this blog is the continuation of a genuine mystical tradition, unless you get in daily contemplative time and abstain to a significant degree from "entertainment" then you are just wasting your time and mine !
Zakaj, when you have time, may you please read this essay?:
http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=1012
This is the best philosophy paper I've ever read. It analyzes the anti-correlationism/speculative realism of Ray Brassier and Quentin Meillassoux, and it ultimately reaches Panpsychist conclusions by looking at how some of William James and Alfred North Whitehead's concepts relate in solving the problems in their philosophies. I agree with the conclusion of how "reality is experiential, all the way down".
It's a very complex and convoluted essay but worth reading.
I believe an3drew's "recursion" is ultimately experiential on all levels. The massive interconnectivity and recursiveness in corticothalamic complex of the brain and recursivity inherent in imagination and consciousness... are BOTH experiential. This means panpsychism is superior to materialism, so read the article to get it...!
"meaninglessness opens the gate, but entry is walking through the meaning of it ! "
That's why a poem can capture it because the the raw experience of meaning is aligned , of and the actuality of the blurring of infinity, showing it is nothing but meaning. Just taking the blurring of infinity is meaningless and like a lobotomy or vegetative state. It's hard to explain.
It is all experiential at the end of the day, meaning there is an internal mental life of all matter, but it can evolve into higher tiers of complexity! The article mentions Zizek too!
""And what is meaning? It is what transcends all the characteristics of projections and the characteristics of speech. This is what is meant by meaning. It is thus in regard to meaning. Mahamati, that bodhisattvas dwell in solitude and proceed toward the city of nirvana as a result of their own understanding of wisdom from learning, reflection, and meditation. And once they have transformed their habit-energy, they contemplate the distinctive characteristics of the meaning of the various stages leading to the realm of personal realization. This is what is meant by how bodhisattvas become versed in meaning." - Lankavatara Sutra
The meaning of beautiful poem is of both meaning and meaninglessness, simultaneously, but it is wholly experiential. A poem shows panpsychism as the only ontological reality. Under my view, chemical reactions where some of the molecules involved end up producing more copies of themselves and creating recursive cycles with external energy sources have an elementary level of awareness that evolves into more complex forms of experience.
Finally, Zakaj, did you check out my last post?:
"I like Japan's history of permaculture. Check out Masanobu Fukuoka, for example. He heavily influenced the permaculture movement in Australia by collaborating with figures like Bill Mollison and his buddy David Holmgren.
I know an3drew said anime isn't good, but one anime that is on the level of quality art is Mushi-shi. One of the few decent anime. It goes a bit into Japan's history of self-sustainability too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_1OdsSvKI
It gets exceptionally good on Part 2 of Season 2."
Interesting use of that Lanka quote. It's certainly a reinterpretation of the meaning of meaning.
"A poem shows panpsychism as the only ontological reality" -
I think here we have a view that mind-stuff is the building block of the universe. I wonder if that's really the ultimate perspective?
What if there is NO "building block of reality"? That it's turtles all the way down, that the recursion never ends. So what appears to be matter, is really just mind. And what appears to be mind, is really just matter. And what appears to be matter, is really just mind, etc.
It sounds impossible. How could it be? But why should reality be "possible"? Possible means: possible to the common categories of human thought. So it actually makes more sense that the REAL IS the impossible, and the impossible IS the real.
We assume reality has a fundamental ground. Mind, matter, quarks, electrons, quanta, God, Brahman,... then someone says, like Berkeley, no, it's perception, it's experience! Everything is experience! Well, what if reality is just an infinite fractal that has no "building blocks"? No "ontological reality"?
I think that Buddhism originally meant with emptiness was this idea that reality is an infinite fractal without building blocks or fundament, it's the infinite recursion that is what creates, without creator or created, it's just creativity as an infinite process.
As for Mushishi, I already watched it many years ago, and I thought it was aesthetically pleasing, but really pointless. I didn't understand what's the point of the show, to be quite frank.
Japanese have the best tradition of craftsmanship in the world, they love to technically perfect whatever they're doing. I have an ambivalent opinion about Japan. I love their food. I'm not a big fan of anime. There are a few almost good ones, but I've never seen one I'd call a work of art.
Video games are actually smarter than anime! Have you played Planescape: Torment? Truly profound. I'd call that a work of art.
My two favorite parts are talking to O from Smoldering Corpse Bar and Awaiting-Death in Gathering Dust Bar. Getting the complete dialogue box for both is the best. I tried looking up Youtube, but most people were too dense to get the complete dialogue box for Awaiting-Death. It was honestly one of the most moving things I've experienced.
You probably talked to O in Smoldering Corpse Bar and remember, considering how memorable it was.
What I learned from him is to separate sentences from sentences.
We shouldn't be deceived by the extenral appearance of sentences.
So a sentence like "Ouch!" or "I love you!" is essentially different from "the sky is dark".
They appear to be "the same thing" (ie. sentenced made from letters describing reality), but they're really not. "Ouch!" is an expression of pain; "I love you!" is a performative - it's a sentence that DOES something, it's an action (declaration of love). Similar to: "I promise!" It doesn't describe any reality. It creates the reality it "describes" (the promise).
We often get confused by this, that language seems to be uniform, but really it's a toolbox of various tools that are very different.
So I think you're right that poetry is fundamentally different, it's not just a surface difference... it's really totally another thing from how language is used in essays or how I am using language in this reply, or how language is used in voynich.
The way I visualize Andrew's verses is like they stand alone, with no support, they float as it were in a vast empty space. I get this vision; partly it's triggered by the empty spaces he puts between the lines, partly by the style and the content.
Nietzsche once said that we are deceived by grammar! That we start to believe in grammar too much, in words like "being", and "nothingness", and then we imagine they form some "ontological reality"! That they describe entities. Isn't all language ultimately performative? The word "being" creates being. So aren't we really trapped by linguistic artifacts?
So we are trapped within this constant state unknowing because of inherent limitations on our cognition and language? I guess Lovecraft wasn't so wrong then.
Wow... Zakaj, you are remarkably intelligent. This guy's music is amazing. It's amazing how he had Persian/Iranian (same thing), Indian, Japanese, and Native American influences during various time points. Talk about eclectic. His music is also very "float"-like like Andrew's poetry.
"I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties; that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the universe." - Isaac Asimov
Couldn't it be said that good artwork has fractal properties too? In that sense there could be[ non-conceptual aesthetic truths, given the infinite complexity, that one can learn by immersing himself or herself deeply into profound poetry, film, or fiction.
