Story of the Beggar and the King

 From an email from Crack your Egg

Here's a nice story for you:

 

Upon coming out of his palace one morning, a king encounters a beggar. 

 

The king is in a good mood, so he asks the beggar:

 

"What do you want?" 

 

So the beggar laughs and replies: 

 

"You ask as if you can actually fulfill my desire!" 

 

The king is a little bit offended, so he replies:  

 

"Come on, look at me... I'm the king for crying out loud. Of course I can. Tell me, what is it?"

 

The beggar warns: 

 

"Better think twice before you promise anything."

 

     Now, side note before we go on -

     you've got to realize:

 

[+] The beggar was no ordinary beggar...

 

[+] He was actually the king's past life master. 

 

And in their former life, he had promised:

 

"I'll come to try and wake you up in our next life. This life you've missed, but I'll come back to help you out."

 

     So back to our story...

 

The king - obviously not recognizing his old friend - insists:

 

"Look man, I'll fulfill anything you ask. I'm a very powerful king, so I'm sure I can fulfill whatever it is."

 

So the beggar responds:

 

"Well, alright then... It's a very simple desire. Can you please fill this begging bowl for me?"

 

"Sure thing!" said the king, and he instructed his vizier to fill it with money.

 

The vizier did. But when he poured it into the bowl, it immediately disappeared.

 

So he poured in more... and more... and more... 

 

But every time he did, it would instantly vanish. 

 

So the begging bowl remained empty.

 

Clearly, this was no ordinary event, so word quickly spread throughout the kingdom. 

 

It didn't take long for a huge crowd to gather.

 

Now the king felt the pressure:

 

He was a proud man, and his power and prestige were now at stake.

 

So he told his vizier:

 

"Listen - if I'm to lose my kingdom over this, so be it... but I can't let this beggar make a fool out of me."

 

So he continued to empty his wealth into the bowl. 

 

We're talking diamonds... pearls... emeralds... the whole kit and caboodle. 

 

No kidding - he emptied his whole treasury in that bowl. 

 

And yet, it just seemed bottomless - everything immediately vanished... like snow before the sun.

 

Finally, as the crowd stood in utter silence, the king dropped at the beggars feet and admitted his defeat:

 

“Okay, I give up... You won... But before you go, please be so kind to fulfill my curiosity... What's the secret of this darn begging bowl?”

 

The beggar replied humbly:

 

"There is no secret... The bowl is simply made up of human desire."

Story of The Wolf and The Dog

 from:The Wolf and The Dog

The Wolf and the Dog

 

by Jean de la Fontaine, translated by Tad Bonieck

 

A Wolf had nought but bones and skin

So exact the watch of dogs had been.

He chances on a Mastiff as powerful as handsome

Fat, sleek, who had strayed by chance.

To attack him, quarter him

Lord Wolf would gladly do;

But he would have to join battle,

And the Mastiff was of such stature

As to defend himself with ease.

So the Wolf approaches him humbly,

Enters into conversation, compliments him

On his girth, which he admires.

"You fine sir could be as fat as me"

Replied the Dog.

"Leave the woods, you would do well:

Your like are miserable there,

Dunces, hairshirts and poor devils,

Their estate is to die of hunger.

Every bite of food is hard won

By dint of fang and claw. For what?

Follow me: you would have a fate much better."

The Wolf replied, "What must I do?"

"Almost nothing," replied the Dog, "Chase beggars

And people carrying sticks;

To flatter those at home, to please one's Master:

In exchange your salary would be

A great many scraps of all kinds:

Bones of chickens, bones of pigeons,

Without mentioning many caresses."

The Wolf already imagines a happiness

Which makes him teary from fondness.

Walking along, he saw the bald neck of the Dog.

"What is it there?" he said. - Nothing. - What? Nothing? - Nothing much.

But still? - The collar by which I am tethered

Is perhaps the cause of what you see.

"Tethered?" said the Wolf: So you do not run

Wherever you want? -  Not always; but what matters it?

It matters so much that all your meals

I would not want in any wise or manner,

And would not desire even a treasure at such price."

This said, master Wolf runs off, and he runneth still

 

Excepts from: Read Me Like a Book : Using Hermeneutics As a Guide to Pastoral Counseling by Jason Cusick

 At 50 something, like is starting to mean a lot of different things. What most boggles my mind, is how little i was taught.. how little my parents really knew, at ... it is endless....

I stumbled upon this book by accident, in a sense, but upon opening and reading the pages, found a wealth of knowledge I wish I had been given much earlier.

Here are some quotes....

"Gerkin asks, "Does the image of the person ... as a living human document open to us a possible way of ...."

The 5 questions

1. Who am I?

2. What do you mean?

3. Can I get some background?

4. What's the big idea?

5. What do we do now?

Who Am I?    The Pre-Understanding of the Interpreter

What we know, how we feel, what we believe, and how we make decisions impact  how we interpret new information. In what ways does interpreting the Bible and  people start with an honest self-understanding?

