•• Thoughts for wording of a Zen Mind Facebook page.First of all, let’s get rid of the mystery surrounding Zen. Much has been written, and the word has been misused for a whole host

• You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. . .The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours …Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.Black Elk (1803-1950), Oglala Sioux holy man.From the book Native American Wisdom.Compare to the song Circles• 'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"• “Asymmetry differentiates the organic world from the mineral world. In other words, asymmetric molecules are always the product of life forces.” This was a key, initial conclusion of Louis Pasteur.• The brain: 'an enchanted loom' where 'millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern though never an abiding one; a shifting harmony of subpatterns.'C S Sherrington, quoted In 'On The Move' by Oliver Sacks, page 361.• The Windmills of Your Mind (verses 1 and 2 of 4), Composers Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn BergmanRound like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheelNever ending or beginning on an ever spinning reelLike a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloonLike a carousel that's turning running rings around the moonLike a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its faceAnd the world is like an apple whirling silently in spaceLike the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its ownDown a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shoneLike a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dreamOr the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a streamLike a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its faceAnd the world is like an apple whirling silently in spaceLike the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!RHS comment: Equals life.• Nothing is more real than nothing.Samuel Beckett in Malone meurt (1951), translated by Beckett as Malone Dies (1956), p. 16 (quoted by Oliver Sacks in A Leg To Stand On).• EcclesiastesFor that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other ... So that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast.• When I am hungry I eat; when I am tired I sleep.Joshu (778 – 898 AD)• Lao Tzu 604 to 531 BCChuang Tzu 300 to 287 BCLieh Tzu circa 5th century BCConfucius 551 to 379 BC

• "Be like water," they had told him. "Water takes whatever shape it finds itself in. It does not judge, it does not complain, it does not try to change things. It is the source of patience. Given time it can wear away stone. Be like water."From ‘Tales From The Tao … The Wisdom Of The Taoist Masters’, by Solala Towler• “Does the giraffe know what he’s for? Or care? Or even think about his place in things? A giraffe has a black tongue twenty-seven inches long and no vocal cords. A giraffe has nothing to say. He just goes on giraffing.”Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten• Memories, emotions, and even physical traumas, can carry on from one life to another.Dr Jim Tucker• 18/5/13: babies are perfect people. Their minds are open. They take in every thing that their senses provide – without intellectual judgement. Make reference to the statement in the ‘Soul Echoes’ book, by Thelma Freedman, about young children having ‘past life memories’ without need for hypnosis, due to their minds being fresh and uncluttered with learning.Allen Ginsberg was asked, “Are you Allen Ginsberg?” and he answered “No, but that is what they call me.”Through the ages men and women have articulated, through word, image and song, different strands of the same essential message.• • 8/4/12 thought: Religion is a toxic crutch.• Where does the power go when you turn the toaster off? It goes back to boost the power in the generator (the power station), so that another toaster can be switched on somewhere. Where does the soul, or life force, go when you die? Back to boost the universal life force, 'The Soul of The World', so that another life can begin somewhere. It might be a worm, or it might be another Bill Gates.• Give up virtue, renounce wisdom; people will benefit a thousand times.Give up kindness, renounce morality, people will embrace love and filial pity.Give up cleverness, renounce greed, bandits and thieves will vanish.Lao Tzu, ‘Tao Te Ching’. In other words “get rid of the concepts and live the reality”.• I looked at Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and their Japanese extraction, Zen Buddhism. It became clearer and clearer to me that these diverse religions and philosophies shared the same central principle and that if I could understand and extract this principle, it would give me the power and control over my own life that I sought.Chin-ning Chu, ‘Thick Face, Black Heart’, p4.• There is a book which is part of our being, contained in our being, and is the record of our being. Our being, I say, and not our becoming. We commence the writing of this book at birth and we continue it after death. It is only when we are about to be reborn that we bring it to a close and write “Finis”. Thus there is a whole series of books which, from birth to birth, continue the tale of identity.Henry Miller, ‘The Books in My Life’, p282.• There are, and always have been, a few rare individuals who no longer have need of books, not even “holy” books. And these are precisely the enlightened, the awakened ones. They know full well what is going on in the world. They do not regard life as a problem or an ordeal but as a privilege and a blessing. They seek not to fill themselves with knowledge but with wisdom. They are not riddled with fear, anxiety, ambition, envy, greed, hatred or rivalry. They are deeply involved, and at the same time detached. They enjoy everything they do because they participate directly. They have no need to read sacred books or act in a holy way because they see life whole and are themselves thoroughly whole – and thus everything to them is whole and holy.Henry Miller, ‘The Books in My Life’, p275.• It is so clear that it takes long to see.You must know that the fire which you are seekingIs the fire in your own lantern,

And that your rice has been cooked from the very beginning.Dane Rudhyar, quoted by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p250.• The worm in the apple of human existence is consciousness. It steals over the face of life like an intruder. Seen through the mirror everything becomes the background of the ego. The seers, the mystics, the visionaries smash this mirror again and again. They restore man to the primordial flux, they put him back in the stream like a fisherman emptying his net.Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p248.• The world will be complete from him who is himself complete.Walt Whitman, quoted by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p229.• A fitly born and bred race, growing up in right conditions of outdoor as much as indoor harmony, activity and development, would probably, from and in those conditions, find it enough merely to live – and would, in their relations to the sky, air, water, trees, etc., and to the countless common shows, and in the fact of life itself, discover and achieve happiness – with Being suffused night and day by wholesome ecstasy, surpassing all the pleasures that wealth, amusement, and even gratified intellect, erudition, or the sense of art, can give.Walt Whitman, quoted by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p229.• “After all, the great lesson is that no special natural sights – not Alps, Niagara, Yosemite or anything else – is more grand or beautiful than the common sunrise and sunset, earth and sky, the common trees and grass.” Properly understood, I believe this suggests the central teaching of his writings and life – namely, that the commonplace is the grandest of all things; that the exceptional in any line is no finer, better or more beautiful than the usual, and that what is really wanting is not that we should possess something we have not at present, but that our eyes should be opened to see and our hearts to feel what we all have.Richard Maurice Bucke (from his book Cosmic Consciousness, 13th Ed. 1947) describing Walt Whitman, and quoted by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p228.• Begin wholly afresh. Go straight to the Sun, the immense forces of the Universes, to the Entity unknown; go higher than a god; deeper than prayer; and open a new day.Richard Jefferies, quoted by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p185. Note ‘a god’, not God. How better to describe each day as a life.• Now, today, as I write, I stand in exactly the same position as the Caveman. Written tradition, systems of culture, modes of thought, have for me no existence. If ever they took any hold of my mind it must have been very slight; they have long ago been erased.Richard Jefferies, quoted by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p184. No concepts!• … man is really free … he only begins to use his God-given powers when the belief that he possesses them becomes unshakable … To jump clear of the clockwork we must employ whatever means are in our possession.Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p167. My italics. What a great phrase! Evocative of the message at the end of the EST sessions (see EST by Luke Reinhard).• Create and share!From War Dance, by E Graham Howe, mentioned by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p28. Similar to Pam Burridge’s wish “To be the best I can, and pass it on.”• I gaze on myself in the stream's emerald flowOr sit on a boulder by a cliff.My mind, a lonely cloud, leans on nothing,Needs nothing from the world and its endless events.Han Shan (early 9th c)‘My mind leans on nothing’ – i.e. no concepts.• People simply will not recognise that a man*1 who has made himself, simple, forthright and truthful is not concealing something much more complex, much more mysterious. Pretending that what they most ardently wish is to extricate themselves from the cruel difficulties in which they find themselves, what they really adore is to make everything difficult, obscure and capable of realization only in a distant future. That their difficulties are of their own making is the last thing that they will admit usually*2. Reality, if for one moment they allow themselves to be persuaded it exists – in everyday life – is always referred to as a

“harsh” reality. It is spoken of as that which stands opposed to divine reality, or, we might say, a soft hidden paradise. The hope that we may one day awaken to a condition of life utterly different from that which we experience daily makes men willing victims of every form of tyranny and suppression*3. Man is stultified by hope and fear. The myth which he lives from day to day is the myth that he may one day escape from the prison which he has created for himself and which he attributes to the machinations of others. Every true hero has made reality his own. In liberating himself the hero explodes the myth which binds us to past and future. This is the very essence of myth – that it veils the wondrous here and now*4.*1 Krishnamurti*2 compare to Kerouac’s observation in ‘On The Road’: “they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really wont be at peace unless they can latch onto an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end.” For ‘worry’ read ‘concept’.*3 … of the mind i.e. concepts.*4 “What is Tao?” “Usual life.”Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p155.• Be where you are, otherwise you will miss your life.Buddha.• All the protective devices – social, moral, religious – which give the illusion of sustaining and aiding the weak so that they may be guided and conducted towards a better life, are precisely what prevent the weak from profiting by direct experience of life.Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p154.• … the clearer his words the less his message is understood.Carlo Suarès on Krishnamurti, in ‘The Books in My Life’, by Henry Miller p154.• I am going to be vague expressly; I could be all together explicit, but it is not my intention to be so. For, once a thing is defined, it is dead.Henry Miller, quoting Krishnamurti, in ‘The Books in My Life’, p154. • 7/2/11: A thought, provoked by Janet’s email statement: “So to have concepts or not is not about self awareness: in my language, a robot can recognise concepts.” My thought is ‘concepts create robots’, for what is a robot but an apparatus that is created by, and responds to, applied concepts, whether it be dogma or a computer program. Now think of the EST punchline “You’re just a bloody machine.” Beautiful.• Because your convictions are not the result of your own understanding you repeat what is given by authorities; you amass citations, you pit one authority against another, the ancient against the new. To that I have nothing to say. But if you envisage life from a standpoint which is not deformed or mutilated by authority, not bolstered by others’ knowledge, but from one which springs from your own sufferings, from your thought, your culture, your understanding, your love, then you will understand what I say – “car la méditation du coeur est l’entendement” … Personally, and I hope you will understand what I say now, I have no belief and I belong to no tradition. I have always had this attitude towards life. It being a fact that life varies from day to day, not only are beliefs and traditions useless to me, but, if I were to let myself be enchained by them, they would prevent me from understanding life.Henry Miller, quoting Krishnamurti, in ‘The Books in My Life’, pp152,153. (i.e. the curse of concepts). The French phrase means “because the meditation of the heart is understanding” or, possibly, “understanding is the meditation of the heart”. The italics are Henry Miller’s (and would be mine too).• Men are reluctant to accept what is easy to grasp. Out of a perversity deeper than all Satan’s wiles, man refuses to acknowledge his own God-given rights: he demands deliverance or salvation by and through an intermediary; he seeks guides, counsellors, leaders, systems, rituals. He looks for solutions which are in his own breast. He puts learning

above wisdom, power above the art of discrimination. But above all he refuses to work for his own liberation.Henry Miller, reflecting on the teachings of Krishnamurti, in ‘The Books in My Life’, pp150,151. (i.e. ‘Look within, Thou art Buddha!’).• … the reading of books is for the joy of corroboration, and that that is the final discovery we make about books. As for true reading – a procedure which never ends – that can be done with anything: a blade of grass, a flower, a horse’s hoof, the eyes of a child when smitten with wonder or ecstasy, the mien of a real warrior, the form of a pyramid, or the serene composure graven on the statue of every Buddha. If the questioning faculty is not dead, if the sense of wonder is not atrophied, if there be real hunger and not mere appetite or craving, one cannot help but read as he runs. The whole universe must then become an open book.Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, pp145,146. (I have the same view about meditation ‘on the run’).• Did you know that man gets only about 7% (that's right 7%, 1/14th) of his energy needs from food. It got me thinking. Man is the only (repeat ONLY) living creature on the entire planet (and just think of the diversity of life forms) that doesn't get almost 100% of his energy needs from the food he ingests.Picture this: an impala rises in the morning, from the depression in the grass where he has slept contentedly, travels on foot to grasslands, chews grass, rests and procreates. A lion rises in the morning, from the depression in the grass where he has slept, travels on foot to grasslands, chews an impala, rests and procreates. Man rises from a bed, in an air-conditioned bedroom and house that have consumed construction and industrial energy to make, and energy to keep comfortable, gets into an air-conditioned car and burns petrol, travels to an air-conditioned shop, collects food that someone/something else has consumed energy to create, travels back home in the air-conditioned car, and uses energy to store, preserve and ultimately prepare the food for consumption. Man then rests and procreates. Manimal is the only life form on the planet that needs no hunting skills to get food, and to eat.Look at a herd of impala, or a pride of lions. They look like clones. You can’t pick one from the other. Their gene pool has a low variance. Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ applies, but the leader of the lion pack, and the old lion he just displaced, only differ fractionally in compound physical and mental capabilities. There’s only a hair’s breadth between them. (Variance decides our present and our future). Look now at a ‘herd’ of humans, spilling out of a train and heading for the office. Look at the diversity. The gene pool for manimal has a very high variance. It’s rare to see two humans that look alike. ‘Leaders’ of the pack do not need to be mentally and/or physically superior (look at George W). Anyone can procreate. In fact, the mentally weaker probably procreate more.Around the globe the sperm count is dropping and IVF is becoming the norm.The geological (fossil) record shows that simple living things survive and complex living things die out. Manimal has become very complex. Think about it.The prognosis for manimal is simply - extinction. And when he has ‘comforted himself’ into oblivion, the remaining species (those that he hasn’t wiped out) will rise again and thrive. The ‘natural order’ will resume. Man’s presence, in the ultimate time scale, will just be a blink of a warthog’s eye.• … atman, the spiritual force within us, what you might call the soul. The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing. The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite.Life of Pi by Yann Martel, p. 48• I hear beyond the range of sound, I see beyond the range of sight, New earths and skies and seas around, And in my day the sun doth pale his light. A clear and ancient harmony

Pierces my soul through all its din, As through its utmost melody—Farther behind than they, farther within. More swift its bolt than lightning is, Its voice than thunder is more loud, It doth expand my privacies To all, and leave me single in the crowd. It speaks with such authority, With so serene and lofty tone, That idle Time runs gadding by, And leaves me with Eternity alone. Extract from Inspiration, by Henry David Thoreau• The astronomical world is not all there is. We are in touch with other dimensions, other levels of life. And from among the powers that spring from these other levels there rises up one Power, all the more terrible because it refuses to practice cruelty, a Power that is neither Capitalist, nor Communist, nor Fascist, nor Democratic, nor Nazi, a Power not of this world at all, but capable of inspiring the individual soul with the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove.Attributed to John Cowper Powys by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p138.• Over and over again we see that the understanding of a language is not the same as the understanding of language. It is always communion versus communication.Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’, p111.• A thought about ‘nothing’ 11/11/10A woman says to an old bloke “What are you doing?” and he says “Nothing.” She says “You were doing that yesterday,” and he replies “I’m not finished yet.”That’s a great joke. Yet, in reality, no living person is ever doing ‘nothing’.Next time you are ‘doing nothing’, stop and think about your breathing. Concentrate on your breaths as you take air in … give air out … take air in … give air out. You are not ‘doing nothing’ at all. You are breathing; your heart is beating; you are alive. Just think about that. Your very breathing, that keeps you alive, is an absolutely delicious activity. It is not ‘nothing’.Never take it for granted. While you breathe you’re alive. When you no longer breathe, when you are truly ‘doing nothing’, your soul goes back to ‘the soul of the world’, and your body withers and decays.• This we know: the earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected, like the blood that unites us all.Chief Seattle of the Suquamish, 1854.My red emphasis.• Only wisdom is eternally renewable. But of life-wisdom contemporary man knows little. He has not only lost his youth, he has lost his innocence. He clings, to illusions, ideals, beliefs.RHS comment: i.e. the dreaded ‘concepts’Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’.• There is a mightier thought here, something which lifts us above the world and all question of dominion above it. There is the hint – at least for boy! – that if man only dared to imagine the dazzling possibilities life offers he would realize them to the full. There creeps over him a suspicion, even if fleeting, that age, death, evil, sin, ugliness, crime and frustration are but limitations conceived by man and imposed by man upon himself and his fellow man … In this fleeting moment one is shaken to the roots.Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’.• “Behold the lot of man! Certainly it shall overtake us, and we shall sleep. Certainly, too, we shall awake and live again, and again shall sleep, and so on and so on, through periods, spaces, and times, from aeon unto aeon, till the world is dead, and the worlds beyond the world are dead, and naught liveth save the Spirit that is Life …Attributed to ‘Ayesha in the tombs of Kôr’ by Henry Miller in ‘The Books in My Life’.

• "Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change." Isabel Allende• Instants If I could live again my life, In the next - I'll try, - to make more mistakes, I won't try to be so perfect, I'll be more relaxed, I'll be more full - than I am now, In fact, I'll take fewer things seriously, I'll be less hygienic, I'll take more risks, I'll take more trips, I'll watch more sunsets, I'll climb more mountains, I'll swim more rivers, I'll go to more places - I've never been, I'll eat more ice creams and less (lima) beans, I'll have more real problems - and less imaginary ones, I was one of those people who live prudent and prolific lives – each minute of his life, Offcourse that I had moments of joy - but, if I could go back I'll try to have only good moments, If you don't know – that’s what life is made of, Don't lose the now! I was one of those who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, without a hot-water bottle, and without an umbrella and without a parachute, If I could live again - I will travel light, If I could live again - I'll try to work bare feet at the beginning of spring till the end of autumn, I'll ride more carts, I'll watch more sunrises and play with more children, If I have the life to live - but now I am 85, - and I know that I am dying ... Jorge Luis Borges (my red bolding)• DZ 6/8/10If you wish to avoid wandering in samsara there is not better way than to seek Buddhahood. If you want to become a Buddha, understand that Buddha is the mind. How can you search for the mind in the far distance? It is not outside the body. The physical body is a phantom, for it is subject to birth and death; the true mind is like space, for it neither ends nor changes. Therefore, it is said, "These hundred bones will crumble and return to fire and wind. But One Thing is eternally numinous and covers heaven and earth." Chinul (1158-1210)RHS comment: for ‘true mind’ read ‘the Soul of The World’.• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZGi49Bnghs&feature=relatedJust look at the man. Look at his fingers. Can we really believe that when he dies – when his body no longer has life force within, that his talent just disappears. No. To me, it simply gets absorbed into the universal memory, for later pianists to tap into.• DZ 24/1/10

According to the sudden teaching, all things are nothing but the one mind of suchness, wherein all discriminations have utterly ceased. The dharma of nonduality as spoken of by the thirty two bodhisattvas in the Vimalakirti Sutra corresponds to the harmonious interfusion of the pure and impure without duality in the previous teaching of the advanced Mahayana, while the nonduality transcending words that was revealed by Vimalakirti corresponds to this sudden teaching. Because all pure and impure characteristics have been utterly brought to an end and there are no longer any two things that can be harmonized with one another, the ineffable is nonduality.Treatise on the Five Teachings• Nothing on earth renders happiness less approachable than trying to find it. Historian Will Durant described how he looked for happiness in knowledge and found only disillusionment. He then sought happiness in travel and found weariness; in wealth he found discord and worry. He looked for happiness in his writing and was only fatigued. One day he saw a woman waiting in a tiny car with a sleeping child in her arms. A man descended from a train and gently kissed the woman and the baby, very softly, so as not to waken him. The family drove off and left Durant with a stunning realization of the real nature of happiness. He relaxed and discovered that “every normal function of life holds some delight.” June Callwood, quoted in Jack Gibson’s book ‘Winning Starts on Monday.’ Think of the Zen classic “What is Tao?” “Usual life.”• For me, the acme of lively mindedness, of creativity, is the connection with others – the reaching out and touching – the sending of the message and the receiving of the response – the act of joining and evolving. It is this contact, the joy of this engagement … that is self-enlarging and self-energising, that evokes fresh vigour and constantly replenished joy.Jules Z Willing, quoted in Jack Gibson’s book ‘Winning Starts on Monday.’• DZ 18/11/09Zazen on the MountainThe birds have vanished down the sky.Now the last cloud drains away.We sit together, the mountain and me,Until only the mountain remains.Li Po (701–762)• DZ 4/10/09At Zen centres they say There is a Way to be practicedAnd a religious truth to be realized.Tell me, what religious truth is realized,What way is practiced?In your present functioning, what do you lack?What would you fix?Younger newcomers, not understanding this,Immediately believe these mesmerists andLet them talk about things that tie people up. Linji (d. 867)RHS comment: i.e. ‘by doing nothing, everything is done’!• ‘All nature has a feeling’ All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks Are life eternal: and in silence they Speak happiness beyond the reach of books; There's nothing mortal in them; their decay Is the green life of change; to pass away And come again in blooms revivified. Its birth was heaven, eternal it its stay, And with the sun and moon shall still abide Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.

John Clare• Extract from ‘On Growing Old’, by John MasefieldThe beggar with the saucer in his handAsks only a penny from the passing crowd,So, from this glittering world with all its fashion,Its fire, and play of men, its stir, its march,Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,Bread to the soul, rain when the summers parch.Give me but these, and though the darkness closeEven the night will blossom as the rose.• DZ 30/5/09Protect the branchesTo save the roots; Though a small matter, It is not trivial. Close the seven orifices, Shut off the six senses. Shih Wang Ming (6th cent AD)• When you suddenly Realize the source of mind,You open a box of jewels.Honorable on earth and in the heavens,You are aloof even From the joy of meditation.The essence containing all flavors Is the supreme delicacy,Worth more than ten thousand Ounces of pure gold. Fenyang (DZ 6/5/09• The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.Meister Eckhart, quoted in ‘Haiku Mind’ by Patricia Donegan.• The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Humans did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.Chief Seattle, quoted in ‘Haiku Mind’ by Patricia Donegan.• ‘bush warbler -I rest my handsin the wooden sink’Love this. You can just see the writer, hands in sink, leaning forward towards the window, totally captured by the bush warbler.Quoted in ‘Haiku Mind’ by Patricia Donegan.• “Good and bad, happy and sad, all thoughts vanish into emptiness like the imprint of a bird in the sky.” From the Buddhist text The Sadhana of Mahamudra, as quoted in ‘Haiku Mind’ by Patricia Donegan.• “There is absolutely no separation between the mundane and the sacred, things as they are.”From ‘Haiku Mind’ by Patricia Donegan.• “A man sits in front of a bad television program and does not know that he is bored; he reads of Vietcong casualties in the newspaper and does not recall the teachings of religion; he learns of the dangers of nuclear holocaust and does not feel fear; he joins the rat race of commerce, where personal worth is measured in terms of market values, and is not aware of his anxiety. Ulcers speak louder than the mind.Theologians and philosophers have been saying for a century that God is dead, but what we confront now is the possibility that man is dead, transformed into a thing, a producer, a consumer, an idolator of other things.”

