienced a personal transformation rather than making heroes & 'role models' out of those who happen to have sporting prowess or some other equally unimportant 'gift' ... I mean unimportant in the great 'scheme of things' ... because importance like anything is in the eye-of-the-beholder ... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
... just had a look at the excerpts {click} ... and the Milarepa stuff IS already in there ... I hadn't thought that it was ... just proves nobody is perfect ... just yet ...
... and Click here for good karma Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Great little puzzle found at a site which explains stupas and their construction - click here to read it ... hmmm I think I can 'see' the answer. No pun intended ... :) A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
A few more thoughts from the monks experience & the forum ... gyuto2.htm ... may transcribe at some stage ... then again how many ways ... actually my favourite summary would be 'let go' - forgiveness is letting go of some perceived 'damage' to your feelings or situation ... love is letting go of fear (sounds like a good title for a book) ... defencelessness is letting go of the need to defend of justify your point-of-view ... acceptance is letting go of the desire to change or control your fellow beings (MOST people find this a toughie! me included) ... nonjudgement means letting go of the impulse to criticise judge or interpret the choices or behaviour or world-view of another (again this is a real toughie to consciously implement) ... more stuff to let go includes blame, jealousy, hatred, anger etc etc ... Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Then I visit Buddhist quote of the moment and read one I have not seen before ... 'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.' and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ... The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
'Positive actions are difficult and infrequent. It is hard to have positive thoughts when our minds are influenced by emotions and confused by adverse cicumstances. Negative thoughts arise by themselves, and it is rare that we do a positive action whose motivation, execution, and conclusion are perfectly pure. If our stock of hard-won positive actions is rendered powerless in an instant of anger, the loss is immeasurably more serious than that of some more abundant resource.'
and it's by our mate and everyone's favourite (oops, the Buddhists emphasise equanimity which means NEVER 'playing favourites' ... sorry) spiritual leader-in-exile ...
The Fruits of the contemplative life ... add to my links pages? ... arrived there by 'random buddhist site' and then following their links pages and then searching for it ... :) email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
email - prayer requests - where is that poem? - 'My wish for the Lost' ... on a schizophrenia or depression website ?? ... it ends with wishing that my wish is enough to heal you ... ... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ... [ January 21, 2001 ' Cooler change thankfully ... Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ... Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... speaking of prayers ... from a recent email ... A Prayer by Max Ehrmann, author of the Desiderata ... ... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ...
... so I email it to Steve ... it's something I need to read from time-to-time ... we ALL do ... Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ...
Found very interesting meditation while looking for something else ... well, a GOOD meditation IS something else! ... here ... speaks of transparent spheres and at leasy 18 internal bodies ...
Interesting emails - about the puzzle - and the gyuto monks and wouldn't it be wonderful to have year-round access ... and what must it be like to live in a community so oriented ... plus a couple of other things ... goujon.htm ...
Plus ... everyone can sing! If people don't find your sinfging voice enchanting then it's a great opportunity for them to practice nonjudgement :) Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Well, X, I respect your choice ... maybe we need to experience every conceivable aspect of the 'human condition' in order to cultivate nonjudgement and equanimity and compassion ... :) Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Testing ... Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Today's mantra: "I need to believe in my own careful lifetime" (Three times a day and before and after surgery - or alien abduction) Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Added that Marshall Ball site to the links ... www.marshallball.com Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Plus on the subject of 'inner silence' - click here - trouble is we have we have evolved a way of life where people's day-to-day existence is so hectic and distracted they hardly ever access 'the silence within' ... Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ... [ January 22, 2001 ' Posted bits of vision of awakening to forum ... seemed timely ... # 57804 ... or to see what I posted on this beautiful day ... click ... {IF I remember to UPLOAD it} Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Interesting ... that "Chasing Buddha" link is now defunct after the tour ... so I ferret around and found more links etc anyways ... need to alter the links to this - Robina Courtin ... then again ... esp Zopa's advice to prison inmate ... ... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ...
... and there is a Real Audio talk - Suffering and our junkie minds ... however the connection didn't allow listening - I gather it's a LARGE file ... um, yes 10 MB ... which might explain the difficulty in loading it all in ... email them ... or ... That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ...
That poem ... about summarising your life in ten words or less ... where was that ... ah ... here Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ...