I feel like the works of Wang Wei ( http://www.chinese-poems.com/wwe.html ), Han Shan, Shiwu, Emily Dickinson, H.P. Lovecraft, Andrei Tarkovsky, and classical/traditional musicians reach the level of conveying inexpressible aesthetic truths which cannot be put into terse, stilted expositions. Such profound artwork inspires great amounts of artists too. I mean, this is a pretty old view popularized by Schopenhauer and Wagner, and I think there is some truth to it. It's like a catharsis that is, itself, indefinite or undefinable... The best quote I found to explain it is from Andrei Tarkovsky:
"We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyse the formula that constitutes a symbol, while metaphor is a being-within-itself, it's a monomial. It falls apart at any attempt of touching it." - Andrei Tarkovsky
I definitely felt that way at the end of Offret and Zerkalo; you just can't put it into words unless you write a poem, short story, or whatever in response. To use a metaphor: it's like such artwork stand alone, with no support, they float as it were in a vast empty space. Infinite complexity...
last night i was sitting vaporizing marijuana .. yes i'm ashamed.. yes i'm scared of the repercussions. i wondered, where are all of the hippies of the 70's? maybe they could set an example for me as to what i can expect with brain damage. i've been smoking for about 4 years now.
any way, so many planes pass by my house. one of the biggest airports in the world is about 30 mins away. they are very loud, and last night i learned that their flashing lights under the wings are so bright they even flash into my room. i've never seen the flashing lights in my own room, and i was surprised. sort of made me think of how much i'm missing on visually? my first mini kensho experience had a lot to do with visuals, when i opened my eyes after meditating i thought i saw a steady mist in the air... and the room seemed very crisp. the corners on the wall were very defined. another experience with infinity involved looking up at the sky and it seemed to go on and on, but it wasn't very intense i suppose.
my two friends want to go on a road trip this summer all around the united states, some time in august, but i was planning on going to furnace mountain in june until august, and maybe even until november. i wish they'd wait until next year.
i watched a charles bukowski documentary last night and it was something else.
re the road trip ; years ago i turned down an opportunity to sail around the world because i knew i wouldn't survive and i think basically people f i n d m e a b i t s t r a n g e ⎽ . .
interesting "vision" , yeah I suppose the wall corners are well defined, but that doesn't mean they can't be dismantled and gone through ! :o)
tonight a woman came into the pizzeria, and i knew there was something different about her. she ordered two slices, and took off all of the cheese to eat and left the bread!
These posts make me think of one of the last times I did zazen. Can't remember if it was the same year of that storm I witnessed. Might've been a year earlier.
I was just sitting in front of the tv (it was off) and I noticed that my reflection started moving, simmering. I got up and went outside, everything was so vivid. It was a bright day with some clouds, the trees were swaying in the wind.
Did some walking around, went to talk to someone working at the water treatment plant. Usually I just stay away from people even though I'm from a small town and I know everyone.
That's all I really remember about that lol. Nothing too exciting but it was still pretty awesome.
You can dismantle and go through them? The wall corners I mean. Or do you just sit there and you can see through them?
I usually smoke weed when I'm bored. If not then I play games, listen to music, drink, masturbate...
But if I don't do anything and leave the boredom alone then it just builds and builds... and makes it harder just to sit with it. If I just sit with it, I'll probably end up doing one of the mentioned activities.
But if I do manage to leave it alone it for a bit and not do anything about it it leaves me feeling powerful and invigorated. I guess my body takes care of it.
It.
Sometimes I manage to do something constructive with this impulse lol. Like go for a walk, do some writing, that's about it lol.
I think Thai Forest Tradition is a bit better than the modern Zen scene. At least in that practice solitude in natural scenery, celibacy, and self-sustainability are encouraged and kinda necessary for practice. It avoids the pitfalls of being "modernized", or as Andr3w says "becoming suburban".
I think if one does Thai Forest Monastery but still keeps the creative spirit of writing poetry and reading good stuff, then I think it's better than the modern Zen scene. Zen has been bastardized way too much.
Sepehr I think you're looking for The One org. that is genuine and not corrupted. An alternative would be to recognize they are all wrong, collectivist and hubric to different degrees, but you can still use their facilities? You don't have to subscribe to their doctrines in order to use their libraries, their retreats...? Similarly, you don't have to believe Jesus Christ risen from the dead with his body in order to go to a monastic retreat in some Catholic monastery. Just like you don't have to believe in God to use the US Dollar! ("In God We Trust")
that's an interesting question because there's a group of people who are very good, but still missing something, even a few oh so close who you can't really say wether they are truely enlightened or not like osip mendalstam and ibn 'arabi !
close would be derrida, heraclitus, schopenhauer, li po, tu fu, sylvia plath, john keats, ryokan, giacomo leopardi, philip larkin, joshu, foyan, sa'di, charles bukowski, john of the cross, charles dodgson /lewis carroll, w.h auden . .
but those who really understood are very very few, wang wei, emily dickinson, basho, han shan, possibly joshu
it does puzzle me abit, this jump between those with a good understanding and those able to transcend into something really both a bit and quite d i f f e r e n t . .
the problem as i say is we don't live long e n o u g h . .
you need the solitude, the natural scenery. , . the 'beauty is truth' aspect, the garnering and reflection of experience . .
the helpful reading that can catapult you through completely new insights and working
the "feeding" of infinity to you . .
then at the end of the day you are left like me, wondering if all this extra work is worthwhile and one would simply be better to take more walks, get out more and focus more on the practical side of life rather than developing a very large esoteric knowledge that just consumes and consumes m o r e . .
the point of that work is getting the certainty to stare down a stupid world so full of its own bullshit and right ness (reddit zen !) . .
i'll offer my observations on reddit zen since I still read, but don't post !
the first is that because people can change nicks/id's/alts is it is very unstable, that coupled with an unending stream of new hubric twits and its resident schizophrenics means you can't beat it !
so reddit zen will always win, you can't beat it, which is a good "zen-like" starting point !
I do find it useful to read occasionally, like this link to bill porter is good !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVgHzfGzuU8
so how do I win against such a concentrated collection of turds !
well I reap by reading and don't help them at all by posting so this immediately places the whole thing in my favour !
reddit zen is intrinsically anti-artistic as clitstation/clickstation stopped any ability to imaginatively format posts by not permitting " " which enables one to introduce some spatial resonance into that on posts /posting material !
he is the effective owner as far as I can see and this is one thing I have learnt over the years with message boards, they never deviate from their owners and their personalities and characteristics
ewk is schizophrenic and has early dementia, pointing at the moon has an alcohol problem and is odd because he has the most beautiful poetry writing style, but just writes the most awful crap
one could go on . . ! :o)
anyway I find one just has to have an absolute rule not to post at all and things work a lot better that way ! :o)
there is a stong gay element on the board as well, ewk and pointing at the moon are gay and really for them I think the board is enlivened by the prospect of talking to nice young men ! :o)
I cannot believe I wasted a year posting there, it was productive in terms of extending my knowledge about a lot of zen texts, whether that was useful or I would have been better doing other things I don't know
with reddit zen you can see the problem that everyone makes with 'mystical inquiry' they don't sort out things to any level of detail let alone the grinding level that quality mysticism requires and so they just meander on in a bubble of hubric self assurance ! :o)(
An3drew, why haven't you ever attempted to publish your poems? Whenever I read them, a lot of sanggi/qi/Prana swells up in my forehead. I think it's better to have it in a book to read outside, underneath a tree or something... You can also make a lot of money... I think selecting your best poems and putting it into a book is good.
