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AN ANTIMATTER SCAR This one, as well as most of the others, is a meditation on the source of all things - whatever one may think of as a thing, meaning all thoughts that enter a mind (a sort of processor) are processed as a coffee bean in a mill. So these questions that may seem like a trap are significant because they lead us to the no-thing state. What is nothing? Certainly not a thing, as the word suggests, but "something" much more important, the formless state, or true nature. Pure consciousness is the goal for all of us. Only when this state is achieved are all material phenomena placed in their proper position, suchness. Money as the symbol of the material world, a ball and chain (clamped to the material realm) - the desperation of man (where we are now as mankind?) testifies that something is wrong. Yet there are other realms, and our lack of awareness does not mean that they do not exist. On a cloudy day we can say that there is no sun. Most lives are cloudy - all the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kōan THE DOORS OF PERFECTION Throughout all these photopoems the reader may recognize what Jung would call archaic symbols, which are the vocabulary of the unconscious. Here we are in front of - or behind (who knows!) - the door. Who is asking? What we are and what we think we are is the matter that matters. "You can lose what you have but you cannot lose what you are". I love this sentence because it helps us so much to "understand" our true nature (GOD NATURE). From "here" you can see through the eyes of God. You can see your EGO (costume) and all products of the mind (fears, anxiety, depression, etc.). We have to unwear the costume, overcome this obstacle (the wall) and refuse to be victims of illusions (the mirror).The question is not HOW to get there, because we are already there. As the Zen master said, "The answer has never been separate from the question". We just have to recognize this. Be quiet…shoo your minds away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes UP TO YOU Divine pro (providence, proposal, Proteus, professional)…If man is the creation of god and the Bible mentions so many times that are we not supposed to think that a woman is god's creation as well, why is it that man has subordinated woman? Maybe because he needs her to share the responsibility during the evolution of survival in his manner. Naturally the woman took care of the kids and the man took care of protecting the tribe. To then everything works in a natural way, but I often think about when man became aware of the spiritual. Why did Abraham want to sacrifice the firstborn? I can understand the fear and the respect for the unknown of an ancient man, but I can't understand the disrespect for the mother of the sacrificed. Man does not make this kind of sacrifice anymore, but the woman remains subordinate to man. When I see metaphoric comparisons of duality pairs, I try to understand which one the wise would choose. Do they compare the women/night and the man/day or the women/moon and the man/sun? I find the first the right one and the second wrong, because the second one is the same as we live today and intends to say that the moon does not have its own light, only reflecting the sun. That would mean that the sun is alive and the moon is dead. We see it is false by adding another moon to the same orbit - you cannot add another night to the first duality (day/night). Woman is equal to man. Not in the mathematic sense, but in the sense of complementariness (as together they form a whole). This is not understood by men, who understand that their dominance must begin in the spiritual realm. Consider celibacy: no God would demand celibacy, but celibacy is a very rational choice for a leader of men, providing the illusion of a pedestal unavailable to women appearing noble, though just an elegant way to cut women from the leadership of the church. Treating a woman as a necessary evil allows an imbalance in the relation man/woman. Consider this example of the tenuous male position: A man decides to go hunting and after a longer absence, comes home with an abundant catch only to find that the woman has become a vegetarian. Preachers are mostly men with no experience hunting, providing. But are they immune from Jung's ANIMA/ANIMUS? Are they not subconsciously aiming to be attractive to women?Religions do not allow people to think about god in a natural way, rather they impose their way of learned and thus limited knowing of what god should be. Religions as they are today are too rigid and they are slowing down the evolution of mankind. Science demands a new way to perceive god because science is surpassing religions, accelerating the speed toward god (quantum physics for example).The passion of scientists to invent new things by deciphering patterns of god are much more likable looking through the eye of god than the weakness of religions trying harder to make people understand god. I would suggest ZEN because I don't consider it as a religion, just a manner of preparing the mind to understand one's true nature and as consequence the nature of god. Woman and abortion? Is there at least one woman with the power to decide whether abortions should be allowed according to the needs or desires of women? What a shame - soon the church will accept the rigth to abortion, otherwise they will be defeated by the force of arguments. In this regard, I would ask first: who is pregnant? A man? Imagine that someone will not allow you to visit the dentist because they think that what was given by god cannot be touched. But this is a question of life, they'll say. In this transition period of mankind we were aiming to become like god and we are doing great by gaining the opportunity to decide to keep the baby or not. Remember the girl from India raped by seven or eight monsters on the school bus? Preachers, have you ever thought about her father and mother? If the church will try to argue that the baby is god's own it will be closing its eyes to avoid noticing much bigger sins in our world that will never be punished. On the other hand, why should the church decide about anything. Who gave them this exclusivity? I am sure that this is an egoistic act aimed towards gaining new believers. In this I can recognize patterns of managing business and not transmitting the knowledge of our once embodied gods. I like the