What Is Pre-Understanding?    

We don’t come to interpretation as blank slates. Our previous education and ex-  periences affect how we interpret what see, hear, and read. Whether the document  is written or human, our pre-understanding shapes our interpretation. In a very  practical sense, interpretation begins with the interpreter in four areas:⁸    

1. What I Know    What information do I already possess about the subject I am interpreting? Is this  a new area of study for which I have little or no information? In regards to biblical  interpretation: Have I studied this Bible passage before? Am I familiar with this  genre? Do I know the history and culture of the time? In regards to pastoral counseling: Have I counseled this person before or someone similar? Am I familiar with  the general issue this person is facing? Is there any important information I need  which I currently do not have?    

2. How I Feel    What are the feelings I have about the subject I am interpreting? In what ways will  my mood (positively or negatively) impact my interpretation? Regarding biblical  interpretation: Is this passage of Scripture exciting or a burden? Will this text cause  unwanted reactions from the congregation? Is this a subject I preach on regularly  because I am so passionate about it? With regard to pastoral counseling: How do I  feel about the person I am counseling? Is the session interesting or boring, life-  giving or annoying? Do I feel hurried, tired, restless, or frustrated for some reason?    

3. What I Believe    What theological, moral, political, or philosophical views do I possess that shape  my interpretation? In what ways is my worldview predetermining how I read a text  or person? In regards to biblical interpretation: Am I Calvinistic, Arminian,  Dispensational, Covenantal, or Reformed? Am I a Cessationist or Continuationist?  Am I Complementarian or Egalitarian? Regarding pastoral counseling: Is addiction  to be considered a sin or a disease? How do people grieve properly? What do I be-  lieve about marriage, divorce, and remarriage? What are my views on parenting or  aging?    

4. How I Decide    What is my cognitive style? What is my methodology when it comes to thinking  through issues? With regards to biblical interpretation: Am I inductive or deduc-  tive? Am I linear or non-linear? Are the first questions I ask historical/scientific or  literary/narrative? In regards to pastoral counseling: Is my process slower and rela-  tional or more diagnostic and problem-solution oriented? Do I quote Scripture or  try to draw Scripture from the people I am counseling? Do I see people as indi-  viduals or as part of larger systems and families?    Our pre-understanding is like a storehouse. We draw from it to know what to ask  and what we need not ask. It guides our thinking process and shapes how we make  sense of what we are learning. 

  Our pre-understanding is like a storehouse. We draw from it to know what to  ask and what we need not ask. It guides our thinking process and shapes how we  make sense of what we are learning. 

Our pre-understanding comes from our  education, but is also formed and shaped by our spiritual giftedness, personality,  vocational experience, cultural background, family dynamics, religious upbringing,  successes and failures, and a variety of other sources. We bring this storehouse to  the interpretive act.  

It is important to note that our pre-understanding should not be the basis for  our interpretation. It is important and necessary, but also comes with its problems.  “Our pre-understanding is our friend, not our enemy. It provides a set of under-  standings by which we can make sense of what we read. The problem is that our  pre-understanding too easily becomes prejudice . . . The reader’s background and  ideas are important in the study of biblical truth; however, this must be used to  study meaning rather than create meaning that is not there.”⁹    

Is My Pre-Understanding Helping or Harming?    

Our pre-understanding is like a reflex. When we read, see, or hear something, we 

... As helpful as it often is, our pre-understanding can also lead us in the wrong  direction.

I am reminded of an instance when I was working with a family dealing with  Alzheimer’s disease. One day I got a call from the husband. His wife was suffering  an episode and didn’t recognize him. I encouraged him to find their wedding photo  album and try to convince her that they were married. Faithfully trusting his pastor,  he followed my suggestions, but it didn’t help. His wife became increasingly frus-  trated as more of my suggestions did little to help. I spoke with her over the phone  and tried to talk her into believing he was her husband. It was futile. The problem  was my pre-understanding. I had limited information about Alzheimer’s disease.  After meeting privately with a social worker with expertise in this area and reading a  Christian book on the subject, I learned that someone with Alzheimer’s simply can-  not be talked out of an episode like this. There are other ways to help them, like  focusing on their feelings, redirecting their attention, or reevaluating their medica-  tions. This is what makes this disease so painful and exhausting for caregivers. A  limited or flawed pre-understanding can result in ineffective and possibly harmful  ministry.

Are You “Drawing from” or “Reading into”?

Are You Transferring Your Baggage?  

....

Main Ideas    • We interpret life based on our previously held information, attitudes, ideology,  and methodology. This is called our pre-understanding.  • Our pre-understanding can be helpful or harmful.  • We should seek to regularly inventory and enhance our storehouse of pre-  understanding with facts, memories, and imagination.  • Our automatic thoughts, emotions, and simple cues from our body are ways in  which we can be aware that our pre-understanding is being triggered.  • We should always be revisiting and revising our pre-understanding.  