Almost posted this to forum ... You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it. For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here Namaste And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :) Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ...
You seem to be devoting an inordinate amount of energy deciding whether you approve of the choices your fellow beings make. Take it from me, this is utterly pointless and a waste of valuable focus and energy. If you genuinely believe Deepak is on the wrong tram, then the enlightened response would be to pray for him and those you perceive as being 'led astray'. If you see no value in what he writes, then you are free to ignore it.
For a few more thoughts on the futility of criticising others, click here
Namaste
And yes, I do realise this message can be interpreted as 'criticism'. I post it more as an observation but I have no control over how others will perceive it. :)
Hmmm ... well ... the Zopa article is spot on ...
Continuing yesterday's themes ... I agree that everyone is absolutely entitled to place whatever interpretation onto Deepak's words they wish to (people have been doin it with the Bible for centuries, after all) ... one person may read his stuff and feel that it is inspired wisdom ... another may read it and see it as false and misleading ... that's fine ... it's ONLY when you devote inordinate amounts of emotional energy in trying to PERSUADE everyone that yours is the ONLY way of seeing things that you cause your SELF grief ... (& I know this from personal experience) ... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... I have no knowledge of Deepak's finacial matters. For all I know, he may have given more to help the needy than all his critics ever would in 100 lifetimes ... ... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... moreover, to assume that because someone drives a JAG and is not some stereotypical 'saintly' image like Ghandi or Mother Theresa then there is no value in his words is prejudging the issue. Likewise to assume that a violent 'criminal' has nothing of value to tell you ... or a patient in a psychiatric hopsital ... I can tell you that some of the truest, sincerest words I have ever heard have come from the mouths of those whom society-at-large regards as 'crazy' ... There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
There's a little book you may have heard of called the Bible which tells an interesting story which ends with the idea that 'He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone' ... if you genuinely ask yourself whether you are doing EVERYTHING you could CONCEIVABLY do to help those in need then criticising others for doing likewise does have a very hollow ring to it ... Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there [ January 23, 2001 ' Typed a few more snippets into Awakening the Buddha within ... SOME were not so surprisingly quite APT with regard to recent events and discussions ... :) - prayer - attitude - right speech - chanting - atisha - mind-training - intention ... it's really quite a good little book ... That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ... ... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Yes, how interconnected are all these files - Tonglen - Cherish - 14th Daily Lama - Little Book of Wisdom - Chasing Buddha - Gyuto - Buddhist Quote of the Moment - NOT to mention the links ... not each of them is directly linked to ALL the others ... New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
New presence at the Forum - comes from the subtler regions of the current emotional climate on this planet - anyone who disagrees is treated with scorn and abuse ... nonjudgement is a toughie ... and if we were all 'sweetness & light' there'd be no such opportunities ... hmmm ... around 57816 ... a true test of equanimity ... :) BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ... ... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
BUT in the current world it IS a BIG and REAL question - how DOES one lovingly respond to vitriol and insults ... okay, from your own experience you KNOW such language and attack and attempt to diminish another MUST be coming from a person who is lost & in pain ... but how do you lovingly respond and genuinely wish to help IF you can ... prayer ... hmmm ... and EVEN in that, one could argue there's an element of smugness ... you can't win .. or can you ...
... yes, what was that quote from our mate, the Dalai Lama about being grateful for having an 'enemy' so as to have a wonderful opportunity to practice equanimity ... THIS isn't what I had in mind but it's fairly close ... 'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.' - The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here} created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
'We do not know the vast majority of the five billion human beings on this earth, therefore the majority of people do not give us the opportunity show tolerance or patience. Only those people whom we know and who create problems for us really provide us with a good opportunity to practice tolerance and patience.'
- The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom {click here}
created a new directory at angelfire - spiritchat ... cos some of their rooms are public ... Here's a link to the directory listing - here ... may add more ... and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ... http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
and re-visit regular ... as the people often LOG on with links atached to their names ... yes, I do need more links, don't I ...
http://webopedia.internet.com/ Webopedia - add to links ?? Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
Checking a few old links at my site ... yes, that HUGE file transcribed from a Jack Kornfield audio tape and a timely section just happened to catch my eye ... When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing! - from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
When we speak falsely, when we back—bite, when we gossip, and all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech? Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second—for the process of awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment, justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do. We'll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because we're bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing to do and weren't entertained. It's horrible, you know! You come into someone's house and if they can't be with you, "Here, I'll turn on the TV. Would you like some music? Here's something to eat. You can read." Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing!