Dr Fromm, leading American psychologists, addressing the 43rd annual meeting of the American Ortho-psychiatric Association, as reported in the New York Times, 17/4/66.RHS comment: change ‘Vietcong’ to ‘Iraqi’ and what has changed in 43 years?• DZ 1/3/09Dreaming, Chuang Tzu became a butterfly;Waking, the butterfly became a man.Who knows which is real?Who know where endless changes end?The waters of the deepest seaReturn to the smallest stream.The melon-grower outside the city gateWas once the King of the Hill.Even rank and riches eventually disappear.You know, and still you toil Li T'ai-po (701-?) • 1/2/09http://www.near-death.com/experiences/cayce02.htmlEventually, somebody thought to ask the sleeping Cayce where he was getting his information. He gave two sources his mind apparently succeeded in tapping. One was the unconscious or subconscious mind of the subject himself; the other was what was called the universal memory of nature, Jung's Collective Unconscious, or the Akashic Records. This is the "Recording Angel", or the "Book of Life".Say the Cayce records:¶"Edgar Cayce's mind is amendable to suggestion, the same as all other subconscious minds; but in addition thereto, it has the power to interpret to the objective mind of others what it acquires from the subconscious minds of other individuals of the same kind. The subconscious forgets nothing. The conscious mind receives the impressions from without and transfers all thought to the subconscious, where it remains even though the conscious be destroyed" as in death.The readings also say,¶"The information as obtained and given by this body [Edgar Cayce] is gathered from the sources from which the suggestion may derive its information. In this state the conscious mind becomes subjugated to the subconscious, the superconscious, or soul mind (the spirit), and may and does communicate with like minds, and the subconscious or soul force becomes universal.¶From any subconscious mind information may be obtained either from this realm or from the impression as left by the individuals that have gone before. As we see a mirror directly reflecting that which is before it - it is not the object itself, but that reflected."This is a new idea. If it is true, then Cayce's mind was able to tap the mass of knowledge possessed by millions of other subconscious minds, including those who have passed over to the spiritual, cosmic realms in death. This would be an almost unlimited source of wisdom, since it was universal and Cayce was unhindered by time and space. Upon this "Akashic record" is supposedly registered every sound, every thought, every vibration since the beginning of time.¶Cayce, then was no "medium." When this idea first appeared in a reading, few, including Cayce, could believe it. Science knew nothing of any such etheric substance.• DZ 22/12/08Subject and object from the startAre no different, The myriad things nothing But images in the mirror. Bright and resplendent, Transcending both guest and host, Complete and realized, All is permeated by the absolute. A single form encompasses The multitude of dharmas,

All of which are interconnectedWithin the net of Indra. Layer after layer there is no Point at which it all ends, Whether in motion or still, All is fully interpenetrating. Zhitong (d.1124) • DZ 8/12/08The fact is that the fundamental nature of each and every person contains a great spiritual awareness. It is fundamentally without birth and death. It extends through ancient and modern, spiritually alive and illuminating, undefiled, wondrous, sovereign, in peace and bliss. Is this not the Buddha of Infinite Life? T’aego (d 825)SOTW?• One should count each day a separate life. Seneca • The 'thin' version is the 'historical' Buddha, Siddhatta Gotama (in Pali) who was a monk from his enlightenment until his passing away. He was born in Nepal and spent his adult life in India.There is also an extremely thin (i.e. barely living skeletal) version often depicted on murals etc. which confuses westerners. This was Siddhatta when he practiced extreme asceticism and lived on a grain of rice a day (so the legend recounts) BEFORE he was enlightened. Once he gained a direct insight into the folly of this path (being the opposite extreme from the indulgent hedonism of his earlier life) he abandoned it and discovered the Middle Path. Thus the form you describe as 'thin' is understood to be the ideal physical form.The 'fat buddha', often depicted as laughing and jolly and with children is Pu-Tai, an ancient Chinese bodhisattva. Mahayana Buddhism (which is prevalent throughout North and East Asia including Vietnam) differs from the Theravada of Thailand in that the goal for an individual is to become a future Buddha. A 'Buddha-to-be' is known as a Bodhisattva. So Pu-Tai was a kind of saintly figure who in a future incarnation will become a Buddha. Pu-Tai was depicted rather like a Chinese Santa Claus - he was a cheerful wandering monk who always carried a sack full of treats for children he met. In Chinese culture as with many others in Asia 'chubbiness' is a sign of wealth (i.e. you have enough to eat) and also can symbolise 'spiritual wealth'. It is regarded as lucky to rub the fat buddha's tummy, whereas you would not be advised to touch a statue of Siddhatta.So to sum up, the 'thin' and 'heavy' figures you refer to are depictions of two different historical persons.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddharupa• DZ 28/10/08The spiritual light shines alone,far transcending the senses and their fields;the essential substance is exposed, real and eternal.It is not contained in written words.The nature of mind has no defilement;it is basically perfect and complete in itself.Just get rid of delusive attachments,and merge with realization of thusness. Pai-chang (720 – 814)• DZ 15/10/08 “Enlightenment” and “Nirvana”?They are dead treesto fasten a donkey to.The scriptures?

They are bits of paperto wipe mud from your face.The four merits and the ten steps?They are ghosts in their graves.What can these thingshave to do with youbecoming free? Te-shan (780-865• DZ 7/10/08Sentient beings are really Buddha.Like water and ice; Apart from water, no ice; Outside of sentient beings, no Buddha. Not knowing it is nearThey seek for it afar! Just like being in water, But crying for thirst! Hakuin • DZ 1/6/08Wonderful! Wonderful!The sermon of the inanimate is inconceivable.If you try to hear it with your ears,You’ll hardly understandOnly when you hear it in your eyesWill you be able to know. Dongshan Liangjie (807-869) • DZ 4/4/08The entire day I searched for spring,But spring I could not find,In my straw sandals I tramped among theMountain peak clouds.Home again, smiling, I finger a sprig ofFragrant plum blossom;Spring was right here on these branchesIn all of its glory! Plum Blossom Nun • DZ 1/2/08What is this wonder-filled universe?What constitutes seed?Who centers the universal wheel?What is this life beyond form pervading forms?How may we enter it fully,Above space and time,Names and descriptions?Let my doubts be cleared. Vigyan Bhairava (~4000 years ago) (What’s it all about, Alfie?)• DZ 7/1/08Sitting in MeditationSitting in meditation does not primarilyMean that the mind should be grasped, That the idea of purity should be clung to, Nor that it should be motionless. When you talk of grasping the mind, Remember that the mind is fundamentally

Unreal and is known to be illusory. Therefore, there is nothing that can be graspedWhen you talk of clinging to the ideaOf purity, remember that the self-natureIs essentially pure. It is only due to falseThoughts that the absolute is concealed. If there is no thinking, the self-nature will Appear pure and clean. Bodhisattvasila Sutra(RHS: In other words, let go of all concepts and wisdom will come.)• DZ 26/12/07At Zen centres they say there is a Way to be practicedAnd a religious truth to be realized. Tell me, what religious truth is realized, What way is practiced? In your present functioning, what do you lack? What would you fix? Younger newcomers, not understanding this, Immediately believe these mesmerists andLet them talk about things that tie people up. Linji (d. 867)So wise! So long ago! A fine reflection on manimal’s apparent need to overly complicate things, due to his devotion to concepts.• DZ 13/12/07Students of today get nowhere because they base their understanding upon the acknowledgment of names. They inscribe words of some dead old guy in a great big notebook, wrap it up in four or five squares of cloth, and won’t let anyone look at it. “This is the Mysterious Principle,” they aver, and safeguard it with care. That’s all wrong. Blind idiots! What kind of juice are you looking for in such dried up bones!Rinzai (d 866)• DZ 30/11/07The wise people of old whoTook goodness as their wayWere retiring as though shyRespectful as though toHonored guests;They could adapt themselvesLike ice melting before a fire;They were artlessAs blocks of uncarved wood. Lao tzu• Found this in a book, probably the beautiful ‘Zen, Images Texts and Teachings’:Clouds appear free of careand carefree drift awayBut the carefree mind is not to be “found” -to find it, first stop looking around.Wang An-shih, 1021-1086

A sudden chill – In our room my dead wife’sComb, underfoot.Buson, 1715-1753• It is the one who is without obsession who is noble. Just do not act in a contrived manner; simply be normal. When you go searching elsewhere outside yourself, your whole

approach is already mistaken. You just try to seek buddhahood, but buddhahood is just a name, an expression. Do you know the one who is doing the searching?Lin Chi (d 867?) (my bolding)• Thoughts while overseas 9,10/07:Life is what happens to us while we are waiting for something to happen.Live life to the full. Don’t leave any bullets in the breach, anything in the ‘Pending’ tray, anything on the back burner, or your life movie on ‘pause’.• DZ 18/9/07 (extract)Facing the stream and the flowersI came inside a sense of Zen,Yet cannot find the words. Liu Chang Ching (709–780) (my bolding)• 12/9/07: It’s hard, when you have knowledge, to see others banging their heads against the stubborn brick wall of concepts and not be able to assist.• 31/8/07: there was a recent program on TV about heart transplant recipients who seem to inherit the personal traits of the donor, raising the concept of memories being stored in heart tissue as well as brain tissue. See http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/StudentJournal/volume2/kate.pdf.There are sceptics, but if a battery can have a memory, and we just accept that, why can’t we accept the heart having a memory?• 28/8/07: The only concept I have is the concept of ‘no-concept’. This is the guard dog of my mind that keeps the concepts forever at bay, for the good of my soul.• DZ 28/8/07If your mind is fixed on a certain spot,It will be seized by that spot and No activities can be performed efficiently.Not to fix your mind anywhere is essential.Not fixed anywhere,The mind is everywhere.The Original Mind is like water which flows freelyWhereas the deluded mind is like iceThere is a passage in the Diamond Sutra that says:“The mind should operate without abiding anywhere.” Takuan (1573-1645)RHS comment A certain spot is any concept.• “60 Minutes” program 22/7/07: On Dr Chadden Hunter’s long study of the gelada monkeys, which live at a height of about 4000 m, in the Simien mountains, in the north of Ethiopia, near the Eritrean border.CH: “females completely run their social system”CH: I feel that the gelada taught me a lot about relationships, about making a society work, a community work. I sometimes spend time with these guys and watch them get on and sort out problems and run a society, and then I head back to us humans and I think, 'We are so uncivilised'.True Chadden, true.• DZ 4/7/07Whether you are going or staying or sitting or lying down, the whole world is your own self. You must find out whether the mountains, rivers, grass, and forests exist in your own mind or exist outside it. Analyze the ten thousand things, dissect them minutely, and when you take this to the limit you will come to the limitless. When you search into it you come to the end of search, where thinking goes no further and distinctions vanish. When you smash the citadel of doubt, then the Buddha is simply yourself.Daikaku (1213-1279)• Apparently the Chinese character for crisis is the same as for opportunity.• DZ 24/6/07How long it has been since

The teaching of the pure Essence was swept away?Students are caught up With the written wordAnd Buddhist priests areStubbornly obsessed with doctrine.It’s a shame that for A thousand yearsNo one has spoken Seriously of this essence.Better to follow the children And bounce a ball on these spring days. Ryokan (1758-1831) (my bolding)• DZ 22/6/07People who study Buddhism Should seek real, true perception And understanding for now.If you attain real, true perceptionAnd understanding,Birth and death don’t affect you;You are free to go or stay.You needn’t seek wonders,For wonders come of themselves. Linji (d. 867)Note the last 2 lines. Manimal is continually seeking wonders, searching frantically here and there, and meanwhile tripping over wonders at every step.You come out of the house on a winter’s morning, grumbling about the cold and wondering if the car will start. But listen, there is a sparrow on the fence, fluffed up, face to the sun, chirping merrily. The sparrow has found its wonder, although it never really looked for it. The sparrow is a wonder. Why not join the sparrow and just pause for a moment, face to the sun, and appreciate the warmth of its golden rays. Appreciate the fact that you have been granted the chance to experience the pure joy of another day-life on earth.• 12/6/07:"It Will Not Change" It will not change now After so many years; Life has not broken it With parting or tears; Death will not alter it, It will live on In all my songs for you When I am gone. Sarah TeasdaleWhat I like about this is the word ‘it’. Is ‘it’ the SOTW?• 5/6/07: what is the connection between ‘past life experiences’ and ‘present life dreams’? Are they created by the same mental processes?• 5/6/07: reading ‘Soul Echoes’; refers to the work of Dr Helen Wambach, who wrote ‘Life Before Life’, apparently from the viewpoint of a reincarnationist; http://www.halexandria.org/dward433.htm says that Dr Wambach had success in regressing 750 (50%) of her patients; nearly 90% managed to recall past lives but only 50% recalled the birth experience; the latter were suspect and Dr Wambach said that “it was the veterans of the consciousness movement who tended to get the answers on the birth trips”. That is, these people had stored memories of transcendental experiences and may simply have, with conviction, brought these out when questioned under hypnosis. Only 0.1% of the subjects felt that God or some other deity was the force that led them into birth.

From Dr. Helen Wambach’s subjects, we find 24% felt they had not chosen their sex, or that the sex in the coming lifetime was not of importance. “Yet the striking result from the answers to this question in my survey is that not one of my 750 subjects felt their “true, inner self” to be either female or male.¶ The growing entity self, moving and gathering experiences through many lifetimes, is truly above sexual distinctions and must incorporate both experiences -- yin and yang, male and female -- to reach deeper understanding.” Now we’re talkin’! Now we’re getting close to seeing the SOTW! However, being a reincarnationist, Dr Wambach seeks to explain the outcomes of her studies in terms of a single soul inhabiting a single body, for the nth time. Her subjects reported an astonishing variety of relationships between souls over the course of many lifetimes.¶ Fathers in this lifetime may have been brothers, sisters, lovers, mothers, or friends in past lives.¶ There was no consistency to the changing combinations, nor was there any evidence to suggest Freudian theories of fathers and daughters wishing to be lovers, or otherwise. Why do they seem to make it so hard? If the SOTW is understood, if one realises that it’s not a single rebirthing soul that inhabits an individual, but rather a ‘piece’ of the SOTW (just as the energy that powers our toaster is a ‘piece’ of the electrical generating authority to which we subscribe), then there is no riddle, no need for Freudian (or other doctrinal) mumbo jumbo. She states that “Fully 87% of the subjects reported that people important in this lifetime were well known to the subjects in past lives.” She concluded “We come back with the same souls, but in different relationships.¶ We live again not only with those we love, but with those we hate and fear.” Isn’t it easier to simply see that our memory imprint that we leave in the SOTW is closer when we are rebirthed and ‘hook in’ to the SOTW again, so we inherit more of our prior life memory than we inherit of the general SOTW memory soup? And this is why we are able to recall it from our sub-conscious when we are regressed under hypnosis.Now here’s something. “all of her 750 subjects were unanimous in their feelings the fetus was not truly part of their consciousness and the existence of a fully conscious entity was quite apart from the fetus.” Now the subjects are responding intellectually under hypnosis i.e. using speech and logic. Yet they had none when they were a fetus. So is it surprising that they have no conscious memory of their time as a fetus?Dr Wambach, again from the reincarnationist perspective, refers to a ‘between-life state’ for a soul. This conjures up visions of a ‘state’, literally inhabited by ‘lost souls’, waiting for a birth to participate in. This seems to me like postulating a large tank of individual kilowatt-hours at a power station, just waiting for a toaster somewhere to be turned on for one of them to inhabit.$$ revisit this web page and review from ‘Moment of Birth’.• Thought 5/6/07: SOTW = “a multi-dimensional all pervading life force” i.e. MDAPLF• Thought 5/6/07:• At the restaurant I said to Lauren (who had just had a birthday) “Does it feel any different being 19 to being 18?” “Not a bit”, she replied. “And,” I said, “It won’t be in half a century’s time either, when you turn 69.”• We are what’s on the inside of our skins, not what’s on the outside. Remember Allen Ginsberg’s answer to the question “Are you Allen Ginsberg?” He said simply “No, but that is what I am called.”• Going past the school, at 3:10 in the afternoon and greeted by the sight of so many little grommets spilling out, laughing and talking with their mates, kicking stones or, in the case of one little person, holding Mum’s hand by the car and rocking side to side to some internal rhythm known only to children of such age. Such joy, such vivacity! Now imagine the scene 20 years into the future with the same group spilling out of some office building at 5:10 in the evening. Glum, hurried, worried. Where did it go, the childishness, the innocence? Where was it lost? And, importantly, why?• DZ 5/6/07Alone in mountain fastness,Dozing by the window.No mere talk uncovers Truth:The fragrance of those garden plums!

Bankei (1622–1693)• Thought 4/6/07: We must have education. We must build and refine our intellect. Without this we will not be able to effectively communicate with other manimals. But, unfortunately, so many people confuse their intellect with their self. etc (complete later)• DZ 21/5/07When Bodhidharma came to China, he saw that most Chinese learners did not grasp the truth of Buddhism. They merely sought it through interpretation of texts and thought of the changing phenomena all around them as real action. Bodhidharma wished to make these eager learners see that the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon itself. The real truth is nothing but one’s own mind. Thus, he maintained that the real teaching must be transmitted directly from one mind to another, without the use of words. Kuei-feng Tsung-mi (780-841)• Book ‘Soul Echoes’ by Thelma B Freedman, on “the healing power of past-life therapy”; there are two types (i) past-life memories that emerge under hypnosis, and (ii) memories of prior lives narrated by children without hypnosis. Does this support the possibility that we are all born with a connection to the Soul of The World, with its total memory of things past, and this is connection is gradually swamped by our intellectual learning, so that children still have a tenuous direct grasp of it, but adults need the ‘cleansing’ power of hypnosis to lift off the blanket of conscious (intellectual) thought and allow us to ‘see’ again the collective memory that our connection to the SOTW affords us.The Theravada school of Buddhism “interpreted the teachings of Buddha as meaning that there was no individual soul, merely ego, and that this ego stopped at death while the soul remained part of the greater soul, which produced another life. This new life, however, had no direct connection with the prior one”. Does the “greater soul” = The Soul of the World? By “no direct connection” he means “no reincarnation”, no direct translation of a single soul from one life form to another.Mahayana Buddhism, however, which developed later and seems to have absorbed some of the teachings of Hinduism, considers the soul as independently existing prior to the body, actually creating the most appropriate body for its next incarnation.Socrates: “All knowledge is merely recollection of things known before.” The Ismailis, a Muslim sect, “believe that the Hindu God Krishna (himself said to be an incarnation, or avatar, of another Hindu God, Vishnu) reincarnated as Gautama Buddha, and then as Mohammed, and will return again.”Sigmund Freud’s id, ego and superego. Explore further. • Look further into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashic_Records• DZ 8/5/07People in the world cannotidentify their own mind.They believe that what they see, or hear, or feel, or know, is mind.They are blocked by the visual, the auditory, the tactile, and the mental,so they cannot see the brilliant spirit of the theirOriginal Mind. Huang-po• A Child's Amaze SILENT and amazed, even when a little boy, I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his statements, As contending against some being or influence. Walt WhitmanAnother pithy statement by this ageless seer. The word ‘against’ says it all. What dreadful concept of our own making are we so afraid of that we need to invoke the concept of God, also of our own making, to protect us from it.

• Affection The earth that made the rose, She also is thy mother, and not I. The flame wherewith thy maiden spirit glows Was lighted at no hearth that I sit by. I am as far below as heaven above thee. Were I thine angel, more I could not love thee. Bid me defend thee! Thy danger over-human strength shall lend me, A hand of iron and a heart of steel, To strike, to wound, to slay, and not to feel. But if you chide me, I am a weak, defenceless child beside thee. Mary Elizabeth ColeridgeRHS comment: Now, the poem is not worth a lot, full of concepts as it is, but the first four lines (my bolding) are potent.• “Nothing on earth renders happiness less approachable than trying to find it.” Historian Will Durant described how he looked for happiness in knowledge and found only disillusionment. etc• Note: The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological theory that proposes that the living matter of planet Earth functions like a single organism. See Wikipedia.• DZ 7/1/07Above all, don’t wish to become a future Buddha;Your only concern should be, As thought follows thought, To avoid clinging to any of them. Dogen (1200 – 1253)This could be the intro to a section on ‘concepts’.• DZ 1/1/07An ancient master said, “The mountains, the rivers, the whole earth, the entire array of phenomena are all oneself.” If you can absorb the essence of this message, there are no activities outside of meditation: you dress in meditation and eat in meditation; you walk, stand, sit, and lie down in meditation; you perceive and cognize in meditation; you experience joy, anger, sadness, and happiness in meditation.Muso (1275-1351)• DZ 31/12/06Zen practice is not clarifying conceptual distinctions, but throwing away one’s preconceived views and notions and the sacred texts and all the rest, and piercing through all the layers of coveringsto discover the spring of self behind them. Daikaku (1213-1279)• Thoughts 21/12/06: All concepts are based, as intellectual constructs, on relative notions. Consider, for example the concept of speed. If someone from the nineteenth century, before the appearance of automobiles, could stand by a freeway now and see a modern car whizzing past, he or she would probably say it was ‘faster than the fastest horse.’ To a teenager a person of thirty is ‘old’. To an anorexic, the concept of ‘fat’ is something only marginally less thin than they are now (other examples). Knowledge comprises a recognition of the absolute value of things, their ‘suchness’.• DZ 191206: Empty-handed, I hold a hoe, clearing a galaxy.