2    What Do You Mean?    

Listening for Authorial Intention    

Words, phrases, and ideas have different meanings to different people. How can  we learn to listen to and understand what a text or person is trying to say rather  than assuming we already know what they mean?

...

1. Am I Honest with Myself?    We must be honest about how easy it is for our ideas and intentions to become  more important than the author’s. In regards to biblical interpretation: Can I admit  that I am biased towards certain interpretations, views, and genres? 

Sections of Michael Newton's Life between Lives Series

From Journey of Souls (conclusion)

One of the most troublesome concerns of all people who want to believe in something higher than themselves is the causality of so much negativity in the world.
Evil is given as the primary example. When I ask my subjects how a loving God could permit suffering, surprisingly there are few variations in their responses. My cases report our souls are born of a creator which places a totally peaceful state deliberately out of reach so we will strive harder.
We learn from wrongdoing. The absence of good traits exposes the ultimate flaws in our nature. That which is not good is testing us, otherwise we would have no motivation to better the world through ourselves, and no way to measure advancement. When I ask my subjects about the alternating merciful and wrathful qualities we perceive to be the self-expression of a teacher-oversoul, some of them say the creator only shows certain attributes to us for specific ends. For instance, if we equate evil with justice and mercy with goodness and if God allowed us only to know mercy, there would be no state of justice.
This book presents a theme of order and wisdom rising from many spiritual energy levels. In a remarkable underlying message, particularly from advanced subjects, the possibility is held out that the God-oversoul of our universe is on a less-than perfect level. Thus, complete infallibility is deferred to an even higher divine source.
From my work I have come to believe that we live in an imperfect world by design. Earth is one of countless worlds with intelligent beings, each with its own set of imperfections to bring into harmony. Extending this thought further, we might exist as one single dimensional universe out of many, each having its own creator
governing at a different level of proficiency in levels similar to the progression of souls seen in this book. Under this pantheon, the divine being of our particular house would be allowed to govern in His, Her, or Its own way.
If the souls who go to planets in our universe are the offspring of a parent oversoul who is made wiser by our struggle, then could we have a more divine grandparent who is the absolute God? The concept that our immediate God is still evolving as we are takes nothing away from an ultimate source of perfection who spawned our God. To my mind, a supreme, perfect God would not lose omnipotence or total control over all creation by allowing for the maturation of less-than-perfect superior offspring. These lesser gods could be allowed to create their own imperfect worlds as a final means of edification so they might join with the ultimate God.
The reflected aspects of divine intervention in this universe must remain as our ultimate reality. If our God is not the best there is because of the use of pain as a teaching tool, then we must accept this as the best we have and still take the reasons for our existence as a divine gift. Certainly this idea is not easy to convey to someone
who is physically suffering, for example, from a terminal illness. Pain in life is especially insidious because it can block the healing power of our souls, especially if we have not accepted what is happening to us as a preordained trial. Yet, throughout life, our karma is designed so that each trial will not be too great for us to endure.
At a wat temple in the mountains of Northern Thailand, a Buddhist teacher once reminded me of a simple truth. "Life," he said, "is offered as a means of selfexpression, only giving us what we seek when we listen to the heart." The highest forms of this expression are acts of kindness. Our soul may be traveling away from a
permanent home, but we are not just tourists. We bear responsibility in the evolution of a higher consciousness for ourselves and others in life. Thus, our journey is a collective one.
We are divine but imperfect beings who exist in two worlds, material and spiritual.
It is our destiny to shuttle back and forth between their universes through space and time while we learn to master ourselves and acquire knowledge. We must trust in this process with patience and determination. Our essence is not fully knowable in most physical hosts, but Self is never lost because we always remain connected to
both worlds.
A number of my more advanced subjects have stated there is a growing movement in the spirit world to "change the game rules on Earth." These people say their souls had less amnesia about Self and the interlife when they lived in earlier cultures. It seems in the last few thousand years there has been tighter blocking, on a conscious level, of our immortal memories. This has been a contributing factor in the loss of faith in our capacity for self-transcendence. Earth is filled with people who feel an empty hopelessness toward the meaning of life. The lack of connection with our immortality combined with the availability of mind-altering chemicals and overpopulation has created rumbles upstairs. I am told large numbers of souls who have had more frequent   incarnations in recent centuries on Earth are opting, when they get the chance, for less stressful worlds. There are enlightened places where amnesia is greatly reduced without causing homesickness for the spirit world. As we approach the next millennium, the masters who direct Earth's destiny appear to be making changes to permit more information and understanding of who we are and why we are here to come into our lives. 

From Journey of Souls 

Unlike the highly advanced souls, such as case 44, most of my clients are unable to recognize that the Elders could be fallible beings them- selves. Other than fleeting moments with a more powerful and loving Presence, the Council of Elders is the highest authority people directly encounter in their spiritual visions. As a result of what they see in a trance state, my subjects do have the sense of a vertical tier effect of soul attainment in the spirit world. This perception of the cosmos is not a  new belief system in human civilization.