- from The Eightfold Path for the Householder by Jack Kornfield
Interesting article - Enter Zen from there
That hats puzzle went down well ... so i had a request for more ... and so I created this file - should add to kids lists of sites ... click here Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ...
Loooking for a copy of heart sutra to include in those book excerpts ... found lamrim.com and funnily enough, Robina Courtin's audio talk is all about Lam Rim ... hmmm ... www.lamrim.com ... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ...
... and call 'Ripley's' ... as i am typing THESE words a package from the US arrives at my doorstep! - must remember to send a thankyou email - from Blue Mountain ...
... THEN again ... as I'm always saying ... it is ONLY 'amazing' on a relative basis in a world as UN-generous and UN-unconditional and ... Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Plus this site about sacred sound - SOUND HEALING FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT More Sacred Music Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
More Sacred Music
Getting back to that quote I was after yesterday about the Dalai Lama's perspective on the 'enemy' ... found a couple of links I really ought to add to that rather large list of wisdom from the 14th Dalai Lama ... specifically: A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ... ... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
A New Perspective On the Enemy - at a message board ... or click here if that link happens to be 'dead' ...
... that came from a search of the phrase 'Dalai Lama gratitude enemy' ... no doubt other phrases & investigations would toss up other results ... no doubt ... Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital) [ January 24, 2001 ' Added quite a bit more to yesterday's notes ... should slice those 'resolutions' out & create a new file under the "Latest Thoughts" section on my front page ... ... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Just poked my head back into the Forum before goin shopping and 57,849 is SPOT on ... well worth a read ... may even capture it ... though all the guides do say to consciously resist 'grasping' & 'clinging' ... if I DO upload it - click ... In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital)
... if I DO upload it - click ...
In fact, I then turn the PC off and go down the park and watch the duckies on the pond ... not sure if it's the inspiration of receiving the Rumi parcel ... but I addd a substantial chunk to that Forum excerpt ... MUST remember to post it next time ... mainly about opinions and ducks and potential and resolutions and perceptions ... nothing essentially 'new' but I am constantly amazed how many ways there are of expressing the same truth ... or at least pointing the way to it ... ... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint} ... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital)
... yes, the resolutions - along similar lines to something I wrote on 13 January 2000 ... remember ... {hint}
... could add bits from the CD booklet to those Rumi links ... though this one sums it all up - especially about the REAL reasons for addictions ... A Gift of Love Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital)
Yes, sometimes I do hit the proverbial ... the bit about ATTACHING emotion to disagreement and INVESTING emotional energy into all our opinions ... "I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ... ... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital)
"I disagree with you" on its own creates no conflict or animosity. "Anyone who thinks like you is a complete imbecile." does however ... then again even then it may be 'no drama' if the object of the attack is sufficiently evolved ...
... and as I typed up those words ... it dawns on me ... you can't attack unless you've adopted a rigid, dogmatic position. And as i wrote some time back dogma is the surest way of causing yourself untold grief that there is ... and fear is at its root ... Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital)
Today's mantra: "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, actually." (tone-of-voice is vital)
... could even email it for consideration for the next edition of the ERMHA Murmur ... "There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
"There's conventional enthusiasm ... and then there's mystical enthusiasm ... which unfortunately is often interpreted as 'madness' by those whose view of reality has become constricted and boxed-in ..." From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
From yesterday - yes, it STRUCK me that the ability (and resolve) to be able to disagree without ATTACHING emotional energy to the disagreement (or derogatory or belittling labels) is sadly VERY rare JUST at the moment ... ... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ... ... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... and that bit in 'Celestine Prophecy' is sadly apt too - both parties are being damaged in the process - the idea of 'winning' an argument is a LOT like the idea of 'winning' a war ...
... and to KEEP those resoltuions you'd have to BITE your tongue ... it's okay to have the impulse to retaliate (though, the Dalai would say even this can be 'disarmed' eventually) ... the key moment is whether you decide to indulge the impulse ... ... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'." From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... and I'm reminded of that list of quotes we published a couple of years back in the Newsletter - "If you want to have the last word in any argument, simply say, 'You're right'."
