Plato in the Country of the Blind

 

That Greek of great renown, Plato, lived about 2,500 years ago in the same historical period as Lao Tzu and the historical Buddha. He gave us the records we have of Socrates' demolishing of the rhetorical constructs of his fellow Athenians, but his most famous essay is that of "Plato's Cave"

Plato postulated a society of cave dwellers chained to their seats. Their only referents were shadows on the wall cast by a flickering flame behind them, and his cave dwellers would discourse at great length concerning the significance, the meaning, and the import of these shadows. He then has one of his cave dwellers somehow slip from his chains and make his way to the mouth of the cave where he sees for the first time the "real" world, and who then rushes back to inform his fellows that there is a visceral world of reality of which they have no knowledge: a visceral world that is "real" as opposed to the shadows with which they are familiar.

Our now "enlightened" chap is of course considered (and dealt with) as a dangerous lunatic.

I have often thought of the view that comes with Enlightenment as seeing in the infrared. And that all attempts to describe the ensuing image of reality is an attempt to explain color to someone who sees only black and white, or to explain vision to a cave fish. This, while all the while swimming in a miraculous sparkling sea of crystalline formations of Pristine Awareness.

For me it remains an open question whether or not the ability of Pristine Awareness to awaken and live frolicking in the sun is a genetic mutation available only to an emergent specie of humanity. But one thing of which I am quite certain is that in the present circumstances the practice of meditation is an absolute necessity.

Fly Paper

 

Systems appealing to the personality are like fly-paper for souls.  

Perception

 

Perception is an excitation in the field of Awareness. As we discover in our meditation, the field of Awareness exists in a state of active passivity. Awareness resists nothing and requires nothing. Perception provides an itch and behavior provides the scratching. 

Every creature comes into being with a library of instinctual potentials ingrained in the physical patterns expressed in their existence. These potentials exist to excite the field of Awareness and spur behavior. The exegeses of existence further enrich this library, and the capacity of this library is what is known as "intelligence".

What we see here is that behind all this experiential busyness is the primacy of Pristine Awareness. And that all the activities of all living organisms are constellated to ensure the wellbeing of the residence of said nodal of Awareness. We find here that Pristine Awareness is what we are and that all else is window dressing. 

Consciousness emerges with the advent of nervous systems. Nerve systems enable the creation of rich libraries of experienced exegeses, and with the enrichment of this library comes into being the librarian: the Ego. And this Ego, blind to its origins, believes itself to be the author of its tale when it is actually the stepchild of Cosmic Necessity.

Zen is the slap designed to awaken Pristine Awareness to the true state of things.

Zen is not about the monkey waking up to Awareness. Zen is about Awareness waking up to the monkey.

The Ascent of Awareness

 

In the time-scale of the Universe the ascent of Awareness has progressed smoothly and quickly. Our single-cell ancestors, in a Darwinian progression, gave rise to Homo Erectus. Homo Erectus paved the way for the emergence of Homo Sapiens, and Homo Sapiens is but a wide-spot in the road for the flowering of Homo Sophians. 

The soup of creature-hood is the agar plate for the emergence of Self-Recognition in the fabric of the Universe, and the emergence of what has become known as "Enlightenment" is the denouement of the Universe's aspiration for this "Self-Recognition."

All living creatures are the expression of Pristine Awareness, and Pristine Awareness over millions of years has, like a tree root in rocky ground, leveraged its way through the darkness of material existence in the process of refinement of said Pristine Awareness (which is the substrate of the Universe) that it might awaken to its Self.

The intuitive recognition of the oneness of existence in precocious individuals made religious mysteries inevitable, and filling in the blanks of knowledge in a pre-science world necessitates well constellated mythologies. And in all of this we find the thread of the Universe's appetite for Self-Recognition.

Just as there are mathematical geniuses, amongst the geniuses of all stripes we find religious geniuses. Religious geniuses do not invent anything: they see. And in the historical survey of religious genius we detect the budding fruition of self-recognition in Pristine Awareness. And just as one Einstein tills the field for ensuing mathematicians, a parrot can pronounce great truths.

On the Dogwood tree, every bud that will flower in the Spring is present when its leaves are dropped in the Fall. Those buds winter over and when the time is right they burst into flower in a matter of days. 

Homo Sapiens is the rootstock for the emergence of Homo Sophians.

The Majesty of the Inevitable

 

This blog of personal musings is certainly not about events in the world of the unenlightened, but it is so glaringly obvious that the animal faction of humanity is impervious to the majesty of the inevitable that they seem rather like an ant contemplating the toe of an elephant with aspirations and self importance.

I take it as a personal failing that I find this not only astounding, but a touch horrifying.

