Gaia Community: Nalini's Blog

Proof of Love

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:37:21 -0000

We humans have existed in our present form for about a hundred thousand years. I believe that if during this time the human mind had been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our overall population would have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates to me that love and compassion predominate in the world. And this is why unpleasant events are "news"; compassionate activities are so much a part of daily life that they are taken for granted and, therefore, largely ignored.

--His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in Compassion and the Individual

Who wants to live forever?

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:31:18 -0000

This (click here if you'd like to watch) is a fascinating documentary about the research in the field of life-extension, and about Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the "mad scientist" who believes it's more than possible, in our lifetimes.

It made me think.

It is obvious, that most people would not voluntarily give up their lives, and most of us do want to continue living in a healthy and productive way. Yet do we truly want to live forever?

"Forever" is such a big word...

There is a certain arrogance in a wish to live forever, thinking that we can control every single factor in this universe that makes us who we are. Even when we do develop methods to cure and prevent all known diseases, and when we find ways to reverse the aging process ("the ultimate disease")- we will still be far from being able to control the world around us.

For all we know, we could all be killed by an asteroid, a new kind of virus (I believe the earth is a very much alive organism and can take care of herself when needed)... Or who knows- perhaps the universe is not infinite after all? Perhaps it's just one small link in an infinite number of universes that burst into life until they are burned out...Similar to waves in an ocean, or the sparks of a fire...

Although I find the medicine, genetics and bioengineering fascinating, and do believe that our live spans will be much longer with the help of this technology, I don't think we will live forever. And I don't think we need to, either.

It is through the contrast of pain that we can enjoy pleasure and happiness, it is through knowing loneliness that we can appreciate the people we love and who love us. It is through the knowledge that joy is not constant, and that it passes- that we can truly value joy.

Is it not true, that it is because of the acknowledgment of death, we celebrate and appreciate life as it goes?

I think that death, like any "deadline" makes life worth living in a sense.

A person that acknowledges the limitation of their time, will do their best to use it well. Of course, most of us live as if we shall live forever. But for anyone who ever contemplated death, the experience of life seems to transform. Often people who had a near-death-experience will tell you how it changed the way they live, and how they appreciate all they have in their lives, and cherish every breath they take.

The immortality quest gives rise to many questions, especially ethical ones:

-When a person can theoretically live hundreds and even thousands of years, what will it say about the value of life? Death penalty? Abortion? Wars?

-Who will be able to afford such technology? Perhaps it might create a new type of cultural division between people who "live forever" and those who don't. A new kind of "racism" ?

-How are the people who will live for a very long time, going to be affected psychologically? What changes to the human consciousness will occur as a result of the change in the life span?

-What about the population growth? Will people have to pay the price of having (less) children, to live longer?

(On this questions, the researches claim that in technologically advanced societies, as life expectancy goes up- the child birth rate goes down naturally. They claim that the longer people will live, the less children they will want to have- naturally.)

-For the religious people, it will certainly raise a big question- if one can live "forever", what does it say about God? Should a person abstain from using life-extending technology, because it might be an egoistic intervention and an attempt to "play God" ?

-With life spans of hundreds of years, our social standards will also change. In what ways? There is a lot to be imagined on the subject...

In addition to those questions, there are others, such as- Where are we going to live forever? What is going to happen to Earth? Will we be able to extend her life as well (now we're not very good at it, as you all probably know)? Will there be space migration?

I do support this research, and find it exciting. I think even if it will not make us immortal, it will at least be able to cure and prevent various diseases and slow down (if not reverse) aging. It will certainly extend our life spans. We're not far from an era during which, we shall live much, much longer than a 100 years, and will not consider it as a big deal at all.

Whatever happens, it's certainly going to be very interesting.

In the mean time, let us keep our body-minds healthy with good nutrition, plenty of exercise, good sleep, meditation, loving relationships with family and friends, and simple and spontaneous childlike-playfulness.

Cherish the moment and enjoy life- bit by bit- while it lasts !

A Wonder

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:47:05 -0000

A Wonder

*

Walking with colorful butterflies
around
within
Dissolving into bubbles of joy

Nothing lasts
Nothing is lost.