From yesterday's parcel - a poet I hadn't heard of - Lawrence Ferlinghetti That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ... Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
That piece is called 'sometimes during eternity' ... a search for that particular phrase tosses up this - Into Eternity ...
Click here - dream match up? ah but the weight of 'expectation' ... Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Overtone Chanting Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others) [ January 25, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I used to believe in all those little usuals of life." With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Today's mantra: "I love my boring life. I love the dullness of my life." I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others)
I post as 57889 ... after some interesting (though some might call them 'pointless' exchanges - if INDEED one can call them exchanges ... Geoff, you sure know how to beat about the bush ...) I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others)
I'm glad Carol liked the poem ... if she hadn;t sent me the CD's and included them to make the parcel more 'secure' ... I'd have never searched the web for Lawrence ... :) ... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others)
... I prefaced my post by saying it's a while since I posted one of my rambling excursions into never-never land ... I think I also gave DPC address as Mason St ... oh well, the 'unexpected' keeps people's minds alive ... Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others)
Added a couple more links to my current most 'active' list of sites {here} ... including this one - Awakening Into Awareness ... has some interesting questions! and the story of her awakening is not exactly dis-similar to my own ... mine just didn't seem to sustain iself ... which raises a whole heap of other questions ... ... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others)
... and next time I am ONline ... a search for 'Big Sky Mind' might prove interesting ... apparently it's about Buddhism & the 'Beat generation' (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & others)
With all this chatter about Deepak's (supposed) lifestyle ... I open up that link about The Way To The Light ... and the intro does say 'We wish for no material gain to be given nor asked for to or by any person in connection with the knowledge contained in this book, which is the right of all to have' ... hmmm ... Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Added a few more thoughts to this file Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Interesting article about the Gyuto monks in today's Age ... should transcribe it into my excerpts ... may be online ??? ... and it is - here or one at the Sydney Morning Herald - here "I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
"I make a conscious effort not to HOLD onto any opinions because I have realised that for any being to experience Nirvana, it is necessary to dissolve all such nonsense ... Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Great responses to my 'ramblings' - especially about opinions being such fluff YET we do invest a LOT of energy into them ... and someone saying they want to live on that paper ... 57904 ... ... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ... [ January 26, 2001 ' Keeping the theme of recent days ... yes, I could re-post that comment (largely borrowed from the Dalai Lama) about being genuinely grateful for the marvelous opportunity to practise tolerance and patience and compassion ... an opportunity which ironically would not exist if EACH of us was doing it ... ?? ... And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ... www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/gyuto2.htm Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... YET the doubt remains ... is it somewhat ego driven ?? ... to get a 'popular response' to 'pretty thoughts' ... ... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
... and yet ... having been there just two years ago nobody's mere WORDS would have ever made me budge one millimetre ... ... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
... and the difference between repressed emotions & transformed emotions ... and yet two years ago ... Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
Plus the persistent puzzle/paradox of HOW did that transformation initially occur - it sure didn't feel like a conscious decision on my part ... and if ME then why not all the other bitter & twisted & cynical & indifferent folks ... :) Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
Then I log off ... and it dawns on me - ah opinions and discussion - that piece I wrote a year or so ago called Just another conversation ... hmmm ... not to mention the Twyman link about the ego - here ... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
... and maybe the answer (or PART of it) is prayer - maybe my glimpse was afforded me by someone else's prayer - possibly a complete 'stranger' - that is entirely possible after encountering the Bodhisattva Vow ... I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
I mean Buddha basically said the same: Here's the path. Here's what my experience has taught me. Feel free to follow if you so choose." Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ... ... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
Speaking of which - finally, I realise ... ah, I can plug a lead from the soundblaster into my "AUX" setting and thus bypass the need for a mike ... it just popped into my head ...
... so I record "Suffering & Our Junkie Minds" ... as was evidenced on that Chasing Buddha documentary ... Robina Courtin is definitely tuned-in to her path in a big way and absolutely no ego ... plenty of humour ...