Hindu presentation of how god could be percieved: God is fire and we are sparks. I think that we have to become aware that we all are forming god, so the "portrait of god" is our common portait. We are god. If we are mostly bad, so is god. Why do we have to be afraid of the growing egoism in the world? Because ego demands more oxygen for its inflation; it means that sparks wants to be separate from the fire and so causes the imbalance, in other words, the weakness/illness of the fire and we are back to four basic elements: FIRE, AIR, WATER, EARTH - we can see it in meteorological conditions. Don't extinguish the fire. It is in our interest to do things consulting our consciences to become aware, which is the direction to the divine; but it is up to you, as it is up to you if you want to have a homosexual partner or if you want to live in celibacy. Both choices are man's choices, not god's commandments, so there is nothing to be proud of. Nature shows us that they can reproduced among them and that should be enough. It is not the question for the church, because it is a question/matter of taste or choice and it is neither right nor wrong, but is. Should anyone be excluded from the love of god? In ZEN tradition the person who has an aspiration to live a spiritual life is "going up the mountain”. Who is asking what is right or wrong? A cliché states that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. How is that possible? It is only possible when wisdom is lacking. That part of us evaluating our decisions is conscience. Sigmund Freud had a very interesting view of our psychic constitution. He divided our inner mind or self into ID, EGO and SUPEREGO, the three parts of the psychic apparatus, which are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interactions mental life may be described. According to this model of the psyche, the ID is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the SUPER EGO plays the critical and moralizing role; and the EGO is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the ID and the SUPER EGO. The SUPER EGO or CONSCIENCE, which I call company can stop one from doing certain things that one’s ID may want to do. Because of its role as mediator Ego has a negative connotation, for it must mediate between ID (the ‘animal’ in us) and the SUPER EGO (the father's or the Divine in us). Ego develops a variety of defense mechanisms intended to be acceptable (very often packing perverted contents in fancy wrapping paper-lies) for society/company. Therefore we have us/me and them - the root of all conflicts. So, who is judging who, if all small or subjective/relative truths are entangled or one with the big or absolute truth? Rope, then - the symbol of entanglement that binds duality in oneness. How can God see everything? Through the fragmented eye of God each of us possess conscience within. There is no way to make the wrong decision in relation to others if one consults one’s conscience before acting. Simply ask yourself whether your actions would harm anyone’s feelings. Freedom means doing what one wants and is just the reverse side of love. God is blind and deaf to our excuses and bad deeds as the PROTEUS/human-fish of the photo. It is only our miss-perception that wants God to see. God is "just" the base where everything occurs, not a judge. The judgment is built into our deeds. OUROBOROS, the snake holding apples, is a symbol of wisdom and the never-ending divine polygon. We have to become aware of this and help others to understand it. The frog has a different point of view - and thus perception - than a bird. Let's go to the mountain. Climb is for yourself, descent is for others. I was dreaming that I was sneaking around the doors of god's office and I heard him talking with someone from Syria and as I could deduce that his phone signal was too bad at once the doors opened. I entered the office and on his desk was a paper, probably new commandments that he wanted to burn onto stone. I saw the list and as I can remember this was the order : 1. abolition of poverty 2. respect for the woman 3. clear conscience 4. freedom 5. freedom 6. freedom 7. freedom 8. freedom 9. freedom 10. freedom and I thought something must be wrong because of the last six on the list, but then fortunately my dog's barking woke me up, so the dream was still fresh and I was impressed to the point that I burned the whole thing on a CD, because I was afraid to forget my dream.Later on that day, during the visit of my daughters when we were talking about how difficult life is, I've heard someone screaming : »My name is Elijah !«, and it seemed to me that it was coming out from the belly of my daughter which is pregnant and right after, these words made me say: »Fear is the most equiped advocat of the ruin!« While I was asking myself about these words the answer comes almost imediately : »It starts with the stain on the conscience.« https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_providence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros XP-TATHATA This one sounds like Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode; Johnny never learned to read or write well, but he could play the guitar just like ringing a bell. The XP or CHI-RO is one of the earliest forms of Christogram, formed by superimposing the first capital letters, CHI and RO (XP), of the Greek word XPI∑TO∑ (CHRIST) in such a way as to produce a monogram. The CHI-RO symbol was used by pagan Greek scribes to mark a particularly valuable or relevant passage in the margins. The combined letters CHI and RO standing for Chreston, meaning "GOOD". On the other side is TATHATA (with its rhythmic sound) which in Sanskrit means SUCHNESS. When suchness is your rhythm, the music of your life is Divine. My intention in this photopoem is to comfort all those who have no "titles" or school diplomas because such material papers are irrelevant when you are not aware of your true nature. Only at that point where you begin to understand this can you comprehend JESUS-a golden fish talking to a seagull: Johnnie the free spirit.Nobody can disappoint your true nature. From this is derived "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/chuckberry/johnnybgoode.