Keichu, the great Zen teacher of the Meiji era, was the head of Tofuku, a cathedral in Kyoto. One day the governor of Kyoto called upon him for the first time.
His attendant presented the card of the governor, which read: Kitagaki, Governor of Kyoto.
“I have no business with such a fellow,” said Keichu to his attendant. “Tell him to get out of here.”The attendant carried the card back with apologies. “That was my error,” said the governor, and with a pencil he scratched out the words Governor of Kyoto. “Ask your teacher again.”
“Oh, is that Kitagaki?” exclaimed the teacher when he saw the card. “I want to see that fellow.”

Some Zen stories, like koans, take a while to digest fully. Often, after I read a story I have to sit with it in my daily meditation practice and think about it for a while until its meaning gradually appears. If I’m having difficulty I search my bookshelves for a commentary to see how others have responded. While I do this I keep the story in the back of my mind as I go about my daily chores and activities. Doing this, the story becomes the context for my life and my practice. I become aware of how my understanding of things changes as the story slowly sinks to deeper levels of my consciousness.
But when I read this story I immediately said, “Yes, that’s right.” And so, without any further contemplation I’d like to offer my initial thoughts on Keichu’s remarks to his attendant. Perhaps when you read the story you had an initial reaction as well. If you did, I invite you to share it with the readers of this blog.

When I read the story I realized that I always have a few business cards in my wallet. I have two kinds: one for my day job as an owner of a bookstore and one for my other job as a priest in a Zen sangha. But of course, I have many other titles for which I have no cards that I use all the time: father, husband, friend, boss, and so on. All of these titles come from a sense of “I” that stands out in relief only in contrast to some “other.” In Opening the Hand of Thought, Uchiyama Roshi offers a simple diagram to illustrate this.

He goes on to say that we wear these distinctions like clothes, forgetting that we come into this world naked and poor and leave this world naked and poor (Rousseau in Emile). We concern ourselves only with the clothes we wear in our lives—the self that is determined from outside in opposition to others. He warns us that to rely on external circumstances is to be unstable as these change constantly. He concludes that we can’t find true peace of mind until we live out the reality of the life of the self, since the foundation of the self is only the self.

I am reminded of the seventeenth century Zen master, Bankei who directed his students to identify with Buddha nature, which he called the Unborn or Fu-shō. He told his students, you have received the Buddha-mind from your mothers when you were born, and nothing else. This inherited Buddha-mind is beyond any doubt unborn, with a marvelously bright illuminative wisdom. He told his students “to abide as the unborn,” to “not get born.” Don’t become anything—not a “me” nor a “Buddhist,” nor “enlightened.” Buddha Nature has existed from beginningless time, before there were any external circumstances with which to identify.

Bankei was an expert in showing people how to make contact with the life that exists before it is defined by relationships to external conditions. No matter how a person would define himself, Bankei would ask, “what were you before you became [that].” I remember reading that a student once asked Phillip Kapleau if a Jew could be a Zen Buddhist. Kapleau responded, “What were you before you were a Jew?”

And so, this morning I ask myself is there a way for me to go about my day without any titles, without exchanging business cards with the people I meet. The Dalai Lama often says that he is just a simple monk. Can I walk down the street with the sense that I am just a simple human being. Or maybe even that is too much. Maybe I should just walk down the street. As Suzuki Roshi once told a student at Sokoji, “Just to be alive is enough.”

Bows,
Stephen

April 6 2013 Shaolin Qigong Tai Chi special 2 hr Workshop in Vancouver, BC

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April 14 2013 Complete Shaolin Series Workshop Special 2hr Workshop

Carpe Diem #153 : Haru Ta (spring paddy fields)

travel book falls open

haru ta, spring paddy fields

Bali farmers sweat

armchair traveller

nowhere to go, money saved

the world comes to me

It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a
lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.

Joshu

A SISYPHEAN TASK

In Greek mythology Sisyphus (pron.: /sɪsɪfəs/; Greek : Σίσυφος,Sísyphos) was a king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth) punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.

King Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce but was avaricious and deceitful, committing many crimes,  not only against mortals, but also against the gods, even deceiving Thanatos the god of death. As a punishment for his trickery, King Sisyphus was made to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill. Before he could reach the top, however, the massive stone would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again. The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for King Sisyphus due to his hubristic belief that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus himself. Zeus accordingly displayed his own cleverness by enchanting the boulder into rolling away from King Sisyphus before he reached the top which ended up consigning Sisyphus to an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration. Thus it came to pass that pointless or interminable activities are sometimes described as Sisyphean.

Friedrich Welcker suggested that he symbolizes the vain struggle of man in the pursuit of knowledge. Albert Camus, in his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus, saw Sisyphus as personifying the absurdity of human life, but Camus concludes “one must imagine Sisyphus happy” as “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.”

Maybe Camus  was referring to the happiness of our Western philosophers, in their unstoppable pursuit of eternally “reversing the sock” inwards an outwards!

GILLES DELEUZE

Reversing the sock one more time

Deleuze’s main philosophical project in the works he wrote prior to his collaborations with Guattari can be baldly summarized as a systematic inversion of the traditional metaphysical relationship between identity and difference. Traditionally, difference is seen as derivative from identity: e.g., to say that “X is different from Y” assumes some X and Y with at least relatively stable identities (to name one example: Plato’s forms). To the contrary, Deleuze claims that all identities are effects of difference. Identities are neither logically nor metaphysically prior to difference, Deleuze argues, “given that there exist differences of nature between things of the same genus.” That is, not only are no two things ever the same, the categories we use to identify individuals in the first place derive from differences. Apparent identities such as “X” are composed of endless series of differences, where “X” = “the difference between x and x’”, and “x” = “the difference between…”, and so forth. Difference goes all the way down. To confront reality honestly, Deleuze claims, we must grasp beings exactly as they are, and concepts of identity (forms, categories, resemblances, unities of apperception, predicates, etc.) fail to attain what he calls “difference in itself.” “If philosophy has a positive and direct relation to things, it is only insofar as philosophy claims to grasp the thing itself, according to what it is, in its difference from everything it is not, in other words, in its internal difference.”

Deleuze’s virtual ideas borrows from Plato’s Archetypes but denies it’s transcendence, superficially resemble Plato’s forms and Kant’s ideas of pure reason, they are not originals or models, nor do they transcend possible experience; instead they are the conditions of actual experience, the internal difference in itself. “The concept they [the conditions] form is identical to its object.”A Deleuzean idea or concept of difference is not a ghost-like abstraction of an experienced thing, it is a real system of differential relations that creates actual spaces, times, and sensations. In my opinion a clever Sisyphean cunning to deny the Idealism of his idea, good try although I prefer Plato original Archetypes.

Thus Deleuze, alluding to Kant and Schelling, at times refers to his philosophy as a transcendental empiricism. In Kant’s transcendental idealism, experience only makes sense when organized by forms of sensibility (namely, space and time) and intellectual categories (such as causality). Assuming the content of these forms and categories to be qualities of the world as it exists independently of our perceptual access, according to Kant, spawns seductive but senseless metaphysical beliefs (for example, extending the concept of causality beyond possible experience results in unverifiable speculation about a first cause). Deleuze inverts the Kantian arrangement: experience exceeds our concepts by presenting novelty, and this raw experience of difference actualizes an idea, unfettered by our prior categories, forcing us to invent new ways of thinking. Once more reversing the sock: His Transcendental Empiricism vs. Kant’s Transcendental Idealism, may be considered original by some, repetitive, and in vogue with our politically correct materialism for others …

Univocity

Simultaneously, Deleuze claims that being is univocal, i.e., that all of its senses are affirmed in one voice. Deleuze borrows the doctrine of ontological univocity from the medieval philosopher John Duns Scotus. In medieval disputes over the nature of God, many eminent theologians and philosophers (such as Thomas Aquinas) held that when one says that “God is good”, God’s goodness is only analogous to human goodness. Scotus argued to the contrary that when one says that “God is good”, the goodness in question is exactly the same sort of goodness that is meant when one says “Jane is good”. That is, God only differs from us in degree, and properties such as goodness, power, reason, and so forth are univocally applied, regardless of whether one is talking about God, a person, or a flea. Note the inversion of what is above is equal as to what is below, but nevertheless I agree that is does not matter where you find God, since He is in the flea, and the Transcendent.

Deleuze adapts the doctrine of univocity to claim that being is, univocally, difference. “With univocity, however, it is not the differences which are and must be: it is being which is Difference, in the sense that it is said of difference. Moreover, it is not we who are univocal in a Being which is not; it is we and our individuality which remains equivocal in and for a univocal Being.” Here Deleuze at once echoes and inverts Spinoza, who maintained that everything that exists is a modification of the one substance, God or Nature. For Deleuze, there is no one substance, only an always-differentiating process, an origami cosmos, always folding, unfolding, refolding. Deleuze summarizes this ontology in the paradoxical formula “pluralism = monism” Wahdath al-Wujud (Oneness of Being)

Difference and Repetition is Deleuze’s most sustained and systematic attempt to work out the details of such a metaphysics, but his other works develop similar ideas. In Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962), for example, reality is a play of forces; in Anti-Oedipus (1972), a “body without organs”; in What Is Philosophy? (1991), a “plane of immanence” or “chaosmos”.

Wahdat al-Wujud

Wahdat al-Wujud literally means the “Unity of Existence“. Ibn Arabi is most often characterized in Islamic texts as the originator of the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud, however, this expression is not found in his works and the first who employed this term was perhaps, in fact, the Andalusian mystical thinker Ibn Sabin. Although he frequently makes statements that approximate it, it cannot be claimed that “Oneness of Being” is a sufficient description of his ontology, since he affirms the “manyness of reality” with equal vigor.

In his view, wujūd is the unknowable and inaccessible ground of everything that exists. God alone is true wujūd, while all things dwell in nonexistence, so also wujūd alone is nondelimited (mutlaq), while everything else is constrained, confined, and constricted. Wujūd is the absolute, infinite, nondelimited reality of God, while all others remain relative, finite, and delimited.

But we need to be careful in asserting wujūd’s nondelimitation. This must not be understood to mean that wujūd is different and only different from every delimitation. The Shaykh is quick to point out that wujūd’s nondelimitation demands that it be able to assume every delimitation. If wujūd could not become delimited, it would be limited by its own nondelimitation. Thus “He possesses nondelimitation in delimitation” Or, “God possesses nondelimited wujūd, but no delimitation prevents delimitation. Rather, He possesses all delimitations, so He is nondelimited delimitation, since no single delimitation rather than another rules over Him…. Hence nothing is to be attributed to Him in preference to anything else” . Wujūd must have the power of assuming every delimitation on pain of being limited by those delimitations that it cannot assume. At the same time, it transcends the forms by which it becomes delimited and remains untouched by their constraints.