Indian, Egyptian, Persian and Chinese texts of the past speak of “the agencies of God” who were personified as metaphysical entities, some of whom were even anthropomorphic. Early Greco-Hebrew religious philosophy also identified with a stair-stepped concept of spiritual masters, each one more divine than the last. Many cultures believed that while God is the Source of all creation and is totally good, the management of our universe was delegated through a combination of lesser beings who were mediators of reason and the purveyors of divine thought between a perfect being and a finite world. They were considered to be emanations of the Creator, but beings who were less than perfect. Perhaps this helped explain the imperfections of our world with God still being the First Cause.

The pantheistic view is that all manifestations in the universe are God. Over a long span of time the spiritual philosophy of some cultures evolved into a conception that the divine forces which govern our lives were essentially words of wisdom, analogous to the reasoning powers of human beings. In other societies, these forces were thought of as Presences capable of influencing our world. The Christian church found the whole idea of intermediaries emanating from a supreme Source to be unacceptable. The position of Christianity is that a perfect being would not delegate a less than perfect being—who could make mistakes—to run our universe.

The Old Testament God spoke through prophets. In the New Testament, the word of God comes through Jesus who, Christians believe, is the image of God. Still, the prophets of all the major religions are reflections of God to their followers. I feel the acceptance of prophets in many religions around the world has its roots in our soul memory of sacred intermediaries—such as guides and Elders—between ourselves and the creator Source. In our long history on this planet there have been many cultures with mythological figures having cosmological functions as mediators between the unknowable God and a hostile world. I don’t feel we should relegate myths, as a means of explaining the world, to primitive thought. What we rationally know today still does not answer the mystery of creation any more than in the past.

In terms of the First Cause, I have found both old and new spiritual concepts can be reconciled in one significant way. Souls are able to create living things out of an energy source provided for them. Thus, souls are able to make something out of something in a variety of settings. In religious theology, divine creation is making something out of nothing. There are those who believe that the Godhead does not create physical matter but only the conditions which allow highly advanced beings to do so.

Is Earth a laboratory created by higher forms of energy for the lower to advance through many stages of development? If so, these higher beings are our Source but not the Source. In Journey of Souls, I wrote about the possibility of a creator lacking full perfection and having the need to grow stronger by expressing its essence. However, it could have the need to do this even if it was perfect. The philosophy of a divine stair-stepping authority validates the belief of many people that Earth and our physical universe is far too chaotic to have been formed by ultimate perfection. In my view, this whole idea takes nothing away from a perfect Source somewhere who set everything in motion for all souls eventually to become perfect. Our transformation from total ignorance to perfected knowledge involves a continual process of enlightenment by having faith that we can be better than we are.

 

From Wikipedia - Mormon Cosmology

 

According to Mormon cosmology, there was a pre-existence, or a pre-mortal life, in which human spirits were literal children of heavenly parents.[1] Although their spirits were created, the essential "intelligence" of these spirits is considered eternal, and without beginning. During this pre-mortal life, a Plan of Salvation was presented by God the Father (Elohim) with Jehovah (the premortal Jesus) championing moral agency but Lucifer (Satan) insisting on its exclusion. When Lucifer's plan was not accepted, he rebelled against God the Father and was cast out of heaven, taking "the third part" of the hosts of heaven with him to the earth, thus becoming the tempters.

According to the Plan of Salvation, under the direction of God the Father, Jehovah created the earth as a place where humanity would be tested. After the resurrection, all men and women—except the spirits that followed Lucifer and the sons of perdition—would be assigned one of three degrees of glory. Within the highest degree, the celestial kingdom, there are three further divisions, and those in the highest of these celestial divisions would become gods and goddesses through a process called "exaltation" or "eternal progression". The doctrine of eternal progression was succinctly summarized by LDS Church leader Lorenzo Snow: "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be."[2][3] According to Smith's King Follett discourse, God the Father once passed through mortality as Jesus did, but how, when, or where that took place is unclear. The prevailing view among Mormons is that God once lived on a planet with his own higher god.[4][5]

According to Mormon scripture, the Earth's creation was not ex nihilo, but organized from existing matter. The Earth is just one of many inhabited worlds, and there are many governing heavenly bodies, including the planet or star Kolob, which is said to be nearest the throne of God. 

Origin of Elohim (God the Father)
According to Mormon theology, God the Father is a physical being of "flesh and bones."[17] Mormons identify him as the biblical god Elohim. Latter-day Saint leaders have also taught that God the Father was once a mortal man who has completed the process of becoming an exalted being.[18] According to Joseph Smith, God "once was a man like one of us and … once dwelled on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did in the flesh and like us."[19]

...

