bodhidave

1:2 The numbers of followers for this account increased this week. I'll re-post an essay I have online which reflects on the present-day "mindfulness" movement. In that piece, about half-way through, I mention the experience of practicing the jhānas ... and ... thesideview.co/journal/deco...

a quick reply to a recent philosophical psych paper which is looking at apparent parallels between some schizophrenics' descriptions of their experiences and "numinous" spiritual experiences:

Pearl and Sally wishing you a good week to come, with plenty of chopped apples

A monk asked [Zen teacher] Qinqyuan, “What is the great meaning of Buddhism?” Qingyuan said, “What is the price of rice in Luling?” (*Book of Serenity,* case 5; Luling was known for having good rice 🙂🙏)

Wonderfully put, Roshi. I'm reminded of how often Zen can be presumed mysterious or paradoxical in its calls for "non-doing." But Western contemplatives' understandings of grace can be a parallel — our very effort to realize the living truth is already an example and expression of the living truth.

tonight's sunset from my road, outside Asheville

Sally and Pearl after a snack of apples — Pearl is now having a bit of a palette cleanser from the bramble bush

Told this story to an American Muslim friend when I got back to the States. He said: "Of course! — you were a guest in his country. And you probably looked like you didn't know what you were doing [I didn't 🙂]. So he took care of you."

(1) looking east — Sally and Pearl (after some chopped carrots) (2) looking west — the setting sun tonight

In tonight's meditation I was at times on the verge of having a muscle cramp in my calf. Some part of me was eventually able to forestall that, tho, & relax it. I didn't get a full-on cramp. And I had the sense that my sense of egoic selfhood, the sense of "me," is like a cramp. Something to relax.

my grand niece ... born today

my brother and sister-in-law's doggies today

playfully serious out of tonight’s meditation— how the sense of “this is me” and “here I am” is an altered state and how awakening has to do with an appreciative awareness of how experience works — the mechanics of it — including an appreciative awareness of how appreciative awareness works

another neighbor, I don't know their name :)

my neighbor Pearl, coming down to get some chopped apple

a silver-spotted skipper butterfly on the Butterfly Bush today

the Four O'clocks on my road continue to amaze :)

Tiger swallowtail on the Butterfly Bush across the street from my house this evening. (Outside Asheville.)

beautiful and for me these days there's a growing appreciation for how the bare, matter-of-fact mechanics of experiencing anything at all — it's something genuinely and humblingly miraculous

The Buddha-dharma "no self" teaching needs nuance. It can mean, for instance, our sense of self "comes from somewhere" (I sometimes meditate in dreamless sleep => the waking "self" isn't the starting point). And it means that we are *events* and *processes* more than static substances. So be kind.

How we moderns, esp in the West, conceive of "religion" has a history. Particularly since the Reformation many of us now presume religion means (1) espousing unprovable beliefs & (2) following authoritative commandments. Mahayana Buddhadharma is about (1) wisdom & (2) compassion. A key is the "how."

doggy-sitting for my brother's Toy Australian Shepherd puppy, "Papi" ... who's obviously casting spells 😍

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville (we had a storm front move through a little while ago, but the heaviest weather, coming down from the north, divided and passed on either side of us, east and west)

I had some news this weekend that brought a bit of heartbreak. And in tonight's meditation it was like I let whatever's most original, whatever's most alive, do what it most simply & fundamentally is— so rather than "be quiet & let it be what it is," it was like, "be quiet & let it do what it is."

Looking through my window this cloudy morning I wasn't sure what I was seeing at first — here in the center of this first photo — and then realized it's the back end of a squirrel who's watching a neighborhood doggy walk down the road. 🐕‍🦺 🐿️ 🙂

The word "contemplate" has the word "temple" in it — the term was connected originally with going to a sacred place to see signs of the divine.

good morning ... glories :)

in tonight's meditation— Our minds thirst to make sense of experience. At a very basic level we're primed to make models, concepts & names for what's experienced. And we forget we make it up. Contemplative practice (meditation) isn't to get rid of our ideas as much as to see that they're created.

Pearl and Sally coming down for their evening snack (chopped apple)

A legendary story says that when the Buddha was approaching awakening, and the forces of distraction and delusion demanded to know from him by what authority he presumed to become awakened — he reached down and touched the earth.

You are a shadow in love with the sun. The sun comes.... ~ Rumi (Mathnawi 3.4623)

I've been reminded how tragically sweet it can be that our thoughts and frames to keep us from feeling our feelings are in their way trying to take care of us. That's a reason as a therapist my approach has been, if you want to support someone's wish to change and grow— love them the way they are.

bunny in the mist, near my home a couple weeks ago

Complex topic I don't fully understand—but in tonight's meditation the phrase "enlightenment is through the body" made additional sense. There are different kinds of knowing. Waking cognition is one. But our "body" also knows how to sleep and dream—enlightenment is adjacent to that kind of knowing.