As you can see Deleuze’s metaphysics is as new, an original as cooked beans, if you consider that the Andalusian mystics precede him by eight-hundred years!

With the added fact that the Andalusian mystic Ibn Arabi wrote volumes on the subject, and the above it is just a very limited view of the theme.

Epistemology

Deleuze’s unusual metaphysics entails an equally atypical epistemology, or what he calls a transformation of “the image of thought”. According to Deleuze, the traditional image of thought, found in philosophers such as Aristotle, Descartes, and Husserl, misconceives of thinking as a mostly unproblematic business. Truth may be hard to discover—it may require a life of pure theorizing, or rigorous computation, or systematic doubt—but thinking is able, at least in principle, to correctly grasp facts, forms, ideas, etc. It may be practically impossible to attain a God’s-eye, neutral point of view, but that is the ideal to approximate: a disinterested pursuit that results in a determinate, fixed truth; an orderly extension of common sense. Deleuze rejects this view as papering over the metaphysical flux, instead claiming that genuine thinking is a violent confrontation with reality, an involuntary rupture of established categories. Truth changes what we think; it alters what we think is possible. By setting aside the assumption that thinking has a natural ability to recognize the truth, Deleuze says, we attain a “thought without image”, a thought always determined by problems rather than solving them. “All this, however, presupposes codes or axioms which do not result by chance, but which do not have an intrinsic rationality either. It’s just like theology: everything about it is quite rational if you accept sin, the immaculate conception, and the incarnation. Reason is always a region carved out of the irrational—not sheltered from the irrational at all, but traversed by it and only defined by a particular kind of relationship among irrational factors. Underneath all reason lies delirium, and drift.”

Zen Buddhism and the Yoga Sutras

Deleuze’s peculiar readings of the history of philosophy stem from this unusual epistemological perspective. To read a philosopher is no longer to aim at finding a single, correct interpretation, but is instead to present a philosopher’s attempt to grapple with the problematic nature of reality. “Philosophers introduce new concepts, they explain them, but they don’t tell us, not completely anyway, the problems to which those concepts are a response. [...] The history of philosophy, rather than repeating what a philosopher says, has to say what he must have taken for granted, what he didn’t say but is nonetheless present in what he did say.”

Likewise, rather than seeing philosophy as a timeless pursuit of truth, reason, or universals, Deleuze defines philosophy as the creation of concepts. For Deleuze, concepts are not identity conditions or propositions, but metaphysical constructions that define a range of thinking, such as Plato’s ideas, Descartes’s cogito, or Kant’s doctrine of the faculties. A philosophical concept “posits itself and its object at the same time as it is created.” In Deleuze’s view, then, philosophy more closely resembles practical or artistic production than it does an adjunct to a definitive scientific description of a pre-existing world (as in the tradition of Locke or Quine).

Maybe what Deleuze understood was that the whole canon of Western philosophy is based on concepts, and that the study of philosophy in it’s Western way, is the study of words, a hopeless pursuit and not truth in a enlightened way.

Zen emphasizes the attainment of enlightenment and the personal expression of direct insight in the Buddhist teachings. As such, it de-emphasizes mere knowledge of sutras and doctrine and favors direct understanding through zazen  and interaction with an accomplished teacher.

if you’re a westerner you may find it hard to shake off the intellectual and dualist ways of thinking that dominate western culture: these can make it difficult for westerners to come to Zen.

Zen Buddhists pay less attention to scripture as a means of learning than they do to various methods of practicing Zen. The most common way of teaching is for enlightenment to be communicated direct from master to pupil.

Zen practices are aimed at taking the rational and intellectual mind out of the mental loop, so that the student can become more aware and realize their own Buddha-nature. Sometimes even (mild) physical violence is used to stop the student intellectualizing or getting stuck in some other way.

Students of Zen aim to achieve enlightenment by the way they live, and by mental actions that approach the truth without philosophical thought or intellectual endeavor.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali tell us:

Before beginning any spiritual text it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts, to calm the breath and to purify the heart.

1.1 Now, instruction in Union.

1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.

1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.

A far cry from “conceptual philosophy”

In his later work (from roughly 1981 onward), Deleuze sharply distinguishes art, philosophy, and science as three distinct disciplines, each analyzing reality in different ways. While philosophy creates concepts, the arts create novel qualitative combinations of sensation and feeling (what Deleuze calls “percepts” and “affects”), and the sciences create quantitative theories based on fixed points of reference such as the speed of light or absolute zero (which Deleuze calls “functives”). According to Deleuze, none of these disciplines enjoy primacy over the others: they are different ways of organizing the metaphysical flux, “separate melodic lines in constant interplay with one another.”For example, Deleuze does not treat cinema as an art representing an external reality, but as an ontological practice that creates different ways of organizing movement and time. Philosophy, science, and art are equally, and essentially, creative and practical. Hence, instead of asking traditional questions of identity such as “is it true?” or “what is it?”, Deleuze proposes that inquiries should be functional or practical: “what does it do?” or “how does it work?”

My Zen Teacher would complain: “My novice American students, ask me to explain the concept of Zen, or how does it work? My Oriental students, ask me: ‘How it feels like?”

Zen it is not a concept to understand with our minds, it is not a definition that you put in a file on your memory, and bring it up when somebody ask you about it, as the way you learn formulas for your chemistry test, or when somebody ask you have you read so, and so? And you say yes, I read it, you have not grasped it! Zen flesh, Zen bones! Just because you climb a small hill, doesn’t mean you can climb Everest, or if you swim a few laps means you can cross the English Chanel, or because you know how to ride a bicycle means you can compete in the Tour de France, however like Zen, there is some people who do just that.

The Meaning of Practice Dogen Zenji

One of my teacher’s favorite anecdotes was Dogen meeting of his Teacher Rújìng. In 1223, Dōgen and Myōzen undertook the dangerous passage across the East China Sea to China to study in Jing-de-si (Ching-te-ssu, 景德寺) monastery as Eisai had once done.

In China, Dōgen first went to the leading Chan monasteries in Zhèjiāng province. At the time, most Chan teachers based their training around the use of gōng-àns (Japanese: kōan). Though Dōgen assiduously studied the kōans, he became disenchanted with the heavy emphasis laid upon them, and wondered why the sutras were not studied more. At one point, owing to this disenchantment, Dōgen even refused Dharma transmission from a teacher.Then, in 1225, he met a master named Rújìng (如淨; J. Nyōjo), the thirteenth patriarch of the Cáodòng (J. Sōtō) lineage of Zen Buddhism, at Mount Tiāntóng (天童山 Tiāntóngshān; J. Tendōzan) in Níngbō. Rujing was reputed to have a style of Chan that was different from the other masters whom Dōgen had thus far encountered. In later writings, Dōgen referred to Rujing as “the Old Buddha”. Additionally he affectionately described both Rujing and Myōzen assenshi (先師^?, “Former Teacher”).

In those days, even the shortest trips of this nature were arduous, and very dangerous. It took its toll on Dogen as well, who become very sick on the way. As soon as he arrived, however, his spirit returned and he set off to the Temple to begin his training. But much to his disappointment, it was not what he had expected. The training was lax, there was no discipline, and all the priest were lazy, not pursuing any types of studies at all. Heartbroken he returned to the ship thinking about heading home to Japan.

He had spent about two weeks in the ship waiting for departure, when  he happen to look at a decrepit priest of about 60 years of age, who had come to the ship to buy dried mushrooms from Japan. Dogen with nothing else to do began casual conversation with him. “What business do you come for?” Inquired Dogen.

“I have come to buy dried mushrooms for tomorrow’s soup at my temple.” Replied the old man.

“Where is your temple?”

“About 14 miles away.”

“You come that distance just for mushrooms? You are old; aren’t there younger priests who can do this work? It so hot outside and you must be very tired.” Replied Dogen.

“I have to do this work because it is my work and no one else.” Said the monk.

“Why don’t you rest here tonight and go back tomorrow morning when it is more cooler.” Dogen offered.

“I must return today because this is for tomorrow’s soup, which I must prepare. I will leave as soon as I buy this mushrooms.”

“You are obvious a senior monk at your Temple. Why don’t you spend your time studying the teachings instead of doing such menial work which the younger priest should do?” Demanded Dogen.

“The younger priest are not me, I am not them. This is my job.” Then added: “Obviously, you don’t understand the meaning of practice.”

“What do you mean by that?!” Asked the astonished Dogen.

“In anything in this world, there is nothing hidden,” said the old monk, and he left, vanishing down the road.

Of course at that time young Dogen still cling to the mind for answers, even if what he was looking for was a rigorous practice.

  The Swordsman and the Cat

From an old book on swordplay, probably written by
an early master of the Ittôryû school, which was founded
by Itô Kagehisa in the seventeenth century.

“After listening intently to the wisdom of the Cat, Shôken proposed this question: “What is meant by `There is neither the subject nor the object’ ?”

Replied the Cat: “Because of the self there is the foe; when there is no self there is no foe.  The foe means an opposition as the male is opposed to the female and fire to water.  Whatever things have form exist necessarily in opposition.  When there are no signs  stirred in your mind, no conflicts of opposition take place there; and when there are no conflicts, one trying to get the better of the other, this is known as `neither foe nor self’.  When, further, the mind itself is forgotten together with signs of thought, you enjoy a state of absolutely-doing-nothingness, you are in a state of perfect quiet passivity, you are in harmony with the world, you are one with it.  While the foe-form ceases to exist, you are not conscious of it, nor can it be said that you are altogether unconscious of it.  Your mind is cleansed of all thought movements, and you act only when there is a prompting.”

“When your mind is thus in a state of absolutely-doing-nothingness, the world is identified with your self, which means that you make no choice between right and wrong, like and dislike, and are above all forms of abstraction.  Such conditions as pleasure and pain, gain and loss, are creations of your own mind.  The whole universe is indeed not to be sought after outside the Mind.  An old poet says: `When there is as particle of dust in your eye, the triple world becomes a narrow path; have your mind completely free from objects — and how much this life expands !’  When even a tiny particle of sand gets into the eye, we cannot keep it open; the eye may be likened to the Mind which by nature is brightly illuminating and free from objects; but as soon as an object enters there its virtue is lost.  It is said again that `when one is surrounded by an enemy — hundreds of thousands in strength – this physical form  may be crushed to pieces, but the Mind is mine with which no overwhelming army can have anything to do.’  Says Confucius: `Even a plain man of the street cannot be deprived of his will.’  When however this mind is confused, it turns to be its own enemy.  This is all I can explain here, for the master’s task cannot go beyond transmitting technique and illustrating the reason for it.  It is yourself who realizes the truth of it.  The truth is self-attained, it is transmitted from mind to mind, it is a special transmission outside the scriptural teaching.  There is here no willful deviation from traditional teaching, for even the master is powerless in this respect.  Nor is this confined to the study of Zen.  From the mind-training initiated by the ancient sages down to various branches of art, self-realization is the keynote of them all, and it is transmitted from mind to mind — a special transmission outside the scriptural teaching.  What is performed by scriptural teaching is to point out for you what you have within yourself.  There is no transference of secrets from master to disciple.  Teaching is not difficult, listening is not difficult either, but what is truly difficult is to become conscious of what you have in yourself and be able to use it as your own.  This self-realization is known as `seeing into one’s own being’ which is satori.  Satori is an awakening from a dream.  Awakening and self-realization and seeing into one’s own being — these are synonymous.