Each one of us is an Answer

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:45:26 -0000

Please, do watch this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/273

What a beautiful talk!

This represents my own opinion about various cultures in our world.
I do not understand the hierarchic thinking which states that the 'western civilization' is indeed more advanced and progressive than other cultures.

Every culture, as Wade Davis says, is an answer to the question of 'what it means to be human?'.
Every answer is unique and none is better than the other.
It is the multiplicity, the variety of answers, the variety of cultures and belief systems that makes it all so beautiful.
We are nature itself, and thus we are as colorful as nature is.

The different peoples and cultures are not the only representation of this diversity, but within each culture, every human being is a unique flower, a unique organism. Every human being is a miracle, just as every tree and butterfly and every rock are miracles.

I hope one day all human beings will be able to celebrate our multiplicity, both on a personal and cultural level.

The Three

Fri, 30 May 2008 17:38:44 -0000

From Heidegger’s “Modern Science, Metaphysics, and Mathematics,” in “Basic Writings.”

"It is the number in the natural serious of numbers that stands in third place. In ‘third’? It is only the third number because it is the three. And ‘place’ - where do places come from? ‘Three’ is not the third number, but the first number. ‘One’ isn’t really the first number. For instance, we have before us a loaf of bread and one knife, this one and, in addition, another one. When we take both together we say, ‘both of these,’ the one and the other, but we do not say, ‘these two,’ or 1+1. Only when we add a cup to the bread and the knife do we say ‘all.’ Now we take them as a sum, i.e., as a whole and so and so many things. Only when we perceive it from the third is the former the first one, the former other the second, so that one and two arise, and ‘and’ becomes ‘plus,’ and there arises the possibility of places and of a series."

(Thanks to SomethingCompletelyDifferent for the quote)

I think this is very interesting.

Unity is not “one” because “one” implies “the other”, it is All, which begins with “three”.

The number 3 has always been a special number, in many traditions.

The holly trinity in Christianity; The three Gems (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) in Buddhism; The 3 Gunas of Hinduism and 3 Doshas of Ayurveda and so on.

It usually represents a wholeness.

Thus, indeed it is the first position, while at the same time it needs both the “one” and “the other”, in order to be itself.

This brings to mind certain aspects of Hinduism. For example - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Although Brahma is the creator, Vishnu- one that sustains and Shiva- one that destroys, they are all three aspects of the one- Brahman.
Shiva is often the most popular of the three.
Shiva is the one that destroys life. Destruction which within it contains the seeds of creation. Thus, he simultaneously creates life, In what appears to be an endless dance of birth and death.

Knock knock knockin' on Heaven's door

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:58:35 -0000

In "Quantum Psychology", Robert Anton Wilson tells a short story which I shall post and discuss in this blog. You are more than welcome to comment and write your own interpretation. So please do not hesitate to respond, I'm grateful for every reply.

***

"A young American named Simon Moon, studying Zen in the Zendo (Zen school), at the New Old Lompoc House in Lompoc, California, made the mistake of reading Franz Kafka's "The Trial". This sinister novel, combined with Zen training, proved too much for poor Simon. He became obsessed, intellectually and emotionally, with the strange parable about the door of the Law which Kafka inserts near the end of his story. Simon found Kafka's fable so disturbing, indeed, that I ruined his meditations, scattered his wits, and distracted him from his study of the Sutras.

Somewhat condensed, Kafka's parable goes as follows:

A man comes to the door of the Law, seeking admittance, The guard refuses to allow him to pass the door, but says that if he waits long enough, maybe, someday in the uncertain future, he might gain admittance. The man waits and waits and grows older; he tries to bribe the guard, who takes his money but still refuses to let him through the door; the man sells all his possessions to get money to offer more bribes, which the guard accepts—but still does not allow him to enter. The guard always explains, on taking each new bribe, "I only do this so that you will not abandon hope entirely."