And I realise that words alone can't capture ... the response (which I myself would have endorsed NOT so long ago) about 'I resolve not to chant ridiculous affirmations' ... and if they are recited without a deep sense of that being our true potential they could be quite hollow ... hmmm ... what they really mean is I will pay attention and simply observe those times when I respond with compassion & equanimity versus those times when I am tempted to counter-attack or be smug or patronising ... it is a tight-rope to walk at times ... but that's half the fun ... or more succinctly, I'll observe what progress I'm making on my 'inner disarmament' ... ... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ... ... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ...
... and the objection DID focus mainly on the first two - about resolving not to get angry or irritated ... I could have phrased them better - I resolve to transform anger & bitterness & other nonsense into compassion& equanimity & kindness ... the statement in itself acknowledges the POSSIBILITY to perform such a metamorphosis but realsiing it requires a decision to live consciously ... Buddha never claimed to be 'enlightened' or 'superior', he simply said I am awake and you can be awake too and here's how you go about it ...
... and yet inadvertently, the comment about 'brainwashing yourself' is quite apt really ... I mean who HONESTLY believes HOLDING onto all our prejudices and judgements and animosities and divisive opinions is doing us any good ... so our brains could use a complete washout and a spring clean ... Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ...
Updated a couple of files form my notebook - already a LOT of it I can barely remember actually writing ... maybe I am getting quite good at being unattached to my thoughts and just seeing them as 'interesting phenomena' that arise and disappear on the surface of my cosnciousness ...
Interesting site from a couple of days ago - Search Thingy Ronald Mann Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Search Thingy
Ronald Mann
Yesterday, I forgot to note ... a T shirt arrives with 'Om Mani Padme Hum' on it ... IF I ever photograph it and scan it ... ... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ... ... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... of course, if someone should stop me and ask me what the heck does THAT mean ... it's a bit like the question what is love ... we all like to think we know ... but if so, why is the world in such a state ...
... I shall post it to my site ... along with some duckie pics ... once they arrive in the email ... :) Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Here's a question about the meaning of 'Om Mani Padme Hum' at the Buddha's Village Forum - here
One or two more thoughts on disagreements ... yes, quite often they carry the tone of 'I reckon that's garbage, so how can anyone claim to enjoy it or beinspired by it? That really makes me mad." ... eye of the beholder ... reality is an interpretation ... An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
An affirmation is only 'ridiculous' if you believe you are limited in your capacity to experience love ... ... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna [ January 27, 2001 ' A bit more surfing ... found some more Lama Yeshe at a site called 'Buddha's Village' ... this article is about gurus - internal & external ... click ... Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... yet, if every choice or action is simply a soul exploring that experience ... you'd NEVER say anything ... :) ... yet one could also argue that a BIG part of the experience of being rigid and dogmatic and attached and belittling is that few of the 'gems' of humanity will go out of their way to spend time with you ... unless they are world champs at equanimity and boundless compassion ... :) Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna
Did make a couple of quick pages for the photos of Annie's ducks ... here ... must tell her, once they are uploaded - REMEMBER to upload the actual photos to a separate directory AS I have been testing it on my hard drive only ... I will, don't worry ... must also remember to write a bit of "Duckie Philosophy" for the 'links' I included ... Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna
Yes, to those who would (as I myself would once have done ) dismiss a lot of this as "New Age mumbo-jumbo" ... well, the essence of it is nothing 'new' at all. Buddha said it 25 centuries ago - each of you without exception has the potential to be a fully awakened being. A fully awakened being is one who is continuously motivated by love & compassion & kindness and nothing else. That's the heart of his message. The rest is just the various methods of removing all the flotsam & jetsam that prevents you from being fully awakened and even that can be summed up in a few words - let go of attachments. If it were as easy as saying that, we would have far more awakened ones ... but we do have countless who are in the process of awakening ... :) added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna
added brianna's poems ... include a link ... Brianna
Found a huge list of mandala sites - covering everything from sand mandalas to snow crystals, kaleidoscopes, labyrinths, animated mandalas & rose windows ... will take a while to check 'em all out ... click here ... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... one of them says, "Miya Shimada's goal in creating this work was to create a virtual 3D environment demonstrating "virtually" what happens in the mind of a Buddhist meditator." ... hmmm ... maybe one day technology will enable us to truly do this ... but will it be as enjoyable as 'doing it yourself' ... Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Yes ... it IS all in the eye of the beholder ... even those of us who'd say our input is intended to be helpful ... you could argue that there is still some attachment - attachment to the idea that our words will peel away the gloom and enable the other person to 'see the light' ... or atachment to having our words well received or appreciated or 'approved' of ... hmmm ... this nonattachment business is a tricky one ... Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :) Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ... [ January 28, 2001 ' Some interesting reactions about 'Larry' ... :) ... And from the 'other' forum - You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ... ... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ... NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
Added a few more of my passing thoughts to that assortment of recent meanderings ... click here ... yes, JUST when you think you have a handle on something ... :)
Today's mantra: "Suddenly, I'm walking towards my own lifetime" Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ...