To make Nature display its mysterious way of achieving things is to do away with all of your own thinking, contriving, and acting; let Nature have her own way, let her act as it feels in you , and there will be no shadows, no signs, no traces whereby you can be caught; you have then no foes who can successfully resist you. “

[ ← Part 1: Introduction ← | → Part 3: Mysticism in Practice → ]

PART 2: MYSTICISM IN THEORY

Conceived as a Goal, Mysticism is the direct experience of the ultimate spiritual goal/truth.

The Essential Nature of the Mystic Goal

What is the basic, essential nature of this spiritual “Truth” or spiritual “Goal”? The Mystic Goal involves transcending our normal consciousness of multiplicity and duality to attain the Mystic Consciousness of Unity. 

Our normal consciousness is called “Many” or “Two.”

“This Abyss is also called ‘Hell,’ and ‘The Many.’ Its name is ‘Consciousness,’ and ‘The Universe,’ among men.”
-The Book of Lies, chapter 10

• Many: We are usually aware of many “things” in the world, including the multiplicity of objects of our awareness. Trees are different from tables which are different from birds which are different from clouds, et cetera. 
• Two: Our normal awareness or consciousness is sometimes called “Two” or “duality” because there is a fundamental split in our awareness between (a) our self and (b) the world. This is sometimes expressed as the opposition between subject and object or the opposition between ego and non-ego.

“Understand now that in yourselves is a certain discontent. Analyse well its nature: at the end is in every case one conclusion. The ill springs from the belief in two things, the Self and the Not-Self, and the conflict between them. This also is a restriction of the Will… Ultimately, therefore, the problem is how to destroy this perception of duality, to attain to the apprehension of unity.”
-Liber CL: De Lege Libellum

The Mystic Goal involves transcending our normal consciousness of Many/Two and achieving the consciousness of Unity/One.

• The Goal is called Unity because it refers to unification of consciousness: this is the unification of the multiplicity of objects of awareness as well as the more fundamental unification between the subject and object(s) of awareness.
• Since the awareness of a “self” or “ego” requires some kind of distinction between it and something else, the self/ego is said to “die” or “dissolve” or “merge” in this Unity.
• Since there is no distinction between anything, including self and other, this Unity is sometimes called “Non-duality.” In defining the Mystic Goal by what it is not (i.e. not duality), the name “non-duality” avoids defining the Mystic Goal by what it is. Defining things “negatively” in this way is a common method for Mystics. This is often useful because asserting something “positive” about the Mystic Experience (e.g. “it is One”) allows for the introduction of various metaphysical propositions (e.g. “The One is Kether” or “The One is God” or “The One is separate from the Many”), theories, and beliefs, yet these theories and beliefs are forms of rational-intellectual mind that the Mystic attempts to transcend in directly penetrating to the Mystic Goal that is beyond rational-intellectual thinking. Also, asserting something “positive” about the Mystic Goal allows for distinctions to begin to be made – (e.g. “If the One is infinite, it does not include the finite”; “If the One is Good, it does not include the bad”; “If the Goal is powerful, it does not include weakness,” et cetera) – yet the Mystic Goal is beyond distinctions. Nonetheless, defining the Mystic Experience negatively or positively is still defining it, and – as will be seen repeatedly – the Mystic Experience is ultimately ineffable. 

“The Quintessence [of Life] is pure Light, an ecstacy formless, and without bound or mark. In this Light naught exists, for It is homogeneous: and therefore have men called it Silence, and Darkness, and Nothing. But in this, as in all other effort to name it, is the root of every falsity and misapprehension, since all words imply some duality.”
-Liber CL: De Lege Libellum

In Thelema, this Unity is often said to be “None” instead of “One.” This “None” is also called “Naught,” “Zero,” or “0.” This has its basis in The Book of the Law (I:27) where it is written, “O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!”

• It is understood that even this term “None” is not ideal. Ideally, we should “speak not of thee at all” because of the ineffability of the Mystic Goal as mentioned previously.
• One reason the idea of “None” is used instead of “One” is because the number 1 implies a “deviation” insofar as it is a positive number (in opposition to and balanced by negative numbers). Therefore, the “union of opposites” (one term for the Mystic Goal) can be seen to be between the “X” of ego and the “-X” of non-ego; when they combine, X+(-X), we get Zero or None.
• This “None” is not a lack of something, it is That which contains all things and That which all things – if they united – would cancel out into. Further symbolism of this None/Naught/0 can be studied in The Book of Thoth regarding Atu 0: The Fool.
• In the end, we must remember that “None” – just like every other name, title, or description – is ultimately inadequate to describe the ineffable nature of the Mystic Goal.

Characteristics of the Mystic Goal

The primary characteristic of the Mystic Goal is its undifferentiated Unity. There are also a few other characteristics of the Mystic Experience that are universal among all Mystics from across different times and different cultures. The characteristics of the Mystic Goal are:

1. Undifferentiated Unity – This is the fact that the Mystic Experience confers this direct experience of the Unity of all things, and one’s ultimate identity therewith. Whether this Unity is called “Non-duality,” “One,” “None,” “All,” “Infinity,” “God,” “The Absolute,” “Krishna,” “Brahman,” “Emptiness,” “Buddha-nature,” “Silence,” “Darkness,” or “Light,” it is the same fundamental idea of an undifferentiated, undivided It. There are two types of Unity that are actually two sides of the same coin, so to speak: Introvertive Unity and Extrovertive Unity. 

Introvertive Unity:
• ”All is dissolved in formless Light of Unity.” -Liber CL: De Lege Libellum
• “They beheld not God; they beheld not the Image of God; therefore were they arisen to the Palace of the Splendour Ineffable” -Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente sub figura LXV, V:35

Extrovertive Unity:
• “All is One.” -Liber Aleph, chapter 187
• “No two faces are identical, still less are two individuals. Unspeakable is the variety of form and immeasurable the diversity of beauty, but in all is the seal of unity.” -New Comment to Liber AL, I:52

a) Introvertive Unity – The undifferentiated unity beyond all sense, thinking, forms, and images. There are no “things” or differentiation; there is simply undifferentiated unity. It is called “introvertive” because the mystic “looks within,” beyond all sensuous and intellectual contents of consciousness to penetrate to the undifferentiated Unity at the ground of all things. It is often spoken of as being “beyond senses,” “beyond images,” “beyond space,” “beyond time,” and “beyond causality.”

b) Extrovertive Unity – The undifferentiated unity as seen within the world, typically phrased as “All things are One.” The Extrovertive Unity “looks outward” into the world of senses and sees Unity permeating the apparent diversity and multiplicity. The sensuous world (the world as experienced through the senses) is transformed or transfigured, not in that anything has changed in the sensory world, but one’s very way of perceiving the sensuous world is altered so that Unity is perceived rather than multiplicity.

“Samadhi [has] an authenticity, and confer[s] an interior certainty, which is to the experience of waking life as that is to a dream.”
-Eight Lectures on Yoga, “Yoga for Yellowbellies,” Fourth Lecture

2. Sense of Objectivity/Reality - The Mystic Goal, the undifferentiated unity, is sensed or intuited to be objective and real. It is often said to be “more real” than our normal “dualistic” awareness which is therefore labeled as “illusion.” It is the intuitive insight that is normally said to be “gnosis,” the direct experiential “knowledge” that the undifferentiated unity is true; this is the non-rational “certainty” that is given by the Mystic Experience.

“Then the adept was rapt away in bliss, and the beyond of bliss, and exceeded the excess of excess. Also his body shook and staggered with the burden of that bliss and that excess and that ultimate nameless.”
-Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, II:45-46

3. Deeply felt Positive Mood - This is the “peace” and “bliss” spoken of by virtually every Mystic throughout history (called “ananda” in Sanskrit). It is sometimes referred to as “love” or “joy” or virtually any other positive emotion raised to an exponential degree, e.g. “Perfect Happiness” as is stated in “Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass.”

4. Sense of Sacredness – This is an intuitive, direct sense of the sacredness or divine nature of this Mystic Experience. Its characteristic reactions involve awe, humility, and reverence. It is called “numinous” by Otto Rank, which he describes as referring to a sense of a tremendous mystery that is simultaneously both (a) awful/terrible (causes trembling and reverence; the “fear of God” of Judaism) and (b) fascinating/entrancing. This is sense of sacredness is generally related to various Mystics interpreting their experience as relating to God or the Divine. Also, this is somewhat related to the ‘deeply felt positive mood’ but not necessarily identical with it; one can feel blissful without the sense of sacredness and vice versa.

“Little by little, as your eyes grow stronger, will we unveil to you the ineffable glory of the Path of the Adepts, and its nameless goal.”
-Liber Porta Lucis, line 14

“I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD.”
-Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass

5. Ineffability – This refers to the fact that the Mystic Experience is universally said to be “ineffable.” This means the Mystic Experience is ultimately beyond words; it is impossible to describe. One of the most classic formulations of this idea comes from the Tao Teh Ching, “The Tao that is spoken of is not the Tao.” Although the Mystic Goal is ineffable, Mystics tend to write endlessly about it. For example, the previously mentioned line from the Tao Teh Ching is followed by 80 more chapters about the nature of the Tao. Although silence would most accurately portray the ineffable nature of the Mystic Goal, Mystics often feel the need to communicate about the Truth they experience and so they must resort to words, metaphors, and symbols regardless of their inadequacy. The ineffability of the Mystic Experience is why Mystics universally assert that the Mystic Goal is “beyond words,” “beyond reason” or “supra-rational,” or “beyond definition.”

