The Road Less Traveled

     As a species, we're deeply conditioned to stick to all that is safe & well-known. We have a powerful, genetic 'negativity bias.' 

     "All of life is but keeping away the thoughts of death." Samuel Johnson

     However, at a certain point in our life, some of us are drawn to, and are ready to take 'the road less traveled' - toward becoming intimate with the meaning of our own life, of life in general.

     “Yaksha:               What is the greatest wonder in the world?
      Yudhishthira:     Every day men see others called to their death, yet those who remain live as if they were immortal.” The Mahabharata

     “Just understand that birth-and-death is itself nirvana. There is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided; there is nothing such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death.” Dogen
       David R. Loy. “Lack & Transcendence. The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism.” Wisdom Publications, 2018.

     “The word mysteries has long had religious connotations. In both ancient and modern cultures, there have always been priests and priestesses, nuns, monks, and shamans seeking to learn from the mysteries and thereby shift their relationship to themselves and others, to life and to death. This book is intended for those today who are drawn to these subtle realms. Emptiness is the theme, as it is a core teaching closely connected to the other mysteries. For the truth of emptiness to reveal itself fully in our hearts and minds will require inquiry and reflection, as well as a deep intuition born from meditation, which is simply another name we give to close observation. In truth the keys that unlock the mysteries of science also unlock the mysteries of spirit.”

       Guy Armstrong. “Emptiness. A Practical Guide for Meditators.” Wisdom Publications, 2017.

Morning Meditation

Quotes to Ponder

     Some weighty quotes are, like open questions, to be pondered perhaps over a lifetime ...

     "Nature delights in discovering herself by manifesting in infinite variations of phenomena." Source?

    “You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe.
     An intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person.
     But a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself.
     What an amazing miracle.” Eckhart Tolle

     “Life or the source of life becomes conscious of itself through the individual. Human beings have an immense part to play through the recognition and conjoining of the opposites. The significance of a human life is potentially amazing in both its light and its darkness. It can be amazingly enlightening and amazingly darkening.” Adyashanti

     “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,

      Love is knowing I am everything,

      and between the two my life moves.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

      "There are only two ways to live your life.
       One is as though nothing is a miracle.
       The other is as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein
 
     "There never was a time when you or I did not exist. 
       Nor will there be any future when we shall cease to be." Bhagavad Gita

Ludlow, England

Going through Hell?

     If you're going through hell, 
     keep going.
     That is no place to stop!                          John Randall Dunn (paraphrased)

     Below are the words of a 35 year old, diagnosed with terminal lung cancer shortly before he would have completed neurosurgery training:
     "... yet now I felt that to understand my own direct experiences, I would have to translate them back into language. Hemingway described his process in similar terms: acquiring rich experiences, then retreating to cogitate and write about them. I needed words to go forward.
     And so it was literature that brought me back to life during this time. The monolithic uncertainty of my future was deadening; everywhere I turned, the shadow of death obscured the meaning of any action. I remember the moment when my overwhelming unease yielded, when that seemingly impassable sea of uncertainty parted. I woke up in pain, facing another day - no project beyond breakfast seemed tenable. I can't go on, I thought, and immediately, its antiphon responded, completing Samuel Beckett's seven words, words I had learned long ago as an undergraduate: I'll go on. I got out of bed and took a step forward, repeating the phrase over and over: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'
     That morning, I made a decision: I would push myself to return to the OR. Why? Because I could. Because that’s who I was. Because I would have to learn to live in a different way, seeing death as an imposing itinerant visitor but knowing that even if I’m dying, until I actually die, I am still living."
        Paul Kalanithi. “When Breath Becomes Air.” Random House, 2016.

Precious Life

On Nature

     Nature delights in discovering herself by manifesting infinite variations of phenomena.       Ralph Waldo Emerson? - please do send me the accurate quote & author
 

     "There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent."         Ralph Waldo Emerson


     “Nature is the incarnation of thought. The world is the mind precipitated.” 
Ralph Waldo Emerson


     "When we pay attention to nature's music, we find that everything on the Earth contributes to its harmony."         Hazrat Inayat Khan


          “We are so lightly here.
           It is in love that we are made.
           In love we disappear.”                   Leonard Cohen 



     “The purpose of life is not to transcend the body, 
       but to embody the transcendent.”          Dalai Lama 
 

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Dogen on Life and Death

     “Let go of and forget your body and mind; throw your life into the abode of the Buddha, living by being moved and led by the Buddha. When you do this without relying on your own physical or mental power, you become released from both life and death and become a Buddha. 
     Do not immerse yourself in mental and emotional struggles. Refrain from committing evil. Neither be attached to life nor to death. Be compassionate toward all sentient beings. Revere that which is superior and do not withhold sympathy from that which is inferior. Do not harbor hatreds nor covet anything. Do not be overly concerned with trivial matters nor grieve over difficulties in your life. This is the Buddha. Do not search for the Buddha anywhere else.” 
       Dogen Zenji, Shoji (Life and Death) chapter of the Shobo-Genzo

