As the Crow Flies

 

There is a phrase in these once remote Ozark hills used to describe the shortest distance between two points, and that phrase is "as the crow flies." This is what "The Bird Path" is all about.

One encounters so much advice about how to rearrange one's inner furniture, and so much verbiage and effort concerning consciousness this consciousness that. None of this is pertinent to the awakening of the Pristine Awareness which is the core of not only your existence as a human being, but the "I AM" of all living creatures.

The image that comes to my mind is that of someone washing and waxing their car, sweeping out the glove box, vacuuming under the seats, polishing the rearview mirror, rather than simply getting in and driving to their allegedly chosen destination. Tidying up our humanity is like polishing a mud ball: there will be nothing left when we have cleaned it all up. We are children of the soil, and removing the soil from our being will leave an empty shell. Not to mention that the effort put into "raising consciousness" might have been put into the awakening of Pristine Awareness.

A difficult (but not insurmountable) fact is that consciousness is a conditioned state of Awareness, hence the old image of searching for fire with a candle. Another hurdle is the supposition that what we seek is a personal evolution, when the fact of the matter is that the personal has become translucent and therefor no longer a source of fascination.

The use of meditation to permit Pristine Awareness unfettered access to expression in the event which is our person-hood requires some preparation or else the freedom of self will be accessed as self improvement. But then it all depends on where you want to go. And as the crow flies, the bird path is the shortest distance between that place and where you now stand.

Certainty

The colors of experience which become the motive forces behind our lived moment boil down to a very few primary movers. These primary movers transcend our humanity, our mammal-ness, and are coeval with our existence as animals. With regard to our behavior as psychological beings the foundational need is that of "certainty". Emerging from the obvious need for food and shelter is an awareness of the uncharted land of a morrow. And this primal awareness of "future" in a sophisticated brain will naturally lead to the creation of "certainty".

Certainty is the foundation of civilization with its web of benefits and failings. The dysfunctional extensions of certainty include such behavioral grotesqueries as greed, lust for inordinate power, and a host of psychological maladies that when examined reduce to a hysterical need for certainty, and perhaps an intuited awareness of certain catastrophe. With regard to any future for humanity it is extraordinarily important that power possessing beings are not operating under dysfunctional appetites for certainty, but as we look about us the opportunities for catastrophe are little ducklings in a row following their dysfunctional certainties to their unnecessary denouements.

The most subtle and insidious uncertainty is that of the undiscovered self. The ultimate actuality of self is Pristine Awareness. And when Pristine Awareness becomes the seat of personal identity we exist in a discovered universe of certainty.

Meditation is the key

Satori is the door.

Pavlov is the mythical guarantor,

Why it is Called Enlightenment

In the analects of ancient Zen we find recounted the satori of a young monk. Discouraged by lack of progress in his pursuit of Enlightenment he resolved to repair to a secluded mountain hut and there pursue his illusive quarry. In tidying up around his hut a rock tossed off to the side struck a stalk of bamboo and suddenly all became clear to our young monk. 

This move to Enlightenment did not happen in a vacuum. This young man was steeped in in the silence of meditation and saturated with the spirit of inquiry resulting from the koan exercise. He recognized in the sound of the struck bamboo a mirror to the receptive emptiness of Awareness: the true Self behind the noise of mind. He saw his "true face before born of his parents" and awoke to the the fact that his Awareness was "the sound of one hand clapping"

The receptive stillness of the eardrum is the source of sound, and a cacophony of noise breeds incoherence. Just so the effects of consciousness upon that Awareness which is the signal characteristic of all life. Throw some thought into the mix and we find a humanity hypnotized by the noise of existence and therefor living in darkness.

And that's why it's called Enlightenment.

Mass Hypnosis and the Disciplines of Zen Buddhism

"When the people of the world look apon these flowers they see them as if in a dream" these words were spoken to the Emperor of Japan by the national teacher many centuries ago. 

The hold of consciousness over Awareness amounts to a form of hypnosis, and the disciplines of Zen Buddhism are intended to break this tyrannical spell, thus bringing to flower in the garden of animal proliferation the Pristine Awareness which is the essence of all life. 

