Weather Report This phrase—directed thought and evaluation—has been popping into my mind, as of late, largely in relation to renewed interest in questions of agency, choice, volition, intention, and so-called free will. I’ve contemplated these issues previously, and recorded my provisional conclusions in Do I Choose My Thoughts?—which I invite you to check out, if you haven’t already. It’s an …
[Read more...] about Practice Notes: Directed Thought & Evaluation
Like The Prow Of A Boat "Be, therefore, like the prow of a boat: It cleaves the water, yet it leaves in its wake water unbroken." Is this not one of the best-ever grasshopper teaching moments!? Let's explore this image in a bit more depth--but first, here it is in all its glorious original context ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXDZOa1rEp0 Leaving No Trace This image--of the …
Lal Dĕd Goes Riding The following two verses--a question and its answer--are excerpted from I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd. This collection of Lalla's poems--translated beautifully by Ranjit Hoskote--is one of my favorites: for its informative and insight notes, as much as for the poems themselves. 78 Shiva's the horse and Vishnu's the saddle, Brahma's cheering at the stirrup. Only the …
Out Of Hiding Someone said my name in the garden, while I grew smaller in the spreading shadow of the peonies, grew larger by my absence to another, grew older among the ants, ancient under the opening heads of the flowers, new to myself, and stranger. When I heard my name again, it sounded far, like the name of the child next door, or a favorite cousin visiting for the …
Drinking The Kool-Aid Perhaps you know the story (penned originally by Kahlil Gibran) of The Wise King, which here I'll paraphrase … A king respected for his strength and wisdom rules over a city, in whose heart rests a well of pure and crystalline water. One night a witch poisons the well-water. Upon drinking the poisoned water, all the inhabitants of the kingdom become insane. The king …
[Read more...] about Practice Notes: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
This passage from Unbounded Wholeness teases out the role of scripture and pointing-out instructions (aka "essential precepts") in a so-called direct path such as Dzogchen: * * * * * * * * * * * Authenticity, like Dzogchen in general, will not lay out a path to Buddhahood. It's path is Buddhahood. Yet two of its authenticating methods, scripture and essential precepts, are specifically …