Hsu Yun• Thought 7/12/06: With Alzheimer’s, the intellect is confused i.e. virtually ‘gone’ as we consider the intellect; they are ‘as a child’, so the soul is unencumbered. It shines through as the ‘essence of the person’.Further: the child, before schooling, has “no mind” or “empty mind”. The child sees things just as they are, without labels and rational descriptions. The child sees the “suchness” of things. More importantly, they don’t even know that they see the suchness of things, as I have just described it in conceptual terms. They simply see things, in their most pure form, unadulterated by intellectual considerations. Now consider Laotse’s “By doing nothing, everything is done.” This is what the student of Tao can achieve by letting go of, rather than gaining further, knowledge. Also, the Master answered the student’s question “What is Tao?” with the explicit answer “Usual life”. So is not the child, immersed completely in “usual life”, and for whom “everything is done”, as they precede intellectual thought, truly a Zen master? Are they not truly wise?• Email to Maggie Tabberer 4/12/06:I don't believe in reincarnation per se - coming back as a blowfly or a brain surgeon. I feel, however, that there is a universal soul that all living things connect to, for the term of their lives - like plugging a toaster into a power source. And this universal soul retains a universal memory. This is why we have 'deja vu' experiences. I also feel that this is why young children, babies, can look at us with such eyes of wisdom, when they have not yet learned the power of speech or human reasoning. Kerouac beautifully described this as "eyes of lucid liquid diamond understanding".I have long felt that we are wise when we are very young and wise when we are very old, and in the middle we are extremely confused by our intellect. Note: Marc Chagall (1887-1985), towards the end of his life, said “I am a child who is getting on.”• DZ 23/11/06There are no precepts to follow,No practices to engage in.From the outsetThere are no passions;From the beginning we are Enlightened.We eat when we are hungry,Rest when we are tired. Nonin (d.1196)• Conscience Conscience is instinct bred in the house, Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin By an unnatural breeding in and in. I say, Turn it out doors, Into the moors. I love a life whose plot is simple, And does not thicken with every pimple, A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it, That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it. I love an earnest soul, Whose mighty joy and sorrow Are not drowned in a bowl, And brought to life to-morrow; That lives one tragedy, And not seventy; A conscience worth keeping; Laughing not weeping;

A conscience wise and steady, And forever ready; Not changing with events, Dealing in compliments; A conscience exercised about Large things, where one may doubt. I love a soul not all of wood, Predestinated to be good, But true to the backbone Unto itself alone, And false to none; Born to its own affairs, Its own joys and own cares; By whom the work which God begun Is finished, and not undone; Taken up where he left off, Whether to worship or to scoff; If not good, why then evil, If not good god, good devil. Goodness! you hypocrite, come out of that, Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. I have no patience towards Such conscientious cowards. Give me simple laboring folk, Who love their work, Whose virtue is song To cheer God along. Henry David Thoreau• “Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken.”

Sarah/Claes Lund, transgender person, ‘Enough Rope’, ABC TV, 30/10/06.• Thought 4/11/06:Through zen teachings we do not acquire knowledge. We already have it. We are born with it. After birth it is progressively buried, layer by layer, as we ‘learn’ things, as we gain concepts.Zen merely teaches us how to control our intelligence, the blanket that continually covers our essential knowledge with a pile of concepts, and baffles our understanding of the essential things. During those wondrous moments of zen clarity, our understanding parts the covering pile of concepts like God parted the Red Sea, to reveal the glint of pure knowledge beneath.• DZ 3/10/06Withdraw now fromthe invisible pounding and weavingof your ingrained ideas. If you want to be rid of thisinvisible turmoil, you must just sitthrough it and let go of everything. Attain fulfillment and illuminate thoroughly. Light and shadow altogether forgotten. Drop off your own skin, and the sense-dusts will be fully purified. The eye then readily discerns the brightness. Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157)

• Part(s) of this might be useful as an example of the way we see things by their name rather than by their ‘suchness’.

"Arcturus" is his other name "Arcturus" is his other name— I'd rather call him "Star." It's very mean of Science To go and interfere!

I slew a worm the other day— A "Savant" passing by Murmured "Resurgam"—"Centipede"! "Oh Lord—how frail are we"!

I pull a flower from the woods— A monster with a glass Computes the stamens in a breath— And has her in a "class"!

Whereas I took the Butterfly Aforetime in my hat— He sits erect in "Cabinets"— The Clover bells forgot.

What once was "Heaven" Is "Zenith" now— Where I proposed to go When Time's brief masquerade was done Is mapped and charted too.

What if the poles should frisk about And stand upon their heads! I hope I'm ready for "the worst"— Whatever prank betides!

Perhaps the "Kingdom of Heaven's" changed— I hope the "Children" there Won't be "new fashioned" when I come— And laugh at me—and stare—

I hope the Father in the skies Will lift his little girl— Old fashioned—naught—everything— Over the stile of "Pearl."

Emily Dickinson• DZ 10/8/06:Few people believe their inherent mind is Buddha.Most will not take this seriously, And therefore are cramped. They are wrapped up in illusions, cravings, Resentments, and other afflictions, All because they love the cave of ignorance. Fenyang• DZ 20/7/06: Today’s students of the Buddha-Dharma need to look for genuine insight. If you have genuine insight, birth and death will not affect you, and you will be free to come and go. Nor do you need to look for worthiness; it will arise of itself. Followers of the Way, do not let yourselves be deluded by anyone; this is all I teach. If you want to make use of genuine insight, then use it right now without delay or doubt. Students nowadays do not

succeed because they suffer from lack of self reliance. Because of this lack, you run busily hither and thither, are driven by circumstance, and kept whirling by the ten thousand things. Rinzai (d.866)• 28/7/06: The Essential Secrets for Entering the Way, Master Torei (1721-1792) – small extractFirst, same nature: the fundamental nature inherent in sentient beings is none other than the fundamental nature of all buddhas of the past, present, and future. Their range of powers and qualities are also equal, their lights are radiant; their knowledge, wisdom, and miraculous powers are all the same. This may be likened to the light rays of the great solar disc shining everywhere on the mountains, rivers, and plains; with this light all are illuminated.• 15/7/06: We are not inhabited by a soul during our life. Rather we inhabit the one great Soul of The World. The general concept is of billions of individual souls (and that’s just for the human animals) that somehow magically disappear (to a heaven for the religious – where to for atheists, for insects, for trees …?). This is a belief that is hard to sustain. How much better the concept that all individual living things inhabit a single soul, that we are immersed in it until we die and the physical shell disappears, as food for others, as compost, or in the flames of a cremation. This also makes it easier to comprehend ‘déjà vu’, regression under hypnosis to prior lives, the uncanny emotional connection between twins, the powers of psychics etc. If we are all immersed in the one soul, the one life force, then we are all capable, to varying degrees, of tapping into the collective memory pool.• 9/7/06: we’ve harnessed the atom, sent men to the moon, built and miniaturised super computers. We think we know a thing or two. When we understand savants, then we’ll know a thing or two.• Does one really have to fretAbout enlightenment? No matter what road I travel, I’m going home. Shinsho (DZ 26/6/06)• Note the role of the SOTW in providing the link between identical twins, that seems to enable them to read one another’s minds, one another’s joys and pains e.g. the Corsican twins. Also the role of the SOTW in before birth regressions such as Bridey Murphy and xxx (farmer who could do medical diagnosis under hypnosis. Refer Edgar Cayce.• Devote yourself to the Absolute Emptiness;Contemplate earnestly in Quiescence. All things are together in Action, But I look into their Non-action, For things are continuously moving, restless, Yet each is proceeding back to its origin. Proceeding back to the origin means Quiescence. To be in Quiescence is to see “Being-for-itself.” Lao tzuWhat was he saying, this wise old man? I think he was saying that, when ‘each is proceeding back to its origin’, that all things end up with their shell passing to dust, and the part of the Soul of The World that inhabited it, going back into the Soul pool, to enliven another living thing. His ‘being-for-itself’ has also been translated as ‘the suchness of things’.• Antonia: Nothing dies forever. Something always remains, from which something new grows. So life begins without knowing where it came from, or why.Therese: Why?Antonia: Because life wants to live.Therese: Isn't there a heaven either?Antonia: This is the only dance we dance.

Movie, SBS television, Antonia's Line, 1/3/01.It’s hard not to feel sorry for the religious, who are conditioned to believe in a Heaven. Because this place to which we are supposed to travel after death, is painted in all religions

as a place of great joy, a place of ‘milk and honey’ then, by comparison, our life on earth is something inferior, something to be endured until the release of death and the trip to the eternal life of joy. No wonder that so many go miserably through life. How much better it is to live with the reality of this life as the ‘only dance we dance’. Then we can savour each day, knowing that there is nothing better. Etc etc• 22/4/06: Having achieved the state of ‘no beliefs’, how now to get rid of the belief in ‘no beliefs’?• Children (extract) Come to me, O ye children! And whisper in my ear What the birds and the winds are singing In your sunny atmosphere.

For what are all our contrivings, And the wisdom of our books, When compared with your caresses, And the gladness of your looks?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow• 28/3/06: We are educated to see ‘the soul’ as something unique to each being. Just as we have an arm, or a leg, that is our very own, we conceive of our soul as being something within us that is singular, and unique to us. When we die, our soul rises to the heaven of our belief. Yet how much simpler the concept of the ‘Soul of The World’ – that there is a singular soul that gives (lends) life to each living thing. So we are all connected to, and share, this one soul. Imagine the joy that this realisation can bring, the realisation that we have a common connection with all other animate beings, the birds of the air, the animals on the ground, the fishes in the sea, our fellow man. When we die, our connection to the Soul of The World is broken, just as an electrical appliance ceases to function when its plug is pulled from the power source. The Soul of the World is not lessened by the death of any single living thing. Its energy is simply directed to the birth of a new creature, as a new connection is made. How much simpler this concept of connectedness than selfish religious beliefs. The soul never dies. There is a just a break in connection. This also helps explain ‘déjà vu’, and how people can regress to a previous life, or to previous lives, under hypnosis, when they tap into the total memory of the Soul of The World. Etc etc• Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear – "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.' Percy Bysshe ShelleyThis is a great poem. Look at the striking apposition of lines 11 and 12. See the arrogance of man who decays, in spite of his eminence, while the simple rolling sands persist forever.• For whom the Bell Tolls (extract)The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to

that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; …No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. John Donne.Rework this to the theme of “every man is a part of the soul of the world”. For Catholic, and he church, read the Soul of The World.• DZ 23/12/05After fresh rain on the empty mountaincomes evening and the cold of autumn.The full moon burns through the pines.A brook transparent over the stones.Bamboo trees crackle as washerwomen go homeAnd lotus flowers sway as a fisherman’s boat slips downriver.Though the fresh smell of grass is gone,A prince is happy in these hills. Wang Wei (699-759)Simple pleasuresAnd not an electronic device in sight• DZ 22/12/05Once you suddenly smash through,and go on to make the leap beyond,you will find that everythingaround you and all that you do,whether active or at rest,is the scenery of thefundamental ground,the original Mind.There will be not a hairsbreadthof difference between youand other things;there will be no other thing.Daito (1282-1334)So, if all things are reducible to the One, to what is the One reducible?see 'fundamental' i.e. essentialAlso the Zen in saying that you and the other things are one, and there is no other thing• For the Creationists: if God created everything, then who created God? If the answer is that nobody created God, he just ‘was’, then it begs the question: If we can’t accept that the Universe just came into being, how can we accept that someone so powerful as to be able to create the entire Universe just came into being? What preceded God.• For the Big Bang theorists: what came before the Big Bang? And what came before what came before the Big Bang etc?• Conscience Conscience is instinct bred in the house, Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin By an unnatural breeding in and in. I say, Turn it out doors, Into the moors. I love a life whose plot is simple, And does not thicken with every pimple, A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it, That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it. I love an earnest soul, Whose mighty joy and sorrow

Are not drowned in a bowl, And brought to life to-morrow; That lives one tragedy, And not seventy; A conscience worth keeping; Laughing not weeping; A conscience wise and steady, And forever ready; Not changing with events, Dealing in compliments; A conscience exercised about Large things, where one may doubt. I love a soul not all of wood, Predestinated to be good, But true to the backbone Unto itself alone, And false to none; Born to its own affairs, Its own joys and own cares; By whom the work which God begun Is finished, and not undone; Taken up where he left off, Whether to worship or to scoff; If not good, why then evil, If not good god, good devil. Goodness! you hypocrite, come out of that, Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. I have no patience towards Such conscientious cowards. Give me simple laboring folk, Who love their work, Whose virtue is song To cheer God along. Henry David Thoreau• All Buddhas and all ordinary beings are nothing but the one mind. This mind is beginningless and endless, unborn and indestructible. It has no color or shape, neither exists nor doesn't exist, isn't old or new, long or short, large or small, since it transcends all measures, limits, names, and comparisons. It is what you see in front of you.¶¶Start to think about it and immediately you are mistaken. It is like the boundless void, which can't be fathomed or measured. The one mind is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between Buddha and ordinary beings, except that ordinary beings are attached to forms and thus seek for Buddhahood outside themselves. By this very seeking they lose it, since they are using Buddha to seek for Buddha, using mind to seek for mind. Even if they continue for a million eons, they will never be able to find it. They don't know that all they have to do is put a stop to conceptual thinking, and the Buddha will appear before them, because this mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings. It is not any less for being manifested in ordinary things, nor any greater for being manifested in Buddhas.

This pure mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don't perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising through the empty sky and illuminating the whole universe. Therefore, you students of the Tao who seek to understand through seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, when your perceptions are cut off, your way to mind will be

cut off and you will find nowhere to enter. Just realize that although mind is manifested in these perceptions, it is neither part of them nor separate from them. You shouldn't try to analyze these perceptions, or think about them at all; but you shouldn't seek the one mind apart from them. Don't hold on to them or leave them behind or dwell in them or reject them. Above, below, and all around you, all things spontaneously exist, because there is nowhere outside the Buddha mind.Huang-po; Huang-po Hsi-yun (?-849) was a Chinese Zen Master, and the teacher of Lin-chi (Rinzai). This translation is found in Stephen Mitchell's The Enlightened Mind - An Anthology of Sacred Prose, Harper Perennial, 1991.• Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.Although its light is wide and great,the moon is reflected evenin a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Dogen (1200-1253)Dogen – such a sage! Here he teases us a little with his wisdom. He offers the special pearl, but wraps it in the everyday oyster. What Dogen is telling us, of course, is that we fool ourselves continually with our concepts, couched as they are in the opposites. How can something be in the water but not be wet? How can something be in the water without breaking its surface? The moon is large, but a drop of water is small. How then can the moon fit into a water drop? Etc• A Creed I HOLD that when a person dies His soul returns again to earth; Arrayed in some new flesh-disguise Another mother gives him birth. With sturdier limbs and brighter brain The old soul takes the road again.

Such is my own belief and trust; This hand, this hand that holds the pen, Has many a hundred times been dust And turned, as dust, to dust again; These eyes of mine have blinked and shown In Thebes, in Troy, in Babylon.

All that I rightly think or do, Or make, or spoil, or bless, or blast, Is curse or blessing justly due For sloth or effort in the past. My life's a statement of the sum Of vice indulged, or overcome.

I know that in my lives to be My sorry heart will ache and burn, And worship, unavailingly, The woman whom I used to spurn, And shake to see another have The love I spurned, the love she gave.

And I shall know, in angry words, In gibes, and mocks, and many a tear, A carrion flock of homing-birds, The gibes and scorns I uttered here. The brave word that I failed to speak Will brand me dastard on the cheek.

And as I wander on the roads I shall be helped and healed and blessed; Dear words shall cheer and be as goads To urge to heights before unguessed. My road shall be the road I made; All that I gave shall be repaid.

So shall I fight, so shall I tread, In this long war beneath the stars; So shall a glory wreathe my head, So shall I faint and show the scars, Until this case, this clogging mould, Be smithied all to kingly gold.

John Masefield (my bolding)

• 11/10/05: to appreciate something that someone else has created – a poem, painting, song, sculpture, it is necessary to become that creator, to feel the same vibration that stimulated the creator to compose the piece. If you can’t become that creator, if you can’t slide into their skin, you will say “I don’t like that” or “I don’t understand that”. But if you do, if you manage to momentarily empathise with the creator, to feel their inspiration, then you will be greatly moved. You will say “I just love that.”• Similarly with artistic translators, compared to literal translators (e.g. the different translations of Basho’s frog in the pond.• 24/9/05: What is, was. Just a thought. What is happens in the instant. By the time I utter the word is, or even by the time the instant registers in my brain, it is already in the past. So, what is, was.• August 2005Heaven and Earth

Discovered in 1739 Author Unknown Mencius said, "The difference between human and animals is slight; common people obliterate it, superior people maintain it. Those who maintain it become sages; those who obliterate it become beasts."

Look at the plants and trees; their foliage flourishes, then drops in late autumn, returning to the roots, as a natural pattern. Returning to the root, it does not die but regenerates come springtime. From this principle we can see that endless regeneration is the Way of nature, while returning to their roots is the inherent pattern of beings. Those who know the inherent pattern and do not violate the Way are real people. That is why "real people breathe from their heels." The heels are like the root.

Then, from The Monkess

The mind that is not always caught up in detail is your only treasure. Stop chasing details and become still. The mind that sees details clearly but is not caught by them is like a vast, borderless mirror. That mind does not oppose itself.

• Another September thought: ‘conceptitis’ has killed more people, and ruined more lives, than any other disease, including AIDS and the Black Plague.“Are you Allen Ginsberg?” “No, but that is my name.” I am no more Digney Snaders than that sparrow is Lord Fred Smith.Phobias are concepts. We are not born with a phobia. We acquire one, by learning from someone else who has learnt to have one. Someone with a fear of heights is not so much afraid of the distance to the ground, but of the concept of the distance to the ground. The same applies to a fear of spiders. A newborn will not cry when it sees a spider. It will reach out for the spider, or for a snake. It will only acquire the fear when it learns the concept.• 9/9/05 thought: we don’t stop being 4 when we turn 5, any more than we stop being 4 when we turn 85. We are always 4, and 5, and any other number that is less than the number we call our ‘age’. Growing is not a matter of replacing one ‘self’, of a certain ‘age’, with one of a greater ‘age’. Rather, growing is simply a matter of adding experiences to a self that is growing in complexity. We are always all ages.• 4/9/05: Perhaps Edgar Allan Poe’s raven, in relentlessly repeating ‘Nevermore’ was trying to tell him that life is now and now only – a seamless succession of instants which, in total, comprise life and which, singly, will be repeated ‘nevermore’. So, do not pine for Lenore, for what was, but rather get on with the appreciation of the ‘now’.• Instants If I could live again my life, In the next - I'll try, - to make more mistakes, I won't try to be so perfect, I'll be more relaxed, I'll be more full - than I am now, In fact, I'll take fewer thingsseriously, I'll be less hygenic, I'll take more risks, I'll take more trips, I'll watch more sunsets, I'll climb more mountains, I'll swim more rivers, I'll go to more places - I've neverbeen, I'll eat more ice creams and less(lime) beans, I'll have more real problems – andless imaginaryones, I was one of those people who liveprudent and prolific lives – each minute of his life, Offcourse that I had moments of joy - but, if I could go back I'll try to have only good moments, If you don't know – that’s what life ismade of, Don't lose the now!

I was one of those who never goesanywhere without a thermometer,

without a hot-water bottle, and without an umberella and without a parachute,

If I could live again - I will travel light, If I could live again - I'll try to work bare feet at the beginning of spring till the end of autumn, I'll ride more carts, I'll watch more sunrises and play with more children, If I have the life to live - but now I am 85, - and I know that I am dying ...

Jorge Luis Borges

• DZ 28/7/05(concept of time, with which manimal continually torments himself):Water dripping ceaselesslyWill fill the four seas.Specks of dustNot wiped awayWill become theFive mountains.Shih Wang Ming (6th cent AD)• Thought, 26/7/05: Words are just exhaling, with sounds.• DZ 21/7/05It comes in and out before your eyes, Responding to phenomena, following emotions. When it is carefree, without obstruction, All endeavors are successful.

