Personal Existence: Post Satori

The allegory of "The Ten Bulls" has been part of the lore of Zen for over one thousand years. The bull of "The Ten Bulls" allegory is actually a water buffalo commonly used in Asia as a general purpose beast of burden. Hauling wagons, plowing rice paddies, loaded up with packs, and ridden with saddles, the water buffalo was (and is) reliable, strong, and tough. And for all its strength and utility it was not uncommon in my years in rural Asia to find one with the ring in it's nose tied to a light cord, docile and led down a dirt road by a child.

Post Satori: Pristine Awareness finds its Self in possession of a rather extraordinary vehicle of expression.

When asked about his next incarnation an ancient master replied,

"I'll come back as a buffalo down the mountain"

Stating his purpose: to come back as a beast of burden for good of the people.

The Fakir's Bed

The Hindu fakir on his bed of nails is the perfect simile for a common condition of mind.

We make of vexations great and small an intellectual-emotional bed of nails upon which to lie.

Each nail forged from the iron of rectitude.

Moral Compass

An animal has no need of a compass

Themes and Memes

For many years I eked out a living painting in oils. Landscapes, city streets, portraits, I have done them all, and in every case I considered the voice of the moment my subject matter. I would layout the basic framework (like framing a house) mixing estimates of color with blends of the primaries: red, blue, and yellow. With these and some white and black I was able to block out a structure to paint into with subtle admonitions of color, and was generally able to achieve my purpose. Red, Blue, and Yellow: the 'primaries' from which all colors are woven. 

Just so human nature.

Homer's "Iliad", Mallory's "Mort de Arthur", Murasaki's "Genji Monogatari", have stood the test of time because they are raw examples of the primary colors of human experience: the the romance of sex and violence and matters of 'honor' is alive and well in every driver behind the wheel of every car on every freeway anywhere in the world. Humanity finds its Self framed out in broad strokes of archetype and personalized with finish-work of adaptive color.

The awakening of Pristine Awareness is as if the canvas awoke.