It's like we have a poetic genius here that can never be known by the general public, but maybe this is why you write such beautiful poetry?
The spacing should definitely be kept in book format too.
While I wholeheartedly support Sepehr's idea, this "You can also make a lot of money" is not true. Poetry, especially quality poetry, doesn't make money. Did you watch the Red Pine docu Andrew posted above? He says the same. What makes a lot of money is 50 Shades of Gray!
(Erotica for women dominates; then also New Age self-help books. People don't care about quality, they want to know how to satisfy their desires and get what they want A.S.A.P.!)
((Actually even we are not really exempt from that; meaning that wanting enlightenment ASAP is the same kind of consumerist, fast food mentality, and not unrelated to reddit Zen I think. But we can't exclude ourselves from that category, Sepehr. We're similar really, looking for lazy short-cuts. I think we're not that much better. Just a little bit better.))
Anyway, Andrew should really publish, or is that a strange idea to him, like Firmament to Fin?
Or maybe you, Sepehr you can write a book about Andrew some day?
Kind of like they had to write books about UG, since he refused to publish anything?
yeah i agree zakaj, i haven't brought a book for years and can find those i want to read free on-line !
a lot of charles bukowski's life was about him not being able to make any money with his writing at all and i really only think the films and novels made anything for him in later life !
this is what makes money, it's alot of work and you really have to enter into the mindset to the exclusion of everything else
http://amandahocking.blogspot.com.au/
people don't want to think, they want to be entertained and eat the lotus !
Do you think this is a good way to introduce myself to Emily Dickinson? http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Emily-Dickinson-Judith-Farr/dp/0674656660/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1424508364
I already read 1/3rd of Open Me Carefully, but I want to read a scholar's commentary and biography on Emily Dickinson so I can approach her works more easily and stuff
This place is going to become like Brad Warner's comment section: a bunch of off-topic droning interspersed with guru worship.
Why don't you fanboys go to Tasmania and live in natural scenery with your guru? At least with Brad Warner, one can meet him in person and see what he's like away from the computer. Doesn't that matter?
Learning "everything" from solitude is a recipe for becoming a half-baked solipsist.
"Relationship, surely, is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence. And you exist only in relationship; otherwise, you do not exist, existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist because you are related, and it is the lack of understanding of relationship that causes conflict."
Though tilting more to the solitude side is better for enlightenment and artwork. The point is meaning transcends words and projections, the only good thing said from the Lankavatara Sutra. The complexity and multiplicity of meanings is apprehended in solitude and it is all in the prism of non-meaning. That's why good artists always seek solitude when writing or painting or whatever. The creative inspiration flows from the background of stillness then more naturally. This is a fact most healthy people realize unconsciously. You have to be healthy to realize it.
Have you read the entire Lankavatara, or did you just appropriate that phrase from somewhere?
If you're going to be an artist, why don't you just do that instead of pontificating about what it takes to be an artist? If you want to be alone in nature, go do that. If you want to be celibate, divorce your wife.
Otherwise, you're going to continue widening the gap between the reality of your life and all your ideas about life. That's not healthy.
I'm the only one that can know the realities of my life. Why don't you stick to talking about the realities of your own life rather than mine? That's not healthy.
And yeah, I've read Red Pine's translation of the Lankavatara. I couldn't sit through all of it.
""And what is meaning? It is what transcends all the characteristics of projections and the characteristics of speech. This is what is meant by meaning.72 It is thus in regard to meaning. Mahamati, that bodhisattvas dwell in solitude and proceed toward the city of nirvana as a result of their own understanding of wisdom from learning, reflection, and meditation.73 And once they have transformed their habit-energy, they contemplate the distinctive characteristics of the meaning of the various stages leading to the realm of personal realization. This is what is meant by how bodhisattvas become versed in meaning." (Red Pine translation)
"In this they are ignorant of the nature of words, which are subject to birth and death, whereas meaning is not; words are dependent upon letters and meaning is not; meaning is apart from existence and non-existence, it has no substratum, it is un-born" (Lankavatara Sutra, DT Suzuki translation)
This is what An3drew meant by "meaning is a fluid", "philosophy is a failing approximation of good poetry", "[the meaning of] good writing, a koan or poetry is aligned , of and the actuality of absolute reality", and
"words and wordlessness are the primal matter
and
then
what
are
something
and
nothing
! : o)("
You cannot lose sight of creativity and solitude in Zen practice. If Soto Zen were to place less emphasis on proper posture in Shikantaza and diversify their activities by includes walks of solitude in nature, creative exercises, and so forth, it'd be much better. Periods of celibacy are essential too, but it's not needed to be celibate all the time. The point is not to be supportive of stuff like Houellebecq Platform bullshit. That guy is a shit artist.
It still sounds like you're hung up on what other people should do (zen centers) and what other people do (artists). But you're neither a zen community not an artist, so what's the point?
What are you doing with your life?
How does carrying around a recipe for creativity or a list of enlightened people help you?
If you want to know the realities of my life, you can come visit.
Think about the boy bell-maker from Andrei Rublev? Did he spend years pontificating about creativity and meaning and collecting the names of artists? No, he just did it! He tapped into that creative potential, despite himself and his doubts, and despite not knowing the secret of casting bells or anything at all about where creativity comes from.
You could do the same, or you can keep generating theories about it, for the rest of your life.
I've gone to my Sangha, and my sensei alluded to giving me Dharma transmission if I stick to it, several times. But it seems money is more of his concern considering I would bring more positive attention and get more donations or something like that. He's alluded to blatantly several times to me.
I don't really care about fame, but the prospect of the money does appeal to me... but it's honestly not that certain.
How can I do the same thing as Andrei Rublev without money or my own land? I'm pretty sure Andrei Rublev practices with a community before going out on his own land. He probably learned self-sustainable techniques and could freely walk without worrying about trespassing on private property or pay property tax? I am not in a privileged position. I need to save up money to get my own land. I also need to learn more self-sustainable techniques by WWOOFing. I take things at my own pace. I will most likely fail, but I don't care. I honestly don't give a fuck if you perceive me as either winning or failing. I'll do things at my own pace.
Sepehr what sangha is that? Soto Zen? Why do you use the word sensei? Does he ask you to call him that? It's quite amusing in 2015. Like role-playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Anyway Sepehr you say your pace is slow, I'm not even going into that direction. I wonder if that nature mysticism isn't just an anachronistic fixation. Or maybe I am just damaged beyond repair, by civilization? Who knows. I just don't feel drawn to nature. I enjoy it like everyone else, for short periods of time. For a walk etc. I never want to be a farmer, I never want to have my own land. I currently live in a house in a small town surrounded by hills. I like nature of course, but I can't pretend to like it too much. If I could have anything I wanted, I would live in a hotel, permanently. I love hotels for some reason. It's hard to describe what I love so much about them. There's some special feeling I get in a hotel. Especially if it's large and empty. The long hallways, the silence, and all those rooms. There always seems to be too many rooms. And I love that feeling of knowing there are too many rooms. That would be my ideal setting: living in an almost empty, large hotel forever.