Eventually, the man becomes old and ill, and knows that he will soon die, In his last few moments he summons the energy to ask a question, that has puzzled him over the years. "I have been told," he says to the guard, "that the Law exists for all. Why then does it happen that, in all the years I have sat here waiting, nobody else has ever come to the door of the Law?"

"This door," the guard says, "has been made only for you. And now I am going to close it forever." And he slams the door as the man dies.

The more Simon brooded on this allegory, or joke, or puzzle, the more he felt that he could never understand Zen until he first understood this strange tale. If the door existed only for that man, why could he not enter? If the builders posted a guard to keep the man out, why did they also leave the door temptingly open? Why did the guard close the previously open door, when the man had become too old to attempt to rush past him and enter? Did the Buddhist doctrine of Dharma (law) have anything in common with this parable?

Did the door of the Law represent the Byzantine bureaucracy that exists in virtually every modern government, making the whole story a political satire, such as a minor bureaucrat like Kafka might have devised in his subversive off-duty hours? Or did the Law represent God, as some commentators claim, and, in that case, did Kafka intend to parody religion or to defend its divine Mystery obliquely? Did the guard who took bribes but gave nothing but empty hope in return represent the clergy, or the human intellect in general, always feasting on shadows in the absence of real Final Answers?

Eventually, near breakdown from sheer mental fatigue, Simon went to his roshi (Zen teacher) and told Kafka's story of the man who waited at the door of the Law—the door that existed only for him but would not admit him, and was closed when death would no longer allow him to enter. "Please," Simon begged, "explain this Dark Parable to me."

"I will explain it," the roshi said, "if you will follow me into the meditation hall."

Simon followed the teacher to the door of the meditation hall. When they got there, the teacher stepped inside quickly, turned and slammed the door in Simon's face.

At that moment, Simon experienced Awakening."

***

The man in the story gave away his power, gave away his authority.
Not only that, he lived his life in hopes for an "award" which might arrive one day-he will be able to go through the door.
He only managed to find courage to ask the final question, at his last moments. perhaps, if he would have decided to seek and question earlier...
Perhaps if he would have stopped relying, blindly, on some unknown providence- he would have learned, much earlier, that this door was- in fact- his own.
Then he would have been able to find the courage it takes to pass through, in spite of the guard.

He lived his life in the realm of hope, and not that of the present moment.
He clung to the door, stubbornly. The unwillingness to let go, perhaps, was the very thing preventing him from going through. Clinging to the door, from this side- it was impossible to pass on to the other.
Clinging to ideas of "Enlightenment" or "Freedom", or any other concept, can be viewed as an act of violence towards the self.
I recall the poisoned arrow story, the Buddha had told. The man rejected medicine and any cure, before he would be told who shot the arrow, why, what the poison consisted of, and so on. All this time, the man's body suffered greatly from the poison, which could have been easily removed, if he had not been so stubborn.

Perhaps the intellectual process and the attempts to understand the ineffable in a logical manner, were indeed the obstacles of the monk.
He clung to his wish to understand the tale, in the same way the man in the story, clung to his wish to pass through the door.

Clinging to the door might be similar to a man on a boat, wishing to cross the land, yet unwilling to get out of his boat. I think the Zen master's reaction showed just that.
He shut the door in front of the student, and in one instant, made him let go of all conceptualization. One speechless instant, had been able to transmit that which words could not.

It would not have helped, if the master told the student there was no door to begin with. And that there was absolutely no need to pass through it.
The conceptualized perception of the man in the story, created this door, and its guard. His unwillingness to let the door go, had made him spend his entire life with it, unaware all this time- that the door was HIS.

HE created this door. He and no one else.
HE created his own suffering, and HE was the one he has been waiting for, all these years.
He never received permission to pass, because he was the only one who could grant this permit.

Absurd? Insane? Indeed !

In Rumi's words:

I have lived on the lip of insanity, 

wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door.
It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside!

An Insight

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:18:32 -0000

Muscles straining
Breathing diligently
Mind focused
Within
The Infinity
Of the eternal moment

At Peace

Thoughts melting
Exposing tranquility
Body relaxed
Within
The Balance
Of the effortless effort.