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tathātā MU - Miss Understanding MU, in Japanese and Korean means "not have" or "without" - the key word/concept in Buddhism, especially in Zen traditions. Some English translations of MU are: no, not, nothing, without, nothingness, non-existence, non-being, not having, absence of something, pure human awareness prior to experience or knowledge, the original non-being from which being emerges. What is meditation? Meditation is a way to achieve MU, but there are other ways. There are people who have spontaneous breakthroughs, but don't know what to do with this, or are even so scared of it that they think they are crazy (after all, what for someone could be heaven, for someone else could be hell; such is imperfection, because the Ego/duality view persists and prevails).There are very rare people who are aware of their true nature from the very beginning of their lives - actually they never forget their true nature. Nothingness for the mind is very often a great shock. But that's it. When the fruit is mature it falls down on its own. When we are prepared for it we will recognize it as a shelter (home) where nothing really matters at all. Reincarnation? A simple wish, it shows how much we are addicted to our EGO (costume). If we are pure consciousness and the MU state confirms this, the wish for reincarnation disappears. Imagine a balloon of gum inflated by the "air of the essence/true nature" and then detach from its surface the makings of a little balloon and tie it. Then make 7 billion little balloons on the surface which are filled with the same essence. Imagine a structure of fractals. The only thing that separates each balloon is a knot. The knot is what we are so desperately addicted to (KNOT = EGO, that's why they say EGO is the symbol of separation, for it is a curtain covering the door to true nature). From here emerges a brotherhood of all people and all that is alive. When we pass away we just untie the knot and "we are going home" where we have always been (a collective soul). "There" is no time, no space, no past and no future. Ego alone perceives these parameters. "There" is only an eternal now. What happens with the EGO when we pass away? The same as our body, it decays. Where once was the "place" of the knot is left - ha, ha, ha - an antimatter scar. Does evolution ever stop? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensō https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Śūnyatā https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satori INRI I'M NOT RESURRECTING IN...this world of spiritual poorness ruled by the new Romans in a total absence of love. If reincarnation is possible, whose decision is it to send us back in a little separate balloon onto the surface of the big one. God? Or is it just our desire at the end of our lives to try once more to make it better. So before dying make a decision: to create a new life, think about your story and his (IHS) story. He came as a man from God (I AM THAT I AM - true nature) - where else could he come from? Don't be impressed by the immensity of this world (it is all in a bubble): We cannot return into a new life with the same EGO (costume), because it was too weak (that's why I say "corrections, that's what we are"). We have to go back "home" to ennoble our souls and then not just try but actually live a noble life. Don't identify with your Ego but with your God nature. Reassure rectitude (righteousness - the quality of being morally right) as did Jesus. Don't be disappointed that he cannot redeem our sins. If you relieve a man of his burden he is a free man, they say, but NO!, we have to do it by ourselves (IN HOC SIGNO VINCES). It is easy to say that he is our savior. That's why they distanced Jesus from us, justifying it by saying "He is God". Yes he really is but because he was aware of it. We all have the essence to become like Jesus, but we don't know where and when we forget this possibility. For him there is no need to come back to this world - his life was perfect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus,_King_of_the_Jews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Name_of_Jesus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am THE COUNT HUBRIS DOWN The title is a combination of the word countdown and the Greek word Hubris - extreme pride and self-confidence to the point of arrogance - the two mixed here to mock the nobleman. Praying or meditating: is there a difference? Praying is wishing. Meditating is going inside to your pure core, to your "self ". While speaking the words of a prayer, you cannot concentrate on your true nature. Praying is just making a plan for realizing (achieving) things in a material sense. Meditating is gradually relaxing and then trying to empty the mind. When the mind is empty the curtain is removed. What you "see" or what you are witnessing is the formless state of your being – your true nature. What should one think upon observing a Buddhist monk’s meditating? They want to prolong being a witness to the indescribable (it is formless and so indescribable). In Hinduism they call it SAT-CIT-ANANDA, which means existence, consciousness, and bliss: SAT - present participle (to be, absolute being, truth) CIT - consciousness, to understand, to comprehend, ANANDA - bliss, true happiness, joy, delight, pleasure. When you "see" you don't see anything, you are focused on "nothing". The mind is switched off. It is a mixture of feeling and seeing, and that's why one would rather say "witnessing". In the moment a thought comes on a screen of the mind it demands concentration, because the mind allows the thought and you don't "see" a wholeness anymore, only a fragment, and the "picture" collapses (I say the mind turns on). The experience leaves a trace and, through this trace (it is like a short cut), can be followed again. There is no need to enter a church when you are able to be in your own temple. This is "knowing", which is sublime (that's why they say: "Meditation is wisdom in action."); but something completely different is happening outside, where the "Kingdom of Ego(s)" lingers - here nothing is like it appears to be (Bluff - the king of the world). I don't want to say that Ego is only bad, because it has a very important positive role as well - Ego protects life - but there is always use and abuse. We can take an atom and see how it is composed. It has a core where the proton(self) and the neutron(soul) reside; around the core is the orbit where electrons are circulating with a sort of frequency and they are particular because they are the only ones to perceive time