Or ... Normally, I wouldn't even believe in all the questions of life In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ...
In the light of recent debates ... typing up more of Awakening the Buddha within ... the advice on choosing groups/teachers - 'Instead, seek out teachers who practice what they preach.' ... hmmm ... :) ... most of the advice (like the entire book) is spot on ... ... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ... ... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ... Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ...
... but it's interesting ... sure, check out teachers ... but what of those who for example enter convents or monasteries as youngsters and have little say ... hmmm ...
... actualy added quite a sizeable chunk to those excerpts - I love the 'Spontaneous Song' by Lama Gendun Rinpoche ... I myself have composed 'spontaneous' songs ... but they are usually gibberish or pure nonsense ...
Posted the 'spontaneous song' to the forum ... # 57926 ... after a post about God's first name being Larry. ... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ...
... that discussion reminds me (while mowing the lawn) of the bit in Native Wisdom for white minds where Anne says some cultures have NO word for God ... as they see God everywhere and in everything ...
You're so right about seeing bits of our 'old selves' in others. I still have to pinch myself to look where I've come from in what is basically the blink of an eye. That's why I often have this internal debate as to what to post to Dick Skep & others because I know exactly where he's coming from and I absolutely KNOW that nobody's mere words would have made any impact at all. So, I often feel I should remain mum. :) It is a tricky one. And without experiencing 'it' personally I'd never have budged one millimeter. All of which raises more mysteries than it solves ...
... possibly I burned off all my bad karma by expereincing 17 years of schizophrenia ... hmmm ...
NEW directory?? at my fortune city site - here - see if it lists the contents ... neeeds updating ... ... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here
... actually fortune city is acting up ... so try angelfire ... here message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here
message # 57938 - about chanting ... and its benefits and practice ... and sound (spontaneous) versus a phrase ... and which phrase ... and state-of-mind ... and the gyuto boys have been at it a while ... :) ... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here
... and sent link to chanting info ... yes, the first time you hear Overtone Chanting (what's that CD called? 'The Colours of Silence'??) you think there's NO way a human voice can make THAT sound ... I think it's also called Harmonic Singing ... then again in the days before we had the web & TV and stereo ... people had to MAKE their own 'entertainment' ... :) Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ... ... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples? In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here
Speaking of harmonic singing - click here ...
... and if two years ago you'd said I'd get RIGHT into chanting - often spontaneous - I'd have said you were completely loopy ... Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ... {Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ... [ January 29, 2001 ' Today's mantra: "I must remember to be more spontaneous." (Repeat for five mins in the morning and just before you go beddie-byes in the evening) ... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ... very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :( [ January 30, 2001 ' Continuing yesterday's aboriginal theme ... found this site about 'Didjeridu and Overtone Chanting' - click here ... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia' Another terribly brief poem It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change Testing ... Audio interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Mathias Grassow
Ah ... can use screen capture to convert WMF files to a JPG ... I'm sure there must be an easier way ... but it works ...
{Check if I ulpoaded the file} More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ...
More clipart ... click Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ...
Isn't it always the case ... fabulous, gripping epic encounters throughout the tournament ... then two finals which are cakewalks ... hmmm ... again that word ... 'expectation' ... :) one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ...
one post about the size of duck's brains ... and yet they live in harmony & raise their young etc ... and our brains are SO much bigger ... hmmm ... I thought of a quote by who was it? Thoreau? ... Emerson? ... ah, Walt Whitman 'Song of myself' ... look for a link it's exactly what I had in mind ... one bit is as follows: 'Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another ...' Song of Myself Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ...