Transformation by H Kopp-Delaney https://storify.com/WindofEpiphany/h-kopp-delaney-art-gallery

Danger Signals

     Immediately from one or a few obvious cause(s), or more gradually from unknown numbers of straws on the camel's back, we're regularly bombarded by many, many danger signals.
     'Danger' sounds acute, even life-threatening. But as social creatures, we sense danger even when someone we consider important, isn't as friendly towards us as usual. So the innumerable variables in life, coupled with our 'negativity bias' conspire to more or less constantly keep us on edge! And the greater our history of trauma, the more exaggerated the alarm bells & our responses. One can sustain major trauma without ever having experienced combat or sexual abuse.
      “By far the most important predictor of how well (people) coped with life’s inevitable disappointments was the level of security established with their primary caregiver during the first two years of life.”
     Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015. 

     So we can see that we should be gentle & understanding with our own & others' odd behavior. We're all, to some degree, scared, needy kids who just want to be safe, secure, loved & happy. Our behavior hints at how patient (to desperate) we are to get there, as well as how healthy (to dysfunctional) our idea of "there" happens to be. All of us are always doing our best, no matter how that may appear to others - and even to ourselves when we look back (with dismay & gratitude for the great tolerance we received) later!
     But identifying with our level of dysfunction is unsatisfactory - intentional wallowing simply won't do. We must tirelessly dig ourselves out of this hole. We can learn to quickly & easily recognize the felt sense of false (ego) danger. There's a distinct difference between danger to our ego vs actual life. We must learn to identify this difference, because our quality of life definitely depends on skillfully managing these two vastly different dangers.

 The Space Between by Alice Mason   https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AliceMasonArtist?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Wednesday Morning 3am - for All Who Came & Went Today

Birth is miraculous
Death is miraculous
Many many many ways 
to live the liminal ephemeral in-between

Koan of Everyday Life

     "Human life itself, the mystery of being thrust into the world by birth and swept out of it by death, is an imponderable puzzle, one that we can try to ignore but cannot escape. So much of what passes for 'ordinary' life is, when seen through different eyes, not ordinary at all, but full of potential for spiritual learning. To practice the koan of everyday life means to confront every situation as though it were a profound spiritual question."
 
       Lewis Richmond: Work as a Spiritual Practice. A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job. Broadway Books, NY, 1999.

     Also see: http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=spirituality

rok urankar    www.dpreview.com

Creativity & Communication - in Music ... in Life

     "What do you mean, 'playing really creatively'? Can you give me a concrete example?"

     "Hmm, let's see ... You send the music deep enough into your heart so that it makes your body undergo a kind of a physical shift, and simultaneously the listner's body also undergoes the same kind of physical shift. It's giving birth to that kind of shared state. Probably."

       Haruki Murakami. "After Dark." Bond Street Books, Doubleday, Canada. 2004. p88

Franco Balducci's 2007 "Traveller of Peace" (close-up), San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy

A Meaningful Life

"I shall see to it, if I can,
that my death makes no statement
that my life has not made already."                           Montaigne, Essays

See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/04/perception-and-gaining-mind.html
and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/01/why-be-mindful.html
 

Dukkha & the Other Shore

     "Sorrow and the love of being alive are inextricable.

     ... living in conditioned existence is like 'licking the honey on the razor's edge.' "

       Douglas Penick "It's for you." Shambhala Sun, May 2014   www.shambhalasun.com

cand1d   www.dpreview.com

 

Not One, Not Two

     “When I look inside & see that I’m nothing, that’s wisdom. 

     When I look outside & see that I’m everything, that’s love. 

     And between these two, my life turns.”

               Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

 

Pacstar   www.dpreview.com

Saying Yes to Life as it Is

     "All you have to do is say 'yes.' Don’t make some big project out of it. Don’t make some big deal out of it. Just say 'yes.' You don’t even know what it means to say 'yes,' but you say it anyway. You’ll never know what it means to say 'yes,' but you do it anyway. Freedom and Love arise when you die into the unknown mystery of being."

     "All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are."                               Adyashanti

At the Cafe - Balzacs by Jane Hunter   www.fogforestgallery.ca

 

Poem

life


inbreath
outbreath

Beyond Concepts

     “… humans, rocks, birds, air, and all beings have the same universal, cosmic life.
     But we ignore the great, vast, and inconceivable life that is, behind our ideas of life and death.
     Instead of being tossed about by our speculations about life and death, we have to take responsibility for our capacity to see inconceivable life.
     The final goal is that your worldly life must merge with inconceivable life through actual realization. Before we conceptualize and separate ourselves from the world, there is something inconceivable. There is already universal, cosmic life. It is why you are alive.
     In the truth of zazen, life and death are merging, moment by moment. And thus, because our lives are supported by all beings through the merging of life and death, we bring forth inconceivable life.”

       Katagiri D. “You have to say something. Manifesting Zen insight.” Shambhala, Boston, 1998.

Photo: mjdundee   www.dpreview.com