“And this is the great Mystery of the Supernals that are beyond the Abyss. For below the Abyss, contradiction is division; but above the Abyss, contradiction is Unity. And there could be nothing true except by virtue of the contradiction that is contained in itself.”
-The Vision and the Voice, 5th Aethyr

6. Paradoxicality – This refers to the local contradictions that appear if the various definitions and descriptions of the Mystic Experience are analyzed rationally. Paradoxicality is the natural result of the identity of opposites that occurs in the Mystic Experience by virtue of the fact that it transcends the normal duality of perception and speech. Mystics use many terms to refer to the Mystic Experience that appear to be blatant contradictions. There are innumerable examples of this throughout Mystical literature:

• “It stirs and It stirs not” (Isa Upanishad)
• “dazzling darkness” (Henry Suso)
• “dark brightness” (Tao Teh Ching)
• “The One is everything and not everything” (Plotinus)
• “I am the first and the last; I am the honored one and the scorned one; I am the whore and the holy one” (“Thunder: Perfect Mind”)
• “I am light, and I am night, and I am that which is beyond them; I am speech, and I am silence, and I am that which is beyond them; I am life, and I am death, and I am that which is beyond them” (The Vision and the Voice, 1st Aethyr)
• “there is no subject, and there is no predicate; nor is there the contradictory of either of these things” (The Book of Lies)
• “a light undesired, most desirable” (Liber AL, II:61), et cetera. 

Therefore, there are several characteristics that can be seen to be true of the Mystic Experience regardless of time period or culture. The primary characteristic is the experience of an undifferentiated unity – this is the defining characteristic of the Mystic Goal and it is always present in some form. The other characteristics include an intuitive sense of objectivity or reality (the Mystic Experience is understood as true and with supra-rational certainty), deeply felt positive mood (joy, bliss, peace), a sense of sacredness (holy, sublime, numinous, divine), ineffability (beyond words and description), and paradoxicality (descriptions are logically contradictory).

It should be noted that expressions of the Mystic Experience do not necessarily – or even usually – include all 6 of these characteristics at once. Sometimes the ineffability is emphasized, sometimes the bliss of positive emotion is emphasized, sometimes paradoxicality is emphasized, et cetera. Certain cultures emphasize different qualities – for example, Sufism tends to stress the positive emotion of bliss and love while Buddhism tends to stress ineffability. Some Mystics write with much more clarity while others write with much more romantic poeticism; some try to speak rationally while some speak in parable or metaphor. Nonetheless, they all refer to the same Mystic Experience. When the various utterances of a Mystic are brought together, they usually encompass most or all of these characteristics. Thelema in particular is a system that has instances of all of these characteristics of the Mystic Experience.

The Various Symbols of the Mystic Goal

“If we are in any way to shadow forth the Ineffable, it must be by a degradation. Every symbol is a blasphemy against the Truth that it indicates.”
-“The Big Stick” in Equinox I:4

For as many Mystics have existed, there are at least as many different symbols, names, titles, and metaphors to describe the Mystic Goal. Each of these symbols implies a view about the world or various metaphysical propositions, which is one of their shortcomings. Every symbol is an image and, since the Mystic Goal is ultimately beyond all images, names, forms, and all other partial phenomena, there is no symbol that can be “true” as opposed to all others; they are all ultimately “degradations” of the Truth. They can only be signposts – fingers pointing to the moon, so to speak – and they must be taken as such. Nonetheless, symbols are also helpful in that they can aid us in understanding the nature of the Mystic Goal, or at least the language and ideas surrounding this within a particular system.

It will be seen very quickly that these symbols overlap. Sometimes an individual will use many of these metaphors/symbols at once. In the end, these all refer to the same Mystic Goal. In general, the West tends to explain the Mystic Goal as some kind of ultimate Being whereas the East tends to explain the Mystic Goal as some kind of ultimate State of being (although there are examples where the opposites are true). 

“THE AUGOEIDES.
Lytton calls him Adonai in ‘Zanoni,’ and I often use this name in the note-books. Abramelin calls him Holy Guardian Angel. I adopt this:
   1. Because Abramelin’s system is so simple and effective.
   2. Because since all theories of the universe are absurd it is better to talk in the language of one which is patently absurd, so as to mortify the metaphysical man.
   3. Because a child can understand it.

* Theosophists call him the Higher Self, Silent Watcher, or Great Master.
* The Golden Dawn calls him the Genius.
* Gnostics say the Logos.
* Zoroaster talks about uniting all these symbols into the form of a Lion — see Chaldean Oracles.
* Anna Kingsford calls him Adonai (Clothed with the Sun).
* Buddhists call him Adi-Buddha — (says H. P. [Blavatsky])
* The Bhagavad-Gita calls him Vishnu (chapter xi).
* The Yi King calls him “The Great Person.”
* The Qabalah calls him Jechidah.

We also get metaphysical analysis of His nature, deeper and deeper according to the subtlety of the writer; for this vision — it is all one same phenomenon, variously coloured by our varying Ruachs [minds] — is, I believe, the first and the last of all Spiritual Experience. For though He is attributed to Malkuth [the tenth Sephirah], and the Door of the Path of His overshadowing, He is also in Kether [the first Sephirah] (Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth in Kether — “as above, so beneath”), and the End of the “Path of the Wise” is identity with Him. So that while he is the Holy Guardian Angel, He is also Hua [the secret title of Kether, literally 'He'] and the Tao [The great extreme of the Yi King].

For since Intra Nobis Regnum deI [I.N.R.I., 'The Kingdom of God is within/inside'] all things are in Ourself, and all Spiritual Experience is a more of less complete Revelation of Him. Yet it is only in the Middle Pillar that His manifestation is in any way perfect.

The Augoeides invocation is the whole thing. Only it is so difficult; one goes along through all the fifty gates of Binah [i.e. 'crossing the Abyss'] at once, more or less illuminated, more or less deluded. But the First and the Last is this Augoeides Invocation.”
-“The Temple of Solomon the King” in Equinox I:1

The One - The Goal is sometimes explained numerically as “the One.” ”One” implies something that is single, undivided, and complete.

• In the Qabalah, this “One” is Kether, the 1st Sephirah on the Tree of Life, which literally means “Crown.” In Qabalistic terms, “All numbers [are] Veils of the One, emanations of and therefore corruptions of the One” (Crowley in 777)
• The same term is often used by Neoplatonists such as Plotinus who says, “It is the simple unbroken Unity” (Enneads, I:1:9).
• This “One” is – in the West – identified with God as in one of the central prayers of Judaism, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4), in Christ’s statement that, “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30), and in the Quran, “Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him” (Surah 112). 
  

None – The Goal is sometimes, as mentioned previously, explained as “None” (or “Naught,” “Zero,” or “0″). “None” implies no division, no distinction, no opposition, no separation, and other similar negatives. 

• In the Qabalah, this “None” is the Negative Veils of Existence that “pre-exist” Kether. The three Negative Veils are “Ain,” “Ain Soph,” and “Ain Soph Aur,” which can be translated as “Nothing,” “No Limit,” and “Limitless Light,” respectively.
• Numerically, “None” can be expressed as 0 = X + (-X), which implies that it contains opposites as well as that it is the “result” of uniting opposites.
• The same idea also appears in Zen, as when Shunryu Suzuki writes, “True being comes out of nothingness, moment after moment. Nothingness is always there, and from it everything appears.” Similarly, Joshu Sasaki Roshi says, “The whole universe is one: equality holds difference and discrimination within it. The activity of equality includes plus and minus. Therefore, it is zero… Inevitably, the state in which you no longer claim yourself will be manifested. Buddhism concludes that this is the true self, true love, and the ultimate truth. Zen’s view is that words cannot point out the ultimate truth. It is utterly, completely zero.”

God – In the West, God is the ultimate goal of union. God is conceived as the ultimate Being who is omnipotent (contains all forces), omnipresent (contains all forms), and omniscient (contains all knowledge or all relations); God is therefore said to be “infinite.” The examples from every single Western Mystic are too innumerable to even begin to list.

• Because of the Western notion that each individual has or “is” a soul that is separate from God, the Mystic Goal is seen as “union with God” (called “henosis” in Neoplatonism which literally means “oneness”).
• God is the ultimate Good, the ultimate Truth, and philosophers equate their notion of the Absolute with that of God.
• Alternate ways to refer to this same idea include “the Divine,” “the Lord,” and “Godhead” as well as the innumerable names of God from various systems (“YHVH,” “Adonai,” “Christ,” “Allah,” “Tetragrammaton,” “Elohim,” “El,” et cetera).

“The main idea is that the Infinite, the Absolute, God, the Over-soul, or whatever you may prefer to call it, is always present; but veiled or masked by the thoughts of the mind, just as one cannot hear a heart-beat in a noisy city.”
-Liber ABA: Book Four, Part I

The Absolute – In Western philosophy, the concept of the Absolute is the unconditional, infinite, ultimate Reality.

• While it is a way that Westerners have pointed to the same Mystic Goal, religious people inevitably equate this philosophical concept of the Absolute with God.
• The Absolute is equivalent to the “Ain Soph” of Qabalah, the “Pleroma” of Gnosticism, the “Tao” or the “Wu Ji” of Chinese philosophy, the “Brahman” of Hinduism, et cetera.

“Thou that art One, our Lord in the Universe, the Sun, our Lord in ourselves whose name is Mystery of Mystery, uttermost being whose radiance, enlightening the worlds, is also the breath that maketh every God even and Death to tremble before Thee.”
-Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass

The Sun - The Sun is one of the most ancient symbols of the Mystic Goal. In the West, it is endlessly associated with God in various ways.

• The Sun is the source of light in the world, and therefore makes us able to “see” reality. Light is constantly associated with knowledge or awareness (as in “enlightenment”) whereas darkness is constantly associated with ignorance or delusion.
• The Sun is the source of life in the world, so it is understood as a symbol of being the source of creative power/force of this Absolute/God, i.e. omnipotence.
• The Sun is the “eye of the world,” so it is understood as seeing or being aware of all things, i.e. omniscience.
• The Sun rules the ordering of days, seasons, and years, so it is understood as a symbol of order, harmony, law, and the “Architect” (source of all rules/laws and all forms) of the Cosmos.
• In the New Aeon, we know (a) the Sun is the center of our system, and (b) the Sun never ‘dies.’ Therefore, it is a symbol of being (a) the central, ordering principle of the universe and therefore the center or “soul” of ourselves, and (b) eternal, immortal, infinite, deathless, et cetera.
• Horus in His various forms – Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Ra-Hoor, Hoor-Apep, Hoori, Heru-Ra-Ha, et cetera - is a symbol of this “Sun.” 

The common symbol of the Sun, the point in the circle, is itself a symbol of the union of opposites: in this context, the Sun represents the Whole, the One, the All, et cetera. Sometimes the Sun (Sol) is seen as a complement to the Moon (Luna): in this context, the Sun is represented as one half of the whole, the Bridegroom as opposed to the Bride, the Male as opposed to the Female, the God as opposed to the Soul, et cetera.