The emergence of the formal pursuit of Enlightenment resulting from the efforts of the historical Buddha is a landmark event in life on Earth. 

The hypnotic trance which is the normal state of consciousness has been infused with destructive capabilities unimagined by the hostile fascinations of past generations. Hypnosis has once again past into hysteria, but this time we are courting a slap in the face from which the world as we know it may not recover.

Only Enlightenment can save the world.

Cognitive Readiness and the Mysteries of ZEN

 

The compost pile of scientific inquiry has made inevitable the flowering of global cognitive readiness. There are so many nexus, so many data points of mutually supporting facts, that connecting the dots to produce a startlingly clear realization of the true nature of consciousness and its emergence from Pristine Awareness is in many individuals a synaptic inevitably.

The esoteric realities uncovered by centuries of religious geniuses no longer require brilliant exercises of intuitive discipline, and most any reasonably intelligent person can connect the dots that circumscribe the true nature of their existence. 

So humanity has entered the phase of cognitive readiness, and perhaps it's not too late for the mysteries of Zen to save the world.

Here's to those great historic individuals who kept the flame alive.

The Repository and the Fact of Life

 

The mind is an interface, and the senses of the body act as a system of antennae. Exactly like a satellite TV antenna, the eye is sensitive to specific wavelengths of electromagnetic energy, and the eye is not sensitive to the barrage of other wave forms. Hearing, seeing, feeling, etc. are all forms of touching, and what is touch but the outside world acting upon the antenna which is the nervous system.

The nervous system mechanically transmits this "information" to the brain where Awareness assembles these mechanical stimuli into representations. The outside world is really there, and it is really as it appears to be. There's just a lot more of it than we need to access in order to get by.

Meditation is the exercise by which we awaken Pristine Awareness: the repository and the fact of life.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

The Womb of the Self

 

The receptive emptiness of Awareness

is the womb of the Self

Descartes' Conundrom

 

Rene Descartes' (died 1560) famous dictum "I think, therefor I am" was contrived to answer the question: might there be an incontrovertible proof of the existence of a reality: any reality. Reversed upon itself the statement will render "I am, therefor I think". And what might the churning maelstrom of thought fix upon.

One celled creatures with no nervous systems at all exhibit incontrovertible evidence of awareness, yet lost in thought we ask if other creatures are "conscious".

The eye can not see its self.

Awareness can see only its self. And as the Self is formed by touching the Universe, the Universe is known

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Self Inquiry

 

It has been said "There is no insight. There is only out-sight": be that as it may.

Insight? or Out-sigtht? It matters hugely when we observe the phenomenon which we might call the "Self", whether we are on the outside looking in, or if we are on the inside looking out.

If Awareness is identified with, and believes its "Self" to be the animal and the personality: we will call this "The Outside Looking In." If Awareness is the seat of the identity then the "Self" perceives the workings of its animal creature-ness, and the corresponding personality, the same way one might look at the workings and character of an automobile. 

This is called the "Inside Looking Out."

Volition

 

If we are prepared to be frank about how we spend our time here on Earth, then it is only fair to question how much of that time is spent in the exercise of volition. With regard to the time spent satisfying our needs as animals: could that really be considered voluntary? And then if we consider the time we spend satisfying the circumstances necessary to the satisfactions of those needs, can that really be considered voluntary? Perhaps as swimming is voluntary with regard to drowning.

Modern political science speaks of "Labor" and "FIRE" as sectors of commerce. But what is described as "Labor" is actually the marketing of volition. And all executive functions are no less exercises in volition. And all of these fall under the auspices of sink or swim.

There exists an infinite variety of access to the goods and services produced by the necessary subordination of volition to nature, and on that sliding scale all creatures will find their place.

So the will finds its volition, will-he or nihil-he, bending in servitude to nature.

In the Enlightened Being nature has awakened, and that is the dawn of true volition.

Chop wood, carry water.

The Body

 

The body is an apparatus. 

Be it whale or butterfly, male or female, Awareness has no color.....no flavor, but experiences its existence and naturally forms an identity through the limits and the opportunities found in form.

This is why it is said that for the Enlightened being the body is filled with light.