When you realize original mind, The mind sees Buddha. This mind is Buddha; This Buddha is mind. Master Fu (497-569) (my italics)• 11/7/05 thought: There are all sorts of collectors, who collect all sorts of things. In most cases the collection addiction leads to greed and frustration – greed because the collectors always want more, and frustration because often they cannot collect every item they desire. Collections are rarely able to be completed.Here is an alternative suggestion. Why not be happy just collecting life’s pleasurable moments – the magnificent tree, the puffed up sparrow’s closed-eyes contentment, the perfect lines of swell rolling in to form curling white ribbons that crash on the shore, a stranger’s smile … Such a collection is more fulfilling because almost all of the items collected are unplanned, spontaneous. Such a collection is always completed. It stops when we close our eyes in eternal sleep, when the body ceases to live and the soul returns to the Soul of The World. Such a collection is always passed on, without recourse to wills or probate. It goes, with the soul, into the great memory bank of the Soul of The World.• The Flower Ornament Scripture says:“I now see all sentient beings everywherefully possess the wisdom and virtues

of the enlightened ones,but because of false conceptionsand attachments they do not realize it.” Buddha• Zen-mind transcends the highest ‘achievements’ of intellectual mind, and sparrow-mind transcends zen-mind. • 12/6/05 “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” However, “worth doing” is a concept, a mind construct, a personal value judgement. A single activity may be ‘worth doing’ for one person, but not for another. For those things we judge as not being ‘worth doing’, we grant ourselves a licence to do them in an inferior manner. We grant ourselves a licence to be mediocre.Consider the advice: “do what you have to do, then do what you want to do.” If it’s something we have to do, if it’s an essential task, then surely it must be done well, even if it’s not something we consider ‘worth doing’.The higher animals are not afflicted with concepts. They are never mediocre in doing things essential. Only manimal is capable of being mediocre in executing things essential.etc• ‘Written on a Summer Evening’ The church bells toll a melancholy round, Calling the people to some other prayers, Some other gloominess, more dreadful cares, More harkening to the sermon's horrid sound. Surely the mind of man is closely bound In some blind spell: seeing that each one tears Himself from fireside joys and Lydian airs, And converse high of those with glory crowned. Still, still they toll, and I should feel a damp, A chill as from a tomb, did I not know That they are dying like an outburnt lamp, - That 'tis their sighing, wailing, ere they go Into oblivion -that fresh flowers will grow, And many glories of immortal stamp. John Keats (my blue bolding)• “Since the dawn of time 100 billion people have lived on earth”; Arthur C Clark, science fiction writer, quoted in Stanley Kubrick documentary, SBS, 10/5/05.• 31/5/05: Religion is a crutch for people who are usually not crippled. As with any aids, the non-cripple soon becomes used to the crutch and, finally, as dependent on the crutch as a cripple would be. Religion is a crippling experience.• Concepts cloud our vision of real life. If we can learn to wipe the dust of concepts from our eyes, then we will be able to see once again with pure eyes, with what Kerouac calls the “eyes of lucid liquid diamond understanding.”• Come to me, O ye children! And whisper in my ear What the birds and the winds are singing In your sunny atmosphere.

For what are all our contrivings, And the wisdom of our books, When compared with your caresses, And the gladness of your looks?

Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said; For ye are living poems,

And all the rest are dead. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow• 17/4/05: Had a thought in the car on the way home from work, concerning concepts. People with concepts i.e. most people, are like the young boy in Tortilla Flat (by John Steinbeck) who had tortilla and beans for every meal. When asked why he didn’t have something else he said “Jesus Christ, what else is there?” So it is with people with concepts when you try to offer them an alternative way of seeing the world (Zen). Without putting it so succinctly, their reaction could be expressed as: “Jesus Christ, what else is there?”• A second thought was for alternative lyrics to “I can see clearly now (the rain is gone)”. How about “I can see clearly now, the concepts gone …”?• The ultimate way is simple and easy … From the first there is no superiority or inferiority, no grasping or rejection …without setting up any rigid views or maintaining any state, respond freely: “when the wind blows, the grasses bend.” …When you do not seek outside, real truth is always there, resting peacefully, immutable … On reaching emptiness, there is no duality between noise and quiet. Even when it comes to extraordinary words, marvellous statements, unique acts, and absolute perspectives, you just level them with one measure. Ultimately they have no right or wrong, it’s all in how you use them. … When you have continued grinding and polishing yourself like this for a long time, you will be free in the midst of birth and death and look upon society’s useless honor and ruinous profit as like the duct in the wind, phantoms in dreams, flowers in the sky.Extracts from: Yuan-wu (1063-1135); ‘The Ultimate Way’; excerpted from "The Five Houses of Zen" Trans by Thomas Cleary; ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, April 2005.• DZ 10/4/05You should each individually clarify your own mind, getting to the root without pursuing the branches. Just get to the root, and the branches come of themselves. If you want to get to the root, just get to know your mind. This mind is basically the root of all mundane and supramundane phenomena. As long as the mind does not become obsessed with all good and bad, you will realize that all things are basically just so. Ta-mei (ca.805) RHS’ comment: My bolding. Sums it all up, I suppose. A perfect doctrine of the suchness of things.• DZ 7/4/05Sages send the spiritTo the storehouse of awarenessAnd return to the beginningOf myriad things.They look at the formless,Listen to the soundless.In the midst of profoundDarkness,They alone see light;In the midst of silent vastness,They alone haveIllumination. Huai-nan-tzuRHS’ comment: My bolding. I take this to mean that sages are able to connect their soul to the ‘Soul of The World’ and thereby are able to return to the beginning (and the end!) of myriad things. That is, their connection transcends (the concept of) time.

• The final lines from the (very Zen) poem ‘Monet Refuses The Operation’ by Lisel Mueller:Doctor, / if only you could see / how heaven pulls earth into its arms / and how infinitely the heart expands / to claim this world, blue vapour without end.• DZ 1/4/05 (extract)

True words are false words when they give rise to views. False words are true words when they cut off the delusions of sentient beings.Pai-chang (720-814)• DZ 29/3/05You should each individually clarify your own mind, getting to the root without pursuing the branches. Just get to the root, and the branches come of themselves. If you want to get to the root, just get to know your mind. This mind is basically the root of all mundane and supramundane phenomena. As long as the mind does not become obsessed with all good and bad, you will realize that all things are basically just so. Ta-mei (ca.805)RHS’ comments: This old chinaman means ‘good and bad’ just to be an example of the dreaded ‘opposites’. I included this in my collection because of his (or the translator’s) wonderful ‘just so’ for the suchness of things.• So just discard all you have acquired as being no better than a bed spread for you when you are sick. Only when you have abandoned all perceptions, there being nothing objective to perceive; only when phenomena obstruct you no longer; only when you have rid yourself of the whole gamut of dualistic concepts of the "ignorant" and "enlightened" category, will you at last earn the title of Transcendental Buddha.Huang po (d.850); excerpted from "The Zen Teaching of Huang Po-On the Transmission of Mind" Trans by John Blofeld; ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, January 2005.• (The parable that preceded this statement is not important).The parable is intended to prevent your conceiving of the Buddha and of sentient beings as entities and thereby falling into the error of spacial separateness. It is a warning against conceiving of entities as existing or not existing and thereby falling into the error of spatial separateness, and against conceiving of individuals as ignorant or Enlightened and thereby falling into that same error. Only one entirely liberated from concepts can possess a body of infinite extent. All conceptual thinking is called erroneous belief. The upholders of such false doctrines delight in a multiplicity of concepts, but the Bodhisattva remains unmoved amid a whole host of them. And:When we talk of the knowledge "I" may gain, the learning "I" may achieve, "my" intuitive understanding, "my" deliverance from rebirth, and "my" moral way of living, our successes make these concepts seem pleasant to us, but our failures make them appear deplorable. What is the use of all that? I advise you to remain uniformly quiescent and above all activity. Do not deceive yourselves with conceptual thinking, and do not look anywhere for truth, for all that is needed is to refrain from allowing concepts to arise.And:when true understanding and ephemeral knowledge are properly integrated, it will be found that they no longer exist.And:There is only the One Mind, Mind which is neither Buddha nor sentient beings, for it contains no such dualism.And:As soon as you conceive of the Buddha, you are forced to conceive of sentient beings, or of concepts and no-concepts, of vital and trivial ones, which will surely imprison you between those two iron mountains.Huang po (d.850); excerpted from "The Zen Teaching of Huang Po-On the Transmission of Mind" Trans by John Blofeld; ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, March 2005.

• DZ 180305Ordinary people have been revolving in circles since time immemorial, being born and dying. Because of clinging fixedly to self-images, false ideas, and misperceptions, the habits of illusion eventually become second nature to them. Even if they suddenly awaken in this life and realize that their essential nature is fundamentally empty and silent, no different from the Buddhas, nevertheless past habits are difficult to remove all at once.

Master Chinul (1158-1210)• If one reads the words of 100 different authors, all writing about the same religion (or philosophy, or politics) it will become clear that the common threads through them all are the common threads of dogma, the beliefs that bind the adherents of the one religion (or philosophy, or politics) together. But of course the dogma of that one belief set, will be different to another belief set, and another belief set, and another …So, when one collects segments of the writings of a whole variety of authors, written over many centuries and covering a whole range of philosophies, religions, politics and literary styles, and when all of these segments point in the same direction, in the same direction, is spite of their dogma differences, then perhaps we have here something that goes beyond dogma, beyond mere beliefs, and into the realm of ‘the essential’.• Connect your self to the ‘onesoul’.• Affiliate another living thing – a lizard, a sparrow, a tree … Recognise, and appreciate, your place in the ’10,000 things’. Feel your souls (the ‘onesoul’, the ‘Soul of the World’) connect. Talk to the lizard (the sparrow, the tree …). They will understand – not the language, the sound that comes from the mouth, but the empathy that comes from the soul.• Forget concepts and experience the 10,000 things. It’s a sensory smorgasbord out there!• The sounds that you and I make with our mouths cannot change the past. So rather let us make sounds that speak of now, and perhaps of what may be.• “In our concern for one, we understand our concern for all.” From ‘Amazing Journey’, Channel 7, 6/3/05. The story was about a baby whale that was rescued, brought up in Sea World and finally released as a mature whale, to the great relief of an intensely interested population. This is a great example of ‘affiliating’ another living thing.• DZ 26/2/05As long as people are beguiled by words, they can never expect to penetrate to the heart of Zen. Why? Because words are merely a vehicle on which the truth is carried. Not understanding the meaning of the old masters and their koans, people try to find it in the words only, but they will find nothing there to lay their hands on. The truth itself is beyond all description, but it is by words that the truth is manifested. Let us, then, forget the words when we gain the truth itself. This is done only when we have an insight through experience into that which is indicated by the words. Lu K’uan Yu • DZ 25/2/05Enlightenment means seeing into your own essential nature, and this at the same time means seeing through to the essential Yasutani My bolding: one’s essential nature is in harmony with, in fact is, the essential nature of the 10,000 things.• DZ 1/1/05Snow covers earth and skyEverything is newMy body is concealedInside a silver worldSuddenly I enterA treasury of lightA place forever free ofAny trace of that. (my bolding)Han-shan Te-ch'ing (1546-1623)• DZ 2/1/05True aspirants of the TaoContemplate their own mind.Knowing Buddha lies within,

There is no need to search outside.Master Fu (497-569)• “On The Way”, The Daily Zen Journal, December 2004: The Wan Ling Record of Zen Master Huang Po (d.850) Mind is the Buddha, while cessation of conceptual thought is the Way. Once you stop arousing concepts and thinking in terms of existence and non-existence, long and short, other and self, active and passive, and suchlike, you will find that your Mind is intrinsically the Buddha, that the Buddha is intrinsically Mind, and that Mind resembles a void.The next quote also reinforces this ancient wisdom:• DZ 2/1/05True aspirants of the TaoContemplate their own mind.Knowing Buddha lies within,There is no need to search outside.Master Fu (497-569)• “What was has always been; what is has always been; what will be has always been … (lost this bit)”. Quoted from movie “My Architect” on the TV program ‘At The Movies’, 7/10/04.• Quotes from 101 Reykjavík (movie, 2000): Lola: So, what do you do?Hlynur: Nothing.Lola: What kind of nothing?Hlynur: The nothing kind of nothing.

(That quote from the web).“It’s no longer a matter of either/or, good or evil, right or wrong. Everything just is.”

(My transcription while viewing).“I’ll be dead when I die. I was dead before I was born. Life is an interlude between my death.”

(My transcription while viewing, possibly not precisely).• Thought, 12/04: In a civilised society, only the very old and the very young can have wisdom – the very old because they have used concepts and found that they no longer need them, and the very young because they are not yet burdened with concepts.• ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, December 2004The Wan Ling Record of Zen Master Huang Po (d.850) Q: What is the Buddha? A: Mind is the Buddha, while cessation of conceptual thought is the Way. Once you stop arousing concepts and thinking in terms of existence and non-existence, long and short, other and self, active and passive, and suchlike, you will find that your Mind is intrinsically the Buddha, that the Buddha is intrinsically Mind, and that Mind resembles a void. … Seek for nothing but this, else your search must end in sorrow. … Only come to know the nature of your own Mind, in which there is no self and no other, and you will in fact be a Buddha! … Bodhidharma firmly believed in being one with the real 'substance' of the universe in this life! Mind and that 'substance' do not differ one jot. That substance is Mind. They cannot be possibly separated. It was for this revelation that he earned the title of Patriarch, and therefore is it written: The moment of realizing the unity of Mind and the 'substance' which constitutes reality may truly be said to baffle description. Huang-po (d.850) Excerpted from "The Zen Teaching of Huang-po - On the Transmission of Mind" Trans by John Blofeld "The training of the mind in Ch'an (Zen) practice can be divided into three levels. First, we move from a scattered state of mind to concentrated mind. Second, we move from concentrated mind to one-mind (samadhi). Finally, we have let go of our self-centeredness and realize wisdom."

Extract from "Subtle Wisdom - Understanding Suffering, Cultivating Compassion through Ch'an Buddhism" Master Sheng-yen • DZ 15/12/04To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his or her nature is a buddha. If you don’t see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings result in good karma. Reciting sutras results in good memory. Keeping precepts results in a good rebirth. And making offerings results in future blessings. But no buddha. Bodhidharma (d. 533)

RHS’ comment: for ‘nature’ read ‘SOTW’• “Important Names in the History of Zen in America”, see http://www2.kenyon.edu/depts/religion/fac/Adler/reln360/Zen-America.htm• Thought 13/4/03: It is such a wonderful feeling to connect with another person, on a plane that goes beyond (and above) the intellect, to that which is essential.And, to a person who was born at a time when we marvelled about the undersea wireless cable that connected the continents and enabled broadcasts of the cricket test in England as they happened, the immediacy of modern email communication is especially a matter of amazement.Yet, I got to thinking, we marvel at the ease with which we can communicate with one another due to modern technology, yet fail to realise that the connectedness that we are able to achieve with another human being, because of technological advancement, can be so readily achieved every day, with “the ten thousand things”, the other living things – by (as Whitman would say) – simply affiliating with them.On a Saturday my wife and I go to a restaurant by the harbour for lunch. It is my habit to take a slice of bread, which I gradually release to the sparrows that make that part of the harbour their home. They have come to know me and turn up soon after we are seated, expecting their handout. Now some would say that they are just conditioned to this activity, and driven by one of the most base instincts – hunger. Yet I am convinced that we connect, the sparrows and I, during this weekly ritual. One hen bird turns up first, near my shoulder, and takes the bread piece readily from my fingers. I know that she is comfortable with me, that she feels no danger, and connects with me through the food exchange. This is a moment of great wonder to me, just as the moment when the Eastern Water Dragon, living in the wild undergrowth above our swimming pool, comes onto my knee to accept a piece of banana.We should all take more opportunities (for they are presented repeatedly) to affiliate with the other living things. Since we all share the same ‘Soul of The World’, by connecting to the sparrows, the trees, the lizards, the bees and the butterflies, we connect to our own base nature, and to one another.• 28/11/04: money is the least important of things because money has no soul All living things have soul, through which they make a common connection with The Soul of The World. People have soul, animals, birds and insects have soul, trees have soul. Even rocks are living things and have soul. Money has no soul. So why put money above all else?• “On The Way”, the Daily Zen Journal‘Essentials of Mind’, Yuanwu (1063-1135) Direct pointing …. That is what we call the natural, real, inherent nature, fundamentally pure, luminous and sublime, swallowing and spitting out all of space, the single solid realm alone and free of the senses and objects.

… reach the original ground, attaining great cessation and great rest, which the senses fundamentally do not know and which consciousness, perception, feelings, and thoughts do not reach.Then there is no more need to seek mind or seek Buddha: you meet them everywhere and find they are not obtained from outside.If you make slogans of words and produce interpretations on top of objects, then you will fall into a bag of antiques and after all that never find what you are looking for.— Excerpted from "The Five Houses of Zen" Translated by Thomas Cleary• DZ 18/10/04The human body is a little universeIts chill tears, so much wind-blown sleet.Beneath our skins, mountains bulge, brooks flow.Within our chests lurk lost cities, hidden tribes.

Wisdom quarters itself in our tiny hearts.Liver and gall peer out, scrutinize a thousand miles.Follow a path back to its source, else beA house vacant save for swallows in the eaves.Shih-shu (17th century-early 18th)• DZ 29/9/04If you can see a thought as it arisesThis awareness will at once destroy it.Whatever state of mind should come,Sweep it away, put it down.

Both good and evil statesCan be transformed by mind.Sacred and profane appearIn accordance with thoughts.Han Shan Te Ch'ing (1546-1623)• Thought: what does ‘soul-searching’ really mean? Since one’s soul is at once singular and all-pervading, why do we search for ‘it’, as if it were a lost shoe? Or does it imply a search within the soul? If so, what are we looking for? Are we looking for a ‘reason’ for something? If so, why can’t we see that ‘reasons’ are of our own intellectual creation and have nothing whatever to do with soul?• From the book ‘The soul Aflame’, by Phil Cousineau.• p16 Body and soul are not two separate things, but only two ways of perceiving the same thing.Albert EinsteinI cannot see my soul, but know ‘tis there.Emily Dickinsonp17 The ancient Greeks had some sage advice … in their legendary Delphic wisdom: “The soul, to know itself, must gaze upon another soul.”p60 A very long time ago there was a traveler who was making a journey across the wild steppes when he suddenly heard the roar of a tiger. Terrified, he turned and saw the beast charging him. The traveler wasted no time. He ran for his life across the barren land – but saw no refuge until a dried-up well loomed in the distance. He felt his blood surging as he gripped the edge of the well and leapt inside.The traveler fell, and as he fell he noticed to his horror a fire-snorting dragon far below, its jaws snapping viciously. Desperately the traveler reached out and grabbed hold of a long vine growing out of the bricks in the well. Miraculously, the vine held him and for a few precious moments he clung for his life against the cold brick walls of the well.

Above him, the tiger gnashed its teeth. Below him, the dragon licked its chops. The poor traveler’s arms grew weary. His thoughts knotted. Fate was very near. Still, he held on. Hope flickered in his heart.While he pondered his strange dilemma he noticed two mice, one black, one white, nibbling at the branch to which he was clinging. The sight put him into a rapture. Every molecule of the bark on the branch glowed as if on fire. It was then he noticed a few drops of luscious honey glistening on the leaves at the root of the vine.Smiling, he stretched out his tongue and tasted the honey.Adapted from an old Eastern parable by Phil Cousineau.RHS comment: this is about the best version I have read of this wonderful tale.p78 The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realise their relationship, their one-ness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the centre of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.Black Elk, Oglala Sioux, 1863-1950.p90 “Casy! He talked a lot. Used ta bother me. But now I been thinkin’ about what he said, an’ I can remember – all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’ he didn’ have no soul that was his’n. Says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ‘cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no good ‘less it was with the rest, an’ was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn’ think I was even listenin’. But I know now a fella ain’t no good alone.”John Steinbeck, American, 1902-1969. From Grapes of Wrath?p124 To me animals have all the traits indicative of soul. For soul is not something we can see or measure. … But what exactly is soul? Soul is the point at which our lives intersect the timeless … Soul is what makes each of our lives a microcosm – not just a meaningless fragment of the universe, but at some level a reflection of the whole.No one can prove animals have souls. But if we open our hearts to other creatures and allow ourselves to sympathize with their joys and struggles, we find they have the power to touch and transform us. There is an inwardness in other creatures that awakens what is innermost in ourselves.For ages people have known that animals have a balance and harmony we can learn from. “Ask the beasts, and they will teach you,” counsels the Book of Job.Can we open our hearts to the animals? Can we greet them as our soul mates, being like ourselves who possess dignity and depth? To do so, we must learn to revere and respect the creatures who, like us, are a part of God’s creation, and to cherish the amazing planet that sustains our mutual existence. We must join in a biospirituality that will acknowledge and celebrate the sacred in all life.Gary Kowalski, American.p126 Honor the highest thing in the Universe; it is the power on which all things depend; it is the light by which all of life is guided. Honor the highest within yourself; for it, too, is the power on which all things depend, and the light by which all life is guided. … O Universe, all that is in tune with you is also in tune with me! Every note of your harmony resonates in my innermost being. For me nothing is early and nothing is late, if it is timely for you. O Nature, all that your seasons bring is fruit for me. From thee come all things; in thee do all things live and grow; and to thee do all things return …Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!Marcus Aurelius, Roman, 121-180, translated by Maxwell Staniforth.RHS comment: Close. The final sentence should read “You are one yourself!”p140 There is no ending – steps of a dance, petals of flowers

Phrases of music, rays of the sun, the hoursSucceed each other, and the perfect sphereTurns in our hearts the past and future, near and far,Our single soul, atom, and universe.

Kathleen Raine, Irish.

p146 We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.Through the unknown, remembered gateWhen the last of earth left to discoverIs that which was the beginning;At the source of the longest riverThe voice of the hidden waterfallAnd the children in the apple-treeNot known, because not looked forBut heard, half-heard, in the stillnessBetween two waves of the sea.Quick now, here, now, always –A condition of complete simplicity(Costing not less than everything)And all shall be well andAll manner of things shall be wellWhen the tongues of flame are in-foldedInto the crowned knot of fireAnd the fire and the rose are one.

