New Project: NOAH (KNOWING)
Time drifts away,
as mist fades on the mountain.
The world itself is hardly more substantial.
The living water springing
from life’s fountain runs dry,
leaving discarded bones
bleaching in the sun.
as mist fades on the mountain.
The world itself is hardly more substantial.
The living water springing
from life’s fountain runs dry,
leaving discarded bones
bleaching in the sun.
Molecules of arms and legs and brain
are rebels all and would be free again
and the whole pageant of our days and hours
runs only till we lose our feeble powers.
are rebels all and would be free again
and the whole pageant of our days and hours
runs only till we lose our feeble powers.
We are children playing out our days
with sandcastles and fantasies
until the turning of the tide slides in to erase
what we have worked so hard to raise,
struggled to protect and called our own –
fragments of things, at very best on loan.
with sandcastles and fantasies
until the turning of the tide slides in to erase
what we have worked so hard to raise,
struggled to protect and called our own –
fragments of things, at very best on loan.
Upward our thoughts might usefully aspire;
nothing down here needs building any higher.
nothing down here needs building any higher.
Deal justly with your neighbour
and make of him your friend
and, in your inner garden, labour
until you reach your end.
and make of him your friend
and, in your inner garden, labour
until you reach your end.
NOAH's ark is the vehicle we use to escape* from suffering. The flood is the culmination of suffering. It symbolises the urgency of escape, like the image of a burning house.
ReplyDeleteNOAH, the mind**, needs to know what is needed on the journey away from suffering, steering, navigating through the extreme flood.
On the ark you only take what is really necessary, as the ark and all things are impermanent. They are extremely helpful and important on the way, so you should treat them with care, as they will serve you until the end.
Knowing the Four Noble Truths, knowing the the way, NOAH can navigate relatively safely, despite the great dangers of the flood.
His responsibility is to get all beings on the ark out of the danger zone.
What NOAH also needs to know is that he has to be ready to let go of everything completely, everything on his ark, even his name, his so-called individuality, if he wants the journey to end well.
May he navigate well, as he has to lead as many beings out of suffering as possible.
*Yes, escape = no escape, and yet the image serves its purpose well.
**Referring to an individual, the ark could also be compared to the body and NOAH to the mind.
Further comment: If the eyes and the other organs of perception, including the brain, stop and decay, why should one hold on to anything perceived through them?
DeleteThe Ark is a metaphor for Oneself. It is built internally. The blueprint is the Noble Eightfold Path. Constant watchfulness is required as one should be following it at every moment. And Why? Because ALL is suffering and one does not want rebirth in this material world.
ReplyDelete1. If Oneself is the Ark. Who is the builder?
Delete2. ALL is not suffering in itself. (Think of all the good times). The good times could only be called “suffering” in the sense that they are impermanent and that makes them an unsatisfactory part of the triad.
In the story God told Noah to build an Ark to keep him safe from the great flood that was coming.
ReplyDeleteToday, the world is flooded with the great danger of insane behaviour being accepted as the norm in all levels of society. Life in its many forms on Earth is being threatened with extinction unless humans change the way they act. We don't need a God to tell us what is obvious in the mad world today (yet only seen by a few) and know that the action that needs to be taken is to stop causing suffering to Life before it is too late.
The Ark kept Noah safe. The Ark could be considered to be what kind of Life one builds for oneself and needs the safety of a moral compass. Basic Ethics - not doing to other living beings what I would not want done to me.
This enables a direct route back to the Centre. The Centre does not harm its tentacles. With this understanding one is in a position to see that the cause of madness in the world is separatism (Ego). Desire fades to explore going further out into the labyrinthine world and one looks inwards to free the mind from identification with its human form and feelings (non-self, impermanent and unsatisfactory) and the cause of rebirth in unsatisfactory realms.
One is now free to choose to mould thoughts, speech and actions from seeing the Truth and by awareness and investigation develop understanding that changes one! One could be a deva, or a Brahma, or attain one of the four stages of sainthood or enter the Centre forever.
The safety of an Ark with a moral compass is what is needed in the world and is the foundation to escape from the world.
"Who would purify their world first purifies their mind,
As the mind becomes pure, their world becomes pure."
-Buddha
If one sees that one could be all of this, one should wisely choose not to attain anything less than the four stages. Anything less is very dangerous as one could fall ...
DeleteThank you. Noah used trees and planks for his Ark and a sufficient amount of work each day to meet his "deadline". What are your "trees and planks" and how much time do you spend on "construction"?
ReplyDeleteThe flood is already there (see the first comment). One strong tree is used - the tree of life.
DeleteThe planks are taken from the tree of knowledge. It has enough branches to be used here. Since we brought ourselves in trouble choosing the tree of knowledge, it has to serve to get out of that mess.
The inner framework is ethics.
As time is movement in space, we have to take care of the Ark and the beings on it as long as we are there and move in space.
The better the Ark, the more beings we can save.
M
The Buddha's first words after Enlightenment:
ReplyDeleteSeeking but not finding the house builder,
I travelled through the roads of countless births:
Oh, painful is birth ever and again.
House builder, you have been seen:
You shall not build the home again.
Your rafters have been broken down;
Your ridge pole is demolished too.
My mind is now attained to unformed Nibbana
And reached the end of every kind of craving.
Comment on Project NOAH (Knowing):
ReplyDeleteKARMA
EITHER:
(a) You are in charge in the Present OR
(b) You are being driven in the Present by the momentum of the Past.
If (a) you are in charge of your Future in the Present (at Cause) OR
If (b) the Past is in control of your Future in the Present (at Effect).