and space, different from the others in the core that perceive only the now/self and the eternal/soul. The orbit is a border and the electron is an Ego (a soldier on the border) that defines the outer body. If the valence number is higher (more electrons in more orbits) that means that the soldier has a variety of skills, more protons/more or different experiences, more neutrons/more qualities of experience. So when the soldier on the border loses the connection with the headquarters (core) or is captured as a hostage or deserts and as such is no longer engaged on his mission, which is to be one with the others in the core, it is called the inflation of ego/the feeling of "I am something special", the feeling of being separate from others, the opposite of the sublimation of ego, which means that the "bad" or "inflated" ego is gone (the pride is exhaled), the "costume" shed and the being pure again, connected in oneness, turned inside, aware of its true nature, sharing the emptiness within the atom on/in the emptiness base. EGO – GONE = EGONE (the most noble one). EGONE translated from Latin is GRACIOUS, so used to indicate what is expected or used to say or suggest what should be done. It means also AM I(?). If evolution is a transition, we will gradually recognize Ego as a stunted residue of a fighter/animal. But we are far from this (becoming noble is a far off proposition). What must happen in our lives to radically change the way of thinking and, consequently, living? When will man think, talk, and do the same thing? Ego as a mediator between ID and Superego usually acts incoherently. We have to put a limit (dam) up against this dirty (perverted) liferiver (humanity) and say "Stop!", a wooden dam enters the picture. "The fish” (symbol of Jesus or folk who understand his teaching/almost extinct) is exhausted because of the dirty water - that's the way the boy carries the fish, letting the pure dripping water nourish it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satcitananda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys THE STATION How and when do our lives become a competition? Choosing the fast train makes us victims of inertia. In this competition we are passengers on a train that never stops. Pointing out that all do the same is just a poor excuse. In Zen tradition, the carp - the noble fish - is born in fresh waters and it wants to reproduce in fresh water even if it has to swim upriver, even up waterfalls. Anadromous fish migrate from the sea into fresh water to spawn, or, ones that remain entirely in fresh water and migrate upstream to spawn. They have an OLFACTORY memory that leads them precisely to the point where they were born. Zen tradition worships this noble fish because of its persistence unto exhaustion to become a Dragon, the final goal – the conclusion of the mission: reproduction. "The climb is for yourself, the descent for others". These words represent Buddha after his spiritual awakening in the mountain where he was meditating. After six years of inner struggle he climbed to the highest peak of the mind - I say the edge of mind, to became a Dragon (symbol of force and mystery of life) - but he wanted to share it with others (his descent from the mountain is for others - the greatest act of love). Can you imagine how human history would be different if such a Master as Buddha would decide to remain in a mountain cave (that would be an egoistic act). If you reach the ultimate truth you want to share it with at least one person, because the real joy is the feeling that you know that I know that you know that I know. It is like admiring the sublime in a masterpiece. Who could ever admire art if art would be locked in bank safe? Art must be shared as well as knowledge. So the waterfall represents a flowing of daily life and the carp as a Dragon represents fulfilled mind, where there is nothing to understand anymore - suchness - now. Could it be more beautiful? Unbelievable! I could cry forever. How to live our lives? Most people’s lives are locked in the fast train and they are not aware of anything, even of any suffering. They don't even know there are stations and a possibility to detrain. Stop the train! Stop this madness to try to become your boss! Take your time to find yourself. Don't you see you are lost in a supermarket? Start with questioning who you are. Ramana Maharshi said: "The quest ‘who am I’ is the axe with which to cut off the ego." As the carp, we were born in the landscape (spiritual landscape) that we keep memorized in some part of the brain, but somehow the landscape disappears because it is concealed by impressions during life. What we are searching for all our life is the landscape that conceals the source. A lot of art forms are inspired by this source that is often more than obvious. When you are able to go inside your "self " to your true nature again and again and gradually live it permanently, you are…what you really are. The station of no station brings together every opposite quality in utter un-differentiation, pure unity, sheer consciousness, total freedom, complete lack of delimitation, and identity with the real self’s disclosures. The nature of the consciousness experienced in this station can only be expressed through analogies and metaphors. It is utterly inaccessible to ordinary language, which is to say that people are blind to the shining of its light; in fact, of course, the light witnessed by perfect human beings is shining forever. It is only human incapacity that prevents people from seeing it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Chittick TO FORGIVE Have you ever thought about starting your own project (business)? A Zen aspirant once asked his master: "Teacher, what is ‘the way’ -TAO (way, path, route…and much more)?" "Go!" The master replied. For a better understanding of this short answer (believe me, the whole of philosophy can be found within this riddle), Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, an aphorist from Poland, wrote this jewel: "I would understand a lot of things if they would not explain them to me." This helps understand the essence of Zen. We are naive to think that we can become wise through one of these modern fast courses/intensives (eat a pill and you're ready). The master said: "Go". That is your way. You don't know what "the way" is until you start "walking" on it. You cannot feed a hungry person with a menu, just as