T S Eliot, American, 1888-1965.RHS comment: This poem is fuel enough for a book! Such mystical imagery.• A good Zen-song “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see, que sera sera, what will be will be.” Another is, of course, “Non, rien de rien, non je ne regrette rien.”• Car thoughts 9/04:In the light-bulb words ‘by doing nothing, everything is done’, the ‘nothing’ really equates to ‘contriving’. Dogma is contrived thought. To achieve Zen-mind it is not necessary to study to gain more dogma. A ‘normal education’ provides enough dogma to last manimal a lifetime. No, achieving Zen-mind is a matter of losing dogma. That’s the beauty. That’s the simplicity. And, because of the dogma that teaches us that we need dogma, it is the hard part.• Further thought: “Life is life threatening.”• ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal.‘Empty and Quiet’, Yuan-hsien (1618-1697)There are not many arts to Zen study: it just requires knowing your own true mind. Now observe that within this body the physical elements combine temporarily, daily heading for extinction: where is the true mind? The flurry of ideas and thoughts arising and passing away without constancy is not the true mind. That which shifts and changes unstably, sometimes good, sometimes bad, is not the true mind. That which wholly depends on external things to manifest, and is not apparent when nothing is there, is not the true mind. Suppose you turn the light of awareness around to look within, and sense tranquility and oneness; do you consider this the true mind? You still do not realize that this tranquility and calm oneness are due to the perception of the false mind: there is subjective mind perceiving and the object perceived. This tranquility and oneness belong to the realm of inner states. This is what is meant by the Heroic Progress Sutra when it says, "Inwardly keeping to tranquility is still a reflection of discrimination of objects." How could it be the true mind? So if these are not the true mind, what is the true mind? Try to see what your true mind is, twenty four hours a day. Don't try to figure it out, don't try to interpret it intellectually, don't try to get someone to explain it to you, don't seek some other technique, don't calculate how long it may take, don't calculate your own strength, just silently pursue this inner investigation on your own: "Ultimately what is my own true mind?" • Email to Elana, 23/9/04:Hi Elana

Hope you're well.I have written to you before about the Zen-mind of Jack Kerouac, one of the great Beat Generation writers. I feel a tremendous affinity with Jack. Our minds are aligned. He was a soft, gentle man, with a wonderfully evocative writing style.I am reading a book I was just lucky to find in a second-hand bookstore, called 'Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969', by Ann Charters.Jack was living apart from his wife Edith Parker, and in Tangiers, when he wrote to her on January 28 1957. The following is an extract, which I think is worthy of quoting in a Zen context. Do you think you would feel comfortable adding quotes from such as Jack, Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman, to the quotes you give from the wise old Chinamen? Perhaps I could help, as I've been collecting 'Zen-essence' from their writings for some time now. Jack's 'Scripture of The Golden Eternity' is a little Zen treasure. Jack writes in a spontaneous style he called 'bop-prosody', which allows him to drop the shackles of strictly opposite-thinking, to bend words and create new ones. Because it's spontaneous, it's more from the soul than from the head.Anyway, heres the extract:

"I have a lot of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened*1, so don't worry. It's all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky ways of cloudy innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere, or one universal self: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes through everything, is one thing. It's a dream already ended.There's nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end*(superscript: 2).They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the one vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was neverborn."

*1 evocative of 'By doing nothing, everything is done'.*2 Jack Kerouac spent the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak, in North Cascades National Park, on which he based the book Desolation Peak.• DZ 23/9/04If you haven't attained clear, true vision,This causes you to lapse into extremesSo that you lose contact with reality.Yuan wu (1063-1135)RHS’ comment: for ‘extremes’ read ‘opposites’.• DZ 6/9/04The Way is arrived at by enlightenment. The first priority is to establish resolve - it is no small matter to step directly from the bondage of the ordinary person into transcendent experience of the realm of sages. It requires that your mind be firm as steel to cut off the flow of birth and death, accept your original real nature, not see anything at all as existing inside or outside yourself, so all actions and endeavours emerge from the fundamental. RHS comment i.e. from The Soul of The World.Yuan wu (1063-1135)• DZ 11/9/04The essential point in learning Zen is to make the roots deep and the stem firm. Twenty-four hours a day, be aware of where you are and what you do. When no thoughts have arisen

and nothing at all is on your mind, you merge with the boundless and become wholly empty and still. Then your actions are not interrupted by doubt and hesitation. This is called the fundamental matter right at hand. As soon as you produce any opinion or interpretation, and want to attain Zen and be a master, you have already fallen into psychological and material realms. You have become trapped by ordinary senses and perceptions, by ideas of gain and loss, by ideas of right and wrong. Half drunk and half sober, you cannot manage effectively.Yuan wu (1063-1135)•• Syndromes, complexes and phobias• Why does manimal have to count everything? See Issa’s poem about the cockscombs.• From Yakrider's Zen page:This then is life.Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes andconvulsions.How Curious! How real!Underfoot the divine soil, overhead the sun.Walt Whitmanand againIt is quite an interesting experiment to take a walk and experience everything around you without naming it or attaching any meaning to it at all. Simply experience, look at what we label as a tree for the first time, smell the inspiring aroma of what we label as morning green tea...ad infinitum. Have we replaced the real world with words?RHS’ comment i.e. to see through the eyes of a child.And againZen might be defined as waking up in the present. (Yakrider)• DZ 23/8/04If you want to attain intimate realization of Zen, first of all don't seek it. What is attained by seeking has already fallen into intellection. The great treasury of Zen has always been open and clear; it has always been the source of power for all your actions.Yuan wu (1063-1135)• DZ 2/9/04The ancient masters slept without dreams and woke up without worries. Their food was plain. Their breath came from deep inside them. They didn't cling to life, weren't anxious about death. They emerged without desire and re-entered without resistance. They came easily; they went easily. They didn't forget where they were from; they didn't ask where they were going. They took everything as it came, gladly, and walked into death without fear. They accepted life as a gift, and they handed it back gratefully.Chuang-tzu• Is the sloth slow, or are all other animals simply fast?• Followers of the Way, if you want to get the kind of understanding that accords with the Dharma, never be misled by others. Whether you’re facing inward or outward, whatever you meet up with, just kill it! If you meet a Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch. If you meet an arhat, kill the arhat. Then for the first time you will gain emancipation, will not be entangled with things, and will pass freely anywhere you wish to go.Also, a wonderful description of ‘concepts’:“ … they’re all caught up in the idle devices of the men of old.”Also:The way I see it, there’s no call for anything special. Just act ordinary, put on your clothes, eat your rice, pass the time doing nothing. You who come from here and there, you all have a mind to do something. You search for Buddha, search for the Dharma, search for emancipation, search for a way to get out of the threefold world. Idiots, trying to get out of the threefold world! Where will you go?”Also:

When your mind has learned to cease its momentary seeking, this is dubbed the state of the bodhi tree.”Extract from ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, July 2004; ‘Instructing the Group, Part II’, Lin-chi I-hsuan (d.866); excerpted from “The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi”; translated by Burton Watson. • Right now, all this dashing and searching you are doing, do you know what it is you are looking for? It is vibrantly alive, yet has no root or stem. You can't gather it up; you can't scatter it to the winds. The more you search for it, the farther away it gets. Don't search for it and it's right before your eyes; its miraculous sound always in your ears. But if you don't have faith, you'll spend your hundred years in wasted labor.Extract from ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, 4 August 2004; ‘Instructing the Group, Part III’, Lin-chi I-hsuan (d.866); excerpted from “The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi”; translated by Burton Watson. • DZ 20/8/04Your true nature is not lost in moments of delusion, nor is it gained at the moment of enlightenment. It was never born and can never die. It shines through the whole universe, filling emptiness, one with emptiness. It is without time or space, and has no passions, no people, and no buddhas; it contains not the smallest hairbreadth of anything that exists objectively; it depends on nothing and is attached to nothing. It is all-pervading, radiant beauty: absolute reality, self-existent and uncreated. How then can you doubt that the Buddha has no mouth to speak with and nothing to teach, or that the truth is learned without learning, for who is there to learn? It is a jewel beyond all price.Huang-po (d. 849)• DZ 7/8/04Who would have expected that theSelf nature is fundamentallyComplete in itself?Who would have expected that theSelf nature is fundamentallyImmutable?Who would have expected that theSelf nature can create all things?Altar Sutra• DZ 8/8/04Our original mind includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself.You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind.If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.Shunryu Suzuki (1905-1971)• Thought 9/8/04, On ‘concepts’: See a 1 year old child in the bath; slapping its hands against the water; eyes wide like saucers at the splash response; then again, and again eyes wide – then laughter; no ‘concepts’ here – no ‘bath’, no ‘water’, no ‘splash’, no ‘surprise’, just the essential emotion evoked by the activity.• From ‘On The Way’, The Daily Zen Journal, June 2004:"And things like the Three Vehicles and the twelve divisions of the scriptural teachings, they're all so much like an old rag to wipe away filth. The Buddha is a phantom body, the patriarchs are nothing but old monks. If you seek the Buddha, you'll be seized by the Buddha devil. If you seek the patriarchs, you'll be fettered by the patriarch devil. As long as you seek something, it can only lead to suffering. Better to do nothing. "There are a bunch of bald-headed monks who tell students of the Way that the Buddha represents the ultimate goal, and that one must spend three kalpas carrying out and fulfilling all the religious practices before one can gain complete understanding of the Way. Followers of the Way, if you say that the Buddha represents the ultimate goal, then why after living just eighty years did the Buddha lie down in the grove of sal trees in the city of Kushingara and

die? Where is the Buddha now? From this we know clearly that he was no different from us in the realm of birth and death. "Followers of the Way, the true Buddha is without form, the true Dharma is without characteristics. You are striking poses and donning attitudes all because of a mere phantom. Even if in your seeking you got something, it would all be the work of wild fox spirits, certainly not the true Buddha. It would be the understanding of the non-Buddhists. "A true student of the Way never concerns himself with the Buddha, never concerns herself with bodhisattvas or arhats, never concerns herself with the blessings of the threefold world. Far removed, alone and free, he is never entangled in things. Heaven and earth could turn upside down and she would not be disturbed. All the buddhas of the ten directions could appear before him, and his mind would not feel an instant of joy, the three realms of hell could suddenly confront him, and his mind would not feel an instant of alarm. Why is this? Because they know that all things of the phenomenal world are empty of characteristics. When conditions change, they come into existence; when there is no change, they do not exist. The threefold world is nothing but mind; the ten thousand phenomena are nothing but consciousness. These dreams, phantoms, empty flowers, why trouble yourself trying to grasp them? "There is only you, follower of the Way, this person in front of my eyes now listening to the Dharma, who enters fire without being burned, enters water without drowning, enters the three realms of hell as though strolling in a garden, enters the realms of hungry ghosts and the animals but undergoes no punishment. How can one do all this? While you love sages, loath common mortals,You're bobbing up and down in the sea of birth and death.Earthly desires exist because of the mind;If no mind, what can earthly desires fix on?Don't labor to discriminate, to seize on marks;Then without effort, you'll gain the Way in a moment. "If you rush off frantically on side roads, studying in hopes of gaining something, then for three kalpas you will remain in the realm of birth and death. Better to do nothing, just sit in your seat here in the monastery with your legs crossed." Master Lin-chi; Instructing The Group, Part I; excerpted from "The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi"Translated by Burton Watson• Thoughts, 25/7/04: Concepts are confining. They force an item (person, animal, event, place, …) into a narrow slot – giving them a value that is well below the value that they truly have as essential components of the ’10,000 things’.• DZ 13/7/04If you want to learn the Principles,Don't study fine bound books.The True Pearl's in a hemp sackThe Buddha nature rests in huts.Many grasp the sackBut few open it.Shih Te (c 730)• DZ 14/7/04My doctrine is to think the thought that is unthinkable, to practice the deed that isnon-doing, to speak the speech that is inexpressible, and to be trained in the discipline that isbeyond discipline. Those who understand this are near; those who are confused are far.The Way is beyond words and expressions, is bound by nothing earthly.Lose sight of it to an inch, or miss it for a momentand we are away from it forevermoreSutra of Forty Two Chapters• DZ 10/7/04

Those who have strong passions are never able to perceive the Way. It is like stirring up clear water with your hands; you may come wishing to find a reflection of your face, but you'll never see clearly in disturbed waters. A mind troubled and vexed with the passions is never able to see the Way. Sutra of Forty Two ChaptersRHS comments: for ‘passions’ read ‘concepts’

• DZ 11/7/04I see people chanting a sutraWho depend on its words for their ability to speakTheir mouths move but their hearts do notTheir hearts and mouths oppose each otherYet the heart’s true nature is without conflictSo don’t get all tangled up in the wordsLearn to know your own bodily selfDon’t look for something else to take its placeThen you’ll become the boss of you mouthKnowing full well there’s no inside or out. Han Shan (730) RHS comment: the last line is a specific example of a general Zen precept about dealing in absolute, rather than relative, values.• DZ 22/6/04You are a seeker.Delight in the masteryOf your hands and your feet,Of your words and your thoughts.Delight in meditation and in solitude.Compose yourself, be happy.You are a seeker.Buddha in the Dhammapada• From the movie ‘Samsara’:“How can one prevent a drop of water from ever drying up?” “By throwing it into the sea.”“Everything you contact is a place to practice the Way.”“There are things we must unlearn in order to unlearn them.”Thought: Zen achieves its impact by confounding our senses, by deriding and discarding the beliefs (concepts) we cherish so dearly. In the same way this wondrous movie (‘Samsara’) confounds our senses, by taking our senses to a place to which most of us have never been – the mysterious, barren but potent state of Ladakh. Ladakh os not L.A. So we are not at ease, unfamiliar with its visual immensity and its explicit and (especially) implicit profundity. Tashi is an enlightened man – someone who spent three years, three months, three weeks and three days in extreme privation, to the point of near death, to achieve enlightenment. Yet at the end of the movie, next to the worldly wise Pema, he seems, like all men, a mere fool.• 10/6/04Internal and external are all the same essence. This means that when we are practicing, the mountains and rivers of the great earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the constellations, the internal body and the external world, as well as all dharmas, are all viewed as being the same essence of the true mind. That essence is clear, empty and bright without a hair's breadth of differentiation. The world systems of the chiliocosm, as numerous as the grains of sand, have fused into one whole: where would the deluded mind be able to arise? Dharma Master Seng-chao said, "Heaven and earth and I have the same root. The myriad things and I have the same essence."Chinul (1205) • 18/6/04

Buddhas don't save buddhas. If you use your mind to look for a buddha, you won't see the buddha. As long as you look for a buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the buddha. And don't use a buddha to worship a buddha. And don't use the mind to invoke a buddha. Buddhas don't recite sutras. Buddhas don't keep precepts. And buddhas don't break precepts. Buddhas don't keep or break anything. Buddhas don't do good or evil.Bodhidharma (d. 533)• DZ 8/6/04If you understand the first word of ZenYou will know the last word.The last word or the first word,Is not a word.Wu-men• DZ 24/5/04Stop searching for phrases and chasing after wordsTake the backward step and turn the light inward.Your body-mind of itself will dropoff and your original face will appear.If you want to attain just this,immediately practice just this.Dogen (1200-1253)• DZ 29/5/04All the explanations of past patriarchs about the practice of no-mind are unique. Now, I will give a synopsis of these different techniques and briefly describe ten of them.One: attention. This means that when we are practicing, we should always cut off thoughts and guard against their arising. As soon as a thought arises we destroy it through attention. As a patriarch stated, "Do not fear the arising of thoughts; only be concerned lest your awareness of them be tardy." A gatha says, "there is no need to search for truth; you need only put all views to rest." This is the method of extinguishing delusion through attention.Chinul (1205)• “Life is a moment in space …”‘Woman in Love’, written by the Bee Gees (accidental wisdom?).• “In the immeasurable lapseOf time, amid the myriad hapsOf Being, was it chance or planThat brought me hither and made me man:That chose the hour and set me here.Here in this land, in this abode,This homeland on an island sphereBeyond which man has found no road?Why now, not then? Why I, not he?Why here, not there?And why at all, or if at allThen why not always? What am IWho call my life my own, yet dieAnd leave that life beyond recall?Whose choice am I, for I chose notThe hour, the person, or the spot?Oh, what inscrutable decree,What law that had to be obeyed,Fulfilled itself at last, and madeThis, the inevitable ME?

I count the years since here I came:And was I nowhere, was I noughtBefore my mortal spirit caught

The glow of Life’s Eternal flame?If once my soul was not, in turnIt will be not, - the brands outburn.Then is my life no more than this, -The passing of a mirrored flash,A kindled fire that sinks to ashAnd quenches in the raindrops’ hiss?

A flash, but what a flash that can revealLife Everlasting, vistas infinite,And signs of things Eternal, to the sightOf those who die! Oh, what are we who feelThe joy and beauty of Life’s commonweal,And are but motes upon a Shaft of Light!

Yet in that flash to me was shownA path beyond my own,A nobler, happier designOf life than I can read in mine, -Beyond myself; yet not beyondThe dream, with which Eternal thingsGives us a momentary bond;A wave of harmony divineTo which, as if from troubled strings,The murmurs of my soul respond.

If once I was not, if my life began,It needs must end, for death is writ in birth;But what if we are bound not by the spanOf these our years on earth!What if we lived before, but miss the cluesThat lead to those forgotten avenues!Spoken by Ambrose, Act II, Scene I, ‘The Immortal Jew’, S R Lysaght, publ. 1931.RHS comment: there is much to discuss here: this is the eternal question, that everyone has asked at one time or another – “Why am I here? What is the purpose of life?” Mind you, we are the only living creature that bothers. I think his “Life’s Eternal Flame” is another description of The Soul of The World; why ‘mirrored’ flash? What is mirrored? Or, what is it mirrored in? His ‘Life Everlasting’ is The Soul of The World; he describes us as ‘but motes upon a Shaft of Light’. Compare this to Kerouac’s ‘thou'rt a numberless mass of sun-motes: each mote a shrine.’ He recognises, at last, the ‘nobler, happier design of life’ i.e. the return of our souls, eternally, at death to The Soul of The World. 2B continued.• “If you can meet with triumph and disasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same”Rudyard Kipling.RHS’ comment: what a basis for discussing ‘concepts’!• Thought, 20/5/04: The intellect is manimal’s tool. The caveman fashioned a piece of stone to make a wheel – a very useful tool. He tied a rock to a forked stick to make a club – another useful tool. The otter lies on its back and uses a stone to crack a shellfish on its stomach, while a chimpanzee pokes a thin stick down a tunnel in an ants’ nest and draws it up, covered with ants, for a tasty treat. All animals need tools, to enhance their daily lives.Manimal fashions his brain, through learning, to form his intellect – the tool that enhances his quality of life. Increased intellect gives peer respect, better jobs and higher salaries. But what is this tool, essentially. It is a series of linkages within the brain – a sort of soft super-computer. When manimal dies, his body dies and so does the brain, and with it the intellect.

But the soul lives forever. When the body dies, and the intellect dies, the soul just leaves its temporary host and is absorbed back into the pool (the Soul Of The World). Why then does manimal put intellect as being more important than the soul? Why is a person with a highly developed intellect (a very sophisticated tool) perceived as ‘better’ than one with a highly developed soul?(Note: if the intellect and the soul are separate entities, then how do memory imprints go back into the SOTW, such as is evidenced in past-life experiences under hypnosis?)• DZ 14/5/04Nature may be compared to a vast ocean. Thousands and millions of changes are taking place in it. Crocodiles and fish are essentially of the same substance as the water in which they live.People are crowded together with the myriad other things in the Great Changingness, and their nature is one with that of all other natural things. Knowing that I am of the same nature as all other natural things, I know that there is really no separate self, no separate personality, no absolute death and no absolute life.T'ien T'ung-Hsu (8th century A.D.)RHS comment: a new word for an eternal reality – ‘the Great Changingness’!!

• DZ 16/5/04Death and life are looked onAs but transformations;The myriad creation is all of a kind,There is a kinship through all.Huai Nan Tzu (2nd century B.C.)

• DZ 3/5/04To drink up the ocean and turn a mountainUpside down is an ordinary affair for a Zennist.Zen seekers should sit on the site of universalEnlightenment right in the midst of all the thornySituations in life,And recognize their original face while mixingWith the ordinary world.HuanglongRHS: the last two lines – the essence of Zen.

• DZ 7/5/04Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name but no form. It's not something you can pick up or put down. And you certainly can't grab it. Beyond this mind you'll never see a buddha. The buddha is a product of your mind. Why look for a buddha beyond this mind?Bodhidharma (d. 533)

• DZ 28/4/04If you want to perceiveAnd understand objectively,Just don't allow yourselfTo be confused by people.Detach from whatever youFind inside or outside yourself.Detach from religion,Tradition, and society,And only then will youAttain liberation.When you are not

Entangled in things,You pass throughFreely to autonomy.Linji (d. 867)RHS comment: One could spend a day talking about the ‘things’ that Linji warns against becoming ‘entangled in’,

• DZ 4/5/04"Sweep away thoughts!" means one must do zazen. Once thoughts are quieted, the Original Face appears. Thoughts can be compared to clouds. When clouds vanish, the moon appears. The moon of suchness is the Original Face. Thoughts are also like the fogging of a mirror. When you wipe away all condensation, a mirror reflects clearly. Quiet your thoughts and behold your Original Face before you is born!Daito (1282-1334)RHS: Note 'you is born' not 'you are born'. Up till then, this was a usual text. What a wonderful complacency jogger Daito sneaks into his writing! It’s not about when you (said in muted tones – meaning when your soul entered your human form) were born, but when the YOU was born i.e. your persona – the outward, superficial YOU. were born Your Original Face is your facet of The Soul of The World. It is the (muted) you that the world does not see.Zazen can be done while going about one's 'usual life'.

