Sādhu

"The strength of your mind lies its conviction in the importance of its own actions, its ability to stick with what it knows is skillful; its qualities of mindfulness, concentration and discernment. These are the qualities of mind that determine how you’re going to deal with issues in life as they come up. The more mindful you are, the stronger your concentration, the more likely you are to deal in a skillful way because you’re coming from a position of strength. You not only know what the skillful action is, but you’re also strong enough to actually do it.

"Often we know the right thing to do but we just simply don’t have the strength to do it. And if that’s the way we live, imagine what it’s going to be like when we die. The body will be a lot weaker, the mind will be distracted by all kinds of things -- your thoughts of this, you’re going to miss this and miss that, you’ve only a little time left for this or that. The people around you are all in a turmoil. The mind has to be really strong to put up with a situation like that and not buckle under. And the shape of your mind at that point is going to have a huge impact on how you are reborn. The life you’ve lived is going to have a huge impact as well.

"They compare dying to falling asleep and dreaming, except that in this particular case you can’t come back to the body anymore. When you fall asleep, a little dream world will appear in your mind and you go into it: That’s your first dream. Now the nature of that dream world could be something realistic or something totally fantastic, pleasant or unpleasant. The nature of the dream world that appears has to do both with your past actions -- issues that have been weighing on your mind for a long time -- or your current state of mind.

"The principle that applies as you go to sleep applies at the moment of death as well, except at that point the mind does tend to be a lot weaker, a lot more desperate. It will jump -- especially if it’s untrained -- it’ll jump at anything. If you can train the mind to be more mindful and alert to what’s going on, then if you see something unpromising coming up, you don’t have to jump for it. You realize that you’ve got the choice, and if you learn how to keep in mind the good things you’ve done in life, that makes it easier for good dream worlds to appear at the time. But regardless, the important thing is that how you die is determined by how you live. That’s the issue right now. And so you need the meditation to develop these five strengths..."

- Thanissaro Bikkhu

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Analects 2.9

The Master said, "I can talk all day long with Yan Hui without him once disagreeing with me. In this way, he seems a bit stupid. And yet when we retire and I observe his private behavior, I see that it is in fact worthy to serve as an illustration of what I have taught. Hui is not stupid at all."


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Thai Forest Tradition

(Raw fucking tomorrow, at the latest...)

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Thankful...

...For those who came before...

...As well as for those who are presently in my life...  And I am most of all thankful for the promise I see in those who shall carry on after we are gone...

Mashallah

Word of the day in Arabic: صَديق (sadiq) -- "friend."

Aviso

"Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result." - 三島 由紀夫 / Mishima Yukio

Today, Consider...

...White Taras and Dakinis attended to by a flock of vultures...

"Arjuna Said..."

From "The Song Divine"

Whirley Bird!

God is great, and thank you everybody just for being.  The cycle of life and death continues (bye, Michael; hello, Dorothy Anne!), but the rest of us are still here -- we keep on trucking.

Keeping it real while the realness keeps me, and getting back up whenever I trip and fall.  Dig it, dignity-bashers!

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway." - Eleanor Roosevelt (...and keep on the lookout for that constructive criticism -- nay-saying followed by a helpful hint or starting-again point. It's out there!)

Mom's Mums, September 2016

Three Jewels

बुद्धं सरणं गच्छामि।
दम्मं सरणं गच्छामि।
सङ्घं सरणं गच्छामि।

Hospitality Is Sin; Lust Is Virtue; Falsehood Is Pious

Come as you are, as you were

As I want you to be

As a friend, as a friend

As an old enemy

Take your time, hurry up

Choice is yours, don't be late

Take a rest as a friend

As an old

Memoria, memoria

Memoria, memoria

Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach

As I want you to be

As a trend, as a friend

As an old

Memoria, memoria

Memoria, memoria

When I swear that I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

Memoria, memoria

Memoria, memoria

(And I don't have a gun)

When I swear that I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

- Kurt Cobain

Fall In!

"How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time." - Morgan Freeman

To all those demented, delusional, out-to-lunch fruitcakes who advocate for the deportation and exclusion of Muslims, here's a glimpse at the real world we all have no choice but to inhabit as best we can:  Last month, I was in San Francisco, walking along McAllister towards Jones.  Before me, against the South wall of the California Check Cashing branch, across from the neoclassical Hibernia Bank, bearing in English a written request for assistance was a beautiful young woman in chador, tasteful dress, and flawless, minimal make-up.  Beside her was her quiet young daughter.  Obviously, she was a recent arrival -- judging from her features, mos def a Syrian refugee who had received approval from the nearby, mostly Yemeni mosque, local upright citizens brigade, and other Tenderloin powers-that-really-be to work that corner for a shift.  As soon as a passing OG who was walking his bicycle had passed her a buck with a word of blessing and moved on, I in turn grabbed the loose bills that were change from my lunch (probably $12 or $14) out of my pocket, and handed them to the young lovely with a demotic "Salaam alaykum."  She took them, and responded demurely and heartbreakingly, "Shukraan."  And with that I carried on to rush through my errands on that day trip to the city.