As I said, I live in a small town but I think I want to move to a large city, a metropolis. Isn't that also solitude? In a large city, everyone ignores everyone else. At least in Japan (the only big city I experienced in my life was in Japan).
There is nothing more mystical than hotel hallways. Here's one example from a quick Google search:
As for J. Krishnamurti, he drove expensive sport cars and lived a luxurious lifestyle. He had multiple relationships (sexual). I listened to a few speeches and it was as boring as watching Little House on the Prairie. That was my impression anyway.
Dave: some people are born artistically handicapped, I'm one of them. Everything I ever tried to create was ugly. I don't think that will change. And perhaps I'm more interested in theory than the "actual thing"! What if theory can be the "actual thing"? What if I am predisposed to be a person of theory? Then theory IS my actual thing. Then creating concepts and theories is my bell-making! Why not.
That's kind of weird, Zakaj. I don't know how to respond to it... Whatever floats in your boat, I guess. Hotels seem kind of oppressive to me given how unsustainable they are, and how they are generally associated with f'ing (e.g., "love hotels"). Everyone has their own unique path, I suppose...
I like the way the Swiss live. "Each yard has a vegetable garden and neighbors consult and plan what they each will grow so they can trade". Look at this image:
It is very self-sustainable and teaches skills that are essential to live in solitude. If you've ever read the children's story "Heidi", then you'd see how Heidi's grandfather lives away from the village in the Alps; he is away from the village for solitude, but he's not far away to the point to danger because there is a vacant house in the village that he can go to during Winter or in case of an emergency. He presumably knows how to raise his goats, make cheese, garden, and maintain a self-sustainable permaculture system (e.g., rain water collected for irrigation and compost toilet).
Being born in America and living in extreme seclusion with little to no friends, I do not have the luxury to be taught such useful self-sustainable skills. I have to seek out knowledge by WWOOFing, which I can't do, since I have no one to look after my cats, or studying on my own, which is difficult considering I technically do not fully own this particular land.
I think the point is, enlightenment is as much context-sensitive as it is individual hard work, sadly. I honestly cannot blame the average person who works extremely hard yet makes barely enough to survive, for they do not have real exposure or the free time to delve deeply into such topics or cultivate tacit apprehension.
J Krishnamurti had only 1 short-lived relationship. I'm not sure about UG.
However, both of their messages are about relying on oneself and not them as a source of authority... That's the same as Andrew's point.
That's why idolizing anyone is a waste of time. You have to be your own creative, original, spontaneous mind and not some mechanical repetition of someone else.
"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's. Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet."
I would say that the most beautiful thing nature ever produced are large, empty hotels! You can say it's not nature, but then are the complex structures ants build natural or not?
"what matters is whether the meaning of an inexpressible poem escapes you or not?"
Your question is already loaded with interpretation. The way you posed it, already dictates the way in which I should answer.
So I can't.
You can answer for me, I'll read it with interest.
"You have to be your own creative, original, spontaneous mind and not some mechanical repetition of someone else."
The two do not exclude each other. Mechanical repetition is required to acquire a skill. Creativity is actually born from countless repetitions. It's the great number of iterations of repetitions that births creativity I believe, kind of like new properties are emergent from nesting simple patterns.
"I like empty carnivals in the night with fog lingering though."
Yes, that's it.
Or empty cities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kagVPRjH0lE
Hotels: it's like being in a "nowhere place", like a "third place"; like an "in-between" space that doesn't exist. I probably wouldn't like staying in one forever. It's just that I want to. Like most things, we don't like them when we actually get them. It's a fantasy. It's like a feeling of disappearing. It's probably similar to what you experience when you're alone, in nature ("off the grid")? Time seems to slow down or to freeze.
Apropos pets. What makes you ask that? A psychological test? To answer, I am a hundred percent cat person. I have two cats. I have an especially strong relationship with the older cat. You?
reminds me of a time my friends and i took some sort of LSD while in upstate new york. at one point my friend went off by himself upstairs and started talking to himself, and it seemed like he was responding with what i was saying in my head. i could've just been listening to what he was saying and responding in my head. i thought about that night for almost a year as it was very intense. this friend also says he hears voices and stuff. he said he heard all of us talking to him.
Isfahan has very beautiful mosques with recursive artwork.
ReplyDeleteShiraz, Iran has some beautiful mosques too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_al-Mulk_Mosque#Gallery
There's a lot of pre-Islamic artwork in near Shiraz too.
Astonishing architecture, Sepehr!
DeleteZakaj, when you have time, may you please read this essay?:
Deletehttp://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=1012
This is the best philosophy paper I've ever read. It analyzes the anti-correlationism/speculative realism of Ray Brassier and Quentin Meillassoux, and it ultimately reaches Panpsychist conclusions by looking at how some of William James and Alfred North Whitehead's concepts relate in solving the problems in their philosophies. I agree with the conclusion of how "reality is experiential, all the way down".
It's a very complex and convoluted essay but worth reading.
I believe an3drew's "recursion" is ultimately experiential on all levels. The massive interconnectivity and recursiveness in corticothalamic complex of the brain and recursivity inherent in imagination and consciousness... are BOTH experiential. This means panpsychism is superior to materialism, so read the article to get it...!
"meaninglessness opens the gate, but entry is walking through the meaning of it ! "
That's why a poem can capture it because the the raw experience of meaning is aligned , of and the actuality of the blurring of infinity, showing it is nothing but meaning. Just taking the blurring of infinity is meaningless and like a lobotomy or vegetative state. It's hard to explain.
It is all experiential at the end of the day, meaning there is an internal mental life of all matter, but it can evolve into higher tiers of complexity! The article mentions Zizek too!
""And what is meaning? It is what transcends all the characteristics of projections and the characteristics of speech. This is what is meant by meaning. It is thus in regard to meaning. Mahamati, that bodhisattvas dwell in solitude and proceed toward the city of nirvana as a result of their own understanding of wisdom from learning, reflection, and meditation. And once they have transformed their habit-energy, they contemplate the distinctive characteristics of the meaning of the various stages leading to the realm of personal realization. This is what is meant by how bodhisattvas become versed in meaning." - Lankavatara Sutra
The meaning of beautiful poem is of both meaning and meaninglessness, simultaneously, but it is wholly experiential. A poem shows panpsychism as the only ontological reality. Under my view, chemical reactions where some of the molecules involved end up producing more copies of themselves and creating recursive cycles with external energy sources have an elementary level of awareness that evolves into more complex forms of experience.