“The true Magick of Horus requires the passionate Union of opposites.”
-Little Essays Toward Truth, “Glossary”

Union of Opposites  – Since the Mystic Goal involves transcending duality, all symbols that involve the union of opposites in some way are symbolic of the Mystic Goal. These are innumerable as well but some examples include the Union of:

• Soul and God (virtually all Western Mystics)
• Bride and Bridegroom (many Christian and Sufi Mystics)
• Male and Female
• The Child as the union of Father and Mother (Horus as Crowned and Conquering Child)
• Sun and Moon (Planetary)
• Microcosm and Macrocosm; Pentagram and Hexagram; 5 and 6 (Hermetic)
• Lingam and Yoni (and virtually all sexual symbolism; Hindu)
• Lance and Cup/Chalice/Grail (Parsival; the Gnostic Mass)
• Cross and Rose (Rosicrucian)
• Lion and Eagle (Alchemical)
• Cross and Circle; Point and Circle; Square and Circle (Geometric)
• Square and Compass (Masonic)
• Heart and Serpent (Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente sub figura LXV)
• Egg and Serpent (Orphic Mysteries)

“The Ultimate Reality… the Unthinkable Reality.”
-The Book of Lies

Reality – The Mystic Goal is sometimes equated with “Reality.” This implies that normal understanding or awareness is “illusion,” i.e. the “Fall” of Western religion or the “illusion” (“Maya”) of Eastern philosophies. Virtually all Mystics equate the Mystic Goal to the ultimate Reality in some way or another. It is also called “Truth.” This emphasizes the “Sense of Objectivity/Reality” aspect of the Mystic Goal mentioned previously.

“…The knowledge of his infinite Will, his destiny to perform the Great Work, the realization of his True Self.”
-Liber CL: De Lege Libellum

True Self – The “True Self” is sometimes used to distinguish from the “false self” of the dualistic and limited ego-self. This emphasizes that the Mystic Goal is not something separate from oneself.

• The True Self is sometimes called “True Nature,” the “pure soul,” or the “Oversoul.”
• In Hinduism, it is the “Atman” in Hinduism that is understood to be identical with “Brahman,” the infinite, boundless Reality, i.e. the “Absolute” of Hindu philosophy.
• In Buddhism, the “True Self” is sometimes called the “Adi-Buddha” (“primordial Buddha”) in Mahayana/Vajrayana Buddhism, and the “True Nature” is sometimes called the “Buddha-dhatu” (“Buddha-nature”).
• In the Qabalistic system, this is the “Yechidah” (or “Jechidah”), the primal individuality attributed to Kether on the Tree of Life.
• The Golden Dawn and others call this the “Genius” or “Daimon” or “Augoeides.” It can, in certain ways, be identified with the Holy Guardian Angel of Thelemic mysticism.

Enlightenment – In Eastern systems there are various terms that are essentially equivalent to our English term “enlightenment.” The term implies insight into one’s True Self or True Nature or into the true nature of Reality. Various scholars and philosophers have introduced distinctions between these terms and various other sub-sets of these terms, but they all ultimately refer to the same Mystic Goal. There are various terms for this in different systems:

• Samadhi – In the Hindu system, the term “Samadhi” is used to refer to the union of subject and object of perception in meditation. This brings “liberation” (“moksha”) from the Wheel of Samsara, i.e. of birth, death, and rebirth.
• Nirvana – In the Buddhist system, the term “Nirvana” is used to refer to the cessation of the sense of self or of “desire” that frees one from the First Noble Truth of suffering (“dukkha”). It is equivalent to the Muslim “fana” (“to pass away/cease”).
• Kensho/satori  – “Kensho” and “satori” are words used in Zen Buddhism that essentially mean “seeing into one’s true nature.” 

The Various Symbols of the Mystic Goal

“We shall bring you to Absolute Truth, Absolute Light, Absolute Bliss.
Many adepts throughout the ages have sought to do this; but their words have been perverted by their successors, and again and again the Veil has fallen upon the Holy of Holies.
To you who yet wander in the Court of the Profane we cannot yet reveal all; but you will easily understand that the religions of the world are but symbols and veils of the Absolute Truth. So also are the philosophies. To the adept, seeing all these things from above, there seems nothing to choose between Buddha and Mohammed, between Atheism and Theism.”
-“Liber Porta Lucis”, lines 17-19

As we can see, there are more ways to symbolically express the Mystic Goal than can possibly be listed in this short essay. There are two main points to remember:

1. All of these symbols refer to the same Mystic Goal of transcending our normal consciousness of Many/Two and achieving the consciousness of Unity/One. The diversity of the symbolism veils its ultimate Unity.

2. The difference of these symbols enables us to not get dogmatically “stuck” in any one of them to the exclusion of others. One of the virtues of Thelemic Mysticism is the explicit awareness of these many different names and forms of expressing the same Mystic Goal, so we are particularly on guard against asserting one to be “more true” than another.

The question still remains: “How do I achieve the Mystic Goal?” or “What is the Mystic Path?” This will be explained in the next section, Mysticism in Practice.

[ ← Part 1: Introduction ← | → Part 3: Mysticism in Practice → ] 

Hinde ako gaanong na-eenganyo sa mga madalas na ituring ”milestone” na pangyayari sa talambuhay ng isang tao. Kung tutuusin, mas ginigiliwan ko pa ang panahon bago maganap ang isang “milestone”. Halimbawa, sa Pagtatapos ng kapatid ko at pati na rin ang aking pagtatapos, mas dinamdam ko ang mga munting pangyayari, mga natitirang araw ng kalokohan, kakultitan, at kahit na ang mga araw kung lahat na-iinip lang o nakatulala’t nakatali sa malalim at tahimik na pag-iisip. Diyan ako naiiyak, sa mga tweets, status sa Facebook, mga kwento ng kapatid ko sa mga araw patungo sa seremonya ng Pagtatapos.

Oo nga, tama sila, hindi nagtatapos sa Pagtatapos ang Paglayag, ngunit kailangan sagutin ang tanong:

Ano nga ba ang Pagtatapos?

Ang mismong seremonya o ang kamulatan ng mga taong kasalukuyan dumadaan sa isang estado ng pagbabago? isang pangyayari lang ba ang Pagtatapos? Ngayon ay Lunes, bukas, wakas na ang kamulatan mo. Balik na sa “normal”.

Ba’t ganun ang umiiral sa karamihan sa’tin?

Meron din namang nagsasabi na “simula pa lang ito” ngunit pinagbibigyang-tuon pa rin ang mismong “milestone event”. Ang “Karurukan”.

Hanggang dyan lang ba ang pagtuklas ng buhay? Sa pagtahak kong ito, nais kong bagalan ang biyahe, lasapin ang amihan na humahati sa buhok ko, at simutin ng aking mga paa ang buhangin. Para sa akin, ang maliliit na bagay sa daan ang siyang bumubuo ng “milestone”. Ang “milestone”, ang “Karurukan” bale, ay hindi isang naglalakihang pangyayari ngunit kalakapan ng mga munting detalye na bumubuo ng isang tao sa kasalukuyan.

Nais kong galaki’t giliwan ang mga gabing nagpuyat ang kapatid ko nang matapos niya ang thesis. Ireretrato ko sana ang mga munting pagtatapos: ang unang balangkas ng trabaho niya, ang araw ng pahinga’t panonood mga cheesy na pelikula, ang panunumbalik niya sa paaralan nang ipagtanggol at itanghal ang obra. Nariyan din ang mga pizza parties kasama ang mga kaibigan niya, mga wagas na yakap mula sa magulang, at bawat salitang bumabalot sa pagmamahal na nais iparating. Lahat ‘yan sinisimulan ang “Pagtatapos”. Ang Pagtatapos ay araw araw, ang Pagtatapos ay hindi nagtatapos.

Kung papalaain man ako ng anumang diyos, nawaa’y patagalan niya ang biyahe ko tungo sa “karurukan”, ano man ‘yan.

Welcome to the softypapa blog. My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have chosen to walk awhile with me. I’m available on Facebook and Google+ if you have questions or just want to chat and say hi. I can also be found at the JVLOG forum with other Japan-related content creators. All links are listed below. I look forward to meeting you on-line. Have a great day!

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The Path of Wildness is easy to find
The course of a stream
Leaves blown in the wind
A beast’s track through the brush
And the direction of our first inclination

The Path of Wildness is an answer and response to a prescribed way of life which may leave some individuals with a sense that their living is little more than a series of pre-determined, step-like episodes between birth and death. The stages of living between these events: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood and senior are themselves natural and in accord with the needs of the species and most individuals. Many find their satisfaction in living this course and to these individuals I have little or nothing to say. Others though long for something more; something innate, genetic and seemingly calling. Adventure and change can give a degree of satisfaction and relief yet even these may seem too tame. To those who feel drawn to something beyond the entertainment and stimulation of senses I offer a walk along The Path of Wildness. Don’t bother penciling the event in your schedule, preparing a pack with goodies and supplies or even inviting a friend along, for this experience is along the course of your first inclination and you must surely always go alone.

The Path of Wildness Resources

• Homepage
• Facebook page
• Twitter feed

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Follow me on Twitter:
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Be my friend on Facebook:
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On Google+
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At the JVLOG forum (my username there is “LylesBrother”):
http://jvlog.org

You can also reach me via email at the following address: softypapa@gmail.com

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Credits

“Japanese Falls” image included in this video is by the artist Lane Brown. See more of Mr. Brown’s work at the following URL:
http://lanebrownart.blogspot.com/p/portfolio.html

Channel Theme Music “Song For Kurt” used with permission by Nowherians. Discover more about the artist and their music at the URL below. Be sure to check out their “Rome Pays Off” recordings.
http://www.tracerecordings.com

Channel homepage image “Leaf” by photographer Moyan Brenn.
See more of Mr. Brenn’s photos on Flickr at the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aigle_dore

Before you are allowed to wander around Zen Buddhist Saiho-ji’s, stunning moss garden (Kokodera), you must meditate to chanting and write out a sutra (and pay 3,000 Yen).  It is all a small price to pay to be able to wander in peace amongst such stunning greenery.

Taken with my Olympus Pen EP-1.  Setting: Aperture Priority.  Aperture: f8; Shutter: 1/160; ISO: 200.

Log Merchants

A log keep is an crucial backyard garden piece for these with a conventional fireplace place or wood burning stove. Ironically, wintertime is when we most need to light-weight the fire to heat the property, but it is the a single time of 12 months when it is especially hard to hold wood dry. A log keep is the perfect way to combat this problem and enables you to preserve the wooden in the garden. Log stores are particularly created to stand up to the fat of hefty logs and are normally guaranteed for a quantity of a long time towards rot if manufactured from wooden. Slatted sides give security from rain even though nevertheless enabling air circulation via the log pile to dry the wooden. This guarantees greatest warmth output when the wooden is on the fireplace. Lastly, log merchants also make an appealing feature so storing them next to the property for convenience will not prohibit your look at from the house.

