DO AS YOU WOULD BE DONE
Ethics is the highest science,
concerning itself with survival,
not merely knowall.
A man without Ethics,
ever thinking
never seeing,
is already drowning;
ever sinking
ever lower
in his diminishing
sea of being.
A man without Ethics,
ever thinking
never seeing,
is already drowning;
ever sinking
ever lower
in his diminishing
sea of being.
New Project: SUFFERING
What has struck me during this project is that karma is really an instant thing rather than something subject to time. This fits in with the image of the Centre with the different tentacles emerging. As a tentacle emerges from the Centre and looks around, it doesn't see just nothingness - it sees other tentacles looking back at it. If it were to attack another tentacle then it would experience being attacked by others instantly.
ReplyDeleteThe Buddha says "mind comes first." This gives the clue to the need for constant vigilance. Once one has allowed the negative or impure thought in, one becomes that thought, or one is dragged down to that thought's level. This also works the other way. If one fosters positive and pure thoughts, one may be in a dirty or dangerous place, but one is able to pass through it uncontaminated.
ReplyDeleteThe sun shines in a bucket of water, but doesn't get wet...
Cause and effect, sow and be reaped, is one of the most fundamental principles. As such, it should form the fundament for everything we do; we should be aware of it before making any decisions or taking any action. People in today’s world ARE aware of cause and effect but, as with so much in modern life, they are aware of it as an add-on. This means that a scientist can carry out an experiment on animals to see what effect it will have, fully aware of the concept within his particular band, but completely unaware of all the other ramifications. It means that a politician can decide to drop a bomb on somebody or somewhere, fully aware of the devastation it will wreak but unaware of the bigger picture.
ReplyDeleteAnd I? Perhaps I am more aware than many, but not fully. Which makes one wonder - if I, with my background and surroundings, cannot 100% be governed by FULL awareness of this fundamental law, what chance do others have?
Pride came before The Fall
ReplyDeletePerhaps
That says it all.
The Project states a Universal Law: while we are subject to cause and effect, we pay our debts “to the last farthing.”
This law operates on the individual level, the family level, the community level, the national level, and so on.
It is absolutely Just, because we are our own Judge and Jury. For example, if you knowingly tell a lie, your conscience will not exonerate you until you tell the truth. Confession, they say, is good for the soul.
The problem seeds are sown by Ego. If we forget our true identity, there is bound to be error in thought/word/deed; and each error has its appropriate consequences.
The parable of the wise and foolish virgins high-lights this. The five who were prepared and up-to-date went to Heaven; the five who were negligent were shut out.
Gardener Giles strolls through the gate
ReplyDeletethat leads into his vegetable field.
He’s come to check and calculate
this year’s harvest’s monster yield.
He surveys the scene and his face sours,
seeing a few islands of kitchen veggies,
lost in a sea of purple flowers
among leaves with sharp prickles at their edges.
His garden seems to have lost the plot.
Weather, sabotage or rain?
He’ll have to plough over the whole damned lot
and start all over again.
Glancing in the mirror by his cottage door,
Giles gives a long low whistle.
The angry face stares back at him
of a purple and prickly thistle.
Jesus said, "As you sow, so shall you reap," or words to that effect. One can see the logic of cause and effect behind this, however it does also suggest a degree of separatism, and of past and future.
ReplyDeleteWhen one considers that "As you sow, so ARE you reaped," it is very clear that what I do to others I am actually doing to me - now. And of course one knows this, which is why one has a stab of conscience when one does something bad to another - one is feeling the pain oneself. Likewise, when one does something good for another, one feels the happiness that comes from that act. Jesus also said, "Give, and it shall be given to you," which at first may not make sense - surely if I give him my apple, I no longer have an apple. But as I give, so am I given to. And as I take, so am I taken from.
Careless seeds,
ReplyDeleteSown without heed,
In time leads,
To lots of weeds.
Now...is what it is,
Acceptance, conscience,
Happiness, gratitude,
Presence.
WAITING
ReplyDeleteI’m in bed, in a hospital ward, the only things I’m aware of are my thoughts. My head is aching because there are so many of them – or maybe that’s because I’ve a piece of shrapnel embedded in my skull. Anyway it doesn’t matter, I’ll die anyway – now having only one leg. The doctors are doing their best to stem the bleeding, but there is no time nor the resources. I know it’s inevitable.
No one can beat death, death is like a river that never dries up. You may dam it for a few years, decades, but in the end it finds the weak-point and breaks through suddenly. Or it gently starts to overflow and gets to you and drowns you. I am drowning. Slowly but surely, I am drowning.
This is war – not the beating of the drums, the flying of the flag. War is the futile struggle of harmony and order, the mourning of families, war is Death in a mask. The mask of a jovial schoolmaster egging you on, that boy in the poster on your street, holding a rifle and beckoning you in. And we believed them, we believed their lies of glory and honour.
They didn’t tell us of the trenches where we would be standing knee deep in mud – our feet slowly rotting away. Of the images of limbless bodies and lifeless corpses. And the scariest thing of all is you don’t know if you’re sane or not. The endless explosions and blinding light – it’s hard to keep your sanity.
It’s one of the most precious things out here – keeping a straight head. It’s one of the key things for survival. Of course that doesn’t matter anymore.
I got used to it pretty quickly – the conditions, death, the feeling of being detached from the real world. It is the only world I know now. Not for much longer.
I wonder what’s next ?
Virtue is its own reward.
ReplyDelete“He who kills the fly, must fear the spider’s wrath”.
What you do to others gets done to you.
“One and not two
That’s all you have to do.”
All is one.
The seed and we are one.
The above statements show how the project works and how absolutely perfect it is. So we had better be careful with our thoughts (thinking), speech and action.
During this Project I met someone who had tried to commit suicide two weeks before. It hadn't been a premeditated attempt; she found herself feeling very depressed and seeking oblivion, took four days of her daily medication of pain killers and tranquillisers all at once, resulting in one night in hospital to sleep it off and being released the next morning.
ReplyDeleteThis person was known for her generosity and good deeds. I asked her why, with a lifetime of doing good to her credit, she wasn't happy?
It took her only a moment to answer, “I've lost my pin number to happiness”…
The awareness of the Project and this meeting illuminated a story told by the Buddha about a sack of rice. The sack represented one’s morality (sila) and the contents - one’s good deeds (dana). The parable’s lesson is that the merit of wholesome actions (‘doing good’) seeps away if not protected by perfect morality (stopping unwholesome actions). Also, ‘holes’ need identified and stitched up or mended in some way. This is the equivalent of putting things right or putting up with the consequences (not reacting negatively and creating more ‘holes’…).
This reaping of an uncultivated garden (an uncontrolled mind) is the result of sowing a mix of wholesome and unwholesome deeds (and not knowing how to cultivate the mind). It is particularly noticeable in older people.
Many seem to have lost the ‘pin number’ to happiness. Perhaps the pin number being 'stopping doing to others what you would not like done to you'?
You can see the reaper in the eyes of people you meet. A reflection of the things you have sown.
ReplyDeleteNothing is really hidden against the balance of the universe. And at the end, nothing is hidden, in the final reckoning of a life. Day to day, the centre is your guide.