"..Savor the warmth and joy..

..that result from a calmer mind. After a while your thoughts will become like a peaceful river. If you practice regularly, eventually your mind will easily become serene, like a calm ocean. Whenever new thoughts arise, like waves raised by the winds, do not be bothered by them. They will soon dissolve back into the ocean.." - Matthieu Ricard

Dregnaughts

Dregnaught
\Dre*gnor*gt\, n. An popular Vignette** encapsulating key element(s) of a larger piece of contemporary media, where propagated exclusively via computer and networks (see Internet). Often showing cruel and unusual pain and feats of cunning trickery in cars, and both.
**(Vignette: (n.) A short scene or incident, as from a movie.)

Where do words come from?

I assert that a word is the formalisation of a concept; a handle on a mental construct, propogated by common use, then perhaps formal acceptance into language. A perception of reality based language and layers of conceptual understanding is wholly limited by these concepts. That they should form the foundation for what seems to be a popular perception of reality seems to me to be wholly lacking.

Consider a bookshop with ten thousand titles from gardening to philosophy through car mechanics and ancient translations.. then perhaps consider all the books in all the world which have ever been, maybe billions of tomes stacked so high as to block out the sun.. consider every single attemt to ever encapsulate even the most minute fragment of the most subjective element of our reality in words and ask; has that task actually ever been achieved?

..then consider what it is to be "knowledgable". Perhaps it is simply the biggest, most ego-centric, self-rightious myth ever known..

Peace in the Peace Movement

"...Contributions to peace are built upon innate goodness. Deep inside we must recognize that while we are different from those who go to and support war, different from those who let HIV/AIDS and hunger continue unchecked and who commit the genocide of African and other peoples of color, we are complicit in that arrogance by couching our expressions of protest in a language of fear and hatred, a language that lets our opposition point to our hypocrisy and makes some people of peace feel unable to participate in a movement that cultivates as much aggression as the events and policies we are striving to oppose..." - boona cheema

What for is a koan, sir?

Yesterday afternoon, a gentleman paid a visit to the deluded old man. After saluting to each other and just before sipping the first cup of green tea, the gentleman asked a question like this:
- What is a koan** and what for is it, sir?
- It is like a candy handed out to make a baby who is crying to stop it.
- Then what for is it after the baby aready stops crying?
- Just put it aside.
- And what would you tell the baby when he is no longer crying?
- Just tell him do not get hurt and cry again.
- That's wonderful, sir!
- You are a crying baby, aren't you?

(** koan - A puzzling, often paradoxical statement or story, used in Zen Buddhism as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening.)

Hakuin and the Samurai

A soldier came to Hakuin and asked "Is there really a paradise and a hell?"
"Who are you?" inquired Hakuin.
"I am a samurai," the warrior replied.
"You, a samurai!" exclaimed Hakuin. "What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar!"
The soldier became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued. "So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably as dull as your head!"
As the soldier drew his sword Hakuin remarked "Here open the gates of hell!"
At these words, the samurai, perceiving the discipline of the master, sheathed his sword and bowed.
"Here open the gates of paradise," said Hakuin.

"..you must be a light unto yourself. not the light of some professor, or an anylist, or a psychologist, or the light of jesus christ, or of buddah. you must be a light unto yourself, in a world that is utterly becoming dark..." -jiddu krishnamurti

For me, Buddah has some useful things to say, so did JC, so does my mum, and so does the body of experience we have inherited from all forms of endevour, including that of life itself. I can't say that any of them are ultimatley correct, or incorrect; I won't put one before the other, or me before another. In fact i can't say anything about them at all really. They only exist in my mind, and only then when i think about it.

Mere I

I live such as billions have done before me, I will give rise to life like they did, and will die in some manner or another, just like them. Meanwhile I will witness many things, think many things, realize many things, stake many claims, feel all manner of bodily sensations, hurt and kill in the name of something or another; all these and more will be my contribution to life, and then I too will die. This is not a position of futility, it's just that all things come and go.

If the wind blows a tree over and the tree lands on an ant, the ant will die. This is not right or wrong. This is of no-thing. And so if you cause the tree to fall, not concieving either yourself, the tree, or the ant, life or death, you are like the wind. This is not right or wrong. This is of no-thing.

But if you push the tree over, concieving of yourself first and knowing that ant will die, you have murdered the ant. If you know you are causing suffering, then don't. It's very simple.

I seek wisdom to remember how to be a plant.

I seek wisdom to remember how to be a plant.

I don't for a moment assume you understand, do not understand, or have or have not considered these things before. Please allow me to explain myself.

We humans are endowed with a large brain. It gives us the capacity to realise untold happiness and cause endless misery. To which end we serve is our own choice in each moment. We believe in some thing existing, and then we believe in the existance of it's opposite also. Good. Bad. True. Untrue. Up. Down. Fast. Slow. We define these things quite clearly and these conceptions create our individual versions of reality. When my version is different from someone elses, there is conflict. This much is easy.

Rational thinking is a tool just like anything else, and it serves a purpose. It has created the wheel and space ships and icy poles. Many people believe science and emprical thought can bring us salvation through the understanding of our environment and that doing so gives us "progress". It certainly gives the illusion of some advancement, but I'm not sure to what end. I assert that it's dangerous to assume that rational thinking can serve all purposes, and that it's dangerous to assume that all things are systematically created such that systematic dissection by logic will distill some "truth".

To consider something, also consider that it equally isn't. A leaf is only a leaf for those precious moments in which its form is that which we commonly refer to as a "leaf". The soil which produced the leaf is no more or less leaf than the leaf itself, indeed the soil IS leaves, just as the leaves ARE soil. This at least can be scientifically prooven. So it is a leaf as it is also not a leaf. Then consider that it's both these distinctions at the same time. Do it now. Ok? Now consider that that there is no difference between these two distinctions. Wow. If you can do this, you can attain the true nature of the leaf. If you can attain the true nature of the leaf, you can attain true nature of all things. That is, that there can be no distinctions.

This world only exists because of our conception. Ultimate truth is emptiness, and it has no opposite. It cannot be attained using a rational mode of thinking. To assume that our vague approximations of scientific truth somehow allude to ultimate truth is a fallacy we inherit from society at large. I like many before me refute this inheritance.

I speak to you rationally because we understand rational thinking. But I assert we don't need rational thinking in order to understand. So use it wiseley.

I am my vegetable patch. I simply seek wisdom to remember this.