The Law of the Jungle

While the jungle is morally neutral, the foundational nature of Awareness in all creatures leads to emotional judgements that, while conflicting, are axiomatic: it is wrong to be hurt, it is wrong to be eaten, it is right to wield power, it is right to eat. Several thousand years ago a famous Greek wrote down that "The powerful do as they will. The weak endure what they must."

All animal behavior is an exploitation of its environment in pursuit of satisfaction of an organic need, and in the more complex creatures this includes complex needs that are psychologically driven. There is no behavior without motive whether it is scratching your nose or some act of tribal rapine. 

As we survey the infusion of intelligence into animal existence through the vehicle of evolution we find the emergence of a remarkable property. We find the emergence of an intelligence capable of awakening to the Pristine Awareness which is the substrate of its existence, not to mention the essence of all life. One might say that the spirit of life-itself has awakened.

As long as the mind of humanity at-large enjoys the state of animal innocence, our societies will reflect the laws of the jungle.

The Baby and the Bath Water

 

The maturation of Awarness can set one at odds with the old world brain of which it is the flower. It is never a good idea to set oneself in an adversary position to nature, for the self tires and nature does not. 

The awakening of Pristine Awareness which I refer to as Enlightenment does just this: in the same manner as a light coming on in a previously dark room, the cave lair of the latent contents of the unconscious mind is flooded with awareness. The archaic superstructure of the personality is clearly revealed to be the mechanical prod to behavior which it is, and it is not uncommon that the emerging Self is uncomfortable with what it has found. Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) in his later years regretted the suffering he wreaked upon "Brother Mule" in his early struggles with his own humanity. 

In the same way as a dedicated archaeologist methodically and respectfully proceeds with a dig, one must reverently catalogue and repurpose the discovered energies of the antique genetic imperatives which are the soil of our being.

I suppose one way of looking at is: new growth through cultivation rather than "slash and burn."

The Citadel

 

Within every living creature in the Universe there is a Citadel. And in every living creature this Citadel is surrounded by an ancient and vast city swarming with layers of commerce and political expediency. In most every living creature there is no silence in the Citadel before the insistent cacophony of the city's rhythms.

The Universe has, over a period of millions of years of trial and error, come up with an organism in which the Citadel can come to its senses as it were, and rule the city.  

It is the gift of Silence,

The Lost Powers of Intuition

 

All knowledge is the product of intuition, but intuition is the fruit of Awareness and knowledge is a product of mind.

The intuitive "knowing" proper to any creature subject to awareness is in humanity subject to layers of knowledge. The obvious advantages of culture ask and in fact demand subordination of intuition to the disciplines of knowledge. The intuitive spontaneity found in children and other animals is gradually buried under a progressive burden of cultural norms and expectations to the point that for most specimens of humanity access to intuition is effectively cut off, and in leu of intuitively making one's way through life, one's life proceeds by juggling mental artifacts. These mental artifacts include such niceties as atom bombs and political parties (the benefits of civilization not withstanding).

At any rate the presence of being found in religious figures of historical note is the immediate side effect of a life founded in the cultivation of Awareness, and the restoration of mankind's native powers of intuition is a natural result of the practice of meditation.

The Weight

 

Much of the advice concerning "inner balance" is of the nature of counter-balance: cultivate pleasant memories etc. This must work for most people because this sort of thing gets a lot of ink. However that may be, it seems to me that this is a compensation that adds to the total weight one carries down the path of life.  One is unbalanced due to an unpleasant weight carried in ones right hand, so one puts a counter balancing pleasant weight in ones left hand. Some balance is achieved at the price of burden. 

The mind has formed these burdens in response to the vicissitudes and residues of existence. The ultimate nature of our existence is not the mind. The ultimate nature of our existence is Pristine Awareness. When we achieve that seismic change of identity from mechanically accepting ourselves as the waves to realizing ourselves as the water, we no longer are the tool of the mind.

It is profound relaxation. This "profound relaxation" can not be achieved by effort. Profound relaxation is discovered as the natural state of Pristine Awareness: the essence of all life. The weights that we carry are usually valid, real, visceral (I speak as a combat veteran on the wrong side). It is not about covering up or somehow compensating for the dark side of our humanity. It is about becoming a different kind of creature: a creature truly awake in the fabric of existence.

The waves are the water. When the water is awake the disturbances that are the stuff of the colorful surface of life will come and go. These agitations great and small are the stuff life feeds upon and by them the Universe finds its Self informed. The water of Awareness is enriched thereby.

Simply direct the mind to the contemplation of awareness. There is no effort in awareness for Awareness is simply aware. This practice will lead to unsuspected realms of Self discovery in anyone who will make a sincere commitment.

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.