Bike Storage

Bicycle sheds, also referred to as cycle sheds, are exclusively made to give you hassle-free accessibility to your bicycle. Whilst greater standard backyard garden sheds can keep bikes fairly effectively, it can be difficult to get the bicycle out if there are other factors currently being stored around it. That’s not to say that you can not shop other items in a bike get rid of also, many definitely have the space, they are just developed in a far more useful shape with vast doorways. Storing your bike indoors in the wintertime is crucial to stop weather damage and a building in your garden particularly for it delivers enhanced stability.

British weather conditions is notoriously unpredictable so it is ideal to be geared up. Garden tools need protection in the winter season and there is inevitably a valuable storage remedy amongst the various products accessible.

Anyone who regularly vegetation a backyard garden will need a drop for all their gardening tools. Probably you don’t have a spot to retailer your lawn mower? If there is not a shed on your residence, then you might want to contemplate finding some detailed step-by-stage backyard lose ideas. The extra storage room can make area for all your materials, so tools are usually conveniently obtainable, and effectively cared for. kontraktor taman, kontraktor taman, kontraktor taman

“When you go out on a boat and look around, you feel as if the shore were moving. But if you fix your eyes on the rim of the boat, you become aware that the boat is moving.

It is exactly the same when you try to know the objective world while still in a state of confusion in regard to your own body and mind; you are under the misapprehension that your own mind, your own nature, is something real and enduring [while the external world is transitory].

Only when you sit straight and look into yourself, does it become clear that [you yourself are changing ] the objective world has a reality apart from you.”

Quote source: Shōbōgenzō

Reference: Hashida, Shōbōgenzō shakui, 1, 142-64, selections translated in De Bary (ed.), Sources of Japanese Tradition, Op. Cit., Pp. 251-2

In Mahayana Buddhism the term Shōbōgenzō refers generally to the Buddha Dharma, and in Zen Buddhism, it refers specifically to the realization of Buddha’s awakening that is not contained in the written words of the sutras.

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There was only us, and there was only the Now of yesterday.

They can take you away from me, but they can never take away the moment we shared.

A view of the rooftop, that dusty, empty rooftop made immaculate by our presence, a view of the rooftop from the eyes of a boy back on earth but with his heart stuck on the clouds.

The Moving On Process: Day 4

An Open Letter to the People Who Are Invading my Home:

You may not know who I am – well, no. Let me rephrase that. You don’t. See, that’s the thing about houses. They form such an intimate part of our lives, and then someone else you’ve never met just charges right in, cooking food in the kitchen, sleeping the bedrooms, not knowing or caring about who came before. Hence the reason I am writing to you. Because I want, perhaps need, to tell you that I was there, and that it meant something to me.

I did my final walk through my house today. Alone. It seemed appropriate. I say my house, because even though it has become yours to call home, and I have a house of my own, a part of me will always be there. I’d like to say I’ve lost a lot in my twenty-one years, but we’re being honest here. I’ve always had food to eat, a roof over my head. Not many people I know have died; I’m no victim of some great tragedy. My family is actually, quite loving, if sometimes oppressively so. I don’t have a lot of friends, but the ones I do have are people I’ve held on to because they’re good and worthwhile people. Despite all that, I find that I feel quite apathetic about people in general. I don’t see much humanity in humanity, if you understand my meaning. I have a tendency to get attached to places and things, and the memories that they hold.

I find it – wrenching – how empty it is here. To you, I’m sure it says “possibility”. You can look at the bare rooms and see yourself there. Do you have a family to fill up all the empty space? But all I can see is where we held Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas and Easter with people we don’t know anymore, family who are not with us anymore. The kitchen is quite nice, don’t you think? I bet it was a big selling point. I can see it now as it was before. You wouldn’t know it was the same room, the same house, if you saw a picture of it fifteen years ago. The old green fridge, the linoleum floor that our puppy did us, and, trust me here, you, the favor of tearing up so that we could put down new tile. We finished the remodeling the day before Thanksgiving. We didn’t know it then, but it was our last Thanksgiving as a family.

We had to paint all the walls in drab colors for you. The house has no personality anymore. My mother’s paintings used to hang in every room. I wonder what you think about the downstairs bathroom, and how the ceiling is painted dark purple, with stars and galaxies. In fact, the whole room used to be like that. It was painful to paint it white, and we felt compelled to leave a little bit of its old glory. When we moved in, there was this horrible beige wallpaper, with brown flowers and polka dots. (How the realtor decided the galaxies were worse than this is beyond me, but they’re both gone now in any case.) My mother left a bottle of hand soap in the bathroom. English lavender. She only likes the smell because she says it reminds her of her grandmother.

And of course, there’s the next room. You may wonder why something sold to you as an “upstairs laundry room” has the distinct odor of Gesso and turpentine. Or maybe you don’t, because you don’t know what those things smell like. My mother’s studio. It was always kind of wondrous to me – I could never capture her skill with a paintbrush. Or with pen or marker or modeling clay, for that matter. I’ve always had this image of her – young, before I was born, when she still wore her hair long, with that artsy, disheveled look, smoking, creating beautiful images with paint and canvas. And I always felt this emptiness, because I could never dream of being that person (whether or not this image is close to or far from the truth is wholly irrelevant). Recently I had this revelation that maybe my grace is in words rather than pictures, but somewhere in my mind I’ve cultivated this theory that writing is something that anyone can do, so it doesn’t really count. In any case, I find that my reality is far from the romantic possibilities I imagine for an artist.

As I walk up the stairs, the sound of my footsteps echoes through the house. It’s such an empty sound that the word “empty” doesn’t capture it. It’s a cacophony of silence, vast, infinite, destitute, vacuous. Upstairs, I start with my mother’s room. It still smells like her – it’s not something I can describe, not a perfume or a candle. Just something warm and safe. She left the walls painted sage green, as an act of defiance. Even this color defines her, and it strikes me now that I’m not the only one leaving a piece of myself behind here. My grandmother made the curtains that are still here – they define her as well. A batik, ubiquitous in the many quilts that she makes and gives to family, friends, charities, people she knows of who are in need of a small comfort.

In the smallest bedroom, I’m ambivalent. We housed two people here who had no place else to go. Two people whom I love in that deep down kind of way that you love family you don’t see very often, not an active love, but an eternal fondness. But it was also my mother’s ex-husband’s office, where he would hole up for hours, and rage if you dared crack the door to retrieve an item or ask a question.

My final stop is my bedroom. It’s difficult to even look at. But I sit down, between the two windows that face the street, where my bed used to stand. Here is where I lost my virginity with the man who is now my husband. And here, I consider for a long time how many hours I spent in this room. With friends, alone, learning, growing, it’s all very cliché. There’s a mural on one wall. My mother painted it when I was going through a Zen phase, which, to some extent, has stuck with me. I hope you don’t paint over it. We already painted over the other three walls for you. They were this wonderful, bright, spring green that I chose when I was finally allowed to dispose of the cold ice blue that had been chosen for me. It – the green – was so warm and sunny. You can still see a little bit of it in the crack between the wall and frame of the closet.

The longer I sit, the more ghosts I count, and you are inheriting all of them. I’m happy to pass them off to you. Some may seem insignificant. Two cats died here. One, we couldn’t bear to euthanize until she was too weak to stand, a selfish cruelty I’ve since regretted. When she died, that was the first in a long series of more serious troubles. After that, little bits of our family broke off piece by piece. Where there were seven, four remain, and in four, maybe five years, it will be down to two. The other cat – this isn’t really relevant, but it breaks my heart, my mother and I couldn’t – or wouldn’t – take in. You see, in her old age, she had lost her fondness for doing her business where it belonged. So, when we left, she stayed in the empty house, all alone, deaf, going blind. I feel this terrible ache of guilt whenever I think of her now.

Then, of course, there’s the front steps. This is where my mother’s husband sat and told her that he was leaving her. No trying, no second chances, it was over. And here is the part of my story where I started down the road to adulthood. A road that I hate and resent. Here, where my bed used to be, is where I lay, listening to my mother cry half the night away for months, too tired and frustrated to try to comfort her. I felt overwhelmed by her grief, inadequate for not having the answers she was looking for, helpless in the face of her anger, unworthy for not meeting all her expectations, for not easing her worries in the wake of what had happened, responsible for keeping life moving, for protecting her, and finally, ashamed and childish, because while she was devastated, I had found love, and wanted most to focus on myself.

Now, I’m lying on the floor and the light from the setting sun is shining through the windows. The house creaks and thuds and settles. For one electrifying moment, it’s so loud, I think that somehow someone has entered the house, but as I listen carefully, I realize that the normal sounds of this old house are amplified by the stillness. In truth, I didn’t live here for a long time before you showed up. My things were here, but I spent maybe one night a week in my old room. This filled me with guilt and loneliness, thinking of my mother alone here, in a house brimming with the past. It sounds silly to say, but the ghosts drove me out; the memories that I didn’t like thinking of. Now I’m clinging to those memories, because they’re all I have left.

I take one last look at the view out my windows. The street, the garden – always wild looking, filled to overflowing with flowers, berries, and herbs. I exit through the back door, to the covered stone patio where I spent so many rainy afternoons playing cards, and to the raspberry bush, but it’s too late in the season – too late for one last taste of summer.

There’s a circle of stone sunken into the ground near the back of the yard. I’m unsure of its purpose, if it had one, but it looks like once, perhaps, a well stood there. As a child, when I uncovered it, I hoped to find something there. I was probably a strange child, because, although I hoped of finding “treasure”, I was looking for artifacts, rather than gold or some other such silly notion. I wanted to find something someone buried there intentionally, a story of who had come before. I found nothing, but I buried my own time capsule there for you, or posterity, or future archaeologists who would of course be fascinated by the plastic Charizard figurine I’d buried there (ironically, I had a passionate hatred for Pokemon, but at the time it had been such a pop culture phenomenon among all the other eight year olds, I imagine I thought it was an important piece of prepubescent history). I may or may not have dug this “time capsule” back up a short while later. I planted my favorite flower over top of the spot. Forget-me-nots. Now, in early May, the backyard becomes a blanket of tiny blue flowers.  Thinking about it now, I wish that I had a piece of that blanket to bring home to my own backyard. But it’s too late in the season, and all traces of the flowers are gone. They must be turned over to you, to do with what you will.

As I pull out of the driveway for the last time, I hope that you will love this place as I have loved it, and as those who came before both of us did. I hope that fewer ghosts will haunt you here than have haunted me. And I hope that you will not forget that there were those who came first, and that little bits of us linger in the corners here. And finally, I hope that when you are gone, you will leave your mark too, because it will have meant something to you.