the explanation of someone regarding the "way" is just words. So, GO JOHNNIE! When you start with your own project you are facing many experiences and through them you will be growing. When the project is going in the right way you are becoming more and more proud of it and you're becoming aware of how much your project is entangled with what you have become. You respect your customers for they are your only "capital". Without your customers you have nothing. The understanding of this wisdom is the understanding of the sentence: "The answer has never been separate from the question". The problem is when your Ego takes command, leading you to HUBRIS. Most billionaires today are on Ego-trips. These "tough guys" are aware only of this truth: "As long as there are sheep there will be wool.” They are not satisfied with 10 billion in earnings, for they want to be on the top of the Billionaires list, and for them it seems that nothing else matters. They invent sophisticated strategies just to make more money. One of these inventions is the world crisis of today and this result confirms this: the richest are more rich then ever at the expense of the poor. The economy is easy to understand if we let nature show us how to watch its wisdom. The economy is like a river, it never runs up, but down along the line of least resistance. It also illustrates that the big fish eats the small ones. Right! But the truth is that the big fish has a point of satiation. That's the law of economy in nature, which is but one of many laws (rivers), on the top of the hierarchy being the law of love (the sea) - the final goal for all rivers (laws). I've been told that man is greater according to the proportion he is able to do good for others. There is so much money in this world that the question of hunger could be abolished forever. On the other side there are many states that act as parasites. The tiger (business or working man) caught the antelope and the hyenas are immediately attracted. The tiger must climb to the tree (a tax oasis) to keep the prey. The pattern is the same as in the jungle. Politicians are the "special ones", because they never really see the people, only their political circumstance. Once you are in a political party you are aware that you are no longer an individual with your own opinion, but a simple fragment of the party. When you don't have other skills with which to face life as it is, you choose life in a party. When you come "to the position" you are not watching who is emptying the budget of the state, just whether the "right ones" are doing it. You cannot undertake to solve the problem of hunger in this way, taking from some to give to others. This way you just feed the growing army of parasites. Balance is the key word for change in this world-society. Let the successful working people be generous, teach our children to be noble, providing good examples, not examples of the jungle. Don't kill their lives with taxes. A lot of them would rather donate than pay unreasonable taxes. Name schools, stadiums or other cultural objects after them. Make a "Hall of Goodness" for them and let them compete to do good for others. If society will start recognizing their good deeds, they will open their hearts: we don't know how noble they are inside. The money will be where it was made and will return back to the people, its natural place. Look where it is now, stuffed in a few points of the world, totally inert, and what stinks most is the notion of law because it is evolving to become more and more porous. From the legal aspect a lot of “things" fit into the frame of law, but what about the moral aspect (the moral frame is broken non-stop)? Who cares? Law was an invention of, at that time, "civilized society"; now it looks like an invention of "tough guys", to keep the multitude in a condition of modern slavery. More hunger is easier to manipulate - and how can one listen to spiritual things when one is hungry? And they call it “welfare”. Watch out for bankers and their lawyers: they love money unconditionally as a mother loves her child. The most extreme example of identification with your Ego is the identification with what you possess/have - what money can buy - the opposite of the identification with what you are/the true nature that money can't buy. What are banks without "our" money? Nothing, but they behave as the owners of our entrusted money and they invest it without asking us in the "casino" products of high banking (products of the beast). If their "roulette" makes money they share it amongst a few of them, but when they fail there are always states/taxpayers that will recapitalize their "holes" caused by their animal appetites. Now tell me who is ruling this world. Let me remind you what democracy means. From the Greek "demos"- the people, and "kratos"- rule or power, intended that people should rule their own states. I don't have this feeling. I would say that I can see more and more abuse power from the so-called democratically elected politicians. No matter how highly evolved the arrangement or regulation of the state, call it democracy or however, there will always be abuse of power caused by inflation of Egos. Contempt for Asia caused the mistake of moving the big Western industries into China. For example, look what the north of Italy is today (once the generator of the tag "made in Italy"). A tragedy. Many have no work because China can do it much cheaper. Greed blurs foresight. The Chinese are clever and "wise", now that they have the Western "know how" they can rule the world. Taking the roof of the world (TIBET) as their own, they possess the greatest water resources of Asia and by building very different dams from those in the photopoems, they gain tremendous wealth at the expense of millions. Is there anyone with "attributes" to complain? Is this not one place where those in the West who abuse power meet their Asian counterparts? It is about time for a new deal - a universal basic income: for the workers of northern Italy, the U.S., the Chinese...the Africans, the..Indonesians...universal, otherwise this is the beginning of the new world disorder. "UBI" will be the sign that wisdom is prevailing over the ignorance and arrogance of the rulers of this world. Enable people to buy products made in the Western world, otherwise they are forced to buy "made in China", accelerating the predominance of China. Watch out for the Asian big fishes - let the river remind you of the wisdom of nature. The water is like money (liquidity). In the times of the pharaohs the river Nile was very important for the Egyptians. It meant life. No water, no grain, no life.Is this your intention ? Rulers, start working on the welfare of all of us. The basic income - people will spend it, as is natural. Budgets of the states will be balanced enough to satisfy all social transfers and this world will become a decent place to live in. So, finally, true philanthropy is the greatest thing one can experience. A real philanthropist understands nature and its laws, because the process he is going through is the sublimation of ego into something greater. When that happens the ego is executing the commands of the pure core (true nature). There is the chapter in the Bible in which Jesus says, "The first will be last and the last will be first". What does that mean? If making money is a linear process then we can expect that the biggest fish will eat all the others. What is money? Money is converted work. Ok, rather than exchanging goods (a bottle of olive oil for a basket of potatoes), they invented money. Who is working, who is buying, and who is earning? The people. How is it possible that a very small group lives in "heaven" and the rest of them in "hell", yet they are praying to the same "God"? I don't believe it: The "graph" shows that one day a "big fish" will be the owner of the world. But the "big fish" have forgotten that one day they must die. If not before, then in the moment before death the retrospective of their own life will start to run and at the end of the film the big question: You have been so "rich" - the owner of people's toil (the beast in the picture holding bread),you could have helped many but you did not: WHY? Have you ever thought about this trap that life brings you as a gift. Don't you think that possessing a lot of money means an opportunity to grow as human being? All "noble" titles are in vain if you don't possess this sort of wisdom, and you must go back into the queue to learn your lesson well. No, no the privileges don't work here! Forgive? Who can? They call it "Samsara”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saṃsāra_(Buddhism) WITNESSING A little death of mind: Little death/La petite mort is an idiom for sexual orgasm and I want to put it here as a comparison to emphasize what happens when one experiences his true nature. It is an equivalent in the mental or spiritual sense. As I have said, whether one is ready or not it can/will happen. The mind is "switched off" for a moment (meaning that the mind is not analyzing, because analyzing is the curtain that prevents us from "seeing" our true nature), and what you are witnessing is the greatest “thing” you can experience. In Zen tradition they call it "Kensho", a Japanese term (KEN means "seeing", "SHO" means nature, essence). Kensho is an initial insight or awakening, not full buddhahood. It is to be followed by further training to deepen this insight, and learn to express it in daily life. The term Kensho is often used interchangeably with Satori, which is derived from the verb Satoru and means comprehension, understanding. The English term of enlightenment has been used to translate several Buddhist terms and concepts, most notably Nirvana, Kensho, Satori and Bodhi - literally meaning "to have woken up and understood", referring to the particular form of understanding and knowledge that Buddha attained upon his awakening. This knowledge is an understanding of the causality by which sentient beings come into existence as well as the operations of the mind which keep sentient beings imprisoned by craving, suffering and rebirth. Bodhi is thus the understanding of the way to liberate oneself from this imprisonment. The first Kensho is that which leaves the trace - that's why in the picture the one is stoned/petrified (because of the "confusion" that will change his life).There is a magnifying glass that indicates what he is "seeing". The nature of mind is Buddha from the very beginning. There is no separation between mind (and the objects and beings arising therein) and Buddha. All is Buddha mind. Everything is Buddha essence or Buddha nature from the very beginning. From the beginning all beings are Buddha. The objects of mind and the experiencing subject are at root identical. They share the same essence or emptiness base, the primordial womb where everything arises. This then is the difference between relative mind - "small mind" - and the nature of essence of mind, or "big mind", that is its absolute or supreme source, the primordial matrix of all emerging objective and subjective phenomenal reality. This ontological duality expresses the perennial "two fundamental truths" - ultimate truth, the non-dual source, and all the relative truth arising therein. The two truths are in essence an in-separate and inseparable prior unity. Seeing them thusly, then acting in accordance, is Zen Enlightenment. WU-WEI/NON ACTION OR NOT DOING You have always been one with the Buddha, so do not pretend you can attain this oneness by various practices. If this very instant you could know that it can never be attained by effort...you would now be the Buddha mind. Do not seek the Buddhahood. Your seeking is doomed to failure. To overcome yourself means to forget yourself. That is the passage through the gateless gate, as during the orgasm one forgets one’s self, fusing with the partner in oneness, even if only for a few seconds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakshi_(Witness) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_petite_mort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenshō https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_(philosophy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gateless_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kōan ONE - SOUNDS NOW IN THE SOUND MIRROR In this world of cause and effect, or in the duality in which or with which we live, we cannot avoid the fact that opposites cannot exist one without the other. Who defines the man or the woman? They define each other as opposites and so it is with day/night, warm/cold, past/future. This is natural or logical. Yes, true enough, but what and when is now? What is the pair to the now? The not now? The never? Is the past not a myriad of nows accumulated until now? Time/no time: can you imagine this pair of