Finally, Zakaj, did you check out my last post?:
"I like Japan's history of permaculture. Check out Masanobu Fukuoka, for example. He heavily influenced the permaculture movement in Australia by collaborating with figures like Bill Mollison and his buddy David Holmgren.
I know an3drew said anime isn't good, but one anime that is on the level of quality art is Mushi-shi. One of the few decent anime. It goes a bit into Japan's history of self-sustainability too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_1OdsSvKI
It gets exceptionally good on Part 2 of Season 2."
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DeleteInteresting use of that Lanka quote. It's certainly a reinterpretation of the meaning of meaning.
Delete"A poem shows panpsychism as the only ontological reality" -
I think here we have a view that mind-stuff is the building block of the universe. I wonder if that's really the ultimate perspective?
What if there is NO "building block of reality"? That it's turtles all the way down, that the recursion never ends. So what appears to be matter, is really just mind. And what appears to be mind, is really just matter. And what appears to be matter, is really just mind, etc.
It sounds impossible. How could it be? But why should reality be "possible"? Possible means: possible to the common categories of human thought. So it actually makes more sense that the REAL IS the impossible, and the impossible IS the real.
We assume reality has a fundamental ground. Mind, matter, quarks, electrons, quanta, God, Brahman,... then someone says, like Berkeley, no, it's perception, it's experience! Everything is experience! Well, what if reality is just an infinite fractal that has no "building blocks"? No "ontological reality"?
I think that Buddhism originally meant with emptiness was this idea that reality is an infinite fractal without building blocks or fundament, it's the infinite recursion that is what creates, without creator or created, it's just creativity as an infinite process.
As for Mushishi, I already watched it many years ago, and I thought it was aesthetically pleasing, but really pointless. I didn't understand what's the point of the show, to be quite frank.
Japanese have the best tradition of craftsmanship in the world, they love to technically perfect whatever they're doing. I have an ambivalent opinion about Japan. I love their food. I'm not a big fan of anime. There are a few almost good ones, but I've never seen one I'd call a work of art.
Video games are actually smarter than anime! Have you played Planescape: Torment? Truly profound. I'd call that a work of art.
Planescape: Torment is great.
DeleteMy two favorite parts are talking to O from Smoldering Corpse Bar and Awaiting-Death in Gathering Dust Bar. Getting the complete dialogue box for both is the best. I tried looking up Youtube, but most people were too dense to get the complete dialogue box for Awaiting-Death. It was honestly one of the most moving things I've experienced.
You probably talked to O in Smoldering Corpse Bar and remember, considering how memorable it was.
Meaning is a fluid and the only way to explain it is through poetry!
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
DeleteI think Wittgenstein was semi-enlightened.
What I learned from him is to separate sentences from sentences.
We shouldn't be deceived by the extenral appearance of sentences.
So a sentence like "Ouch!" or "I love you!" is essentially different from "the sky is dark".
They appear to be "the same thing" (ie. sentenced made from letters describing reality), but they're really not. "Ouch!" is an expression of pain; "I love you!" is a performative - it's a sentence that DOES something, it's an action (declaration of love). Similar to: "I promise!" It doesn't describe any reality. It creates the reality it "describes" (the promise).
We often get confused by this, that language seems to be uniform, but really it's a toolbox of various tools that are very different.
So I think you're right that poetry is fundamentally different, it's not just a surface difference... it's really totally another thing from how language is used in essays or how I am using language in this reply, or how language is used in voynich.
The way I visualize Andrew's verses is like they stand alone, with no support, they float as it were in a vast empty space. I get this vision; partly it's triggered by the empty spaces he puts between the lines, partly by the style and the content.
His verses are koans!
Nietzsche once said that we are deceived by grammar! That we start to believe in grammar too much, in words like "being", and "nothingness", and then we imagine they form some "ontological reality"! That they describe entities. Isn't all language ultimately performative? The word "being" creates being. So aren't we really trapped by linguistic artifacts?
DeleteSo we are trapped within this constant state unknowing because of inherent limitations on our cognition and language? I guess Lovecraft wasn't so wrong then.
DeleteAll of this reminds me of Agrippa the Skeptic who I've studied a bit in the past...
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrippa_the_Skeptic
Or the Münchhausen trilemma
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchhausen_trilemma
Agrippa the Skeptic, Münchhausen trilemma, and Nagarjuna seem to all be saying the same thing
blue crystal fire
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaGChm8RWw
Wow... Zakaj, you are remarkably intelligent. This guy's music is amazing. It's amazing how he had Persian/Iranian (same thing), Indian, Japanese, and Native American influences during various time points. Talk about eclectic. His music is also very "float"-like like Andrew's poetry.
DeleteThe ultimate retreat: http://www.newsweek.com/final-100-candidates-selected-one-way-trip-mars-307048
ReplyDelete"I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties; that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the universe." - Isaac Asimov
ReplyDeleteThanks for that quote! I think that infinite complexity is what śūnyatā is really all about. Asimov gets it.
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ReplyDeleteCouldn't it be said that good artwork has fractal properties too? In that sense there could be[ non-conceptual aesthetic truths, given the infinite complexity, that one can learn by immersing himself or herself deeply into profound poetry, film, or fiction.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the works of Wang Wei ( http://www.chinese-poems.com/wwe.html ), Han Shan, Shiwu, Emily Dickinson, H.P. Lovecraft, Andrei Tarkovsky, and classical/traditional musicians reach the level of conveying inexpressible aesthetic truths which cannot be put into terse, stilted expositions. Such profound artwork inspires great amounts of artists too. I mean, this is a pretty old view popularized by Schopenhauer and Wagner, and I think there is some truth to it. It's like a catharsis that is, itself, indefinite or undefinable... The best quote I found to explain it is from Andrei Tarkovsky:
"We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyse the formula that constitutes a symbol, while metaphor is a being-within-itself, it's a monomial. It falls apart at any attempt of touching it." - Andrei Tarkovsky
I definitely felt that way at the end of Offret and Zerkalo; you just can't put it into words unless you write a poem, short story, or whatever in response. To use a metaphor: it's like such artwork stand alone, with no support, they float as it were in a vast empty space. Infinite complexity...
Andrew, have you Nobuyuki Yuasa's translation of Ryokan? I like it a lot.
ReplyDeleteIs Ryokan or Basho better?
http://mueller_ranges.tripod.com/andrew/pending_poems131.html#nobuyuki yuasa
Deletelast night i was sitting vaporizing marijuana .. yes i'm ashamed.. yes i'm scared of the repercussions. i wondered, where are all of the hippies of the 70's? maybe they could set an example for me as to what i can expect with brain damage. i've been smoking for about 4 years now.