Song of Myself
Another version including original handwritten drafts ... almost as indecipherable as some of my scribbles ...
... or whenever it pops into your consciousness throughout the day's activities ...
very interesting trip to the city ... may put the details in a separate file as this is becoming large to load with all the text & pics ... click Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre
Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre
Should upload that Real Audio file for the forum gang ... what does it say ... 'Actually, therefore ... the course of wisdom ... what is really sensible ... uh, is to let go ... to give oneself up and that's quite mad ... so we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity ..." ... click here - IF I remember to upload it ... From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
From that trip to the new museum (it WILL be something when all the proposed exhibits are open) - the section on 'Vietnam Voices' was VERY powerful - everyone should go along - there is a link I have yet to check out - Vietnam Voices - the site MAY be under construction ... ?? ... yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
yes, in today's musings ... I do wonder what visiting aliens would make of MUCH of our way-of-life ... take the reverence we bestow on a dea horse for example! (Phar Lap) ... then again in a culture nearly devoid of true spirituality anything's possible ... :) ... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
... plus some interesting observations on how uptight and unspontaneous we are ... and those who are not ... and nothing happens 'by accident' ... Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
Today's notes happened to be scribbled on a piece of paper which had some printout about 'Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide' ... which is a place i aint visited in a very long time ... might pay to add it to my list of Interesting Mental Health Sites (as IF there aren't more than enuf sites in that list to bend anyone's brain out of shape :) Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide
The following pops into my head after some quite positive reactions to what I have posted to the forums ... "Morning all. Yes, the applause is deafening. I hope my ego doesn't pay too much attention to it all. I've been trying to convince my ego to have a little snooze lately. :) I don't know that I can really take much 'credit' for it at all. I mean I sure have had to learn things the HARDEST way imaginable. 17 or 18 years of the surreal experiences of schizophrenia led me through hills and valleys I am still struggling to describe. I honestly don't know HOW I survived much of it. Looking back, it's almost like it happened to somebody else. I could never have imagined seeing things the way I do now and yet this is just a glimpse, just one tiny step ... :) ... but like you Richard, I'm still shocked, surprised, puzzled and supremely grateful. Sometimes all in the same instant. :) " ... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway) ... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :) ... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
... yes, I was basically led to a place where I either WOKE up or I would go mad or perish ... (bodily anyway)
... so, I do wonder what if ANYTHING to say to people because I honestly still don't know quite how I did it ... how I got here ... :)
... another interesting observation about 'expectations' ... here ... and the 'anti-climax' ... one wonders if it is JUST co-incidence ... ... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
... plus advising someone to 'calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief' ... yes, another sad aspect of the modern malaise ... ENTHUSIASM (especially childlike, innocent enthusiasm for the simplest things which most take absolutely 'for granted' ... is almost frowned upon ... :(
... and a great links page ... here ... have only checked a couple out - like 'Dreaming Arts Centre of Utopia' & 'Aboriginal Art Of Australia'
It's awfully strange And slightly deranged This thing called change
Testing ...
Mystic Dance - some MP3 samples?
In a bookshop - Dr Seuss - 'The thinks you can think' ... click here
Continuing yesterday's other themes ... yes, Kay's book An Unquiet Mind ... and her comments about having no real idea of what 'being normal' involves ... ... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
... yes, when you have spent PROLONGED periods where even staying vaguely connected to everyday 'reality' is a full-time struggle ... you can identify with everyone's struggle without condemning them ... it's a crash course in learning compassion A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
A few other thoughts I never quite recorded ... yes, when people aren't thrilled JUST to have the gift of life ... then you have got problems ... mayhem ... entertainment ... :) ... which can never hope to be anything other than a pale, pale imitation ... "I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
"I have spent most of my life in an altered state of consciousness." How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page ... or convert the file ... with Total recorder That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
How to EMBED Real Audio into a web page
... or convert the file ... with Total recorder
That quote about 'the forests would be awfully silent if the only birds who sang were those whose song was the sweetest' (or something like that) ... {Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke} Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit Gary Larson
{Possibly it was Henry Jackson Vandyke}
Mathias Grassow - ambient drones and music from the spirit
Gary Larson
