A human identifies with the body. Therefore thinks and remembers as a person with a story. Memory is believed in and personal projections obscure the reality of emptiness and change. This causes suffering. This limited state of egoic consciousness causes all the trouble, confusion and violence in the world.
A Human UPSTREAMS this limited state of identification with the body through direct experience of its true nature of change and not-self. Empty awareness within which all phenomenon rise and fall, sees this Truth: "No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man."
When you remove the labels from a place, and any preconceived ideas about it, what is left? If I have come from there to here, surely that's just more labelling and one needs to upstream and discover that one hasn't come or gone anywhere.
No place. No one comes to any place. Upstream, it is always here and now, one does not want to distinguish. Only the conditioned mind distinguishes thus 'outside places' are dukkha.
Where do I go? Places I know? What will I do where I will go? Am I ready to go and to show? Who I am and what I know Who shall I be in this place I will go? I know! NOTHING! I know!
A man can go into a crowded room, and be alone. Or he can go to an open empty space, and be plagued by the contents of his mind.
Thus for Mephistopheles - "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it". And the Buddha was unaware of a thunder storm while walking mediation.
When you go to a place, you carry your karma on your back, And you are surrounded by mirrors which provide perfect reflections - updated every moment...
Three men came to a level expanse of mown green grass. One carried a tennis racquet, one a cricket bat and the third a football. They looked with approval at the grass and suspiciously at each other. “What does that sign say”, asked one. NO BALL GAMES. “That’s not very helpful. But, hang on, what’s that little green notice over there?” KEEP OFF THE GRASS.
Man's tendency to label things in ever increasing detail ensnares him in this world and blinkers his vision so that he can't see the wood for the trees. Thus he sees himself as separate from other men and indeed other beings, which often results in his mistreatment of them. He forgets that 1+1=1. Upstream of these never-ending labels there is oneness, and upstream of this existence there isn't even that.
This project has been a useful reminder not to get distracted by labels, to upstream to the Centre and to try to understand what, if anything, is left after +1 meets -1.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” Heraclitus.
ReplyDeleteA human identifies with the body. Therefore thinks and remembers as a person with a story. Memory is believed in and personal projections obscure the reality of emptiness and change. This causes suffering. This limited state of egoic consciousness causes all the trouble, confusion and violence in the world.
DeleteA Human UPSTREAMS this limited state of identification with the body through direct experience of its true nature of change and not-self. Empty awareness within which all phenomenon rise and fall, sees this Truth: "No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man."
When you remove the labels from a place, and any preconceived ideas about it, what is left? If I have come from there to here, surely that's just more labelling and one needs to upstream and discover that one hasn't come or gone anywhere.
ReplyDeleteOne just is. There is no place.
No place. No one comes to any place. Upstream, it is always here and now, one does not want to distinguish. Only the conditioned mind distinguishes thus 'outside places' are dukkha.
ReplyDeleteWhere do I go? Places I know?
ReplyDeleteWhat will I do where I will go?
Am I ready to go and to show?
Who I am and what I know
Who shall I be in this place I will go?
I know!
NOTHING!
I know!
A man can go into a crowded room, and be alone.
Or he can go to an open empty space, and be plagued by the contents of his mind.
Thus for Mephistopheles - "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it".
And the Buddha was unaware of a thunder storm while walking mediation.
When you go to a place, you carry your karma on your back,
And you are surrounded by mirrors which provide perfect reflections - updated every moment...
Three men came to a level expanse of mown green grass. One carried a tennis racquet, one a cricket bat and the third a football. They looked with approval at the grass and suspiciously at each other.
ReplyDelete“What does that sign say”, asked one.
NO BALL GAMES.
“That’s not very helpful. But, hang on, what’s that little green notice over there?”
KEEP OFF THE GRASS.
As I hang up the washing,
ReplyDeleteI hear the cry of a buzzard overhead
And the honking of geese down by the river
And the song of a robin in a nearby tree.
And the bark of the dog next door.
I see swallows soaring through the air
And a magpie taking a bath in a puddle
On top of the trailer….happily.
As I walk to the front door
Empty basket under my arm,
The sun comes out
And butterflies and bees flit from flower to flower.
He is eight years old,
ReplyDeletesitting up the garden.
He has surrounded himself
with a barricade of pieces of wood.
What are you doing?
I’m trying to figure out
How to escape.
Man's tendency to label things in ever increasing detail ensnares him in this world and blinkers his vision so that he can't see the wood for the trees. Thus he sees himself as separate from other men and indeed other beings, which often results in his mistreatment of them. He forgets that 1+1=1. Upstream of these never-ending labels there is oneness, and upstream of this existence there isn't even that.
ReplyDeleteThis project has been a useful reminder not to get distracted by labels, to upstream to the Centre and to try to understand what, if anything, is left after +1 meets -1.
Wu-Kih sit and do his sum.
ReplyDeleteOne plus one it equal one.
He know it no equal two,
If there is no me, no you!
Satisfied, him turn the page.
Master write a sum so sage,
Which say one plus one is one -
Actually it equal none!
Wu-Kih smile and nod his head.
'Velly, velly good!' him said.
'If all universe is one,
Then my work here it is done!'
Then him turn the page once more.
Eyes like saucers when he saw
Master put new sum with bracket!
Wu-Kih cry, 'I cannot hack it!'
Shuffle off his yellow cloak.
Brain go pfft! in puff of smoke.
Thus Wu-Kih he no Wu-Kih.
Closing bracket, now he see!
A Comment from the Bible in light of current Project 'WHEN YOU COME TO A PLACE, WHAT PLACE DO YOU COME TO?'
ReplyDelete"Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head."
Out true Home
is not a place
in time or space.
Not bound by form
nor fettered by face.
The journey of a thousand steps
begins with a first step back
to where we came from.
When the foot disappears
how can there be a journey?
No arrival. No departure.
One Centre in all,
all in One Centre.
When we come to a place,
ReplyDeleteThe place we come to
Is always here and now.
Only those who live in the here and now
Can truly be happy
In every place they come to.
Only those who are truly happy
Can make the most of the places
That they come to,
Of the here and now.
Oh you, mortal one.
ReplyDeleteYou come to this place.
Is it a place of fun?
Or,
Is it a place where
Once born, Death will not spare
Anyone?
And,
Between rising and falling,
Much futile doing.
But all is not lost. There will be a point where
The exit is there
Waiting for you.
As a place is viewed,
ReplyDeleteSo it appears:
Any place you come to
Reflects only you.
We’ve known this for years.
And yet,
We forget:
And criticise space for not fitting in
With our own kind of face.
Enough of such stuff!
Just see what is there.
Let your mind be a world
That all beings can share.
The going, through space
ReplyDeleteThe going, through time
The central reference
remains.
Arriving at a place
Centre on the here
Which is where the now
lives.