ReplyDeleteany way, so many planes pass by my house. one of the biggest airports in the world is about 30 mins away. they are very loud, and last night i learned that their flashing lights under the wings are so bright they even flash into my room. i've never seen the flashing lights in my own room, and i was surprised. sort of made me think of how much i'm missing on visually? my first mini kensho experience had a lot to do with visuals, when i opened my eyes after meditating i thought i saw a steady mist in the air... and the room seemed very crisp. the corners on the wall were very defined. another experience with infinity involved looking up at the sky and it seemed to go on and on, but it wasn't very intense i suppose.
my two friends want to go on a road trip this summer all around the united states, some time in august, but i was planning on going to furnace mountain in june until august, and maybe even until november. i wish they'd wait until next year.
i watched a charles bukowski documentary last night and it was something else.
re the road trip ; years ago i turned down an opportunity to sail around the world because i knew i wouldn't survive and i think basically people f i n d m e a b i t s t r a n g e ⎽ . .
Deleteinteresting "vision" , yeah I suppose the wall corners are well defined, but that doesn't mean they can't be dismantled and gone through ! :o)
tonight a woman came into the pizzeria, and i knew there was something different about her. she ordered two slices, and took off all of the cheese to eat and left the bread!
Deleteyeah, that's like mystical understanding, from one point of view it's surprising, from a better understanding what happened/happens is not !
DeleteThese posts make me think of one of the last times I did zazen. Can't remember if it was the same year of that storm I witnessed. Might've been a year earlier.
DeleteI was just sitting in front of the tv (it was off) and I noticed that my reflection started moving, simmering. I got up and went outside, everything was so vivid. It was a bright day with some clouds, the trees were swaying in the wind.
Did some walking around, went to talk to someone working at the water treatment plant. Usually I just stay away from people even though I'm from a small town and I know everyone.
That's all I really remember about that lol. Nothing too exciting but it was still pretty awesome.
You can dismantle and go through them? The wall corners I mean. Or do you just sit there and you can see through them?
Sometimes I notice my body heat rising off of my body.
Deletethe second paragraph in your reply is the simultaneous revelation of dismantling and what is revealed !
Deleteyou asked me a while ago to find out why i smoke marijuana, and i'm still not sure. maybe anxiety, as my emotions are very dull.
ReplyDeletenot skunk I hope !
Deletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2953915/Scientists-cannabis-TRIPLES-psychosis-risk-Groundbreaking-research-blames-skunk-1-4-new-mental-disorders.html
Dayum shun...
DeleteI usually smoke weed when I'm bored. If not then I play games, listen to music, drink, masturbate...
But if I don't do anything and leave the boredom alone then it just builds and builds... and makes it harder just to sit with it. If I just sit with it, I'll probably end up doing one of the mentioned activities.
But if I do manage to leave it alone it for a bit and not do anything about it it leaves me feeling powerful and invigorated. I guess my body takes care of it.
It.
Sometimes I manage to do something constructive with this impulse lol. Like go for a walk, do some writing, that's about it lol.
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DeleteStop deleting your comments dude lol
DeleteI think Thai Forest Tradition is a bit better than the modern Zen scene. At least in that practice solitude in natural scenery, celibacy, and self-sustainability are encouraged and kinda necessary for practice. It avoids the pitfalls of being "modernized", or as Andr3w says "becoming suburban".
ReplyDeleteI think if one does Thai Forest Monastery but still keeps the creative spirit of writing poetry and reading good stuff, then I think it's better than the modern Zen scene. Zen has been bastardized way too much.
yet there's no recent enlightened teachers in the forest tradition . . . do you know of one?
DeleteSepehr I think you're looking for The One org. that is genuine and not corrupted. An alternative would be to recognize they are all wrong, collectivist and hubric to different degrees, but you can still use their facilities? You don't have to subscribe to their doctrines in order to use their libraries, their retreats...? Similarly, you don't have to believe Jesus Christ risen from the dead with his body in order to go to a monastic retreat in some Catholic monastery. Just like you don't have to believe in God to use the US Dollar! ("In God We Trust")
Deletean3drew, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu was enlightened?
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Deletebuddhadasa bhikkhu, while in some respects having a good understanding was not enlightened !
Deletehttp://www.slideshare.net/bright9977/20-life-lessons-from-buddhadasa-bhikku
An3drew, can you give me a quick list of who was enlightened? I mean unexcelled, complete perfect enlightenment.
Delete
Deletethat's an interesting question because there's a group of people who are very good, but still missing something, even a few oh so close who you can't really say wether they are truely enlightened or not like osip mendalstam and ibn 'arabi !
close would be derrida, heraclitus, schopenhauer, li po, tu fu, sylvia plath, john keats, ryokan, giacomo leopardi, philip larkin, joshu, foyan, sa'di, charles bukowski, john of the cross, charles dodgson /lewis carroll, w.h auden . .
but those who really understood are very very few, wang wei, emily dickinson, basho, han shan, possibly joshu
it does puzzle me abit, this jump between those with a good understanding and those able to transcend into something really both a bit and quite d i f f e r e n t . .
the problem as i say is we don't live long e n o u g h . .
you need the solitude, the natural scenery. , . the 'beauty is truth' aspect, the garnering and reflection of experience . .
the helpful reading that can catapult you through completely new insights and working
the "feeding" of infinity to you . .
then at the end of the day you are left like me, wondering if all this extra work is worthwhile and one would simply be better to take more walks, get out more and focus more on the practical side of life rather than developing a very large esoteric knowledge that just consumes and consumes m o r e . .
the point of that work is getting the certainty to stare down a stupid world so full of its own bullshit and right ness (reddit zen !) . .
I can't take reddit zen, an3drew. I got done talking to someone who said this:
Delete"I refute the idea that any form of art can be Zen."
I've kinda lost all hope in mankind, haha...
i'll offer my observations on reddit zen since I still read, but don't post !
Deletethe first is that because people can change nicks/id's/alts is it is very unstable, that coupled with an unending stream of new hubric twits and its resident schizophrenics means you can't beat it !
so reddit zen will always win, you can't beat it, which is a good "zen-like" starting point !
I do find it useful to read occasionally, like this link to bill porter is good !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVgHzfGzuU8
so how do I win against such a concentrated collection of turds !
well I reap by reading and don't help them at all by posting so this immediately places the whole thing in my favour !
reddit zen is intrinsically anti-artistic as clitstation/clickstation stopped any ability to imaginatively format posts by not permitting " " which enables one to introduce some spatial resonance into that on posts /posting material !
he is the effective owner as far as I can see and this is one thing I have learnt over the years with message boards, they never deviate from their owners and their personalities and characteristics
ewk is schizophrenic and has early dementia, pointing at the moon has an alcohol problem and is odd because he has the most beautiful poetry writing style, but just writes the most awful crap
one could go on . . ! :o)
anyway I find one just has to have an absolute rule not to post at all and things work a lot better that way ! :o)
there is a stong gay element on the board as well, ewk and pointing at the moon are gay and really for them I think the board is enlivened by the prospect of talking to nice young men ! :o)
I cannot believe I wasted a year posting there, it was productive in terms of extending my knowledge about a lot of zen texts, whether that was useful or I would have been better doing other things I don't know
with reddit zen you can see the problem that everyone makes with 'mystical inquiry' they don't sort out things to any level of detail let alone the grinding level that quality mysticism requires and so they just meander on in a bubble of hubric self assurance ! :o)(
An3drew, why haven't you ever attempted to publish your poems? Whenever I read them, a lot of sanggi/qi/Prana swells up in my forehead. I think it's better to have it in a book to read outside, underneath a tree or something... You can also make a lot of money... I think selecting your best poems and putting it into a book is good.