The Piano

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:36:29 -0000

Sometimes a kind of inspiration comes upon me, and I approach this beautiful instrument.
It comes alive under my fingertips, no more a monument to silence, no more being just another furniture in our living room.

Tonight I learned so much, as I played the melodies of my childhood. Some of the pieces I play almost by heart, and it dawned on me, that I have memorized the mistakes I used to make as a child, as well. I am repeating the same patterns. I may have put the notes aside, letting them collect dust, but in my memory, the patterns of my childhood still remain.

Everything- places where I miss notes, places where I play the wrong combination of them, even the sensations are the same. I remember approaching some places in a piece and feeling a certain sensation of fear. Fear of getting it wrong, fear of being a disappointment. That fear was there too, as I played. But now I have played while being aware of it all, the notes of my mind were there, right in front of me- just as the notes of the piece were there.

I realized it is easy to change the pattern once I'm aware of it. There is no need to feel frustrated (this is also one of those feelings that reappeared)- as a child, it used to frustrate me that I just could not get it right. Now I've just relaxed, and let the music play me. There is nothing to chase, there is no 'ultimate goal' to reach. Sometimes I make mistakes as I play, but I keep on playing, just enjoying the process. And next time, I'm noticing the pattern and changing it with mere awareness...

The music spoke to me, telling me the emotions, the rises and the falls, sometimes revealing secrets, in between the notes...
My whole life was simply spread out before me, and as I was changing the patterns in the way I played, I was changing the patterns of my life.

Old fears and worries, embracing them with compassion, they dissolved. Places where I seemed to have been "stuck", how silly it all looked- it was me all this time. It was me- putting myself in those exact spots, and insisting on staying there. I was never stuck, all I had to do was let go.

Just let it go...

Just play!

Play for the fun of it, not for getting it "right" or "wrong", play because playing is what you are. Because life is play.

Our hearts are full of memory

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:48:54 -0000

Transplant patients sometimes take on part of their donors' personalities.

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/44/our-hearts-are-full-of-memory/

http://www.sfms.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=1540&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&SECTION=Article_Archives

I've heard of this before, you've probably heard of it too.
Personally, I think it's not only the heart, it might in fact be, that our memories, are not only a result of a few brain cells.
Possibly, they are a combination of various body organs and millions of cells...Perhaps through the brain, they are able to be translated in conscious terms, but they exist all over the body.

"The body knows" is a saying that can often be heard in holistic medicine. Well my experience always proved it to be so, and I think that it is because every cell of our body indeed has the entire information about the body as a whole.
Intuition now gets more recognition from the scientific community, as they begin to investigate it as another type of a thinking process. I think intuition is the communication of the brain with other organs and cells. a gathering of information, and a quick analysis of it, in non-verbal, non-visual terms. Intuition is the thinking that happens before we think.

This story and the ones like it, I hope at least, makes people think of who they are, what their personality is. And hopefully might help to kick out the Cartesian duality of "mind" and "body" out of their systems.
"Mind" is not a separate entity from this body. It is not a transcendent spirit, somewhere "out there", watching and observing...
Mind is as much a reality as this body. As much an integral part of this world. Our cells have the information of our entire system, not only information about the structure and function of our body, but also about the structure and function of what we call our "mind".

Is beauty truth? (Or truth beauty?)

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:31:23 -0000

Sometimes I stop in the midst of whatever it is I've been doing, and open my eyes, truly open them- and look. And I open my ears and listen. And what I see, feel, hear, it is beyond describing. In it's complete simplicity, it is so complex.

All is a dance, but not like the dance our human mind can imagine. It is a dance of stillness, because all is happening simultaneously.
Time or space lose their significance, when I watch this dance. All the while, no one is watching this dance. It is all intertwined in this infinite chaotic silence.

At such moments, all I can describe is an incredible, overwhelming feeling of awe. It is like a child seeing the world for the first time. This feeling is more than of pure awe at the beauty of all. The amazement comes because of an overpowering sense that everything is SO incredibly beautiful, and so perfect. It is so perfect that the very word "perfect" shouldn't even be used to describe it! It simply the way it is ! All is as it is ! Wow !
It just cannot get more incredible...
It is inconceivable how anything can be more beautiful than this.

