Love in the Time of the Kali Yuga

How is one to have a sense of well being in the time of plague? Even if one is not directly subject to the tide of evil sweeping the world, the suffering innocent and the futility of good will break hearts.

It takes courage to be of good cheer when you recognize the world is run by fools and knaves; courage and self knowledge. To have some relative resistance to sorrow when sorrow is so justified is a tall (yet necessary) order. Anger is the child of sorrow, and it is important not to become the womb of the next oppression.

Only enlightenment can stem the plague. Only enlightenment can stem the sickness and inner darkness made inevitable by knowledge of the world of man. Only enlightenment can make man's place in the Universe so small. Only enlightenment can make the small good one can do so good. Only enlightenment can speak the truth without rancor.

A Simple Truth Simply Stated

Being is a multidimensional fabric. There is not a thing which is not a part of that fabric and as an elemental thick spot in the gelatinous fabric of being if anything moves the movement ripples through existence. This is the way anything is known.

The river is the water, not the ditch. If the river were a river of awareness it would recognize every spring and creek and gutter.

And in knowing its self it would also know the ditch.

Validation

I believe it was Lin Chi who said to his followers "If in your travels you meet the Buddha, slay him." What he was pointing out is; if you require validation your identity is second hand. The fact of existence is first person singular. And though knowing things like "the world is round" can and must be accepted as valid second-hand information, it is only the unnecessary complexity of the modern world (for all it's charm) that gives such information value.

Being a living breathing thinking creature has no explanation.

Know thy self.

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

In the on going search for metaphors that will succinctly express the relationship of Awareness to Consciousness the "mirror" comes up. The eye can not see its self without benefit of a reflective surface. Consciousness is the mirror enabling the awakening of Awareness. It is to be expected that a naive creature would think its self to be its reflection.

Self realization is the water's utility. The death of Narcissus is the water's revenge.

Ten Bulls Eat Chocolate Buddhas

Metaphor, analogy, and parable are the poetic tools necessary to descriptions of enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something that happens to the personality. Enlightenment is rather like the electricity in a TV set waking up. Suddenly the personality doesn't matter much anymore. Its not about the picture.

Pure awareness of it's self does not have color or flavor. It is the very bland emptiness of awareness that is it's supreme value. It is emptiness that makes sound and color possible. Awareness is that emptiness necessary as the womb of form. Form is knowable. Awareness has no form, and yet awareness is the ultimate truth of individual being. So long as we are hypnotized by form we are barred from any approach to the identity of the universe. The Buddhist parable of "The Ten Bulls" is an allegory elucidating an Awareness awakening within it's creature and the subsequent domestication of animal nature by an awakened Awareness.

I suppose it happens that there are cases of spontaneous enlightenment. Some limit is breached and awareness transcends consciousness. If the individual has no experience in and practice of meditation it is inevitable that the personality seize the moment and define the event to it's own satisfaction; thereby thwarting (probably forever) the opportunity of a lifetime. The parable of "The Chocolate Buddha Box" is the appropriate allegory in this tragic case. This kind of case often results in a sincere religious fanatic.

Meditation is the touchstone. Meditation is way. Meditation is the key, and meditation is the door. Simply let consciousness contemplate awareness; nature will take it's course. It is no more necessary to stop one's thoughts than it is to remove the butterflies from a meadow; let them go their way. Awareness is all.

The obvious will become apparent.

The children of the earth will be reborn as the children of the Universe