According to a revelation dictated by Joseph Smith, Jesus is the creator of many worlds, so "that by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."[37] Smith's translation of the Bible also refers to "many worlds", and states that the vision Moses had on biblical Mount Sinai was limited to "only account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, [but] there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power[, a]nd there are many that now stand."[39] Another part of Smith's translation portrays the biblical character Enoch as stating that if there were "millions of earths like this [earth]

 

Spirit intelligences and God's spirit children
It is believed there were pre-existing "spirit intelligences" that existed before the God the Father and Heavenly Mother created spiritual bodies for them: "self-existing intelligences were organized into individual spirit beings"[59] by the Heavenly Parents and they became the "begotten sons and daughters of God".[60] The procreative process whereby the intelligences became spirits has not been explained. While spirit bodies are composed of matter, they are described as being "more fine or pure" than regular matter

A separate issue - but I will forget if I don't put it down somewhere

According to Mormon scripture, "the elements are eternal".[52] This means, according to Smith, that the elements are co-existent with God, and "they may be organized and reorganized, but not destroyed. They had not beginning, and can have no end."[53] This principle was elaborated on by Brigham Young, who said, "God never made something out of nothing; it is not in the economy or law of which the worlds were, are, or will exist."[54] Thus, Mormons deny ex nihilo creation and instead believe that God created or "organized" the universe out of pre-existing elements

 

Dhammananda

From Insight LA

Dhammananda....

In 2019, the BBC named her one of the 100 most influential women in the world because of her tireless work to re-establish the Theravada female monastic lineage in Asia and initiate positive changes for women in Thai society. She faced intense opposition and discrimination, “How did I surmount these problems? Through understanding and compassion. Those who suppress women (or anyone) do so out of ignorance. I am fighting ignorance, not people…Spiritual maturity is very helpful to strengthen you and see you through difficult times. When you have blossomed from pain to peacefulness on your spiritual path, you can really help nourish others you meet. To ease the pain of the world, you need to be nurturing and mothering.” 

From:Lion's Roar

Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, the first fully ordained Theravada nun in Thailand, received novice ordination on February 6, 2001. She couldn’t be ordained in her native country, where there were approximately 300,000 male monks and no ordained women. Instead, she had to travel to Sri Lanka, where the bhikkhuni lineage had been reinstated just three years before, after having died out for almost a thousand years.

Indra's Net and Subtle Anatomy

 I have become curious about Indra's net, due to the work of a woman named Desda Zuckerman.  She see's the sublte anatomy a bit differently than is often found in traditional sources.

To summarize her work in a few lines, she sees a core running from top to bottom, and channel running 90 degrees and going through the center of the core (like a cross) as the base of each being/structure, from humans to planets.  

She says in her book Your Sacred Anatomy: An Owners Guide to the Human Energy Structure

"I believe Indra’s Net is an early description of the grand cross and that in it the threads are our channel and core making the Human Energy Structure the crystal bead that reflects all things."

She teaches a class call "The Edge" which delves much further into the very complex subtle anatomy.  In this class she teaches a way to ground our grounding cord into our sacred structure itself, as opposed to grounding into the earth.

I read a vast variety of beliefs, not purporting anything to be true or not. One of the books that was recommended to me was called Voyagers..which, as far as I have read so far, talks about extraterrestrial involvement with our planet, and some of the players and agendas in the story.

When I read

The desired result of this manipulation is to sever the actual energetic connection of the individual to the personal Soul Matrix and reconnect the individual to a “group mind” network existing within another dimensional structure

I thought about Desda's work.  This because, from my understanding of what she teaches, Indra's net is from "Source" and is the formation of all beings as she sees them.

 

When I looked up Indra's net on Wikipedia, I found this description

According to Rajiv Malhotra, the earliest reference to a net belonging to Indra is in the Atharva Veda (c. 1000 BCE).[11] Verse 8.8.6. says:

Vast indeed is the tactical net of great Indra, mighty of action and tempestuous of great speed. By that net, O Indra, pounce upon all the enemies so that none of the enemies may escape the arrest and punishment.

The net was one of the weapons of the sky-god Indra, used to snare and entangle enemies. The net also signifies magic or illusion. According to Teun Goudriaan, Indra is conceived in the Rig Veda as a great magician, tricking his enemies with their own weapons, thereby continuing human life and prosperity on earth.

This post is a question really...
What is Indra's net
What is this net that Desda sees?

As some one who has used Desda's methods, what is it I ground into if I only ground into my own subtle anatomy, that is floating on this net?

About Meditation Notes

These are just notes from a Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) class about meditation that seem interesting.

I was taught transcendental meditation at the age of 4, and have continued exploring meditation throughout my life.   I have experienced a vast spectrum of experiences during meditation, as well as a plethora of different techniques and theories as to what meditation means, it's purpose, reasons, and potential results.

These notes remind me that meditation can mean so many things...

From: Meditation; It's not What You Think

...meditation is actually a process—one of investigating your own mind and changing the way you relate to your thoughts.