            The relationship between a writer and a reader is sacrosant.  Nowhere is that truer than in Ruth Ozeki’s wildly imaginative, ambitious, and brilliant novel A Tale for the Time Being.  Ozeki redefines that sacred link between novelist and bibliophile and simultaneously blurs the lines between fiction and reality, exhibiting an unbridled and whimsical style so convincing and creative that the reader feels part of the story.   Ozeki intertwines multiple voices in her parallel narrative:  a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun, a Japanese kamikaze pilot, a troubled Japanese teenage girl, and a writer named Ruth.

She opens with the unforgettable tale of Nao, a teen living in Tokyo’s Akiba Electricity Town.  “My name is Nao, and I am a time being,” she writes.  “A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”  “Nao” is eerily similar to “now,” and her name is a deliberate play on words that lends even more power and urgency to this story.

Depressed and anxious from being bullied by her classmates, Nao is an outcast with one friend half a world away.  She is a desperately unhappy young woman who seriously contemplates suicide.  “The truth is that very soon I’m going to graduate from time…I just turned sixteen and I’ve accomplished nothing at all…Do I sound pathetic? I don’t mean to.  I just want to be accurate.  Maybe instead of graduate, I should say I’m going to drop out of time.”  First, though, she vows to write down her great-grandmother’s life story in a diary.  Not only does Nao provide insight into the life of her great-grandmother, a Zen Buddhist nun, but she also illuminates her own existence.

As Nao writes in her diary, she wonders about the person who will one day read her words.  “You wonder about me.  I wonder about you.  Who are you and what are you doing?…Do you have a cat and is she sitting on your lap?  Does her forehead smell like cedar trees and fresh sweet air?”  Although she is just a teen, Nao seems very aware of the passage of time and meditates on the brevity of her existence on earth: “Actually, it doesn’t matter very much, because by the time you read this, everything will be different, and you will be nowhere in particular, flipping idly through the pages of this book, which happens to be the diary of my last days on earth, wondering if you should keep on reading.”

The character of Nao allows Ozeki to introduce Japanese manga and anime culture into her story, making it more lively and accurate.  For Nao, the characters in manga are her friends who help her discover her very own superpower.  Nao needs to find an inner strength, and time with her great-grandmother also helps the girl become confident and strong.

It would have been fairly easy for Ozeki to write a book based solely on Nao’s narrative, yet Ozeki changes her tone and style to present a kind of detective story.  No one is better at detective work than a novelist accustomed to research.  So Ozeki brings in an author named Ruth.

Curiously, Ozeki puts herself in her own fictional work.  Like Ozeki, Ruth lives on a remote island off British Columbia.  Ruth is also a novelist who suffers from writer’s block (Ozeki’s last novel, All Over Creation, was published in 2003, so perhaps this is also true).  Like Ozeki, Ruth is married to a man named Oliver and her mother has recently passed away.  Ozeki is part Japanese and so is Ruth.

I do not recall ever having read a story in which the author becomes such a central figure in his or her own story.  It is a weighty technique, leading the reader to wonder how autobiographical the work is or if it is simply fiction with a revealing twist. Whatever the case may be, the line between fiction and reality is not clear-cut in this novel, which makes it all the more enthralling and appealing.

While walking along the beach one day, Ruth finds a plastic bag containing a Hello Kitty lunchbox.  Inside the lunchbox are a number of items: a series of Japanese letters, a red book containing a famous Marcel Proust piece, and a watch.  However, the pages written by the French novelist, critic, and essayist have been removed and the book now contains the diary of a Japanese teenager named Nao.  The teen’s diary captivates and even obsesses Ruth; she begins a dogged pursuit to find out what happened to Nao.

The deeper Ruth gets into her research and into her quest to locate Nao, the more Ruth is certain that, through the humble act of reading Nao’s diary, she can save the troubled teen.  Ozeki goes a step further, though.  She makes the reader feel like he or she can effect this tale  by reading the story.  The reader really becomes Ruth, transfixed and possessed by Nao’s account.  The fate of the Japanese teen matters deeply not only to Ruth but also to us.

Ozeki expresses our universal desire to connect with others through words and stories.  Ozeki’s characters speak to us across time and across continents and beckon us to follow them to unknown worlds.  Equal parts sobering and inspiring, A Tale for the Time Being is wholly inventive from the first page to the last.  Not since Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry has a novel so deeply moved me.  Profoundly touching and amazingly good, A Tale for the Time Being is destined to become a modern classic.

World Day of Metta

Today, March 20, 2013, the organizers of the World Day of Metta are asking people all around the world to open their hearts and from 12 PM to 2 PM, local time, to meditate on and offer the following metta to all beings of the world:

THE METTA

May all beings have fresh clean water to drink

May all beings have food to eat

May all beings have a home

May all beings have someone to share love with

May all beings know their true purpose

May all beings be well and happy

May all beings be free from suffering

Today, I shall do what I can to make this so.

The offering of metta, or loving-kindness, to others is a non-denominational act. You don’t have to believe in anything except the power of love to change the world! Compassionate hearts of all persuasions, or no persuasions, are invited to join others around the world in 2 hours of loving-kindness.

(If you can’t do the metta between noon and 2 PM your local time, obviously, just do it when you can to take part in the world-wide celebration. The time the metta is given is not nearly as important as taking time to give the metta!   And what may begin as a one-day mutual celebration of love and goodwill to another can become a daily part of one’s life.)

The goal of the World Day of Metta is to say this particular Metta offering at least once for each of the 7 billion plus humans on the planet, as well as all the sentient beings who share our amazing planet with us. Visit the Web site for more information about participating!

Here at Metta Refuge, those who are interested in learning more about the Buddhist practice of metta can find a wealth of information and dharma teachings on how to do loving-kindness, or metta, meditation.

A good place to start is the Basic Metta page, which gives beginning instruction explaining how to do metta, or loving-kindness meditation as taught by the Buddha:

At the Basic Metta page you can download free PDFs by experienced dharma teachers for your personal study. You will also find links to introductory articles by some outstanding Buddhist teachers:

Ajahn Brahmavamso Teaches Loving-kindness

Bringing Metta to Daily Life—A Talk by Bhante Vimalaramsi

Metta—The Healing Power of Visualizing and Radiating Love Toward Others
(Acharya Buddharakkhita)

May We All Be Happy—Beginning Metta
(Gil Fronsdal)

Here at Metta Refuge you will also find many articles about loving-kindness meditation that will help take your deeper into your metta practice. You might want to look into some of these articles:

Metta Phrases for Dealing with Self-Hatred and Self-judgment

The Karaniya Metta Sutta and Healing Through Loving-kindness (with Music)

Audio Dharma-An Introduction to Metta by Gil Fronsdal

Metta in the Moment

Goodwill—Not a Pink Cloud of Cotton Candy Covering the World

I look forward to joining my brothers and sisters in every nation in this great world-wide metta on March 20, 12 PM to 2 PM local time!  And of course, this one-day celebration of loving-kindness is just a beginning.  Giving metta, working with one’s mind and heart to open up to the world with compassion and wisdom is the way of the Buddha, and of good-hearted people everywhere.  What Buddhism offers is a way to take one’s loving-kindness all the way to awakening.

The Great Aspiration of Metta

As a mother, at the risk of her life,
Watches over her only child,
Let him cherish an unbounded mind
For all living beings.

Let him have love for the whole world
And develop an unbounded mind
Above, below and all around,
Boundless heart of goodwill, free of hatred,
Standing, walking, sitting or lying down,
So long as he be awake,
Let him cherish this thought,

This is called divine abiding here.

~ Karaniyametta (Metta) Sutta

Please enjoy listening to:

“Healing through Kindness” by Nawang Khechog from Music As Medicine (With Special Guest Artist R. Carlos Nakai)

POSTSCRIPT:

You might enjoy reading an essay I wrote after my two hours of metta for World Day of Metta.  I explain some of the ways I approached the metta and also share some insights I have learned over years of practicing loving-kindness meditation:

How Practice and Creativity Can Open Up Your Practice

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“Fitter…Happier” from flickr user JoshSemans

Jason Braun  and I continue our discussion on Tim Ferriss and the role of self-promotion. Earlier, we asked: is Tim Ferriss a 4-hour hero or just another asshat? In part four, Jason explained how Ferriss’s ideas helped him accomplish more. Today, I respond to Jason and show how I’ve accomplished a lot without Ferriss’s help.

As Jason said in his last post, Tim Ferriss’s ideas can be applied to make specific, practical change in your productivity. It seems that with a strong will and a lot of solid ideas, you can accomplish a lot, as Jason has.

I see his point, but I’d like to explain further how I’ve become a more productive person without practicing Ferriss’s ideas, and clarify that a lot of Ferriss’s approaches are highly subjective. Like Jason, if you enjoy reading a long list of accomplishments behind your name, Ferriss’s approach might work for you.

Or, it might make you feel like a failure as you lose sight of the things you’ve already accomplished. Not everyone can do what Ferriss does at that scale, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We like to emulate heroes, after all.

I’ve read The 4-hour Workweek, and while I think the ideas presented work for some projects, they don’t work for everything. In his book, he mentions the “pareto principle” or the 80/20 principle, the idea that 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your work. This idea seems great in concept, but I find it doesn’t work in every scenario.

For example, if I want to cut down on my email, I can apply the 80/20 principle by automating most emails, forcing my replies down to less than five sentences or some arbitrary number, and only respond to emails at set times of the day. Emails that require a longer response shouldn’t be dealt with in email. They either need a phone call or a meeting. That’s the 80/20 principle: setting limits and eliminating inefficiency.

However, email is a chore. Does this principle work if you’re applying it to a creative activity? Not so much. This is where the 80/20 idea falls apart. For example, if I’m a writer I can’t cut back on the time I spend editing or researching. I might be able to outsource those tasks at certain stages in the writing process, but ultimately I’m responsible for their completion.

Also, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to anything that has my name on it. I think this is a good thing, and I can’t cut back if I care about something. If it matters this much, it shouldn’t feel like work, anyway. I’m sure Jason, and even Tim Ferriss, would agree with me.

In The 4-hour Workweek, the sections on Elimination and Automation are where I agree with Ferriss the most, but again, I agree with it in terms of eliminating chores, not meaningful work.

As I keep thinking further about these ideas, I come back to Fight Club. I only sort of liked that movie when it came out, but this line is still powerful:

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

That’s right, you are not your fucking khakis. What’s in the bank doesn’t matter. Also, quit comparing yourself to others: what have you done? Does it have meaning? Does it let you accept that your are human?

I discovered Zen Buddhism a couple of years ago. I have used it in a similar way to how Jason has used Tim Ferriss’s ideas: it has helped me shape a life philosophy of minimalism, focus, and determination to carry out things that matter to me. I’ve also tried to stop comparing myself to others as doing more for the wrong reasons is counter-productive.

