Category: Written Word

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Anātman

“Teacher, you have said, ‘Truly happy is the one who desires happiness for others and not self.’ How can one find happiness if one doesn’t desire happiness for themself?”

“‘Whatever suffering there is comes from desiring happiness for oneself.’ All phenomena that one seeks to find happiness in will eventually be source of misery, this very realization is itself cause for renunciation, the cessation of suffering. The life span of an ant is insignificant when compared to that of man. The lifespan of a man insignificant when compared to that of Earth. The span of the Earth insignificant compared to the cosmos, and further there are infinite universes, impossible to comprehend. So what is there to be attached to but the path that leads to transcendental awareness? Why waste this precious existence on anything other than peaceful  realization? One with diligent awareness is not attached to what is temporal. Freed from miseries, that one desires only this same realization of the path to happiness for all unaware beings. Only one self-liberated and devoted to liberating others of their miseries is steadfastly happy.”

Upon reflecting on his master’s lesson, the student replies, “One must realize causality to be freed from causality.”

“Good. Good. Very good.”

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Gnosis

The preachings of a preacher
Are not the teaching of  the teacher.
At best an interpretation.
Worst, misrepresentation. 
Relying on another to imply,
Reliant on how to apply. 
Follow its course, 
Find purity of source.
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V838 Monocerotis Light Echo

V838 Monocerotis a spectroscopic binary star system (a binary star evident from the Doppler effect) in the constellation Monoceros about 19,000 light years from the Sun. Identified as a luminous red novae, thought to have been [caused by the] merger of two stars within a triple system.

V838 Monocerotis and its light echo as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope on December 17, 2002
Credit: NASA/ESA
Images showing the expansion of the light echo. Credit: NASA/ESA.

A light echo is a physical phenomenon caused by light reflected off surfaces distant from the source, and arriving at the observer with a delay relative to this distance. The phenomenon is analogous to an echo of sound

Reflected light following path B arrives shortly after the direct flash following path A but before light following path C. B and C have the same apparent distancefrom the star as seen from Earth.
Direct light from a stellar outburst (white spot) reaches the observer (path 0) followed by light reflected off particles on progressively wider paraboloids (1–5): the observed disc apparently initially expands faster than light but the illusion is due to light reflecting off different unrelated particles
Animation of 11 images of light echo of V838 Mon

In the case of V838 Monocerotis, the light echo produced was unprecedented and is well documented in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. While the photos appear to depict an expanding spherical shell of debris, they are actually formed by the illumination of an ever-expanding ellipsoid with the progenitor star at one focus and the observer at the other. Hence, despite appearances, the structures in these photos are actually concave toward the viewer.

Source Wikipedia: V838 Monocerotis, Light echo

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Vascellum

To hear but not listen, 
The pot upside down
In which no water can be found. 

To listen but not retain, 
The pot with holes that soon drains
And contains little of what rains. 

To retain but then taint, 
The pot that is soiled 
With contents spoiled.
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Nada

“Teacher, you have said ‘There is nothing to comprehend. Nothing to attain.’  Yet you have practiced for many years with great masters, have spent countless hours studying the texts and commentaries, and even more in reflective meditation?”

“Nothing is very difficult to comprehend. Nothing is very difficult to attain.”

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Somnambulist

Narayana and Brahma
Like turbulence on surface of river,
Thoughts arise then subside.
Over bed river flows,
So mindstream goes.
As river is not individual drops, nor accretion, 
Mind not thoughts, nor stream of sensations,
Mere conceptualizations of dreamer’s creation.
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Entropic

Mid-candle flame
    can no more interchange 
    with initial frame 
    of when first lit, 
tip of yet unlit wick. 
Flame as it is, 
its current existence,
    is conditioned
    from burning thence. 
As flame that exists 
    is consequence of 
    what was consumed
    fore hence, 
 So I,
    all since.
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Out of Body

“Teacher, you say all phenomena is manifestation of mind, but  surely when cut, I bleed. How is that manifestation of mind? Does not something outside of mind cut me? Can you explain this?”

“Indeed. Is it mind that is cut or body?”

“The mind cannot be cut, it is body that is cut.”

“This sculpture of stone when chipped would it say ‘I am chipped’?”

“No, it has no mind to perceive that has been chipped.”

“And no mind that holds concept of being chipped, nor even mind that holds concept of self to chip.  Yet to the mind that chipped, it has been chipped. Do you understand?” 

After a moment of reflection, the student replies, “Mind cannot be cut where body can, but without mind body does not perceive being cut. Likewise, sculpture that is chipped is not chipped but by observing mind.”

“Good. Good. Very good. You have understood.”

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Is and not

“Teacher, earlier when teaching the dharma to the townsfolk and when explaining the emptiness of form and the other aggravates you said, “A thing that is not can be understood as that which is not, and that which is.” This is confusing to me. Could you explain it’s meaning?”

“Indeed.  Conceptually, a thing that is not can be understood as that which it is not and that which it is. Likewise, that which is can be known by both what it is and by what it is not. Glass that was full, when emptied, would you say that it is not full or empty?”

”One could say either, but I would say it is empty.”

The student then pulls out a copper coin from his mendicant bowl,  studies it from side to side, and after a brief pause says, “Other side of heads, not heads or tails.”

Good. Good. Very good. You have understood.