• How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!The world forgetting, by the world forgot.Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!from Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Popequoted in, and gave its last line to the title of, the movie starring Jin Carrey and Kate Winslet. If you interpret 'blameless vestal' as a zen sage, then we can see how the sage ‘forgets’ the ‘world’ of man’s creation and, because the sage’s mind is beyond the comprehension of those without zen-mind, he is effectively forgotten by the world. Then there is that final, inspired, line. The spotless mind of the sage, unsullied by concepts, is always in sunshine.• With manimal, for concepts to progress to fear, then to phobia, does not require intelligence. One would think that highly intelligent people would develop many more concepts and so be prone to more beliefs, and hence more phobias and fanaticisms. But look at ‘uncivilised’ tribes (pointing the bone, witch doctors, divining the entrails, animism …). A painting communicates a concept (ditto movies, literature, songs, music e.g. Beethoven’s Pastorale). “Remember that a picture – before being a horse, a nude, or some sort of anecdote – is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.” Maurice Denis (1870-1943), ‘Art et Critique’, 1890.• ‘Whatever may come / and whatever may go / that river’s flowing’; Peter Gabriel; ‘Don’t Give Up’. Think about it.• (incomplete notes) The great legacy of manimal’s intelligence is the extremely complex means of communication it provides us; joy meter; literature, arts, music, language; the peaks of ecstasy to the depths of despair; the suicides provoked by ‘Gloomy Sunday’.• Provoked by Magritte’s “This is not a pipe”:Everything we experience is a concept. What we experience through the senses are sensory concepts – the interpretations placed upon real things by our brain, based on the signals it receives from the senses. Everything else that we experience is one form or another of intellectual concepts. In manimal these latter predominate. In the higher animals the sensory concepts predominate.Put a section in WIMTAW on Abstractions. These are, in a sense, anti-intellectual concepts. They are really forms of koans. Their purpose, like the Zen koans, is to confound (conventional) intellectual concepts and, in so doing, create pure sensations within us – sensations that are not in response to intellectual concepts stimuli. Rather, these are a purer

form of sensation. They have no basis in the intellect. Dali’s melting clocks … Magrittes apple-head men …• DZ 5/4/04Names of the unified mind areBuddha-nature,True suchness, the hidden essence,The pure spiritual body,The pedestal of awareness,The innocent, universalRound mirror-like knowledge,The open source, the ultimate truth,And pure consciousness.The enlightened ones of thePast, present, and future,And all of their discourses,Are all in your fundamental nature,Inherently complete.You do not need to seek,But you must save yourself;No one can do it for you.Xuefeng (822 ? 908)

• DZ 7/4/04What I teach people justRequires you not to takeOn the confusion of others.Act when necessary,Without further hesitation or doubt.When students today do not attain this,Wherein lies their sickness?The sickness is in notTrusting yourself.If your inner trust is insufficient,Then you will frantically go alongWith changes in situations,And will be influenced andAffected by myriad objects,Unable to be independent.If you can stop the mentalityOf constant frantic seeking,Then you are no differentFrom Zen masters and BuddhasLinji (d. 866)

• DZ 30/3/04Spring has its hundred flowers,Autumn has its many moons.Summer has cool winds,Winter its snow.If useless thoughts do notCloud your mind,Each day is the best of your life.Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183?1260)• The DailyZen Journal “On The Way”, November 2002, ‘Nothing to Attain’, Zen Master Ta Hui (1088 – 1163); extracts (my italics):

People often use the mind which assumes "there is something to attain" to seek the Dharma wherein there is nothing to attain. What do I mean by the mind which assumes "there is something to attain"? It's the intellectually clever one, the one that ponders and judges. What do I mean by the Dharma wherein "there is nothing to attain?" It's the imponderable, the incalculable wherein there's no way to apply intelligence or cleverness.People make their living within the confines of thought and judgment their whole lives: as soon as they hear a person of knowledge speak of the Dharma in which there is nothing to attain, in their hearts there is doubt and confusion, and they fear falling into emptiness. Whenever I see someone talking like this, I immediately ask him, is this one who fears falling into emptiness himself empty or not? Ten out of ten cannot explain. Since you have always taken thought and judgment as your nesting place, as soon as you hear it said that you shouldn't think, immediately you are at a loss and can't find your grip. You're far from realizing that this very lack of anywhere to get a grip is the time for you to let go of your body and your life. If correct mindfulness is present at all times and the attitude of fear for birth and death doesn't waver, over long days and months, what was unfamiliar will naturally become familiar, and what was stale will naturally become fresh. But what is the stale? It's the brilliance and cleverness, that which thinks and judges. What is the unfamiliar? It's enlightenment, nirvana, true thusness, the buddha-nature--where there's no thought or discrimination; where figuring and calculating cannot reach; where there's no way for you to use your mental arrangements. Suddenly the time arrives: you may be on a story of an ancient's entry into the Path, or it may be as you are reading the scriptures, or perhaps during your daily activities as you respond to circumstances; whether your condition is good or not good, or your body and mind are scattered and confused, whether favorable or adverse conditions are present, or whether you have temporarily quieted the mind's conceptual discrimination-when you suddenly topple the key link, there'll be no mistake about it. - Zen Master Ta-hui (1088-1163); excerpted from Swampland Flowers - The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui - Translated by Christopher Cleary (1977)Also, from the same Journal (my bolding):"The Teaching of Trees"One evening a teacher of the martial ways said to his students, "I regret that I am all you have for a teacher. These Ways are difficult enough to learn, and if you rely only on me you will not learn nearly enough. For to truly learn you must go, not to one who has learned these arts as I have, but to one who has known them from the beginning. Even the highest of humans are mere apprentices in this regard."His students, as students are apt to do, managed to look both puzzled and expectant at once."My own teacher was a tree. From my esteemed teacher I learned most of what I know about the Ways. Even today, I have barely scratched the surface of this tree teaching. It is my teacher's teaching that I attempt to pass on to you with but partial success. The fault is my own, for I am not quite eloquent enough. My words, and even my actions, get in the way."

"Listen. My father, a Warrior from the West, went to see the Old Man of the Mountain to learn about his Way. He followed a stream up the mountain, but he turned back after going only part of the distance. It is said that the old sage watched his retreat with silent approval. Flowing water became his teacher for the rest of his life. He learned much, but still he couldn't pass it on to me."It is said that my grandfather learned from the clouds. His technique was lofty, subtle, hard to define. They say he could not be touched. He was like a mist who in the end vanished like a summer cloud."I feel that I may know some of what my father and grandfather learned from their teachers, and yet I cannot be sure. For each of us must follow a slightly separate path. I spent many

years in the forest with my teacher who never once deviated from the Way. This tree teaching has served me quite well. Here, then is a small part of what my teacher taught me."A tree is heavy at the root, light at the top. Its leaves sense the slightest movement of the wind and invariably move before the trunk can be swayed. Its branches bend before they break. When they do break, Life Force is immediately transferred to the remaining limbs."A tree becomes dormant in order to become vital. This is the very key to our art - Action arising from Stillness. While the manifestations of its Force are evident, the root is kept hidden from plain view."A tree is tall and noble, mysteriously alive, upright in bearing and continually growing and renewing until death, which is then met without a care."All of this taught in a silenceMore eloquent than a thousand words.Each day I honor my teacherWhen I walk slowly throughThe dark coolness of the forest.

So, learn what you can from others,But to truly learn you must ReturnTo the wordless Teaching of the Self-Evident;The trees, the streams, the sky;Teachers abound if you would become their lessons.Then the students, as students are apt to do, looked as if they understood while their teacher rose and disappeared into the evening forest for the night. Taken from Life in the Rolling Mirror; Tales of Change and FlowMy comments: how like the ‘Soul of The World’ is his ‘Life Force’. Hoe evocative of Whitman are his words in praise of a tree.• Magritte (SBS TV 6/4/04): Painting of a (smoking) pipe with the words underneath (in French) ‘This is not a pipe’. Evocative of “Are you Allen Ginsberg?” “No, but that is my name.” When we look at a pipe, our view of it (our visualisation) is not a pipe either. Only the pipe is a pipe. So we can never see/experience the pipe, only the sensations it produces (from our five senses) for us. Thoughts on concepts, while clearing leaves from around the pool.All animals have concepts (ideas, mind pictures). They are needed for communication. Without concepts there can be no communication. When the bee does the ‘bee dance’ to tell its colleagues about the location of some choice nectar blossoms, it is communicating a concept – a picture of those blossoms - to excite the other members of the hive to follow it to the special location. When a male whip bird sings the first, long, drawn out part of the whip crack call, it is communicating the concept of “here I am” to its mate, who immediately adds the whip crack exclamation mark to the call to communicate the reply “OK. And I’m over here.” When the lioness moves in front of the lion, presenting her rear to his nose, she is communicating the concept, through the musky odour she presents to his nose, of sex. When an animal such as a dog or a baboon bares its fangs and snarls, it is communicating the concept of a nasty bite, to warn others to keep away. The male, silverback, gorilla communicates the same concept by beating his chest.So all animals need concepts to communicate.Manimal is no differentIn animals concepts trigger the basic drives – feeding, procreating etcIn manimal, concepts -> beliefs -> fears -> phobias (e.g. fear of spiders. A child has no fear of spiders, so the fear that is developed must be a fear of the concept of a spider). • What does ‘it’ mean in the sentence “What time is it?”• DZ 16/2/04Comprehending the fundamental, Embracing the spirit, Roam the root of heaven and earth,

Wander beyond the dust and dirt, Travel to work with noninvolvement. Take care not to let mechanical Intelligence burden your mind; Watch what is not temporal And remain unmoved by things. Lao tzu • DZ 17/2/04Because you grasp labels and slogans, You are hindered by Those labels and slogans, Both those used in Ordinary life and those Considered sacred. Thus they obstruct your Perception of objective truth, And you cannot understand clearly. Linji (d. 867) • DZ 19/2/04"Sages since time immemorial have only explained the problems of pollution. If one does not have all that false consciousness, emotional and intellectual opinionatedness, and conceptual habituation, one is clear as autumn water, pure and uncontrived, placid and uninhibited. Such people are called Wayfarers, or free people." Kuei-Shan (771-854) • Essential Teachings of Dogen (1200-1253) “Even when you are uncertain, do not use this one day wastefully. It is a rare treasure to value. Do not compare it with an enormous jewel. Do not compare it with a dragon's bright pearl. Old sages valued this one day more than their own living bodies. Reflect on this quietly. A dragon's pearl may be found. An enormous jewel may be acquired. But this one day out of a hundred years cannot be retrieved once it is lost. What skillful means can retrieve a day that is passed? No historical documents have recorded such means. Not to waste time is to contain the passage of days and months within your skin bag, without leaking. Thus sages and wise ones in olden times valued each moment, day, and month more than their own eyeballs or the nation's land. To waste the passage of time is to be confused and stained in the floating world of name and gain.”Excerpted from Enlightenment Unfolds: The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen by Kazuaki Tanahashi (1999) (my bolding)And“To become annoyed with difficulties merely adds difficulty to difficulty. Maintain a mind of peace and non opposition, and all tensions will naturally be dissolved. Excerpted from "Subtle Wisdom - Understanding Suffering, Cultivating Compassion through Ch'an Buddhism"by Ch'an Master Sheng-yen (my bolding)• DZ 11/2/04Flat Lake cold penetrates Water-lily clothes The mountain by the lake Is neither right nor wrong Dusty tracks all end The world is far away. White clouds and gulls Have no hidden plans.

Han-shan Te-ch'ing (1546-1623) • DZ 24/1/04The fundamental teaching of Buddhism is nothing but the doctrine of One Mind. This Mind is originally perfect and vastly illuminating. It is clear and pure, containing nothing, not even a fine dust. There is neither delusion nor enlightenment, neither birth nor death, neither saints nor sinners. Sentient beings and Buddhas are of the same fundamental nature. There are no two natures to distinguish them. This is why Bodhidharma came from the west to teach the Ch'an method of "direct pointing" to the original true Mind. Han-Shan Te-Ch'ing (1586) • “Truth is not far away. It is ever present. It is not something to be attained since not one of your steps leads away from it. … truth is … being used presently right before your eyes, yet people do not trust it sufficiently, so they accept terms and expressions … they are as far away as the sky is from the earth.”And“The slightest movement of your dualistic thought will prevent you from entering the palace of meditation and wisdom.”Dogen (1200 – 1253), Practice of Meditation, from ‘Buddhism and Zen’, translated by Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth McCandless, 1987 (in On The Way, The Daily Zen Journal, January 2004).• DZ 15/1/04 ?Do not remain in the dualistic state; Avoid such pursuits carefully. If there is even a trace Of this and that, right and wrong, The Mind-essence will be lost in confusion. Although all dualities come from the One, Do not be attached even to this One. When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, Nothing in the world can offend, And when a thing can no longer offend, It ceases to exist in the old way. Seng Ts'an (d. 606) • DZ 12/1/04Kuei-shan said, "The mind of a Wayfarer is plain and direct, without artificiality. There is no rejection and no attachment, no deceptive wandering mind. At all times seeing and hearing are normal. There are no further details. One does not, furthermore, close the eyes or shut the ears; as long as feelings do not stick to things, that will do.Kuei-Shan (771-854)• DZ 9/1/04The spiritual light shines alone, Far transcending the senses And their fields; The essential substance is exposed, Real and eternal. It is not contained in written words. The nature of mind has no defilement; It is basically perfect and complete in itself. Just get rid of delusive attachments, And merge with realization of thusness. Pai-chang (720 ? 814)Ah! The wisdom of those old chinamen!• DZ 30/12/03People of the way journey through the world Responding to conditions, Carefree and without restraint.

Like clouds finally raining, Like moonlight following the current, Like orchids growing in shade, Like spring arising in everything, They act without mind, They respond with certainty. Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091?1157) • DZ 1/1/04The sun rises; the sun sets. Watch it and see. River and moon Pine trees and wind, All old poems to me. Who needs words for the New Year! Tao Kai (1065?1123) • DZ 2/1/04 (empathy)If only I could share it: The soft sound of snow Falling late at night From the trees At this old temple. Hakuin (1686-1768) • DZ 28/12/03Time for a walk in the world outsideAnd a look at who I amOriginally I had no caresAnd I am seeking nothing specialEven for my guests I have nothingTo offer except these white stonesAnd this clear spring water. Muso Soseki (1275-1351) • The following are from Jack Gibson’s book “The Last Word”.p92 “Those who hear not the music think the dancers mad.”

Anon.p94 “Nothing is often a good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say.”

William Durant, US historian and teacher.p109 “For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life! But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business – time to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that obstacles were my life.”

Father Alfred D’Souza.p125 “I believe that the greatest pleasure and privilege which a grown person can achieve is to be allowed to enter into the beautiful garden which is the mind of a child.”

J. Linton Rigg, sailor and designer of yachts.p131 “Being bored is an insult to oneself.”

Jules Renard, French writer.p132 “Success is living up to your potential. That’s all. Wake up with a smile and go after life. Don’t just show up at the game or office. Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it.”

Joe Kapp, American football.p137 “The future comes one day at a time.”

Dean Acheson, US lawyer and statesman.p137 “Time is a created thing. To say, ‘I don’t have time’, is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.”

Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher and teacher.p147 “Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished; if you’re alive, it isn’t.”

Richard Bach, author.

p191 “I am not young enough to know everything.”Oscar Wilde, Irish writer.

p194 “You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live.”

Joan Baez, US singer and political activist.p181 “When you see a turtle on top of a fencepost, you know he didn’t get up there by himself.”

Anon.• There is no place for overexertion of effort in Buddhism; it is just a matter of being normal and unobsessed, taking care of bodily functions, dressing and eating, lying down when tired. Fools laugh at me; it is the wise who understand this. An ancient said, “Those who work on externals are all ignorant.”From “On The Way”, The DailyZen Journal, December 2003; ‘Sayings of Lin-chi, Part II’; from ‘The Five Houses of Zen’, Lin-chi (d. 867), translated by Thomas Cleary, 1997. • DZ 18/11/03Overcome your uncertainties And free yourself From dwelling on sorrow. If you delight in existence, You will become a guide To those who need you, Revealing the path to many. Sutta Nipata • Thoughts: ‘Great Expectations’; Charles Dickens summarised the great human flaw, in the title of his work. Manimal is the only living creature with expectations. And it’s the failure to meet these expectations, that are self-set, that gives manimal his tortured neuroses, that leads him to lie on psychiatrist’s couches, develop ulcerated stomach walls, and contemplate suicide.The warthog has no expectations, as he exits his burrow at speed in the morning – no expectations of food, attack … He just does it. Need a final chapter to Zenz which shows the positive aspects of being a manimal – the arts, music etcReligion: Is it greed, coupled with our unique ability to harbour concepts, that makes man seek, after death, not only another life (‘another bite at the cherry’), but a life ‘everlasting’ as well?• DZ 17/11/03Constantly see your body asEmpty and quietInside and outsideCommuning in sameness.Plunge the body intoThe realm of reality,Where there has never beenAny obstruction.Tao-hsin (580-651)• DZ 3/11/03 "How should those who enterthe path apply their minds?All things are originally uncreatedand presently undying.Just let your mind be free;you don't have to restrain it.See directly and hear directly;come directly and go directly.When you must go, then go;

when you must stay, then stay.This is the true path.A scripture says,"Conditional existence isthe site of enlightenment,insofar as you know it as it really is."Niu-t'ou Hui-chung (683-769)Two moments of Zen lucidity here. Ginsberg would speak of ‘ellipsis’ – of opposing two concepts to provoke the mind into other than a conditioned reaction. .** elaborate **

• DZ 7/11/03On That Side, beyond the clouds,The mountain is blue-green as jadeThe white clouds on the mountainAre whiter than whiteFrom the spring on the mountain,Drop after dropWho knows how to see the faceIn the white clouds?Clear skies and rain have their times,They're like lighteningWho knows how to listen to theSound of this spring?It flows on without stoppingThrough thousandsAnd thousands of turnsThe moment before thought isAlready wrongTo try to say anything furtherIs embarrassing.T'aego (1301-1382)Another Zen profundity! ‘The moment before thought is already wrong’.** elaborate **

• From “On The Way”, the Daily Zen Journal, October 2003:“You do not need to seek the extraordinary, for the extraordinary will come by itself.” My interpretation: Also: “If you need to act, then act, without any further hesitation or doubt.” Compare with “If you sit, just sit. If you walk, just walk. But don’t wobble.”Also: “It is just because you are unable to stop the mentality of seeking that you get hooked on useless actions and states of other people who lived a long time ago. If you take my view, you will sit at the head of the embodiments of Buddha.”From ‘The Five Houses of Zen’, Lin-chi (d. 867), translated by Thomas Cleary, 1997.• In his book ‘Natural Born Cyborgs’, Andy Clark writes “Cyborgs are not something to be feared – we already are cyborgs.” Compare to the EST message “You’re machines” (p. 195).• We regard life and death as absolutes, and therefore fear death. One moment we have life (‘1’ in computer speak) and the next minute we have death (‘0’ in computer speak). However we must distinguish between ‘life’, which is discrete, and the term of our life, which is continuous. This makes death (completing the term) easier to cope with. For example, if our expected term is 80 years, and we are 60 years old, this means that we have completed 75% of our term. It’s like taking a trip of 80 km. After 60 km we are 75% of the way. Remember the quote:"Life's a trip . . . then you get there."

Book, You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, Julia Phillips.

At 60 we have less to fear from death, because we already have enjoyed 60 years of life – we have been granted the privilege of rising in the morning 21915 times. We should exalt in this, and look forward to being granted the privilege of seeing 7305 more. We should celebrate our 60th birthday, for the number of lives (days) we have been granted, not bemoan how little time we have left.• Write about life and its experiences as ‘digital’ (either noughts or ones) and as ‘analogue’. This thought was provoked by the above.• DZ 26/8/03Though we've been dwelling together,I don't know his name:Going along accepting the flow,Just being thus,Even the eminent sages since antiquityDon't know him.How could the hasty ordinary typePresume to understand?Shitou• DZ 27/8/03Every day priests minutely examine the DharmaAnd endlessly chant complicated sutras.Before doing that, though, they should learnHow to read the love lettersSent by the wind and rain,The snow and moon.Ikkyu (1394-1491)• DZ 30/8/03It is most urgent that you seek real, true perception,So you can be free in the worldAnd not confused by ordinary practitioners.It is best to have no obsessions.Just don't be contrived.Simply be normal.You impulsively seek elsewhere,Looking to others for your own hands and feet.This is already mistaken. Linji (d. 867)• This then is life.Here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions.How Curious! How real!Underfoot the divine soil, overhead the sun. Walt Whitman• Man’s ability to rationalise is the single factor that ensures his passage into oblivion.• From an email to Kevin (and Janet & Greg) 29/8/03Did you know that man gets only about 7% (that's right 7%, 1/14th) of his energy needs from food. It got me thinking. Man is the only (repeat ONLY) living creature on the entire planet (and just think of the diversity of life forms) that doesn't get almost 100% of his energy needs from the food he ingests. Picture this: an impala rises in the morning, from the depression in the grass where he has slept contentedly, travels on foot to grasslands, chews grass, rests and procreates. A lion rises in the morning, from the depression in the grass where he has slept, travels on foot to grasslands, chews an impala, rests and procreates. Man rises from a bed, in an air-conditioned bedroom and house that have consumed construction and industrial energy to make, and energy to keep comfortable, gets into an air-conditioned car and burns petrol, travels to an air-conditioned shop, collects food that someone/something else has consumed energy to create, travels back home in the air-conditioned car, and uses energy to store,

preserve and ultimately prepare the food for consumption. Man then rests and procreates. Manimal is the only life form on the planet that needs no hunting skills to get food, and to eat. The warthog has no need for air-conditioning; the lion has no need for industry; neither the snail nor the tortoise has a need for other than self-propelled transport. There are no power stations on an anthill.Look at what we’ve done to this fragile globe through our excessive need for energy: Exxon Valdez, Middle East crisis, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island …Look at a herd of impala, or a pride of lions. They look like clones. You can’t pick one from the other. Their gene pool has a low variance. Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ applies, but the leader of the lion pack, and the old lion he just displaced, only differ fractionally in compound physical and mental capabilities. There’s only a hair’s breadth between them. (Variance decides our present and our future). Look now at a ‘herd’ of humans, spilling out of a train and heading for the office. Look at the diversity. The gene pool for manimal has a very high variance. It’s rare to see two humans that look alike. ‘Leaders’ of the pack do not need to be mentally and/or physically superior (look at George W). Anyone can procreate. In fact, the mentally weaker probably procreate more. Around the globe the sperm count is dropping and IVF is becoming the norm. The geological (fossil) record shows that simple living things survive and complex living things die out. Manimal has become very complex. Think about it. The prognosis for manimal is simply - extinction. And when he has ‘comforted himself’ into oblivion, the remaining species (those that he hasn’t wiped out) will rise again and thrive. The ‘natural order’ will resume. Man’s presence, in the ultimate time scale, will just be a blink of a warthog’s eye.Later added notes: Remember how the goniatites (ammonites?) became very tense, as evidenced by the increasing complexity of the suture line, the line of join between body chambers (as the animal outgrew the chamber it was living in, it moved forward, built a wall behind it, and started life in its new chamber which, because the chamber width kept increasing, was always larger). Eventually, it unwound from its helical form, like the common nautilus, and eventually became a straight cone! Imagine the tensions it must have felt to actually uncoil! It then died out from the fossil record.• DZ 16/8/03Time is passing every moment;How can you be complacent and waste it,Seeing death is but a breath away? Kuei-Shan (771-854)• “We need phylogenetic humility. We are certainly not the most evolved species around, nor the least vulnerable. Nor the cleverest.” Robert Sapolsky, “Bugs in The Brain”, in Scientific American, March 2003, pp. 70-73. This was an article on microscopic organisms (bugs) that infect and modify a host’s brain to make the host act in a way that improves their chances of perpetuation.• DZ 8/7/03Words and speech, fine conceptsIf pursued, will lead us astray.Let us leave these behindAnd nothing is closed to us.The moment we are illumined withinWe bypass all barriers.Seng-ts-an (d.606)DZ 12/7/03Don't be surprised,Don' be startled;All things will arrange themselves.Don't cause a disturbance,Don't exert pressure;All things will clarify themselves.