If Ferriss helps people go to new places and accomplish more, I’m happy for them. I’m glad that Jason has done more after reading Ferriss’s book and blog. However, Ferriss’s approach complicates things. When I read his work, I think: here’s another aphorism, another system to apply, another acronym to memorize.

I see his books as the ultimate self-promotion. He gets to promote his ideas in a credible format while also giving out simple lifestyle advice that’s been promoted before. He’s become the gorilla of guerilla marketing. I respect that on one level, but it’s not going to change how I approach my daily life.

Just remember: you are not your fucking khakis. Go out there on your own and do something. Don’t wait for Tim Ferriss, Jason Braun or me to give you permission.

I sit at the wall of glass looking into the pine forest that encircles my home along the southern coast.  I hear only the sound of the coffee brewing and the faint clicks from the keyboard as I write these words.

Right now the wind from the tail end of the storm is moving through the tall pines.  Each tree moves rhythmically with the wind, first bending to the wind’s will and then swaying back to its upright posture.   Yielding just enough to accommodate the gusts and then returning to its centered, upright way.

The wind ceases.  The dance ends.  The trees are nearly still now, just quivering a bit in the soft breeze that remains.

And then the wind comes up.  The dance commences again.

This cycle repeats- still, then quivering, and then swaying- a choreography of wondrous and hypnotic beauty.

I have not written anything for more than two weeks.  I have thought of writing every day.  And every day I somehow wasn’t able to write- too busy, the idea for the writing unworthy, whatever.

But this morning, I didn’t think about writing, I just sat here and looked out the window.  Wrote what I felt and what I saw.

Nature always models the way.  Giving up resistance, the tree bends to the wind.  But when the wind passes, she returns naturally to her centered existence.

The winds took me away because I resisted, I tried to think my way out.  But when I ceased fighting those winds, when I stopped thinking about what I had to do, I found myself again- here, at the window, watching the waltz in the woods.

Hi!

My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you.

A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be…

What It’s About

Nao is a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo, Japan. Uprooted from her comfortable life in Silicon Valley after the dot-com bubble burst, Nao finds herself to be an outsider and the victim of incessant bullying at her new school. Her mother is disengaged from her life, and her father, unable to cope with the shame of losing his job and struggling to provide for his family, is spiralling into depression and (unsuccessfully) attempts suicide on more than one occasion. To escape her lonely and painful life, Nao resolves to “drop out of time.” But before she ends her life, she decides she must first recount the life of her 104-year-old great-grandmother Yasutani Jiko, who is an anarcha-feminist novelist and Zen Buddhist nun.

Across the Pacific, on a remote island in British Columbia, Ruth discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the beach. Inside she finds a wristwatch, a stack of letters, and Nao’s diary. Suspecting that this is flotsam from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and enthralled by the mystery of it all, Ruth begins to read the diary and finds herself oddly drawn to Nao and her fate.

My Review

A Tale for the Time Being is a moving story that examines the notion of time and the interconnectedness of all things. This is a novel containing a myriad layers and ideas. Ruth Ozeki manages to weave together elements from Zen Buddhism, Western philosophy, Japanese mythology, and quantum physics into a complex, but ultimately captivating, work of metafiction.

There are two principal narratives in this novel: the narrative within Nao’s diary (which turns out to be her own story and not old Jiko’s like she’d planned) and the narrative of Ruth’s experience in reading Nao’s diary. Although the two stories are set in a different place and time, Nao’s in Japan at the turn of the 21st-century and Ruth’s in present-day British Columbia, they seem to intertwine seamlessly.

In a tale about the nature of memory and time, it’s quite apropos to have a narrator named Nao (pronounced now) writing a diary in a repurposed edition of Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu. I found Nao to be a refreshing, young narrative voice. I looked forward to her chapters because, despite her tumultuous life, her diary entries weren’t filled with whiny teenage angst. Instead, I found her to be charmingly irreverent, honest, and self-aware. Her accounts of the severe bullying she experienced at school and witnessing her father’s multiple attempts at suicide were heartbreaking and painful to read, but I never once detected any self-pity. The story of her time spent at the temple learning buddhist rituals from her great-grandmother Jiko is absolutely beautiful.

Ruth’s chapters were a little more challenging to read. Ruth the Character and Ruth the Author have so many similarities that her chapters often blurred the line between fact and fiction. It was somewhat difficult to decipher between the two as I was reading, but perhaps I wasn’t meant to.

Within these narratives is an exploration of time and space, memory, history, philosophy, mythology, loss, hope, and the relationship between reader and writer. It’s difficult to really encompass everything about this novel in one review. It has so many rich layers, carefully thought-out details, and stories-within-stories, and I fear that a simple blog post wouldn’t do it justice. I have to give Ms. Ozeki her credit because, although this novel tackles some pretty bold and complex ideas, her wonderful prose style still rendered it very readable. What can I say? I loved this book, just like everyone else. It was a beautifully-written and compelling read—one that gave me a lot to think about after I turned the last page.

My rating: ★★★★☆

Here’s our card for the week. This is the “Inner Voice” from the Osho Zen Tarot. My copy happens to be in Portuguese, as it was a gift from a guy I was dating years ago who went on a business trip to Brazil. He brought this back as a gift for me. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Portuguese, so never used the deck. I guess I could get the book at least in English, though. I was always sort of down on anything connected with Osho after his shenanigans here in Oregon so was sort of put off the whole deck. But the cards really are quite lovely. Supposedly it’s a system based on Zen Buddhism, but Osho and his groupies were into some nefarious dealings out here. If you want, look up Rajneeshpuram   and the poisoning of local restaurants with salmonella. I won’t even get into his Rolls Royce collection. Be that as it may…

Without translating anything, I’m guessing this card is telling us to trust our instincts. If you’re confronted with a situation, go with your gut, and don’t try to second-guess yourself.

I managed to translate the first paragraph in the book on this card. It’s a little rough, but it says:

“If you have your truth within yourself there is nothing more to discover in this whole existence. The truth is acting through you. When you open your eyes, the truth is opening his eyes. When you close your eyes, the truth is you’re closing your eyes”. (If anyone speaks Portuguese, and I believe the book is in Brazilian Portuguese, the last line is “Quando fecha os seus olhos, é a verdade que está fechando os olhos.”)

I’m relating the card to the traditional second card of the Major Arcana, the High Priestess, the keeper of the mysteries and knowledge. She can indicate the need to listen to wisdom, and point to psychic abilities (intuition, dreams, the subconscious).

Wishing you truth and beauty this week.

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Zen Buddhism neglects a main focus on mere knowledge of the sutras and doctrine, and more so emphasizes the process of enlightenment through Zazen and direct interaction with a fully accomplished teacher. Zazen is a practice of disciplined meditation in which the practitioner may go through the process of attaining enlightenment. This outcome may allow the connection to many simultaneous streams of thought, a connection to the dead, recollection of your previous lives, and even to foresee and predict the future. The most powerful Zen Buddhist practitioners can meditate for days without breaks of nourishment and can think in eight simultaneous streams of thought.

This past January term semester, I had the opportunity to take a course called Green Religion. During this course we got the honor to visit the San Francisco Zen Buddhist Center in which we got a tour of their facility, met their esteemed teachers and took part in a Zazen meditation. The Zen center kept their own organic garden which supplied the food for all the residents which was very impressive. Most Zen Buddhists are vegetarian and care deeply about the environment and humanitarian causes. Today, Zen Buddhists preserve this respectful culture which has played a significant role in the environmental crisis by founding many centers around the world that are focused on recycling and living a very sustainable environmentally friendly lifestyle. This is only the eighth of many lessons of the Chinese history and culture that defines the Chinese mind-state which drives their business to influence the U.S economy.

Longtan made rice cakes for a living. But when he met the priest Tianhuang, he left home to follow him. Tianhuang said, “Be my attendant. From now on I will teach you the essential dharma gate.” After a year, Longtan said, “When I arrived, you said you would teach me. But so far nothing has happened.” Tianhuang said, “I’ve been teaching you all along.” Longtan said, “What have you been teaching me?” Tianhuang said, ”When you greet me, I bow. When I sit, you stand beside me. When you bring tea, I receive it from you.”

Usually a Zen teacher instructs his or her students by giving a Dharma talk about a Sutra or an element of the Buddhist teaching in much the same way as a professor gives a lecture in college. But sometimes he or she will teach not by words but by expressing their understanding of the teaching by the way they walk into the Zendo or eat oriyoki. I recall reading a an account by a student who said that he learned what enlightenment was just by walking behind his teacher and watching how he moved.

This shouldn’t surprise us as we are told over and over again that Zen is “before language,” and is “outside the scriptures.” Of course, our first contact with Zen is usually in words—either in a book or a talk—but if we continue with our practice these words must enter our bodies as our breath does. Eventually the Dharma must saturate every cell of our being. As one ancient Zen Master told his student, “My words are in your blood now.” When the Dharma does saturate your being, your body is transformed.

And so, I’ve become interested in the non verbal ways we communicate with each other, especially during a sesshin when we are instructed to be quiet and not to “look into each other’s eyes” but to keep a dispersed meditative gaze. I have noticed that if I pay attention, I know who has walked by me by the sound of his or her footsteps. In a sense, each of us has a unique sound. This is especially true in the Zendo. In Zen practice we spend a lot of time doing things in unison—sitting down and getting up, standing, walking, and eating. In this way we get an impression of one another from parts of our bodies that are not as directly influenced by our personalities as our faces are. The way we move our hands and feet expresses very deep dimensions of ourselves that we are often unable to express in words.

In our ordinary lives, we can know someone quite well—they can even be a good friend—but what do we really know about them? We may know where they were born and where they went to school. We may be familiar with their beliefs, their tastes in music and movies, their wants and needs and complaints, and so on. Though we know what they look like, we may not really have taken in the expression of their eyes, or the timber of their voice, or the way they move when they are connected to their deepest wish.

When we sit together—sometimes for a weekly 40 minute sit and sometimes for a longer retreat— we usually don’t have the time to talk and so we don’t get to hear each other’s life stories, and yet I do feel that on a deeper level I have come to know the people I sit with very well. When I look around the Zendo, I have the impression that we are all trying to do the same thing, but we each do it a little differently. I see how the posture of each person expresses the Buddha and his teaching in a distinctive way. Last week when I looked at the straight posture of our newest member I felt that I was seeing a new turning of the wheel of Dharma.

The teachings of the Buddhas and ancestors are constantly being restated, sometimes in our words and sometimes in our bodies. Sometimes a teacher will instruct her or his students by offering a lengthy commentary on a difficult part of a Sutra and sometimes she will just bow when she greets them.

Bows,
Stephen