opposites? What is this pair to space? No space or nothing? Who or what is that part of us that perceives time and space? The mind? Cogito ergo sum! Or cogito ergo sum? I think, therefore I am/I don't think, therefore I am not?, or am I still? Where is the space in which our world is? In nothing? What about the question and the answer? Can they ever be separate? Unclothe your gods. Without costumes that you put on them all are the same - one, now and forever. Doing whatever in the name of the one is a child’s ego trip, because the one has no demands. Demands in our heads are no more real or necessary than, say, our minds’ demands for “new fashions”. The ultimate act for the god is murder. Killing in the name of god is like killing in the name of new fashion. The one is the state off mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_simplicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum PANTHEON - TO ALL GODS This one examines human destiny. The photo depicts the agony of the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons, best known for this famous line: “Trojans, do not trust the horse! Whatever it is, I fear the Danaas/Greeks, even when bringing gifts”, striking the Trojan horse with a spear attempting to expose the ruse. The gods immediately sent two snakes to kill him. He was accused of having sex with his wife in a temple of Poseidon or simply making a sacrifice in the presence of his wife in the temple. In a second version the deaths were interpreted by the Trojans as proof that the horse was a sacred object. The two versions have rather different morals: Laocoon was punished for doing wrong or for being right. The number of similarities in today’s life is amazing - history may repeat itself, but very often in inverted roles. Greek civilization is at the root of the Western world. Today Greece is invaded by the army of the beast that possesses modern financial weapons/Trojan horses as Troy once was, not because of the beauty of the queen of Sparta but because of the beauty of the Greek islands. Sooner or later they will change owners and that may be the fatal crack for the goddess Europe often depicted with the cow or in a spiritual sense as a cow that the people represented by the charging bull (author Arturo Di Modica) wanting to rape her, while some of them see her as a milk and honey cow, the final goal for the people, escaping from where for the US number one export product - "democracy" - was not enough of a request. These are the newest smart weapons, very precise, very subtle, elegant and sophisticated, wielded without immediate or obvious human casualties. Those who prevail are writing history as in ancient times. Ask yourself: who are the gods of today and to whom will they send snakes? The sculpture in the picture is placed on the back of the Roman pantheon, which means »to all gods«. On one of the pantheon pillars, doves, living in monogamy for a lifetime, symbolize the innocence of the act. No god would ever punish them. The punisher is always the one with the hidden intent to realize a cunning plan, as did the Greek gods, who manipulated mythology in favor of their version of the Greeks. From a Western perspective all these events could be perceived in many different ways. There are a few heroes of these modern times trying to change this sick society, but they are not recognized as heroes even if they are exposing themselves for the good of humanity, delineating the real face of the “gods of today”- but nothing happens, because these “gods” possess MEDIA, so they can create and destroy as well as God and the consequence is “wrong history”. This is a shame. Where are the intellectuals to speak up? Or are they just an end in themselves and as such without any power? Sometimes I think about these modern “wise men” - aren’t they as well products of “the machine”? Have they no sense of mission? Or is the mission for them a good (secure) job in a state agency or in one of the “multinational” companies, the university no longer an institution free of masters. They trade their "wisdom" for unconditional loyalty - even if they are conscious that the bad side of the “good intentions” of those they serve is to accept a stain on the conscience, relinquishing the energy required to perform good deeds. They are in the machine. The noble mission is impossible without a clean conscience. How can one become loyal to the devil? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon_(religion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laocoön https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(mythology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_freedom PASSWORD - SALT OF LIFE Dear friends, every human being possesses two self-natures: one apparent and one real. The apparent one is our small self, or ego, which differs from all other small selves; the real One is our Great Buddha Self, which is everywhere the same, a unity that contains all the false small selves within a unity of the real. Our small selves exist in an apparent world, the world of Samsara. Our Buddha self exists in the real world, the world of Nirvana. Both worlds are located in the same place. In the Heart Sutra we read that »Form is not different from emptiness and emptiness is not different from form.« But seekers ask »How can Samsara and Nirvana be the same? How can illusions be the same as reality? How can I be me and Buddha, too? These are good questions. Every Buddhist needs to know their answers, which lie in the way we perceive reality. If we perceive reality directly, we see it in its Nirvanic purity. If we perceive it indirectly, or through our ego consciousness, we see it in its Samsaric distortion. Why is our view of reality flawed? Samsara is the world our small self thinks it sees and apprehends with its senses. Sometimes we just make mistakes. If a man was walking in the woods and came upon a coil of rope on the path and thought the rope was a snake, he'd quickly run away. To him that rope was a snake and he'd react accordingly. When he returned home he'd likely tell everyone about that dangerous snake that almost bit him in the woods. Nirvanic purity derives from clarity of perception, in seeing a rope as rope and a snake as snake. His fear was genuine, but his reason for being afraid was not. The small ego self misperceives reality whenever it imposes arbitrary esthetic or moral judgments upon it. If one woman sees another