Huai-nan-tzu(by doing nothing, everything is done)• “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past”. Thomas Jefferson. RHS comment: but neither compares to the wondrous reality of the present!• Without stirring abroad,One can know the whole world;Without looking out of the window,One can see the way of heaven.The further one goesThe less one knows.Lao-Tzu. (from a strange book of quotes called something like “When cats meditate.” 12/7/03)• The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.Meister Eckhart. (into WWW 12/7/03) c.f. “Look within! Thou art Buddha!”• “It’s so obvious,” said Franky, a surfer, photographer and waterman – often in the same day. “There’s your everyday things, and then there’s really good stuff. Just raw emotions where, for one split second, you experience something. You become a part of it – and it’s just like … WOW!”‘Surfers’, Matt Briggs, p. 58.• An Elementary Talk on Zen - Concluding Remarks, Man-an (1591-1654)You should let go your hand and footholds, as if plunging off a precipitous cliff. When body and mind have died away at once, it is like standing right in the middle of cosmic space, like sitting in the center of a crystal vase. All of a sudden there will emerge the great state that is not ordinary, not holy, not Buddha, not mind, not a thing; you will attain penetrating realization that mind, Buddha, and living beings are all one. This is the reality body of all Buddhas, the inherent essence of all people. By realizing this, one becomes a Buddha or a Zen master; by missing this, one remains an ordinary mortal. Man-an (1591-1654); from Minding Mind - A Course in Basic Meditation, translated by Thomas Cleary (1995).Extract from “On The Way”, The Daily Zen Journal, June 2003.• You must realize that what is at stake here does not reside in words and phrases: it is like sparks from struck flint, like the brilliance of flashing lightning. However you manage to deal with this, you cannot get around losing your body and life. Yunmen (864-949) DZ 11/06/03• “Like a bird on a wire / Like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried, in my way / To be free.” From ‘Bird on a Wire’; by Johnny Cash, 1994, in a TV special , SBS, 16/6/03.• From ‘a double haunting’, in ‘Condolences of the Season’, selected poems by Bruce Dawe:“ … the head-down happiness of beasts with their innocent loyalties.”• Look at the lyrics to ‘Highwayman’, by Jimmy Webb, on ‘The Essential Willie Nelson’ 2 CD set – evocative of the Soul of The World message i.e. specific people die but the SOTW lives on. Jimmy Webb is reaffirming, in song, what the warthog would know, if it needed to.I was a highwayman / Along the coach roads I did ride / With the sword and pistol by my side / And many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade / And many a soldier shed his life blood on my blade / They fin'lly hung me in the spring of '25 / But I am still aliveI was a sailor / And I was born upon the tide / And with the sea I did abide / I sailed a schooner 'round the horn of Mexico / I went aloft to furl the mainsail in a blow / And when the yards broke off they say that I got killed / But I am living still

I was a dam builder / Across the river deep and wide / Where steel and water did collide / A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado / I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below / They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound / But I am still aroundSeems like it all goes 'round and 'round and 'round and 'round ... I'll fly a starship / Across the universe divide / Until I reach the other side / I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can / Perhaps I may become a highwayman again / Or I may simply be a single drop of rain / But I will remainAnd I'll be back again and again, and again, and again.”• Try to visualise the Soul-of-the-world as a power station. All living things, including people, are connected to the Soul-of-the-world just as households are connected to a power station, to light up the house and give it the power to operate. When a house is empty of occupants, or taken down, it gets disconnected from the power station. When a new house is built (“is born”) it gets connected to the power station, to give it life. So it is with living things. When one is born and ‘comes to life’, it is because one becomes connected to the Soul-of-the-world. When one dies, one becomes disconnected. Just as all forms of houses connect to the same power station, so all living things, human and otherwise, connect to the same Soul-of-the-world.• From ‘easy does it’, in ‘Condolences of the Season’, selected poems by Bruce Dawe:“I have to be careful with my boy.When he says tree it comes out hazyvery green and friendly and before I’ve gotthe meaning straight he’s up there laughing in it …”and“I have to be careful with my boy,that I don’t crumple his immediate-delivery-genuine-fold-up-and-extensible worldinto correct English forever, petrify its wonderwith the stone gaze of grammar …”Hell, there’s a seminar in there.• DZ 16/5/03I sought Zen from temples and teachers,Then found it along the way of Tsao HisInside this moment forever.When walking now, I walk Zen.When sitting, I sit Zen.Talking, quiet; moving, stillness,The calm within.Hsuan Chyuen (655–713)Look at the stunning ellipsis in line 3. Ginsberg would wet his pants! ‘… moment forever’. But all ‘moments’ are ‘forever’, surely. Everything lives.• Sparrows – scorned for their ubiquity.• Isaiah 40:6-96 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.At the Jewish funeral service for George Bogner today (24/4/03) the Rabbi quoted this passage, with the important difference that he completed it with something like: “… but the spirit returneth to God, who made it, and the spirit cannot die.” This is very evocative of The Soul of The World.• The value of ‘small moments of goodness’.• Some hang on to used-to-besLive their lives looking behindAll we have is here and nowAll of our lives out there to find

Song, “Lift us Up”, Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warmes.• DZ 12/4/03Gone Again to Gaze on the CascadeA whole life without speaking,"a thunderous silence"That was Wei-ma's Way,And here is a placeWhere no monk can preach.I understand now whatT'ao Ch'ien, enlightened,Said, he couldn't say.It's so clear, here,This water my teacher.Yuan Mei (1716?1798)Similar to the story of the monk whose teacher was a tree. My teachers are the little sparrows.• DZ 16/4/03Song of the Diamond HeartThe pine tree's voice is always whispering,Yet how many pause to listen?For when the churning mind is still,The Diamond Heart withinReflects even the falling dusk thatShrouds every eye and branch,And hears, but listens not.

Walking, then, with Courage and Kindness,Never ceasing to walk in Wonder,We follow our ancient path.For the Way of the sword is folded two;Like the rose we have thorns,And like the rose, we unfold.Jo Aoi Isshi • DZ 1/4/03Mountain Dwelling Things of the past are already gone And things to be, Distant beyond imagining. The Tao is just this moment, These words: Plum blossoms fallen, Gardenia just opening. Ch'ing Kung ( d. 1352) Great words! Life is now!• (Note the date – 7th century!) DZ 9/4/01It is nonsense to insistthat we cannot achieveenlightenment withoutlearned and pious teachers.Because wisdom is innate,we can all enlighten ourselves. Hui-neng (638-713)10/4/01When you stop doing toAchieve being,

This very effortFills you with doing. Seng-t'san (d.606) RHS: Hell, this small statement is the basis for 1000 writings! In essence, Seng-t'san is telling us, almost 1600 years ago (!) – just think of that – that we are being i.e. in the state of natural purpose, only when we are caught unawares, when we are not thinking about it. So, to find it, we must stop looking for it. Only then do we have a chance that we will feel it. How wise, then, was Laotse, when he said (in an even earlier time) “By doing nothing everything is done.”• DZ 15/3/03Your self-partiality is atthe root of all your illusions.There aren't any illusionswhen you don't have thispreference for yourself.Bankei (1622-1693)• The Buddha said:“You should know that the essential Bodhi is wondrous and bright, being neither cause nor condition, neither self as such, neither unreality nor not unreality, for it is beyond all forms and is identical with all things.… consciousness has no origin and is an illusion arising from the six organs and sense data.”After listening to the Buddha’s profound instruction, Ananda and the assembly realized that their bodies and minds were now free from all obstructions. Each understood that self mind pervades the ten directions of space, this clearly seen like a leaf held in the hand. All things were seen as the wondrous and bright fundamental Mind of Bodhi. While this essence of mind embraced all and contained the ten directions, Ananda looked back at his own body given him by his parents, and beheld it like a speck of dust dancing in the great void sometimes visible and sometimes not, like a bubble rising and falling aimlessly in a boundless clear ocean. After seeing all this clearly, they all realized their fundamental, profound, permanent and indestructible self-minds, and brought their palms together to offer thanks for being shown what they had never seen before.

From The Surangama Sutra; translated by Upasaka K’uan Yu (Charles Luk); 1966. From The DailyZen Journal, February 2003.• “The wise ones of old had subtle wisdomAnd depth of understanding,So profound that they could not be understood.Because they could not be understood,I can only describe how they appeared in the world:Cautious, like crossing a wintry stream,Watchful, like one facing danger on every side,Ceremonious, as one who pays a visit;Yielding, like ice beginning to melt,Genuine, like a piece of uncarved wood,Open-minded, like a valley,And mixing freely, like murky water.

Which of you can assume such murkiness,To become in the end still and clear:Which of you can make yourself still,To become in the end full of life?Those who possess this Tao do not try toFill themselves to the brim,And because they do not try toFill themselves to the brimThey are like a garment that endures

All wear and need never be renewed.”Lao Tzu; from combined translations from ‘The Wisdom of Lao Tzu’ by Lin Yutang (1948) and ‘The Way and Its Power’ by Arthur Waley (1958). From The Daily Zen Journal, January 2003.RHS comment: consider the Master whose teacher was a tree. When an uncarved block (of wood) is ‘genuine’, how much more genuine then is a living tree?

“If people can be open-minded and magnanimous, be receptive to all, take pity on the old and poor, assist those in peril and rescue those in trouble, give of themselves without seeking reward, never bear grudges, look upon others and self impartially, and realize all as one, then people can be companions of heaven. RHS comment: compare these rules for living with the Christian Ten Commandments.If people can be flexible and yielding, humble, with self-control, entirely free of agitation, cleared of all volatility, not angered by criticism, ignoring insult, docilely accepting hardships, illnesses, and natural disasters, utterly without anxiety or resentment when faced with danger or adversity, then people can be companions of earth. RHS comment: This is purely Zen; there is no parallel in Christianity.From ‘Awakening to the Tao’, by Lui I-Ming; translated by Thomas Cleary (1988). From The DailyZen Journal, January 2003.• Activity and MeditationPeople meditating on the fundamental carry out their normal tasks and activities in the midst of meditation and carry out meditation in the midst of ordinary tasks and activities. There is no disparity between meditation and activity.It is for those as yet incapable of this, those weak in focusing their intent on the Way that special meditation periods were set up. The practice of meditating four times a day in Zen communities began in this manner during the 12th century.People who really have their minds on the Way, in contrast, do not forget work on the fundamental no matter what they are doing. Yet if they still distinguish this work from ordinary activities even as they do them together, they will naturally be concerned about being distracted by activities and forgetting the meditation work. This is because of viewing things as outside the mind.An ancient master said, “The mountains, rivers, and the entire array of outer phenomena are all oneself.” If you can absorb the essence of this message, there are no activities outside of meditation; you dress in meditation and eat in meditation; you walk, stand, sit and lie down in meditation; you perceive and cognize in meditation; you experience joy, anger, sadness, and happiness in meditation.”Muso Kokushi (1275-1351), excerpted from ‘Dream Conversations on Buddhism and Zen’ – translated by Thomas Cleary (1994). The DailyZen Journal, December 2002.• “You should simply see your essential nature to attain Buddhahood.”Man-an (1591-1654). DailyZen Journal, March 2003.Compare this to “Look within. Thou art Buddha.”• DZ 10/3/03You will see then thatboth your body and mind,together with the mountains,rivers, space, and earthof the outward world,are all within thewonderful, illumined, and true Mind. Surangama Sutra• DZ 11/0/03Just don't seek from anotherOr you'll be far estranged from self.I now go on aloneMeeting it everywhere

It now is just what I amI now am not it. You must comprehend in this wayTo merge with thusness. Dongshan Liangjie (807-869) • DZ 17/2/03I explain to you mattersPertaining to enlightenment,But don’t try to keep Your mind on them.Just turn to the ocean Of your own essenceAnd develop practical accord with its nature. Yangshan (my bolding)

• DZ 16/2/03What I point out to you is only thatYou shouldn't allow yourselvesTo be confused by others.Act when you need to,Without further hesitation or doubt.People today can't do this.What is their affliction?Their affliction is in theirLack of self-confidence.If you do not spontaneouslyTrust yourself sufficiently,You will be in a frantic state,Pursuing all sorts of objectsAnd being changed by those objects,Unable to be independent.Linji (d.867)

DZ 3/2/03Sincerity is the fulfilmentof our own nature,and to arrive at it we needonly follow our own true Self.Sincerity is the beginningand end of existencewithout it, nothing can endure.Therefore the mature personvalues sincerity above all things.Tzu-ssu (483-402 BC)

DZ 8/2/03Of one thing it is said"that is bad"and of another it is said"that is good."But there is nothinginherent in thingsthat make them goodor bad, for each thing'sself is empty of

independent existence.Samantabhadra-bodhisattva-sutra• RHS: The young remember facts, because they seem important. Older people remember emotions – they are important. • ‘phenomenal’ – what a potent word. The Macquarie Dictionary definitions are as follows:phenomenal, adj. 1. extraordinary or prodigious; phenomenal speed. 2. of or pertaining to a phenomenon or phenomena. 3. Of the nature of a phenomenon; cognisable by the senses.phenomenalism, n. Philos. 1. The manner of thinking that considers things as phenomena only. Cf. positivism. 2. The philosophical doctrine that phenomena are the only objects of knowledge, or that phenomena are the only realities. – phenomenalist, n. – phenomenalistic, adj.phenomenology, n. 1. the science of phenomena, as distinguished from ontology or the science of being. 2. The school of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl, 1859-1938, which stresses the careful description of phenomena in all domains of experience without regard to traditional epistemological questions.Note that ontology is described as 1. The science of being, as such. 2. The branch of metaphysics that investigates the nature of being and of the first principles, or categories, involved.Note also that epistemology is described as ‘the branch of philosophy which investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.’phenomenon, n. 1. a fact, occurrence, or circumstance observed or observable: the phenomena of nature. 2. Something that impresses the observer as extraordinary; a remarkable thing or person. 3. Philos. a. an appearance or immediate object of awareness in experience. b. (in Kantian philosophy) a thing as it appears to, and is constructed by, us, as distinguished from a noumenon, or thing in itself. [LL phaenomenon, from Gk phainomenon, properly neut. Ppr. (that which is) appearing]On the one hand, ‘phenomenal’ is something extraordinary, while on the other it is anything cognisable by the senses i.e. anything ordinary. Great!• “Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.” Mark Twain. RHS: What a fertile ground this man of great wit and wisdom has sown for us with this statement.• DZ 9/1/03Whether you are an innocent beginner or seasoned adept, you must show some spirit! Don't vainly memorize other people's sayings: a little bit of reality is better than a lot of illusion. Otherwise you'll just go on deceiving yourself. Yunmen (864-949)RHS: 10 seconds admiring a sparrow is of more value to the soul than an hour of intellectualism.• DZ 8/1/03“Students of today get nowhere because they base their understanding upon the acknowledgment of names. They inscribe the words of stone dead old guys in a great big notebook, wrap it up in four or five squares of cloth, and won't let anyone look at it. "This is the Mysterious Principle," they aver, and safeguard it with care. That's all wrong. Blind idiots! What kind of juice are you looking for in such dried-up bones!" Lin-chi (d. 866) • “We are the brothers of the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re bird, snake, fish, kangaroo – one red blood.” David Gulpilil, great Australian actor and dancer, ABC, 11/12/02. We all belong to the Soul of The World. Compare this to this quote from Ray Charles, the great singer: “I was born with music inside me. Like my ribs, my liver, my kidneys, my heart. Like my blood.” • “How much does a person lack himself, who feels the need to have so many things?”Rikyu

“Going too is Zen; sitting too is Zen. Speaking or silent, moving the body or still, one is at peace.”

Yoka Daishi.“Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. This earth where we stand is the pure Lotus Land.”

Hakuin Ekaku Zenji.“Absolute unity with Mu, unthinking absorption in Mu – this is ripeness.”

Yasutani Roshi (‘Mu’ is ‘Nothingness’; compare to Omar Khayyam’s verse XLVII)All of the above from the ‘Zen 2003 Calendar’.• The Soul is ageless. We get older with time; we age. We gain intelligence at an initially rapid rate, then more gradually, then we lose it rapidly with dementia. We gain wisdom very gradually, and only really have any worth while when we are ‘older’. The Soul, however, is a constant from birth to death. (do graphs for each, on a time axis).• DZ 12/12/02There's no self and no person, How then kinfolk and stranger! I beg you, cease going From lecture to lecture; It's better to seek truth directly. The nature of Diamond Wisdom Excludes even a speck of dust. From "Thus we have heard," To "This I believe," All's but an array Of unreal names.

Layman P’ang (740-808)• DZ 4/12/02Mystic understanding of truth Is not perception or cognition. That is why it is said that you Arrive at the original source By stopping the mind. It is called the enlightened State of being as is, Ultimate freedom. Nan-ch'uan (748-834)• DZ 2/12/02 A buddha is one who does not seek. In seeking the Way, you turn away from it. This is the principle of nonseeking. When you seek it, you lose it. If you cling to nonstriving, this is the same as striving. Thus the Diamond Cutter Scripture says, "Do not grasp truth, do not grasp untruth, and do not grasp that which is not untrue." Pai-chang (720-814) • “To see is to forget the name of that which one sees.”

Claude Monet.• DZ 22/11/02I built a hut beside a pathBut hear no cart or horseYou ask how this can be?A distant mind is a far off placePicking mums by the eastern fence

I lose myself in the southern hills.The mountain air, the sunset light,Birds flying home together.In this there is a truthTo know, but not to say.T'ao Yuan-ming (my bolding)• DZ 23/11/02Good and evil all arise from one's own mind.But tell me, besides your activities,Thoughts, and discrimination,What do you call your own mind?Where does your mind come from?If you can discern where your own mind comes from,Then boundless karmic obstructionWill be cleared away instantly,And all sorts of marvels will come of themselvesWithout being sought.Ta Hui (1089-1163) • Failure of relative thinking: A – “How do I get to the other side?” B – “You are on the other side!” (A & B are on opposite sides of the river). Or again, Dick (to a waitress) – “I can’t pick your (Canadian) accent from an American accent.” Waitress – “Oh sir, I don’t have an accent, you have an accent.” • “To penetrate beyond the inscrutable eye”, p. 85 ‘Birders’ i.e. to affiliate a bird, an “animal with feathers”.• DZ Journal 10/02: “The fourth kind of mentality is the mind of truth: not mind outside truth, not truth outside mind; truth is mind.Mind is able to be everywhere equal, so it is called truth. Truth’s awareness can illuminate everything, so it is called mind. Mind and truth are everywhere equal, so it is called Buddha-mind, the mind of enlightenment.Those who understand reality do not see any difference between birth and death and nirvana and ordinary and holy. Objects and knowledge are not two: inner truth and phenomena are fused. Real and conventional are viewed as equal; defilement and purity are one Suchness. Buddhas and sentient beings are fundamentally equal and at one.Extract from: Gunabhadra Tripitaka excerpted from Zen Dawn – Early Zen Texts from Tun Huang – Translated by J. C. Cleary (1986).• De Rerum Nature, by Lucretius,"No single thing then passes back to nothing, but all by dissolution pass back into the first-bodies of matter. Lasty, the rains pass away, when the sky, our father, has cast them headlong into the lap of earth, our mother; but the bright crops spring up, and the branches grow green upon the trees, the trees too grow and are laden with fruit; by this next our race and the race of beasts is nourished, through this we see glad towns alive with children, and leafy woods on every side ring with the young birds' cry; through this the cattle wearied with fatness lay their limbs to rest over the glad pastures, and the white milky stream trickles from their swollen udders; through this a new brood with tottering legs sport wanton among the soft grass, their baby hearts thrilling with the pure milk. Not utterly then perish all things that are seen, since nature renews one thing from out another, nor suffers anything to be begotten, unless she be requited by another's death." "Wherefore again and again there are unseen bodies of wind, inasmuch as in their deeds and ways they are found to rival mighty streams, whose body all may see. Then again we smell the manifold scents of things, and yet we do not even descry them coming to the nostrils, nor do we behold warm heat, nor can we grasp cold with the eyes, nor are we wont to descry voices; yet all these things must needs consist of bodily nature, inasmuch as they can make impact on our senses. For, if it be not body, nothing can touch and be touched. Once more, garments hung up upon the shore, where the waves break, grow damp, and again spread in the sun they dry. Yet never has it been seen in what way the moisture of the water has sunk into them, not again in what

way it has fled before the heat. Therefore the moisture is dispersed into tiny particles, which the eyes can in no way see. Nay more, as the sun's year rolls round again and again, the ring on the finger becomes thin beneath by wearing, the fall of dripping water hollows the stone, the bent iron ploughshare secretly grows smaller in the fields, and we see the paved stone streets worn away by the feet of the multitude; again, by the city gates the brazen statues reveal that their right hands are wearing thin through the touch of those who greet them ever and again as they pass upon their way. All these things then we see grow less, since they are rubbed away: yet what particles leave them at each moment, the grudging nature of our sight has shut us out from seeing. Lastly, whatever time and nature adds little by little to things, impelling them to grow in due proportion, the straining sight of the eye can never behold. Nor again whenever things grow old through time and decay, nor where rocks overhang the sea, devoured by the gnawing salt spray, could you see what they lose at each moment. 'Tis then by bodies unseen that nature works her will."