It is implausible how something can "exist" in the midst of it all, and the sensation that something does exist, yet it cannot be labeled as "something that exists" nor can it be said it "doesn't exist" - it overwhelms me even more !

I tend to avoid labeling things as "truth" and "beauty", but for the sake of this post, let me just say that in this experience, truth and beauty are one.
Beyond being one- it is one incredible sensation that should probably have a name of it's own... Something like Beautruthfullness :)

The Mad Chase

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:36:08 -0000

Any kind of E-motion is simply a form of energy in motion. Many times when people deal with their emotions, they separate themselves from them, often getting caught up in concepts such as "ego". Speaking as if it was a separate entity, a sort of a demon who took over them and made them act in a certain way, think certain things and so on.
To call one thing "ego" and the other thing "not ego"... I find this ridiculous.
What is this duality for? What purpose does it serve?

Chasing ego with ego is like trying to make the water drink itself.

It's like chasing your own tail, thinking it's a separate entity.

When "the ego takes over" - it is only "taking over" itself.

When you are watching yourself watching, when you know that you are yourself- it is still what you might call "ego" which is watching "ego".

Any kind of conceptualization will only serve as fuel for this insane chase after our own tail.
Any concept such as "ego" or "soul" or "God" or "spirit" or "beyond" or "matter" ...Any kind of those concepts, and more, only create the illusion of separation which inspires us to madly pursue our own tail.
Biting it ever so hardly, only to find it slipping from the teeth...Only to realize that pain is ever present, and peace is nowhere to be seen.
And then, instead of letting it all go, one blames it all on the tail - and here we go again.

What you call "ego" is nothing but a loop which has been created out of this mad chase. That is all.

There is no tail to chase.

*

It is only when you finally know, that you don't know - THEN you know.

Then, no one knows and nothing is known

*

The dance has never began
It continues with no continuation.
It moves without moving, and without being still.

It is of no time and of no space,
although time and space neither exist nor don't-exist through the dance itself.

There is nothing inside the dance,
There is nothing outside it.
How can one talk of a dance at all?

Be Still and Dance

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:44:55 -0000

I sit and listen to the sitar, the sarod, the tablas, the bansuri...
Cannot possibly express what this music makes me feel...

As if life itself is being played on those instruments.
Every story my heart could ever tell, unfolds in those sounds.
It doesn't matter what those stories are.
It does not matter that no one is likely to understand my heart.
It does not matter what others think of me. I shall be as I am.
This heart has received many blows during its life, but the dance goes on.

Dance is life itself.

A dance can only happen in an open space. No obstructions can exist when there is a true dance. All falls apart.
The dance of the heart can be the chaos of creation and destruction, and it can be complete stillness... But even in the stillness, nothing stops, nothing has frozen. Even in the stillness there is movement... And in the chaos, there is silence.

Just like the divine dance of Nataraja. The 'Ananda Tandava' of the dancing Lord Shiva.

My words are just words. You don't have to look into them.
Don't think about them, don't try to understand.
There is nothing to understand at all...
Those words are neither stupid nor wise. They are just words.

I'm not writing those words you are reading now.
You are reading your own words.
It is life itself that is being expressed by itself.
It takes the form of these combination of letters, spaces, dots and commas.
You are reading what you are reading, not what has been originally expressed.

How can anyone ever tell anyone anything at all?

Enough with this nonsense...

Just listen to the music and let your heart dance.

***********************************************

In the following link you will find a music station from last.fm. It plays different Indian music, mostly classical style...

http://www.last.fm/listen/artist/Ali%2520Akbar%2520Khan/similarartists

Enjoy...

Randomization

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:42:15 -0000

Snow melts

Water flows

Making waves on the pavement

Wet legs.

*

Changing. Changing. Changing.

Ephemeral. Transitory. Impermanent.

Everything passes.

What is it- that which passes?
Where and what does it pass through?
Through what time and space?
What are time and space?

Thoughts, perceptions, interpretations.