All of this took but a minute or so:  That's reality, asshats.  That is why when it comes to what matters, what we cannot avoid indefinitely -- that is why our side will always win.  The rest of you Trump-ettes and shit stain bigots can just eat it.  You're lucky if you're even privileged enough to this (or are someone I agree with - hi fans, freaks, friends, and fellow fools)...

No Justice, Just Us

Doing my itty-bitty part to help raise awareness, and to try and point out some possibilities for helping fight the good fight:

http://www.orangecountyfl.net/FamiliesHealthSocialSvcs/VeteransServices.aspx#.V18notQrJxA (the services to which they refer clients could probably always use mention or donations...)
http://www.shelterlistings.org/city/orlando-fl.html
http://www.foodpantries.org/ci/fl-orlando
www.thecenterorlando.org

While we continue to abide and continue to be appalled at our government's and law enforcement's response to gun violence and hate crimes, and while we continue to blog, protest, hold vigils, write letters to the editor, and so on, we have above (for starters) real, immediately achievable opportunities to put an answer to atrocities like what happened in Orlando, Florida.  The links in this post are listings or connections to services that can always use volunteers, money, in-kind donations, or simple promotion; doing such sends a clear message that love is always more powerful than hate.  Even $10 to a food pantry or a gift of children's clothing to a shelter for homeless families can make all the difference in the world to promoting the causes of love for one another and social justice.

Help Orlando, and help us all.

Wisdom

"Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life."

―Wu Men, translated by Stephen Mitchell

"And That. Is The Night. The Lights Went Out. In GEORGIA!"

So a lot of people heard all my Sugarbaker-woman speechifyin'?

Internationally

Still ecstatic about Myanmar, cautiously optimistic about Tunisia.

My worries about Tunisia include CIA rat-fuck activities in the country. Right now, Tunisians are trying the tactic of combating radical Islamists with efforts that promote democracy, at the very moment the Pentagon's balloon has gone up in their request for funding to address threats like ISIS with yet more military force. I could see many in the intelligence community being less than thrilled with any success achieved by those who counter radicals with other than might -- who fight with an eye to what they want and need and what's best, rather than with an eye to what they fear.

Some folks in Tunisia have decided to go with the truism that violence begets more violence, and that hatred can be defeated only by what is right and good, not by more hatred.  Let's hope the agency doesn't fuck this up.

UPDATE:  All this said (especially about CIA rat-fucks), the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  It could really harm the elements I support to have visible American back-up.  Maybe the intelligence community should just leave well enough alone in Tunisia.  Don't try to help -- you might hurt, them and yourselves.

On The Role of Fear

"Now, fear is not always an unskillful emotion. I've had many psychotherapists talk to me about this. They're curious about the fact that when the Buddha lists the roots of unskillful behavior, there's greed, aversion, delusion - or passion, aversion, and delusion. Where's the fear? For so many of them, fear is *the* unskillful emotion. Well, that’s not necessarily the case. Actually, there are some good things to be afraid of.

"Be afraid that you're going to do things unskillfully, be afraid you’re going to act in harmful ways. Be afraid of wasting your time –- the time that could be devoted to developing the mind. Those kinds of fears come under what the Buddha calls ottappa -- compunction or fear of wrong-doing. There's also the fear that comes with heedfulness: realizing that there are dangers out there and dangers in your own mind, and you've got to do something about them.

"So fear isn't always unskillful. It's when the fear gets mixed up with the greed or aversion or delusion: that's when you got a problem." - Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Nurturing Your Inner Adult"

To paraphrase Pema Chodron, to feel fear means you are approaching the truth.  (Not always true, but usually.)

She's also said that "Everything you want is on the other side of fear."  I think that was her -- I don't feel like looking it up.  But again, often true.

What The Yamabushi Told Ippen At Kumano

"Hijiri spreading the nembutsu of interpenetration, why do you go about it mistakenly? It is not through your

propagation that sentient beings come to attain birth. In Amida Buddha's perfect enlightenment ten kalpas 

ago the birth of all sentient beings was decisively settled in Namu-amida-butsu. Distribute your fuda 

regardless of whether people have faith or not, and without discriminating between the pure and the impure." 

- NO ABODE, translated by Dennis Hirota, page xxxv

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Great resources from a great teacher -- food for thought (and of course, non-thought) on your path to enlightenment.

The Enemy Within

The external enemy can be deadly, but the enemy within is even more dangerous.