The Problem With Systems

 

The problem with systems is that they usually work through and attempt to restructure the personality. While this can result in beneficial posturing it does nothing, and in fact can make it all but impossible, to effect the change of being known as Enlightenment.

"If in your travels you meet the Buddha, slay him." (Lin-chi died 866)

Transition

 

The transition from a mind captured by consciousness to a mind informed by Awareness is as remarkable as that of a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Life Forms

 

Awareness is the essence of life - independent of form.

ZEN

Zen has achieved it's purpose when we have absorbed our illusions and become what we were to begin with.

Self Discovery

 

What do we mean by "self discovery"? How far do we wish to delve into the mystery of our selves. Sigmund Freud and Carl G. Jung were pioneers in the same way as Danial Boone: where once an Indian trail crossed the Cumberland Gap there is now a four lane highway. Without having scratched the surface how will be plumb the depths. 

In this narrative, of now however many years, I have tried to point out the stratigic importance of meditation. There is absolutely no doubt that the ordinary untrained mind is overwhelmed by the white noise of animal nature. This would be fine if it weren't for proliferation and for the violence inherent in the creature that we are.

It is not shocking that we fuck and that we kill each other. We've done all that from the dawn of time. Yet as a being we are the soil from which an entirely new animal might emerge. An animal that, though an unapologetical biological being, perceives its self with utmost clarity.

And that's a start.

Romantic Notions

 

What is "The Who"? 

If this "Who" reduces to a repository of territorial imperatives which make up the bulk of the personality then the individual is a myth, and we find before us mere plaid, woven of universal animistic themes.

The universal animistic themes which make up the foundation of the personality are the laws of a jungle which is everywhere the spontaneous product of nature.

So the question before us is this: does there exist an element within us above and beyond the obvious animal.  Is there a True Self: an entropy dissipating Awareness that is capable of perceiving and entering into a symbiotic relationship with the jungle.

If such exists it is a product of the jungle in the same way that a butterfly is a product of the caterpillar, and the degree of separation is absolute and irreversible.

Once found in this state we will notice that the common condition of the animal which is humanity, is to paper over the various laws of the jungle with romantic notions.

"The cypress tree in the courtyard."

The "Not Self"

 

The "Not Self" has cleverly camouflaged itself in our enlightened modernity. Psychology has taken upon the individual the sins and excesses of the ancient behavioral ruts which long ago were identified and separated from the individual psyche as the influence of the gods. The influence of Mars, of Aphrodite, and of other assorted gods were admitted to be influences outside of individual will. This implies the existence of a Will that is self referential and entropy dissipating which we might refer to as "The Real Self." While it was recognized by the ancients that the energy of the Real Self was subverted and preempted by the sway of animistic archetypes, moderns say "I" to the sway of the ancient gods and lose the ability to Awaken.

The Easter Bunny is Kali's rabbit. The birds and the bees are her minions. The flowers are a riot of sexual longing.

Why should a fish suspect the existence of water

The Undiscovered Animal

With the awakening of Awareness it becomes obvious that much of our personality before the dawning of Awareness was driven by the domain of the animal. The animal exists in an impersonal realm of biological necessity, and uses Awareness to exploit resources of nutrition and tribalism to its instinctual benefit.

When Awareness discovers the animal the tables are turned and the animal becomes a resource rather than a ruler.

Idle Thought

 

It occurs to me that the "Holy Ghost" of Christianity and the "Buddha Nature" of classical Buddhism are one and the same.

Perfomance of Narrative

It has been remarked in fables and philosophies that the world is a stage and we must play our part.

This is absolutely true.

From birth, through narrative and inculcation, we are trained to our roles. There is no aspect of cultural being that is not charged with, and dominated by, roles which have become normative by way of social evolution. One individual is a potentate another is a peasant. Had these individuals been born into other circumstances the structures of their lives would be correspondingly different. There exists a cultural eco-system populated with creatures adapted to every niche and cranny. 

The question before us is what is it that finds itself so adaptable.

Our roles, our personalities, our pride and our prejudices, are garments woven by the creature that we are in response to the vagaries of its existence.

What is the Who? 