Ephemeral, Transitory, Impermanent.

*

My insecurities are my precious companions.
My imperfections are my loving friends.
My tears are a priceless gift.

*

The other night, I dreamt of having Buddha-ears.

*

My original face,

Before I was born,
before my parents were born,
before their parents were born...

How Infinitely humorous !

The Snow is Singing

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:43:39 -0000

*

Snow is singing
Can you see?

Snow is dancing
Can you hear?

The world
becomes
snow
The snow
becomes
world

Dissolved in the All
Consumed by the Nothing

Eyes are breathing
A smile.

*

What does the weather right now remind you of?

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:50:09 -0000

This question came right on time, as I was about to post a blog entry, talking about the beautiful weather we have today in Jerusalem.

It is snowing !
I love snow, in Israel it is a rare occasion...

Listening to the snow is music to the heart. Watching it dance is hypnotizing.

It reminds me, or rather - I feel like what is described in this beautiful poem by Ryokan :

This world

This world
A fading
Mountain echo
Void and
Unreal

Within
A light snow
Three Thousand Realms
Within those realms
Light snow falls

As the snow
Engulfs my hut
At dusk
My heart, too
Is completely consumed

Something 東西

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:04:32 -0000

Today I learned that "Something" in Mandarin is 東西.
dong1xi1 , which is actually East-West.

Now, that may sound strange, but I actually think this makes a lot of sense.

"Something" or a "thing", for that matter, is defined by anything which it is not.
Life is only possible through duality. The "thing" is only itself through and because of the negation of itself.
Just like East is only itself because of West, and West is itself because of East.

*
It's cold outside... Actually it's not even the cold, it's the strong wind that makes it feel colder than it is.

Waiting for snow... :-)

In my beginning is my end- Origin of Life and the Rig Veda

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:16:29 -0000

    My Indian-Culture professor began his first lecture with a question - "When is your beginning? Think back as far as you can, when do you think you began?" . When such a question is asked, one might ask also - what do you define as "I" ?
What Is it that began?
Who is asking?

    It was always important for people to know the beginning, because through this question they were actually seeking to know who they were. The different cultures of our world are abundant with stories of creation. Myths that were passed on from generation to generation, memorized by them and held as sacred. Those myths were essential- they defined the culture, they told people who they were.
The tales of creation and their survival through thousands of years, are an evidence to the everlasting human search for the meaning and purpose of life.

    If we consider the "I" as the identification with this body, then we must also consider the mutual relations between this body and its surroundings. And thus, another question is raised- Can this body, and therefore- the identification, with this body, be separated from its environment ?
Clearly, in order to exist, this body is dependent on its surroundings. It came into existence because and through the combination of various conditions, which in their turn also rely on other conditions, and so forth.
So if this "I" is the identification with this body, and it is obvious that this body cannot be separated from the world around it, then the question of "my beginning", becomes the question of "The Beginning of All that Is".
In order to find "my" beginning, the starting point of Everything must be discovered.
In this deduction, it is obvious that the "I" is a fragile term. And then, so are the terms "everything" and "beginning".

    "In my beginning is my end" wrote T.S Eliot.
I find this to be very true- the moment one defines the starting point, the finish line is automatically drawn.
If you define yourself as your body and mind, then your finish point is automatically the death of this body. If you define yourself as the interaction of various natural forces in the environment, and this planet- then your end is the end of the planet. It is very simple.
But when one opens his mind to this question, it is clear, that we can go back to infinity, and never find a starting point, because a starting point is always an end of a different point, which is the end of something else...and so on.
Infinity.

    We go back as far as our knowledge allows us, and then- there is no knowledge.
The Unknowing.
In the process of investigation, one ultimately arrives at a point where no more questions are possible, and no more answers exist.
The Emptiness.
No beginning. No end.
The all-encompassing nothingness which cannot be negated by "anything", the unity which cannot be negated by "disunity".
The non-existence which cannot be negated by existence.

The 129th Hymn in the 10th Mandala, of the Rig Veda talks exactly about this:

1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
2. Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
3. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darknew this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
4. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.
5. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it?
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
6. Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
TheGods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
7. He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.

