I notice two side of enlightenment. One is a sudden flash of knowing, the Zen Satori, as the Japanese call it. I imagine everyone experiences this to one degree or another, at various time throughout life. I’d say it is almost guaranteed; one’s awareness has to fall from their fortress of belief every once in a while.
The other side of enlightenment, as I see it, is sustained knowing. Here impartiality is essential. It might even be the key to sustain knowing in the first place. In any case, without sufficient impartiality, see the “whole” would drive one insane I expect. Impartiality opens the window of awareness wider; the wider the widow the more awe full the view; the more essential impartiality becomes to maintaining sanity. Continue reading ‘So, You Want Enlightenment, Eh?’
The November issue of Science News, Beyond Spooky, was dedicated to “quantum weirdness”, as they put it. I have long had deep affection for this side of physics. Frankly though, the weirder thing for me is how, despite nature’s hoodwink, it is possible to see more than just the tip-of-the-iceberg of reality. Biology requires living things to perceive reality in such a way that promotes survival and evolution. I can’t imagine any biological reason why any living thing would be able to perceive more than that, but living things can and do as humans have demonstrated (and I suspect, all living things at some level). Continue reading ‘Beyond Spooky’
I never ever use the word exquisite, but this morning while standing on my head I thought, “How exquisite this moment of perfect balance feels”.
I went on considering other facets of life: work, eating, speaking, shopping, etc. In all cases balance is possible, but is often only partial and so, seldom exquisite. Why? It is such a wonderful sensation!
One clue is impartiality, another aspect of balance, and as we know… Continue reading ‘Exquisite Balance’
I’ve noticed over the years that there’s always something ‘wrong’, no matter how ‘right’ things seem at first. There is a seemingly endless supply of issues to fret over. After we resolve the pressing life and death issues, you’d think we could relax and appreciate that success. Alas, no sooner one problem is solved, we find another to fret over. Continue reading ‘The Worry Gene’
Chapter 65 begins with, ‘Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them’. Initially, I thought ‘of old those‘ were people, e.g., parents, politicians, preachers. On the other hand, ‘those‘ people seem often ‘hoodwinked’ by their own hoodwink. I now consider ’of old those‘ as pointing more to Nature itself. What is more ‘of old‘ than Nature? Nature, and her co-conspirator biology, hoodwinks living things to do their living.
Fishing gives a good example of the hoodwinking process, and clues on how to avoid being hooked. We’ve all heard stories of that big old lake bass that no fisherman could hook. Isn’t that old fish, the fish who quickly ‘gets it’? Once bitten, twice shy, as they say; the fish that soon sees the bait as hoodwink learns to avoid it. The dead fish is the fish forever hopeful that its desire will be fulfilled. Continue reading ‘How the Hoodwink Hooks’
A magazine's back cover c.1945
Today is my 67th year here on earth. The picture is a magazine’s back cover of me, at a lake in Arizona, in my birthday suit(1). From then until today, fate has been fortunate; I should have bitten the dust quite a few times by now. (I wrote about the first time in the blog Suicide Just Doesn’t Work.) As to my health, wealth and family, I couldn’t ask for more. Indeed, there are so many things to be happy for on this birthday, and every day. Don’t worry though, I’ll find a problem somewhere it that. Hmm, let me see… Continue reading ‘Keeping Birthday Happy’
NotTheConstant Name and I have been knocking about in ‘what is the tao‘ a little, which is always great fun. I woke up following a pleasant Saturday afternoon siesta reflecting on the best ‘way’ (road, principle, speak, think) to approach life.
Why this endless debate over the best way to approach life – what to do, and how to do it? The first thing I notice is how it draws those of like-mind together and pushes those of unlike-mind apart. It seems we are driven to project our own preferences and inclinations onto others. This keeps the social pot stirred, so to speak. No doubt our social-tribal instinct is pulling off this bio-hoodwink(1) Continue reading ‘The best tao? (road, way, principle, speak, think)’
Life evolved to perceive its surroundings in a way that promotes survival in a competitive environment. In animals with a nervous system, neurons fire, on and off. It is little wonder that we therefore see reality in an on-off light. This simple on-off process underpins our perception of what we call good-evil, yin-yang, life-death, active-passive, go-stop, hot-cold, up-down, before-after, hard-soft, heaven-hell, male-female, and what have you. Continue reading ‘Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink’
Enlightenment may be more illusion than real. Not that it isn’t ‘real’, mind you. After all just as Something and Nothing produce each other, so do ignorance and enlightenment. So, what does enlightenment correlate to anyway, ‘Something’ or ‘Nothing’?
If you see it as ‘Something’, then it correlates to obvious, bright, light, life, full, sudden, special, etc. If you see enlightenment as ‘Nothing’, then it correlates to mystery upon mystery, darkly visible, death, stillness, emptiness, perpetuity, impartiality, the constant, and such. Thus, by expecting enlightenment to be ‘Something’, you will miss it… if it is indeed ‘Nothing‘.
Continue reading ‘Is Enlightenment Something or ???’
Recent Comments by Post