 

... What’s easily confused is that the instructions for meditation are in fact not the goal of meditation.  In other words, while we aim to maintain focus on the breath, the goal is really to learn about our minds.... With practice, we begin to realize that thoughts and emotions that naturally arise will also naturally pass away. We realize they don’t always need to be acted upon, and that they aren’t as “real” as they seem.

... Cognitive models are also beginning to be put forth about how meditation works psychologically, an important step for framing future research that will give us a clearer map of the mind. And moving beyond the psychological, researchers are seeking to clarify how cognitive and neural changes brought about through meditation can extend to our physical bodies...

... What science is proving time and again is that with intention and diligent practice, you can literally change your brain.

This understanding has been a revolution for neuroscientists and psychologists who thought for decades that the brain was fairly “fixed” after late adolescence....

 

Studies examining brain structure have found that meditation is associated with increased gray matter density, increased cortical thickness, and increased integrity of connections between brain regions important for cognitive control. Recent work shows that the more hours someone has meditated, the more cortical folding of the insula—an area important for autonomic, emotional, and cognitive integration. 

From: Meditation: Exercise for Your Mind

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” —Amit Ray

From: Meditation Makes Us Act with Compassion

Meditation teaches us not to get hijacked by worry, or to try to impose tyrannical control over our thoughts and feelings.

A List of Vows Attributed to the Dalai Lama - spoken of by Pamela Ayo Yetunde

From: The Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit: The Power of CompassionPresented by Lion’s Roar and Tibet House USSession: Pamela Ayo Yetunde – Talk

"may I become at all times, both now and forever, a
protector for those without protection, a guide for those who have lost their
way, a ship for those with oceans to cross, a bridge for those with rivers to
cross, a sanctuary for those in danger, a lamp for those without light. A place of
refuge for those who lack shelter and a servant to all in need."

Again, this list of vows is attributed to the Dalai Lama. And so is this quote. If I
have any understanding of compassion and the practice of the bodhisattva
path, it is entirely on the basis of this text that I presented. The text he is
referring to is The Way of the Bodhisattva, by Shantdieva. And I'll return to this
text later.

So I hang the banner at the gateway to my dwelling as a commitment to
provide a hospitable and healing place where I live to whomever enters.

Science Water

 “The Only Way Cellular Life Could Leave the Ocean Was to Take the Ocean With It” — Rene Quinton

You Are Already Enlightened by Guo Gu

You Are Already Enlightened
BY GUO GU| JUNE 12, 2020
[Re-posted from Lion's Roar]

Guo Gu, a longtime student of the late Master Sheng Yen, presents an experiential look at the Chan practice of silent illumination.
Silent illumination is a Buddhist practice that can be traced back not only to Huineng (638–713), the sixth patriarch of Chan, and other Chinese masters but also to the early teachings of the Buddha. In the Chan tradition, silent illumination is referred to as mozhao, from the Chinese characters mo (silent) and zhao (illumination). It’s a term that was first used by a critic of the practice, Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163), an advocate of the method of “observing critical phrase” (huatou in Chinese; wato in Japanese). Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157), the Chinese master most often associated with the practice of silent illumination, liked the term and adopted it.

In the West, silent illumination is usually presented through the lens of Soto Zen practice as shikantaza, a term coined by Dogen Zenji to describe the embodiment of awakening. However, shikantaza is not a distinct category of practice, and while it is a part of silent illumination, it cannot encompass it.

Silent illumination is the simultaneous practice of stillness and clarity, or quiescence and luminosity. It is similar to the practice of shamatha and vipashyana, as long as we don’t consider these sequential to each other, first practicing shamatha and then practicing vipashyana. In silence there is illumination; in stillness, clarity is ever present.

We Are Already Enlightened
The Chan tradition does not usually refer to steps or stages. Its central teaching is that we are intrinsically awake; our mind is originally without abiding, fixations, and vexations, and its nature is without divisions and stages. This is the basis of the Chan view of sudden enlightenment. If our mind’s nature were not already free, that would imply we could become enlightened only after we practiced, which is not so. If it’s possible to gain enlightenment, then it’s possible to lose it as well.

Consider a room, which is naturally spacious. However we organize the furniture in the room will not affect its intrinsic spaciousness. We can put up walls to divide the room, but they are temporary. And whether we leave the room clean or cluttered and messy, it won’t affect its natural spaciousness. Mind is also intrinsically spacious. Although we can get caught up in our desires and aversions, our true nature is not affected by those vexations. We are inherently free.

In the Chan tradition, therefore, practice is not about producing enlightenment. You might wonder, “Then what am I doing here, practic­ing?” Because practice does help clean up the “furniture” in the “room.” By not attaching to your thoughts, you remove the furniture, so to speak. And once your mind is clean, instead of fixating on the chairs, tables, and so on, you see its spaciousness. Then you can let the furniture be or rearrange it any way you want—not for yourself, but for the benefit of others in the room.