    "That one thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever"
The main statement of this beautiful text is clear.
If so- in the "beginning"- there was no beginning. A beginning must mean a separation of something from something else. When all is One, no separation exists. So then, how was everything we know today created?
"Who knows ?" asks the passage. It claims that Desire was the seed of separation. But then again, what is Desire? And how can it arise in a complete Void ?

    According to the passage, this desire exploded from the emptiness- creating what we know as the world. But how can we know? And who knows?
Even "God" claims the Veda- perhaps knows not, but I do not see this as an accusation of ignorance, but the closure of the cycle of this poetic text.

    It begins with the Ultimate Unknowing, the Emptiness. Then it moves on to the creation of the world, it talks about the separation.
And it closes, with a reminder: the Unknowing is our origin and our nature. The knowing of all that is- is the same as unknowing.

    There is no division between "God" and this creation.
Just as there is no separation of a person with his heart, for example- Can you tell how you beat your heart? Can you tell how you stream your blood through the veins? How you build and kill cells? Do you need to know it, with your mind, in order for it to happen?
In the same way, the origin of this creation, the whole of life - is in the Unknowing, since there is no one who knows, because it is not separate from the process.

I, words and names...

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:45:16 -0000

Why is it that people find it strange when someone is refering to themselves by their name, or in third person?
Why is it that when most people see a child acting this way, react by saying something like- "it's just a phase, he'll grow out of it."
Why should he "grow out of it" ?

Isn't it funny the way people can be?
I think it's bothering them because it raises their own insecurities about themselves.

Because when we examine it- even when "I" call "myself" -"I" (note the triple separation in this very sentence :-) )-- someone is calling someone 'else' by a name!
It doesn't matter whether this name is the socially accepted "I", or simply your name- *anything* we shall call by *any* word- it has already created our separation from this "person" -with whom, at the same time we are identified.

Such is the nature of our perception, to separate, to label- and only through this perception can our identification with the "I" exist.
Our language is of the nature of separation, and thus it is difficult to explain something like this. It sounds complicated, but it's the most simple of "things".

I think that all people know, inherently, that this "I" is but a moment in time...
And what is time but the invention of the "I" to make itself feel coherent and real?

The conventional use of the word "I" has made people forget this, but when someone uses something different, it's like a blow of the zen masters stick!

From a certain perspective it's a loop-
A dream within a dream within a...

There is no dream, there is no loop...
Zhuangzi is not a man, is not a butterfly, is a man, is a butterfly...

But when one admits this, it's frightening- there's nothing to hold on to.

Who admits what?

This is what, in my opinion, those people are subconsciously afraid of. This is why they react the way they do.

In my end is my beginning...

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:01:47 -0000

There's a pressure in my chest.
An intense, acute, very real- physical sensation.
All throughout the chest. As if something is about to explode, something wants to break out...
It is on the verge of being painful.
There is nothing I can do, and so I'm just observing it, being with it as it is.

Something shatters.

I read, and listen to the poetry of Rumi and Tagore...My eyes fill with tears... And the pressure- it grows unendurable... It is as if my chest cannot contain my heart any longer.
It needs more space...And so it pours itself out- through the tears.

Grateful
I breathe in
I breathe out

Questions end. Answers end.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:37:38 -0000

What gets me out of bed...
Well it's all in my previous blog entry- those are the chirping birds who greet the new day, even when it's still dark; the trees, the clouds, the fresh air; the water drops on the sink when I wash my face; the sensation of my feet on the floor...

It's the unknowing, which is the knowing of the interconnectedness of all that is;
It's the celebration of multiplicity, which makes this world what it is, while simultaneously understanding the emptiness which is the unity, which transcends the word "unity" (that can be negated by the word "seperation").
It's a transverbal, transpersonal recognition of all as it is.

We don't wake up each day and ask ourselves "why do I bother to wake up?", it's natural, we do it just like we beat our hearts, just like we blink our eyes...

In every beat of our hearts, and in every breathe we take is the answer to no-question.

Are you still asking?