woman who is wearing a green hat and says, »I see a woman who is wearing a green hat«, there is no problem. But if she says “I see a woman who is wearing an ugly green hat”, she is making a Samsaric judgment. Somebody else might find that hat beautiful. But in reality it is neither beautiful nor ugly. It merely is. The name of the Master Xu Yun is translated into English as »Empty Cloud«, a translation which often confuses people. We all know what a cloud is, but what, we wonder, is meant by "empty"? To be empty means to be empty of ego, to be without any thought of self - not in the sense that one functions as a vegetable or a wild animal, living things which merely process water, food and sunlight in order to grow and reproduce, but in the sense that one ceases to gauge the events, the persons, the places, and the things of one's environment in terms of »I« or »me« or »mine«. A person who is »empty of self« seldom has occasion to use these pronouns. A person who is truly empty possesses nothing, not even a consciousness of self. His interests lie not with his own needs and desires, for he is unaware of any such considerations, only of the welfare of others. He does not evaluate people as being likable or unlikable, worthy or unworthy, or as useful or useless. He neither appreciates nor depreciates anyone. He simply understands that the Great Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of infinite Light and Goodness, dwells within every human being, and it is in the interest of this Buddha Self that he invests himself.In Zen tradition clouds and water have special meanings: sublimation, adaptability, continuous changing and much, much more. At the end human history is written in the water, not the wrong one but the history of facts. We should learn how to read it. By adding the chariot for transporting the salt from the saltpans I wanted to depict a wondering and the searching for the »salt of life« from the aspect of ego, because we still don't know whether we are some kind of »actors« in the sense of »factors« or if fate is always there to catch you even if one has the feeling one is avoiding it. Take it as it is – entangled. The answer and the question are one - they have never been separate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsu_Yun WINDOVES - THEY NEVER MISS THE WAY BACK HOME What is the unconscious? The unconscious is the term for not being aware of true nature because it is covered by the curtain/Ego impressions (Avidya - fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of reality). Becoming conscious means gradually recognizing the "outline", so to say, of God. The curtain becomes more and more transparent, until one is totally enlightened by the light of the true nature. At the end we can finally understand that Jung's unconscious is nothing other than God. Through all these writings I intentionally use both the terms GOD and TRUE NATURE to emphasize the same meaning for both expressions, yet still both are incorrect because the ESSENCE we are talking about is indescribable. I would like to explain/depict these different points of view using the example of Roshi Philip Kapleau (merging of East and West). There were two people often meeting at a cemetery. One of them was always putting flowers on the grave of his dear deceased. The other was always putting food on the grave of his own dear deceased. One day the first one asked the other one with a bit of a sarcastic tone: "Hey, when will your dear come to eat the food that you bring?" and the answer was: "When your dear one will come to smell the flowers that you bring". So Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mohamed…are still trying to make us forget our little selves, but we are very far from managing to do this. If they have meetings, they probably laugh benevolently at how much the transmission of their "knowing" through their disciples is reduced to the liturgy and rituals of their so-called religions. People can perceive only what their minds can reach, but the true nature is not perceivable by the mind, rather by no mind. They would probably laugh at the red shoes of the ex-Pope, at the free mooching about cows, at the cutting of prepuces, etc...If one is offended by their laughter it means that one does not understand the essence. Only the little self or Ego can be offended. If you really knew your true nature, you would know that it can never be offended. In Zen tradition there is no sanctity, just emptiness. It does not mean that there are no morals, but the morals of Zen include equal respect for all beings with no exemptions, which is why it may seem, from the Ego aspect, amoral. In the end, what does "RELIGION" mean? It comes from the Latin "RELIGERE" and so relictus or relinquo, which is translated as "having inherited", but it also means "to leave behind". When one finally faces the true nature, or God if you prefer, in its wholeness, there is "nothing else left to lose" as Janice Joplin sings; I mean when the last drop of water evaporates/sublimates, or the last piece of ego vanishes, or nothing is left to understand, what remains or what you are at that point is the one and only releasing FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM, an empty cloud. God, true nature, all these inappropriate terms simply vanish, are simply left behind. Nothingness. So? What to do with this knowing? It seems to be at the very beginning and it is right. That's why the feeling that something is missing arises, but as Zen disciples often ask the master: If it is so, isn't Zen beyond words and letters? The master responds: "Words and letters are necessary to overcome words and letters." It reminds me of the story of a Dalmatian boy, where my mother was born, who used to go fishing at the wharf near his house. One day a rich uncle came from America and after persuading him to go with him, they went. The little boy grew up and he became a noble and very rich man, which fulfilled his mother’s wish, but the only wish that he had all during that time away was to come back home to his wharf to go fishing (the importance of fishing is not fishing but great thoughts that comes out while you are fishing). So, where the beginning starts, the end finishes. Emptiness is form and form is emptiness.Have you finished your meal? Go wash your dishes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad |
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