The Teachings of Master Sheng Yen
The ultimate way to practice silent illumina­tion is to sit without dependence on your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind. You sit with­out abiding anywhere, fabricating anything, or falling into a stupor. You neither enter into meditative absorption nor give rise to scattered thoughts. In this very moment, mind just is— wakeful and still, clear and without delusion. However, for many practitioners, such a stan­dard can prove too high.

My teacher, Master Sheng Yen, first intro­duced this way of practicing silent illumination in the 1970s. His students liked the method very much, but no one was able to practice it—they just couldn’t get a handle on it, so the method fell into obscurity. In the early 1990s, through trial and error, Sheng Yen began to break down the practice into stages. He spent a decade teaching and exploring silent illumination with his stu­dents during seven- and ten-day intensive retreats in both the West and Taiwan. I translated many of Hongzhi’s teachings on silent illumination to accompany Sheng Yen’s commentaries, which are now published in several books. The latest and most representative of his teachings on silent illu­mination, The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination, was published in 2008. Master Sheng Yen died soon afterward, in February 2009.

As Master Sheng Yen’s personal attendant monk, I was one of his first students to begin following his method of silent illumination as my main practice. He would often use me as a guinea pig: I would report to him whatever state or experience I was going through as I went deeper into the practice. I practiced silent illumination under his guidance for about sixteen years, until I began using the huatou or gong’an (koan in Japanese) method.

The stages of silent illumination as taught by Sheng Yen are not set in stone. They are a means to an end and signposts. It’s important to have a teacher to guide you, as each individual will have a different response to this method, grow­ing according to his or her own spiritual capacity and karmic disposition.

Three Stages of Silent Illumination
The practice of silent illumination taught by Master Sheng Yen can roughly be divided into three stages: concentrated mind, unified mind, and no-mind. Within each stage are infinite depths. You need not go through all the stages, nor are they necessarily sequential.

CONCENTRATED MIND
The first stage of practice is learning to sit in an uncontrived way, not trying to get this or get rid of that. You just sit with clarity and simplicity in the moment. In Chinese, this is called zhiguan dazuo, which means “just mind yourself sitting.”

To just sit is to be aware that you are sitting. When you’re sitting, can you feel the presence of your whole body—its posture, weight, and other sensations? “Just sitting” means, at the very least, you know clearly that the whole body is there. It doesn’t mean minding any particular part of your body—just your legs, arms, or pos­ture—or feeling every sensation of the body. The idea is to be aware of the general totality of your sitting experience. The body is sitting; you know this. This means your mind is sitting, too. So the body and mind are together as you’re sitting. If you don’t know you’re sitting, then you’re not following the method.

This method is subtle; it’s not like counting breaths from one to ten, which is very concrete. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to do. There is definitely something to do: Sit!

When you mind your sit­ting, your body and mind are naturally together. You don’t watch the body or imagine it, as if you’re looking in from the outside, which is some kind of mental construct.
This method does not involve contemplating, observing thoughts, or continually scanning the body. Instead, it involves minding the act of sit­ting, staying with that reality from moment to moment to moment. When you mind your sit­ting, your body and mind are naturally together. You don’t watch the body or imagine it, as if you’re looking in from the outside, which is some kind of mental construct.

When you practice single-mindedly and intensely, with no gaps, for half an hour, your body might become drenched in sweat. But this traditional, tense way of practicing the method is not suitable for most present-day practitio­ners because so many are already stressed out in daily life. (Another limitation of the tense way is that it cannot be sustained for a long period of time, half an hour to an hour at most.) So it’s generally advisable to practice the method in a relaxed way, while continuing to be fully aware that you’re sitting.

Getting to know and learning to relax your body can free you from habitual tendencies and negative emotions. You may notice that when wandering thoughts arise, some parts of your body tense up. The same is true for deep-seated emotions, which are lodged in particular places of the body. Often, people live their lives in such a way that their bodies and minds are split; they do one thing with their bodies while their minds are elsewhere. Practicing this first stage helps body and mind be more unified.

When you are wakeful and clear in each moment and not caught up with wandering thoughts, they subside of their own accord. They subside because your discriminating mind, which is tied to self-grasping, lessens. Your discrimi­nating mind lessens because you’re aware of the totality of the body as you are sitting. Without wandering thoughts, you are not grasping at this and that, nor attracted to or repulsed by particu­lar sensations. The concentration developed in the first stage of silent illumination is not a one-pointed focus of mind but an open, natural, and clear presence. It is concentration accompanied by wisdom.

UNIFIED MIND
When your discriminating mind diminishes, your narrow sense of self diminishes as well. Your field of awareness—which is at first the totality of the body—naturally opens up to include the external environment. Inside and outside become one. In the beginning, you may still notice that a sound is coming from a certain direction or that your mind follows distinct events within the envi­ronment, such as someone moving. But as you continue, these distinctions fade. You are aware of events around you, but they do not leave traces. You no longer feel that the environment is out there and you are in here. The environ­ment poses no opposition or burden. It just is. If you are sitting, then the environment is you, sitting. If you have left your seat and are walk­ing about, then the environment is still you, in all of your actions. This experience, the second stage of silent illumination, is called the oneness of self and others.