Ascent

 

In the ascent of the Universe to self recognition through the vehicle of Life's ongoing sophistication of Awareness, humanity is merely a moment of convenience.

So near

Yet so far.

Monkey Business

 

Let us imagine one million monkeys silently evolving in empty space. Each one can access all of the knowledge, religious and secular, that exists in the universe, and yet they are asleep.

The awakening of Awareness that I have been referring to as "Enlightenment" is not the monkey waking up to Awareness. It is Awareness waking up to the monkey.

Intuition

Beneath the world that the mind of humanity has created, lies an undiscovered (and unsuspected) world of intuition. 

The works of genius which have given men and women so many comforts and so many horrors were first intuited, and then crafted, into being. The mind's distorted twisting of the fruits of intuition will be the end of us all

But that's not the point. 

The point is that with the awakening of Awarness the mind no longer rules the intellegence, and we enter a magical realm of unerring Intuition. 

Physicality

All existences are physical existences. 

The force-field of a magnet is invisible to the human eye, but non-the-less its physical existence is incontrovertible. The awareness which we find in all life is also a field phenomenon, and in the same way as magnetism, awareness is dependent upon specific agregates of matter for its activity. In much the same way that magnatism is a much utilized yet wholly mysterious phenomenon known only by its affects, the Awareness which is the substrate of all identity is a wholly mysterious phenomenon known only by its affects. 

The "What" that is the "Who" of our daily life is a field of Awareness, and our humanity is the form made necessary to its existence: our humanity is a vehicle and an abode and a means of proliferation. Awareness (like magnatism) has only one quality: Awareness. In every creature we find Awareness, which is the very stuff of life, totally identified with the vehicle that maintains it. It is quite inevitable that this should be so. It is also quite inevitable that at a certain point in the evolution of living organisms, Awareness should achieve self-recognition and become the seat of identity, thus entering into an entirely new relationship with the natural world.

It is not too great a stretch to consider that such an awakening might be the entire thrust of evolution to begin with.

Shakespeare Reads Thucydides at a Dylan Festival

 

I have a friend who suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome. She suffers terribly. She can’t eat. She can’t sleep. As therapy I have recommended cultivation of “The Historical View.“

In the prelude to his account of the (431 BC) Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (a general on the losing side) says that if people understood how stupid and unnecessary the war was then perhaps this sort of thing need never happen again. In the plays of Shakespeare we find a catalog of cruelty, cunning, and chicanery worthy of any modern despot. Bob Dylan’s “Times They Are A Change’n” was something of an anthem for a certain idealistic set back in the day, but the times have slogged on in the same muddy rut.

The creature that we are continually recreates the forms made inevitable by the animal that it is.

My friend immediately found Donald Trump recast as Shakespeare's Richard the Third, but it hasn’t seemed to help much.

I think we’ll try Ecclesiastes next.

The Perception of No Mind

A silent Mind becomes the ears and eyes of Awareness. 

 Mind is a configured state of Awareness and when Awareness is configured, a state of tension exists that makes impossible the suppleness necessary to the more subtile aspects of perception. 

 No Mind does not imply the absence of Awareness.  Though a necessary and valuable tool, Mind is an abridgment of Awareness.

 The hand must guide the tool.

About Gnats

A world in which gnats exist is not made more remarkable by the existence of humanity.

Our Existence as Biological Beings

 

Our existence as biological beings is an accessory to Awareness.

Nuts and Bolts

 

Though necessary and celebratory, consciousness is patently superficial. Like the skin of any animal, consciousness is an interface and a protective layer. It is a conditioned state of Awareness that is made inevitable and necessary by the vicissitudes of existence, and the Awareness of any organism is generally found wholly identified with its animal consciousness.

But animal existence is the garden in which the Awareness of the Universe distills and refines itself to the state of Self Recognition. When the Universe awakens to Self Recognition in its progeny this is called Enlightenment. Awakened Awareness clearly recognizes consciousness as superficial and consciousness becomes more or less subsumed by an Awareness that transcends what is normally considered consciousness.

One side affect of this is that we find individuals with abundant potential who are hypnotized by consciousness and who therefore never become properly Aware.

Consciousness is individual.

Awareness is Universal