DeleteIt's like we have a poetic genius here that can never be known by the general public, but maybe this is why you write such beautiful poetry?
The spacing should definitely be kept in book format too.
While I wholeheartedly support Sepehr's idea, this "You can also make a lot of money" is not true. Poetry, especially quality poetry, doesn't make money. Did you watch the Red Pine docu Andrew posted above? He says the same. What makes a lot of money is 50 Shades of Gray!
Delete(Erotica for women dominates; then also New Age self-help books. People don't care about quality, they want to know how to satisfy their desires and get what they want A.S.A.P.!)
Delete((Actually even we are not really exempt from that; meaning that wanting enlightenment ASAP is the same kind of consumerist, fast food mentality, and not unrelated to reddit Zen I think. But we can't exclude ourselves from that category, Sepehr. We're similar really, looking for lazy short-cuts. I think we're not that much better. Just a little bit better.))
DeleteAnyway, Andrew should really publish, or is that a strange idea to him, like Firmament to Fin?
Or maybe you, Sepehr you can write a book about Andrew some day?
Kind of like they had to write books about UG, since he refused to publish anything?
yeah i agree zakaj, i haven't brought a book for years and can find those i want to read free on-line !
Deletea lot of charles bukowski's life was about him not being able to make any money with his writing at all and i really only think the films and novels made anything for him in later life !
this is what makes money, it's alot of work and you really have to enter into the mindset to the exclusion of everything else
http://amandahocking.blogspot.com.au/
people don't want to think, they want to be entertained and eat the lotus !
Do you think this is a good way to introduce myself to Emily Dickinson? http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Emily-Dickinson-Judith-Farr/dp/0674656660/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1424508364
DeleteI already read 1/3rd of Open Me Carefully, but I want to read a scholar's commentary and biography on Emily Dickinson so I can approach her works more easily and stuff
Deletethat judtih farr book looks interesting !
DeleteThis place is going to become like Brad Warner's comment section: a bunch of off-topic droning interspersed with guru worship.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you fanboys go to Tasmania and live in natural scenery with your guru? At least with Brad Warner, one can meet him in person and see what he's like away from the computer. Doesn't that matter?
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DeleteThere is a special place for infidels who slander the 7th Patriarch!
DeleteI learn everything from solitude. That does need meeting anyone in person.
Deletedoes not need*
Deletetypo
Learning "everything" from solitude is a recipe for becoming a half-baked solipsist.
Delete"Relationship, surely, is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence. And you exist only in relationship; otherwise, you do not exist, existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist because you are related, and it is the lack of understanding of relationship that causes conflict."
http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=305&chid=4635
One needs an obvious balance between solitude and daily life. J. Krishnamurti says that too.
DeleteThough tilting more to the solitude side is better for enlightenment and artwork. The point is meaning transcends words and projections, the only good thing said from the Lankavatara Sutra. The complexity and multiplicity of meanings is apprehended in solitude and it is all in the prism of non-meaning. That's why good artists always seek solitude when writing or painting or whatever. The creative inspiration flows from the background of stillness then more naturally. This is a fact most healthy people realize unconsciously. You have to be healthy to realize it.
DeleteHave you read the entire Lankavatara, or did you just appropriate that phrase from somewhere?
DeleteIf you're going to be an artist, why don't you just do that instead of pontificating about what it takes to be an artist? If you want to be alone in nature, go do that. If you want to be celibate, divorce your wife.
Otherwise, you're going to continue widening the gap between the reality of your life and all your ideas about life. That's not healthy.
I'm the only one that can know the realities of my life. Why don't you stick to talking about the realities of your own life rather than mine? That's not healthy.
DeleteAnd yeah, I've read Red Pine's translation of the Lankavatara. I couldn't sit through all of it.
1/2 of the Lankavatara*
Delete""And what is meaning? It is what transcends all the characteristics of projections and the characteristics of speech. This is what is meant by meaning.72 It is thus in regard to meaning. Mahamati, that bodhisattvas dwell in solitude and proceed toward the city of nirvana as a result of their own understanding of wisdom from learning, reflection, and meditation.73 And once they have transformed their habit-energy, they contemplate the distinctive characteristics of the meaning of the various stages leading to the realm of personal realization. This is what is meant by how bodhisattvas become versed in meaning." (Red Pine translation)
Delete"In this they are ignorant of the nature of words, which are subject to birth and death, whereas meaning is not; words are dependent upon letters and meaning is not; meaning is apart from existence and non-existence, it has no substratum, it is un-born" (Lankavatara Sutra, DT Suzuki translation)
This is what An3drew meant by "meaning is a fluid", "philosophy is a failing approximation of good poetry", "[the meaning of] good writing, a koan or poetry is aligned , of and the actuality of absolute reality", and
"words and wordlessness are the primal matter
and
then
what
are
something
and
nothing
! : o)("
You cannot lose sight of creativity and solitude in Zen practice. If Soto Zen were to place less emphasis on proper posture in Shikantaza and diversify their activities by includes walks of solitude in nature, creative exercises, and so forth, it'd be much better. Periods of celibacy are essential too, but it's not needed to be celibate all the time. The point is not to be supportive of stuff like Houellebecq Platform bullshit. That guy is a shit artist.
but the more celibate you are, the more it helps with transforming habit-energy. It's good to have periods of it, especially with frequent solitude...
DeleteI mean, Zen Buddhist centres should be encouraging this kind of stuff.
It still sounds like you're hung up on what other people should do (zen centers) and what other people do (artists). But you're neither a zen community not an artist, so what's the point?
ReplyDeleteWhat are you doing with your life?
How does carrying around a recipe for creativity or a list of enlightened people help you?
If you want to know the realities of my life, you can come visit.
Think about the boy bell-maker from Andrei Rublev? Did he spend years pontificating about creativity and meaning and collecting the names of artists? No, he just did it! He tapped into that creative potential, despite himself and his doubts, and despite not knowing the secret of casting bells or anything at all about where creativity comes from.
You could do the same, or you can keep generating theories about it, for the rest of your life.
I've gone to my Sangha, and my sensei alluded to giving me Dharma transmission if I stick to it, several times. But it seems money is more of his concern considering I would bring more positive attention and get more donations or something like that. He's alluded to blatantly several times to me.
DeleteI don't really care about fame, but the prospect of the money does appeal to me... but it's honestly not that certain.