Can you still hear sounds? Yes. Can you get up to have a drink of water or urinate? Of course. Is there mentation? Yes. You have thoughts as you need them to respond to the world, but they are not self-referential. Compassion naturally arises when it is needed; it has nothing to do with emotion. There is an intimacy with everything around you that is beyond words and descrip­tions. When you urinate, the body, urine, and toilet are not separate. Indeed, you all have a wonderful dialogue!

In this stage, you see clearly what needs to be done. You see how to respond, but without any reference point or opposition. If you hear a bird, you are a bird. When you interact with a person, your mind is not stirred. You see things as one; they are part of you, and you are part of them. It’s not that you think, “They are part of me and I’m really big! I include the whole world!” Nor is it that you dissolve into the external environ­ment, not knowing who you are anymore. It is just that the sense of self-reference is diminished and the burdens of normal vexations have tem­porarily vanished.

There are progressively deeper states of this second stage. When you enter a state in which the environment is you sitting, the environment may become infinite and boundless, bringing about a state of oneness with the universe. The whole world is your body sitting there. Time passes quickly and space is limitless. You are not caught up in the particulars of the environ­ment. There is just openness of mind, clarity, and a sense of the infinite. This is not yet the realiza­tion of no-self; it is the experience of great self.

At this point, three subtler experiences may occur, all related to the sense of great self. The first is infinite light. The light is you, and you experience a sense of oneness, infinity, and clarity.

The second experience is infinite sound. This is not the sound of cars, dogs, or something simi­lar. Nor is it like music or anything else you have ever heard. It is a primordial, elemental sound that is one with the experience of vastness. It is harmonious in all places, without reference or attribution.

The third experience is voidness. But this is not the emptiness of self-nature or of no-self that would constitute enlightenment. This is a spacious voidness in which there is nothing but the pure vastness of space. Although you do not experience a sense of self, a subtle form of self and object still exists.

These progressively deeper states are all related to samadhi states. When you emerge from them, you must try not to think about them anymore because they are quite alluring. Say to yourself, “This state is ordinary; it’s not it.” Otherwise, it will lead to another form of attachment.

You might be in the initial phase of the second stage of silent illumination for a few minutes or a few months. During this time, nothing obstructs you—when you are sitting, you feel the environ­ment is you, sitting; when you are walking about, you feel connected with the environment. In the later phase of the second stage, you may even think you are enlightened because the deeper levels of oneness are so profound. Practitioners sometimes think they have suddenly become smarter or understood all the scriptures.

All these states of clarity are wonderful; they give you a strong conviction in the usefulness of buddhadharma and the possibility of a state free from vexations. However, they still do not repre­sent the clarity of the third stage—the realization of silent illumination. Become attached to any of these states and you will be further from them. All of them must be let go.

NO-SELF, NO-MIND
The clarity of the second stage is like looking through a spotless window. You can see through it very well, almost as if the window were not there, but it is there. In the second stage, the self lies dormant but subtle self-grasping is present. In other words, seeing through a window, even a very clean one, is not the same as seeing through no window at all. Seeing through no window is one way of describing the state of enlighten­ment, which is the third stage. In utter clarity, the mind is unmoving. Why? Because there is no self-referential mind.

By practicing in this way, our life gradually becomes completely integrated with wisdom and compassion, and even traces of “enlighten­ment” vanish. We are able to offer ourselves to everyone, like a lighthouse, helping all those who come our way, responding to their needs with­out contrivance.
The third stage of silent illumination is the realization of quiescence and wakefulness, still­ness and awareness, samadhi and prajna, all of which are different ways to describe mind’s natural state. Experiencing it for the first time is like suddenly dropping a thousand pounds from your shoulders—the heavy burdens of self-attachment, vexations, and habitual tendencies. Prior to that, you may not know exactly what self-attachment or vexations are. But once you are free from them, you clearly recognize them.

Self-attachment, vexations, and habitual ten­dencies run deep. So practitioners must work hard to experience enlightenment again and again until they can simply rest in mind’s natural state. The key is to practice diligently but seek no results.

By practicing in this way, our life gradually becomes completely integrated with wisdom and compassion, and even traces of “enlighten­ment” vanish. We are able to offer ourselves to everyone, like a lighthouse, helping all those who come our way, responding to their needs with­out contrivance. This is the perfection of silent illumination.

You might ask, “I’ve been practicing for ten years now—exactly when is this going to hap­pen to me?” The difference between delusion and enlightenment is only a moment away. In an instant, you can be free from the constructs of your identity and see through the veil of your fabrications.

Remember that practice is much more than following a particular method or going through stages on a path. Practice is life and all of its “furniture.” Practice helps us see the room and not attach to the furniture. Enlightenment is not something special—it is the natural freedom of this moment, here and now, unstained by our fabrications.