Sample a poem or two from START HERE, one about non-contrivance in meditation called meditation begins, and one about liberation from self, Since Leaving Behind. And now an ode on Earth & Sky…
A bit of reading now, about 8 minutes, or more if you reflect on it as you read. And reflection is pertinent to this piece, there is a key distinction between two ways of ‘knowing’: reflective and reflexive.
“Nothing to remove, and nothing to add…”, what really? Just this awareness? Any time?
“Looking again and again at the Citta (mind) that cannot be looked at…” here’s a physical exercise that, strangely, can help you land on “the quintessential point, which cannot be seen, just as it is, (which) is vipashyana”. And it’s lots of fun!
Online launch to AHS Buddhists is on youtube HERE
You can buy your copy HERE
What could meet a thought? Another thought — a happy meeting, or an argument?
Here’s a villanelle from my book START HERE.
A brief note about ways of knowing, a pointer to our meditation, I hope its full significance dawns for you. What’s the difference between knowing what’s happening… and knowing what happening is? It’s a total revolution, a liberation.
Check your understanding of Dharma terms… constantly! Even common words like “openness”, “clarity”, “sensitivity” have meanings which deepen with your meditation practice. Words are like a river….
Get your hymn-sheets out! I admire the spiritual poet George Herbert, a man of God, but my language is not his, so I’ve transliterated one of his great poems into Buddha-language. In his verse I see reference to devotion, adhishtana, mindfulness, vipashyana, right intention / pure vision, Mahayana, Shentong… what do you see? “A man that looks on glass…”
So our world – our universe – is awareness, what does this mean for the way we understand experience? I try to express the inexpressible… as we journey on, into the mystic.
Who, or what, are we? Can knowledge tell us? Do we suffer for believing it? Sort it out, Five!
You might not assume rebirth as applying to you, but you do hold with the idea of birth. So how much of your life has depended upon the circumstances of your birth? 90%? Could it actually be 100%? If you credit any of your present life to the facts of your birth, then hadn’t you better consider that it all may happen again? How would you prepare for that in this life now? Reflect on this…
Meditate focussing on body sensations, and look for the experiencer – is it a subject -object world? What is happening here?
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All we are is experience, how awful it would be if we cut ourselves off from experiencing! Yet that’s what we do, we frame everything through a mental view that we are a separate being having experience of a world. Stop this madness! Here’s the medicine: Cutting Ourselves Off
What’s your next rebirth going to be? Don’t ask if you believe in rebirth, ask how confident you are that you will never be born in another situation. On the basis of no evidence for this, prepare for rebirth! Er, how exactly do we do that? My thoughts exactly… see Birth & Rebirth
Time to get fearless in our interrogation of thinking! Just remember, if life is a dream, that’s not the same as not dreaming. Following the piece about the “I” we think we are, we’ll question any other thing we might think about, and finally see how to root out fixed underlying beliefs in our thinking. Stay tuned!
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Seen my Verses of Five site? It features some of my snappier verses not focussed on Dharma, zip over and see, at www.versesoffive.uk
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In the series on insight in meditation we’re musing on thoughts and who has them. We don’t choose what thoughts to have, yet we claim whatever thought comes as mine? Crazy! They’re not mine? Crazier!
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Do Buddhists have beliefs? Or is it actually non-Buddhists that do? Watch out for the wolf!
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Another instalment of my Dictionary: find out what those tricksy words really mean! The truth about EMOTIONS.
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We’ve questioned our idea of a real person, so what am I? The mirror shows someone different each time, yet I feel it’s the same me looking. Curious!.
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Are Awakened Beings (like Avalokiteshvara / Chenrezig / Kuan Yin / Kannon) real people that we can’t see? Why do Buddhists use them in various practices? Which prompts the question: what is a real person? It’s not a simple as you may think, especially if you assume that a person has more than one lifetime. And even more so if you question what exactly you are, and whether your assumptions about your self are true.
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Why do Buddhists do “retreats”? Is this basically self-obsessed navel-gazing? Surely not! Yet they/we do practise “mind over matter”… that is, valuing their mind more than the (so-called) real world. It’s a cause of real misunderstandings — so read and be clear on the wonders of:- The Pointing Inwards Principle
Are you a creative person? Or creative in your everyday self-expression? Is it all a pointless way to bolster the self that brings you suffering? How could it be part of your path to Awakening yourself and others? Click here to read on!
Emptiness, the ultimate nature of things, is meant to sound hollow, to counter our notions of the solidity of our world of appearances — so what about compassion? Are emotions just a mistake? Or could Reality be feeling, sensitive, by nature? Here’s something to reflect upon.
Select recent additions on the right-hand column, or BROWSE many more with extracts to indicate their content.
As for delving into this site more deeply, here are some provocative ideas you may have missed already:–
- (hover over text for link to them)
Sacred or holy things are not about religious beliefs or God-ism
Do Buddhists pray? Who to? What for? Closet God-ism or good sense?
What’s the antidote to fear? How to beat it!
- Think you’re Awakened? Seeing through the illusion of self is not yet Enlightenment, don’t kid your not-self!
- In a lighter vein – your friend is your enemy… self-esteem is a terrible idea… life neatly defined for you.
- You can know now what will happen after death – take a peek.
- Are you really a Buddhist? Pass this test.
- Quick way to connect to Love
- Meditating to stop your thinking? Big mistake!
- Just realising impermanence could be your gateway to Awakening… and yet impermanence is not the case.
So-called “Awakened Beings” – are they present but invisible? New-Age hocus-pocus or what? See latest posts.
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Pieces of Five 