How can I do the same thing as Andrei Rublev without money or my own land? I'm pretty sure Andrei Rublev practices with a community before going out on his own land. He probably learned self-sustainable techniques and could freely walk without worrying about trespassing on private property or pay property tax? I am not in a privileged position. I need to save up money to get my own land. I also need to learn more self-sustainable techniques by WWOOFing. I take things at my own pace. I will most likely fail, but I don't care. I honestly don't give a fuck if you perceive me as either winning or failing. I'll do things at my own pace.
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DeleteSepehr what sangha is that? Soto Zen? Why do you use the word sensei? Does he ask you to call him that? It's quite amusing in 2015. Like role-playing Dungeons and Dragons.
DeleteAnyway Sepehr you say your pace is slow, I'm not even going into that direction. I wonder if that nature mysticism isn't just an anachronistic fixation. Or maybe I am just damaged beyond repair, by civilization? Who knows. I just don't feel drawn to nature. I enjoy it like everyone else, for short periods of time. For a walk etc. I never want to be a farmer, I never want to have my own land. I currently live in a house in a small town surrounded by hills. I like nature of course, but I can't pretend to like it too much. If I could have anything I wanted, I would live in a hotel, permanently. I love hotels for some reason. It's hard to describe what I love so much about them. There's some special feeling I get in a hotel. Especially if it's large and empty. The long hallways, the silence, and all those rooms. There always seems to be too many rooms. And I love that feeling of knowing there are too many rooms. That would be my ideal setting: living in an almost empty, large hotel forever.
As I said, I live in a small town but I think I want to move to a large city, a metropolis. Isn't that also solitude? In a large city, everyone ignores everyone else. At least in Japan (the only big city I experienced in my life was in Japan).
There is nothing more mystical than hotel hallways. Here's one example from a quick Google search:
https://wfrostphoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/20101220_hallway_to_infinity_c_2010_wayne_e-_frost.jpg
As for J. Krishnamurti, he drove expensive sport cars and lived a luxurious lifestyle. He had multiple relationships (sexual). I listened to a few speeches and it was as boring as watching Little House on the Prairie. That was my impression anyway.
DeleteDave: some people are born artistically handicapped, I'm one of them. Everything I ever tried to create was ugly. I don't think that will change. And perhaps I'm more interested in theory than the "actual thing"! What if theory can be the "actual thing"? What if I am predisposed to be a person of theory? Then theory IS my actual thing. Then creating concepts and theories is my bell-making! Why not.
That's kind of weird, Zakaj. I don't know how to respond to it... Whatever floats in your boat, I guess. Hotels seem kind of oppressive to me given how unsustainable they are, and how they are generally associated with f'ing (e.g., "love hotels"). Everyone has their own unique path, I suppose...
DeleteI like the way the Swiss live. "Each yard has a vegetable garden and neighbors consult and plan what they each will grow so they can trade". Look at this image:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--GYDBvhV2Dw/UX8AAL8OpxI/AAAAAAAACGw/7fvfT8Qsuu0/s1600/America+Switzerland.jpg
It is very self-sustainable and teaches skills that are essential to live in solitude. If you've ever read the children's story "Heidi", then you'd see how Heidi's grandfather lives away from the village in the Alps; he is away from the village for solitude, but he's not far away to the point to danger because there is a vacant house in the village that he can go to during Winter or in case of an emergency. He presumably knows how to raise his goats, make cheese, garden, and maintain a self-sustainable permaculture system (e.g., rain water collected for irrigation and compost toilet).
Being born in America and living in extreme seclusion with little to no friends, I do not have the luxury to be taught such useful self-sustainable skills. I have to seek out knowledge by WWOOFing, which I can't do, since I have no one to look after my cats, or studying on my own, which is difficult considering I technically do not fully own this particular land.
I think the point is, enlightenment is as much context-sensitive as it is individual hard work, sadly. I honestly cannot blame the average person who works extremely hard yet makes barely enough to survive, for they do not have real exposure or the free time to delve deeply into such topics or cultivate tacit apprehension.
J Krishnamurti had only 1 short-lived relationship. I'm not sure about UG.
DeleteHowever, both of their messages are about relying on oneself and not them as a source of authority... That's the same as Andrew's point.
That's why idolizing anyone is a waste of time. You have to be your own creative, original, spontaneous mind and not some mechanical repetition of someone else.
the point is, it really doesn't matter what j krishnamurti says.
Deletewhat matters is whether the meaning of an inexpressible poem escapes you or not?
I suddenly remembered a quote by Andy Warhol:
Delete"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's. Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet."
I would say that the most beautiful thing nature ever produced are large, empty hotels! You can say it's not nature, but then are the complex structures ants build natural or not?
"what matters is whether the meaning of an inexpressible poem escapes you or not?"
Your question is already loaded with interpretation. The way you posed it, already dictates the way in which I should answer.
So I can't.
You can answer for me, I'll read it with interest.
"You have to be your own creative, original, spontaneous mind and not some mechanical repetition of someone else."
The two do not exclude each other. Mechanical repetition is required to acquire a skill. Creativity is actually born from countless repetitions. It's the great number of iterations of repetitions that births creativity I believe, kind of like new properties are emergent from nesting simple patterns.
Uh, why do you like empty hotels so much?
DeleteI like empty carnivals in the night with fog lingering though.
Zakaj, are you more of a cat or dog person?
Delete"I like empty carnivals in the night with fog lingering though."
DeleteYes, that's it.
Or empty cities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kagVPRjH0lE
Hotels: it's like being in a "nowhere place", like a "third place"; like an "in-between" space that doesn't exist. I probably wouldn't like staying in one forever. It's just that I want to. Like most things, we don't like them when we actually get them. It's a fantasy. It's like a feeling of disappearing. It's probably similar to what you experience when you're alone, in nature ("off the grid")? Time seems to slow down or to freeze.
https://wfrostphoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/20101220_hallway_to_infinity_c_2010_wayne_e-_frost.jpg
It's better than a Tibetan mandala.
Apropos pets. What makes you ask that? A psychological test?
To answer, I am a hundred percent cat person. I have two cats. I have an especially strong relationship with the older cat.
You?
Watch Ep. 16 of Mushishi Zoku Shou: "Sea of Otherworldly Stars", "Koten no Hoshi" (壷天の星).
DeleteHere's the torrent:
https://kickass.to/vivid-mushishi-zoku-shou-16-f781d7da-mkv-t9833311.html
It's incredible. Give it a shot before judging it. It's on the level of sophisticated poetry and about empty places...
Also, I still prefer a naturalistic setting.
I am also a hundred percent cat person. That's why we get along.
One of my cats is my son. I give him good raw food and Orijen cat food. The other one is a chubby orange cat and my sister-in-law.
reminds me of a time my friends and i took some sort of LSD while in upstate new york. at one point my friend went off by himself upstairs and started talking to himself, and it seemed like he was responding with what i was saying in my head. i could've just been listening to what he was saying and responding in my head. i thought about that night for almost a year as it was very intense. this friend also says he hears voices and stuff. he said he heard all of us talking to him.
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