THINK.

The Labyrinth is made of Think. (Who built it?)  Ariadne's thread enables you to explore it safely.  What is the thread?  (If Ariadne's name was Sophia, what would it mean?)  Who or what is the Minotaur that lurks in the Labyrinth waiting for its annual sacrifice of seven young men and seven young women?  Who were its parents?  Why?

The River carries debris, dead animals, sewage, messages in bottles, courting couples in bath-tubs, other people's treasures, yesterday's memories, tomorrow's plans, everyday's fantasies.  The flow of Think is endless, ever-changing, always the same.  It is different from the flow of the river, though in exactly the same place.

NEW PROJECT: FREEDOM TO OR FREEDOM FROM?

IN-TRAY/OUT-TRAY

Entries into the in-tray should be cleared immediately or as soon as possible. If not, they build up and one's whole life becomes unbalanced and out of the present moment (which is where one actually lives). Even when the company folds, your desk goes with the rest of the furniture to auction and the office is demolished to make room for a motorway, your in-tray accompanies with all its contents, eternally waiting to be cleared.

NEW PROJECT: THINK

Think is interesting

Think is knowing

Think is funny

Think is painful

Think is boring

Think is difficult to control.

Speech is Think.

Think is not thing

Think is not seeing

Think is not hearing

Think is not smelling

Think is not tasting

Think is not feeling

Think is not doing

Think is not understanding.

What (or who) is Think?

Who (or what) controls Think?

SAMMĀ SAMĀDHI (RIGHT CONCENTRATION)

Right Concentration specifically produces Happiness.

Suffering is embedded in every aspect of the Sangsara.  The Sangsara is our world (and all other worlds).  It is life itself.  Everywhere, beings are being born into circumstances they don't want.  They are growing old (which they don't want).  They are sick (which they don't want).  They are dying (which they only want if they think it will be better than being alive).

When a man concentrates the mind successfully on a single wholesome object, he deliberately withdraws his attention from his physical link with our world.  He does not see, hear, smell, taste or touch the world.  It therefore does not cause him physical pain while he is in this state of 100% concentration.  Because he does not see, hear smell, taste or touch, there is no point of contact with external things and therefore no feelings arise.  So feelings cannot cause him pain.  Because his mind is fixed on a single object, he makes no contact with the outside world at the mind sense door.  He does not contact thoughts or memories or mental images with the mind.  So these things cannot trouble him and cause him pain.

He finds himself, consciously, in a state which is absolutely free from pain, discomfort or any kind of suffering, whether mental or physical.  Absence of suffering is the beginning of Eternal Happiness.

Therefore; Right Concentration specifically produces Happiness.

NEW PROJECT: In-tray / Out-tray

SAMMĀ SATI (RIGHT MINDFULNESS)

  Behold,

  You Inheritors of Immortal Bliss!

  Now is Here!

  And This

  Is All there Is!

New Project: RIGHT CONCENTRATION

Samādhi (sam + ā + dhā): "the (mental) state of being firmly fixed". The fixing of the mind on a single object. Concentration is right or wrong in so far as it is associated with wholesome or unwholesome states of consciousness.

SAMMĀ VĀYĀMA (RIGHT EFFORT)

RIGHT EFFORT: Effort is energy deliberately directed in a certain direction.  It can be physical; the effort to push a broken down car: or mental: the effort to learn multiplication tables.  If the effort is successful, the aim of the action is achieved (the car is moved, the tables are learned).  A successful action is not necessarily a right action: “when the bomb exploded it killed everyone in the shop”.  Nor is an effort necessarily a right effort; “an effort was made to beak the Jewellers’ shop window”.

Right Effort is an effort that has a wholesome action as its goal.

A wholesome action is an action that does not cause suffering to other living beings.  Experimentation on animals is unwholesome action irrespective of the motivation.  Wholesome actions arise from wholesome thoughts.

Efforts to empty the mind of unwholesome thoughts and feelings constitute Right Effort.  Negative thoughts and feelings include cruelty, jealousy, envy, hatred, anger, ill will and even laziness.  Positive thoughts and feelings are those that are directed towards the happiness and well-being of others and oneself and also energy, determination and courage.

Mettā shines;

the cancerous growths

which cling to the living cells

of the Children of Light

shrivel into powdery dust.

New Project: MINDFULNESS

JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE

If you have nothing better to do, there is no reason not to do what you are doing. 

If you have got something better to do, then there is no reason not to be doing it.


  The splendour of a hundred kings
  fades like the bloom on a butterfly’s wings.
  The meanest flower that blows
  goes the same way the forest goes.

  All is consumed by worm or fire;
  nothing needs building any higher.
  The rattling of teeth within the jaw
  mocks the tongue murmuring:

  “Please, some more!”


New Project :  SAMMĀ VĀYĀMA (RIGHT EFFORT)

SAMMĀ ĀJIVA (RIGHT LIVELIHOOD)

RIGHT LIVELIHOOD

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor
Everyman is his own gaoler;
shuts the door and turns the key,
ends up where he wants to be,
looking at what he needs to see
- you for you and me for me.


Right Livelihood supports your Life. 

Working for a living may take up most of your working day. 

Would you do it if you didn't have to?  It involves sacrifice.  Is the life you lead worth that sacrifice?  

What are you working for? 

What is the purpose of the work you do to earn food, clothing and shelter and the other things you consider necessities?

Are you working in order to go to work?  

What is the purpose of your life?

    Walt Disney lies in a deep, deep freeze
    Like a packet of Smedley's frozen peas.


New Project: Justify your Existence

SAMMĀ KAMMANTA (RIGHT ACTION)

RIGHT ACTION

When you throw yourself
down from the top of high mountains,
the Earth does not take you
into her arms
and comfort you.

When you kneel
and kiss the ground,
the Earth does not praise
your humility.

It is for this reason
that she is called
‘The Great Mother’.

Every moment
is a fork in the road.
And every fork
is always the same:
the choice between right and wrong.

The wrong is always
arrogating to oneself
things which do not belong
to oneself.

The right is always
following the Light.


        *  *  *


Time drifts away
as mist fades on mountain.
The world itself is hardly more substantial.
Living water springs
from life’s fountain
yet it runs dry,
leaving powdering bones
bleaching in the sun.

Molecules of arm and leg and brain
are rebels and would all be free again.
The whole pageant of our days and hours
runs only till we lose our feeble powers.

As children we play out our days
with sandcastles and fantasies
until the turning tides erase
what we work so hard to raise,
struggle to protect and call our own –
fragments of things, at very best, on loan.

Upwards our thoughts might usefully aspire;
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.



New Project: SAMMĀ ĀJIVA (RIGHT LIVELIHOOD)