• The spiritual light shines alone,far transcending the sensesand their fields;the essential substance isexposed, real and eternal.It is not contained in written words.The nature of mind has no defilement;it is basically perfect and complete in itself.Just get rid of delusive attachments,and merge with realization of thusness.Pai-chang (720?814) from DZ 11/02; my bolding

• The Buddhist ‘isness’ of things is what Gerard Manley Hopkins apparently described as a thing’s “inscape”. Nice.• From DZ, 21002You ask why I live in the mountain forest,I smile, and am silent,and even deep within remain quiet:the peach trees blossom,the water flows.Li T'ai-po (701-?)

• From DZ, 9/02Though I think notTo think about it,I do think about itAnd shed tearsThinking about it.Ryokan (1758-1831)

Neither by words nor by the patriarch;Neither by colors nor by sound was I enlightened.But, at midnight, when I blew outThe candle and went to bed,Suddenly, I reached the dawn.Profound quietude delivered meTo the transparent moonlight.After enlightenment one understandsThat the Six Classics contain not even a word.Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529)

Wonderful! Wonderful!The sermon of the inanimate is inconceivable.If you try to hear it with your ears,You'll hardly understandOnly when you hear it in your eyesWill you be able to know.Dongshan Liangjie (807-869)• I asked a sparrow “What is Tao?” It excreted onto the ground. Again I asked “What is Tao?” It preened its feathers. I persisted. “What is Tao?” It chirped. Without my asking again, it flew away. It had nothing more to say.When Joshu asked Master Nansen “What is Tao?” the Master answered “Usual life.” There could be no better answer in words. Yet even these fine utterings of a great Zen Master mean nothing compared to the sparrow’s four responses – each perfect. The sparrow knows absolutely, because it has no need for the knowledge of knowing. Truly, as Laotse said “By doing nothing, everything is done.”• “Wealth and rank, gain and fame, are all an illusion; the mined gold and heaped up jewels, the beautiful voices and fair forms, are illusion; joy and anger and sorrow and happiness are this illusion. But in all this illusion there is something which is not illusion. When even the universes crumble, how should that crumble? When at the end of the world cycle the universal fire blazes everywhere, how should that burn? That which is not illusion is the true being of each and every person.” Daikaku (1203 – 1268) from ‘Zen and the Ways’ by Trevor Leggett, 1978, Shambala Publications (DZ Journal 8/02).Dick’s comment: this ‘true being’ is the Soul of The World.• (from The Iron Cow of Zen, Albert Low, p. 81): Ejaku, (a well-known monk of his day) asked Enen, “What is your name?” Enen, an equally famous monk, said, “Ejaku.” Ejaku said, “My name is Ejaku.” Enen said, “Then my name is Enen.” Ejaku roared with laughter. Compare this to:“Are you Allen Ginsberg?” “No, but that is what I’m called.”Death & Fame: Last Poems, Allen Ginsberg.• “Dollars before decency.”• Why do we say, of someone who has died, that he/she “is up there? For example, someone who may have recently lost his mother, and who has just done something of which she would have been proud, might say “I’m sure Mum was up there watching.” What he should say, without any delusion about heaven or hell, of his mother being “up there” or “down there”, is simply that she is truly “out there”. That is, she has rejoined “The Soul of The World.”• “I walk on and wonder where the living goes when it stops.” Charles Bukowski, p. 194. {Ponder his “it”}• DZ 8/7/02The perfect way's like boundless spaceNothing lacking, nothing extraIt is because of choiceThat its absolute truth is lost.Don't pursue externals;Don't dally in the interior void.When the spirit remains sereneIn the unity of thingsDualism vanishes by itself;When that unity is not clearThere is loss in both directions.- Seng-ts'an (d.606)(My bolding)

• 13/6/02

My nature has no likingFor life in the cities.To be free from the noise,I built a little thatched cottageFar away in the depth of the mountains.Wandering here and there,I carry no thought.When spring comesI watch the birds;In summer I batheIn the running stream.In autumn I climbThe highest peaks;During the winter I amWarming up in the sun.Thus I enjoy the real flavour of the seasons.Let the sun and the moonRevolve by themselves!When I have time, I read the sutras,When I am tired, I sleep on my straw bed.Shih t'ao (1641?1717).

14/6/02In the night the bells of the mountain templeAre swung by the wind from the pines.From my bed of stone by the wintry lampI can hear the flowering rain of Buddha.Wang Wen-lu (16th century)(my bolding; multiple ellipsis in last line)

15/6/02Rivers in the east flow eastward,Rivers in the west flow westward,And they all enter the sea.From sea to sea they pass,The clouds lifting them to the skyAs vapour and sending them down as rain.And as these rivers,When they are united with the sea,Do not know whether theyAre this river or that,Likewise all creatures do not knowFrom whence they came.Chandogya Upanishad("my bolding; soul of the world")

• A single moonBright and clearIn an unclouded sky;Yet still we stumbleIn the world's darkness. Ikkyu (1394-1481)RHS’ comment: compare to Omar Khayyam’s “Then to the rolling Heav’n itself I cried, / Asking, ‘What Lamp had Destiny to guide / Her little children stumbling in the dark?’ / And – ‘A blind understanding!’ Heav’n replied.” (verse XXXIII).

• “The human being is the only primate that cries. Only one other land animal cries – the elephant.” The Odd Body and Brain, by Dr Stephen Juan.• What is it about Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry’ that makes it so universally appealing? It is so evocative of childhood, vulnerability, softness, naievete, honesty, vulnerability ….. complete• “Do you overstand?” I thought I heard one of the actors say this in a Jamaican movie “Third World Cop”, 6/5/02.• Propinquity, n. 1. Nearness in place; proximity. 2. Nearness of relation; kinship. 3. Affinity of nature; similarity. 4. Nearness in time.• “Things of the past are already long gone, and things to be (are) distant beyond imagining. The Tao is just this moment, these words: plum blossoms fallen; gardenia just opening.” Ch’ing Kung d. 1352.• How much better it would have been if God hadn’t said (Genesis 1:26) “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea etc”. It would have been a much better prescription for eternity if God had said, instead “Let them live in harmony with the fish of the sea, and with the fowl of the air, and with the cattle, and with all the earth, and with every creeping thing that creepeth over the earth.” What a bad start he gave manimal - an expectation by God that manimal was to dominate. And it would have also been better if God (Genesis 1:28) having made man in his image, and having asked him to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth”, had not added the rider “and subdue it”. Manimal has been assiduously trying to subdue everything within sight ever since. How much better it would have been, for all future generations if, borrowing a leaf from Whitman’s book, he had instead added “and affiliate it.” Added to WIMTAW 5/3/02• The song “And I Love You So” includes the lyrics “The book of life is brief / And once a page is read / All but life is dead / And that is my belief.”• Manimal is born nothing and dies nothing and wastes the precious time that he’s granted in between, by trying to be the something he is not.• “In that great future which is life.” From the lyrics to Bob Marley’s ‘No woman, no cry.’ Wrong Bob. It’s “That great present which is life.”• And now it seems to me that reading might well be eye-feeling those black page marks into cosmic visions of fervent imaginings.• 28/01/02: The human is the only animal that contemplates death. We have a preoccupation with death. We think of it often – of our mortality. Yet how many of us ever actually try to visualise ourselves as corpses? How many have actually seen a dead person? In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World the young are conditioned to accept death by being exposed to the dead through school visits. In his movie, Death in the Seine, director Peter Greenaway shows the bodies of 306 people drowned in the river Seine between 1795 and 1801 – about one a week. This is a movie both stunning and moving in its simplicity. There are no tricky plots or sub-plots, no obligatory sex or chase scenes. What we see, and reflect on, are the many faces of humanity and the nakedness of death. “We come into the world with nothing, and we go out with nothing.” Whatever their station in life, whether banker or beggar, socialite or slut, all lost their life in the Seine. This should be compulsory viewing in the schools.• 28/1/02: Living in and for the present is not in contradiction with planning for the future. It is against worrying, though, about possible future outcomes. We plan, then we get on with life. The bear lives a perfect, natural life. The bear lives in the present. But when it takes up a position at the side of a waterfall, where salmon are trying to make their way upstream to spawn, it is planning for the future. That’s where experience has shown the bear that its probable success rate is greatest. It doesn’t worry though.• Song extract from ‘Perfect Sense, Part 1’, on ‘Amused to Death’ by Roger Waters:And the Germans killed the JewsAnd the Jews killed the ArabsAnd the Arabs killed the hostagesAnd that is the newsIs it any wonder

That the monkey’s confused.• Human baby -> intellect -> artistry and confusionWarthog baby -> knowledge -> natural purpose.• DZ 2/1/02 A hundred thousand worldsAre flowers in the skyA single mind and bodyIs moonlight on the waterOnce the cunning endsAnd information stopsAt that moment thereIs no place for thought.- Han-shan Te-ch'ing (1546-1623) (my bolding)• “Well people say: a great God will come from the sky / Take away everything / And make everybody feel high / If you know what life is worth / You will look to yours on earth …” from the song “Get Up Stand Up” by Bob Marley. Another injunction to forget about what may come after and to concentrate on what is.• 2/12/01: The four great men who have had profound influences on my life (date order): Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Muhammad Ali. Why? All were wise men of great empathy and compassion. Jim Christy (“The Long Slow Death of Jack Kerouac”) said of Kerouac “the writer’s great heart was as wide open as the road itself.”• We’ve all seen them. “Happiness is …” sayings. Well, I’ll add one. If happiness is living a natural existence, then “Happiness is passing 365 firm stools a year.” Everything we do that is unnatural (over anxiety, over indulgence, drugs …) reflects in our motions i.e. in the frequency and the hardness. • “All in all is all we are.” Final line, ‘All Apologies’, from Nirvana’s CD ‘Unplugged in New York’. • DZRdg37:The Mind MonarchFu Shan-hui (487-569) Observe the empty monarch of mind; mysterious, subtle, unfathomable, it has no shape or form, yet it has great spiritual power, able to extinguish a thousand troubles and perfect ten thousand virtues. Although its essence is empty, it can provide guidance. When you look at it, it has no form; when you call, it echoes. …..When it is carefree, without obstruction, all endeavors are successful. When you realize the fundamental, you perceive the mind; when you perceive the mind, you see Buddha. This mind is Buddha; the Buddha is mind. Keeping mindful of the buddha mind, the buddha mind is mindful of Buddha. ….. When you purify your habits and purify your mind, the mind itself is Buddha; there is no Buddha other that this mind monarch. …..True aspirants of the Way contemplate their own mind. When you know the Buddha is within, there is no need to search outside. Right now mind is Buddha; right now, Buddha is the mind. ….. Do not say the mind monarch is empty in having no essential nature; it can cause the physical body to do wrong or do right. It does not exist, nor is it nonexistent. It appears and disappears unpredictably. When the nature of mind departs from emptiness, it can be sacred or profane: therefore I urge you to guard it with care - a moment of contrivance, and you're back to bobbing and sinking. The wisdom of pure mind is as precious as gold. The spiritual treasury of wisdom is all in the body and mind. The uncreated spiritual treasure is neither shallow nor deep. All buddhas and bodhisattvas have realized this original mind; for those who have the chance to encounter it, it is neither past, future, or present. - Fu Shan-hui (487-569)The Mind Monarch was written by Master Fu, a lay practitioner also known as Fu Yu. It is not clear how he practiced or the circumstances under which he became enlightened, but we know that while he was farming an experience prompted this verse: The empty hand holds the hoeFeet walking, riding the water buffalo.

The man walks over the bridgeThe bridge flows, the water does not flow.The Mind Monarch describes the mind after enlightenment. It is not the rational mind of analysis or judgment; rather, this mind is the basis of all the Buddhas. - excerpted from Teachings of Zen, translated by Thomas Cleary (1998) and The Poetry of Enlightenment - Poems by Ancient Ch'an Masters, translated and edited by Sheng-yen (1992)RHS comment: note that Bodhidharma came to China from India in 527, when Fu Yu was 40. Since he speaks of buddhas, he must have been influenced by Bodhidharma (??).

• Thoughts 10/11/01: With time our memories fragment and shatter, with the shards littering the floor of our mind. As our mind lights flicker and glow, from time to time, these shards reflect back random flashes of our past thoughts, sights and deeds. In time, even these shards will fog over and turn dull. The flashes won’t come and our emotions will form the substance of our lives. Such is the dreadful final stage of Alzheimers Disease. From The Daily Zen, Issue 36:Mountains are the homes of the great sages throughout the past and present. Saints and sages live together deep in the mountains; mountains are their body mind. Saints and sages actualize mountains. … Both mountains and rivers maintain their true form and actualize their real value. They transcend time and therefore are active in the eternal present. … Enlightened vision is actualized in the mountains, grasses, trees, earth, stone, fences, and walls. Do not have any doubt about it.”Dogen in “The Mountain and the River Sutras” from the Shobegenzo Vol II; translated by Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens (1977)“saints and sages actualize mountains” c.f. Walt Whitman’s “affiliating a tree”.“A tree becomes dormant in order to become vital. This is the very key to our art – Action arising from Stillness. While the manifestations of its Force are evident, the root is kept hidden from plain view. … A tree is tall and noble, mysteriously alive, upright in bearing and continually growing and renewing until death, which is then met without a care.”“ … to truly learn you must ReturnTo the wordless Teaching of the Self-Evident;The trees, the streams, the sky;Teachers abound if you wouldBecome their lessons.”Taken from Life in the Rolling Mirror. 21/10/01: Listening to Paul Simon’s ‘Slip Sliding’, 2nd verse: She said a good day ain't got no rain (pain?) / She said a bad day is when I lie in the bed / And I think of things that might have been. This sums up our intellectual view of things. Animal has a good day if it has no pain. Full stop. Comparison is good there. But animal never lies in bed to “think of things that might have been”. Animal never gives itself that angst. Animal doesn’t have the peculiarly manimal concept of “things that might have been.” Manimal just gets on with living. Seen on ABC TV 10/01: the BaAka tribe of the Congo – living the ‘true life’. 9/10/01: “I knew a man who was out of touch / He’d lie in the house and he didn’t say much / Like a man with a tiger outside of his gate / He not only could not relax / But he couldn’t relate”. That man didn’t need Crunchy Granola. That man just had to take the tiger that he’d put in his mind, and take it out of his mind – like the goose in the bottle (elaborate). 9/10/01: “Don’t worry about a thing / ‘Cause every little thing is gonna be all right.”Bob Marley song ‘Three Little Birds’. Bob is saying don’t bother tormenting yourself with worries of your own mental construction. Forget these ‘big’ issues. Every little thing is going to be all right. Usual life – the ten thousand things – will continue unabated, for your pleasure. Why did Andrew Johns keep repeating ‘all day’, when interviewed after the Knights’ Grand Final win in Rugby League, 30/9/01? It even appeared neatly woven on the front of caps worn by the players during the parade through the town. Was it just a team ‘in-joke’, or an accidental touch of genius? Think about it. ‘All day’ could be the credo that we all live by.

‘How to live our lives in accord with the ten thousand things?’ Why ‘all day’ of course – to the full, without relent, without distraction, with all our heart and (especially) with all our soul. The trick in life is to realise what is enough, and not to seek for more. Natural life is enough. Natural life is just a perfect amount of anything. Can you imagine needing more than a sunrise, or the smell of jasmine in spring, or the laughter of children at play? Email from Lara 22/9/01:You're probably a dog... If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,If you can overlook when people take things out on you when through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,If you can face the world without lies and deceit,If you can conquer tension without medical help,If you can relax without liquor orIf you can sleep without the aid of drugs.(or a warthog, or a sparrow, or a …)

Thought: A woman is as much like a man as a tiger is like a lion. On ‘The Soul of the World’:At the behest of the King, T'aego gave a brief outline of the basic principles of Zen: There is something bright and clear, without falsity, without biases, tranquil and unmoving, possessed of vast consciousness, fundamentally without birth and death and discrimination, without names and forms and words. It engulfs space and covers all of heaven and earth, all of form and sound, and is equipped to function. If we speak of its essence, it is so vast it embraces everything, so that nothing is outside of it. If we speak about its function... even great sages cannot get to the end of it. This one thing is always with each and every person. Whether you move or not, whenever you encounter circumstances and objects, it is always very obvious and clear, clear everywhere, revealed in everything. It is quietly shining in all activities. As an expedient, it is called Mind. It is also called the Path, and the king of the myriad dharmas, and Buddha.From The Daily Zen Journal, Issue #34. T’aego (1301-1382); taken from ‘A Buddha from Korea: The Zen Teachings of T’aego’, Thomas Cleary (1988).RHS’ comment: It is also called The Soul of The World.

On Satori (though not described as such):Then the false thinking of birth and destruction is totally obliterated and the obliterating is obliterated. In an instant the mindground is quiet and motionless, with nothing to rest on. Body and mind are suddenly empty: it's like leaning on the void. All that appears here is total clarity and illumination. At this moment you should look carefully at your original face before your father and mother were born. As soon as it is brought up, you awaken to it.From The Daily Zen Journal, Issue #34. T’aego (1301-1382); taken from ‘A Buddha from Korea: The Zen Teachings of T’aego’, Thomas Cleary (1988).RHS’ comment: think about obliterating the obliterated! think about ‘mindground’! think about leaning on the void! (Jim Simpson touched the void –during his timeless into the crevice. Perhaps he just leant on it! Whatever the word game, I am sure he had satori!). On the present:

Life is real! Life is earnest!And the grave is not its goal;"Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"Was not spoken of the soul.

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!Let the dead Past bury its dead!Act -- act in the living Present!Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Extracts from A Psalm of Life Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A good view of death, for WIMTAW.

NatureHenry Wadsworth Longfellow

As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,Leads by the hand her little child to bed,Half willing, half reluctant to be led,And leave his broken playthings on the floor,Still gazing at them through the open door,Nor wholly reassured and comfortedBy promises of others in their stead,Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;So Nature deals with us, and takes awayOur playthings one by one, and by the handLeads us to rest so gently, that we goScarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,Being too full of sleep to understandHow far the unknown transcends the what we know.

31/8/01: In the morning the warthog rises, responding to its inner clock. It bolts (to evade any erstwhile predators) out of its burrow. Then, with the coast clear, it farts, urinates and browses for breakfast. When sated, it lies in the sun. When the full heat of the day strikes, it moves to the shade of a tree, and digs a depression to snooze in. Manimal gets reluctantly from his bed, responding to a mechanical or electronic alarm and moves slowly to the bathroom, where he farts and urinates, stretches and yawns, and searches the mirror for reassurance or denial of his condition. He then moves to the kitchen to take a breakfast, usually hurried. $$ continue, with regular reflections of “Would it matter to a warthog?” 31/8/01: Metamorphosis. Definition? Living is actually a process of metamorphosis, as we evolve daily from what we were the day before. Many people see themselves as exclusively what they are today. They feel that all previous morphs have been progressively shed, like a reptile sheds its skin. They see them selves as continually evolving – from baby to child to youth to man / woman to middle aged to old aged. Each new morph replaces the previous.The wise man does not discard previous morphs. His life is not a process of replacement. Rather it is a process of accumulation. Each new morph is simply added to the growing collection. Each new skin fits over the ones that grew before. So a wise man is not just a man – he is a baby-child-youth-man. $$expand on this Bible says “put away childish things”; being called childish is considered an insult – it should be high praise. Because to be both childish and wise means to have the total naivety and spontaneity of the child, while having the wisdom, in spite of the impressed constraints of being obliged to think in the opposites, of knowing the absolute value of all things. Daily Zen 29/8/01How amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity.In darkness unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom. Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091?1157).

Daily Zen 20/8/01"I am empty of everything and there is nothing left in my mind," said the monk to Joshu. "What do you say to that?"Joshu said, "Cast that away."But the monk persisted. "I have told you, there is nothing left in me. I am completely empty. What can I cast away?" "In that case," replied Joshu, "keep on carrying it."JoshuHow much crap we carry with us each day – dead ballast to ache our bones, tire our muscles and weary our minds. Like the goose in the bottle, all we have to do is say “There, it’s gone!” and walk free into the light.

Daily Zen 21/8/01The sound of water says what I think. Chuang TzuRHS’ comment: If I have to make a comment, then any comment is a waste.

Daily Zen 24/8/01An instant realizationSees endless time.Endless time is as one moment.When one comprehendsThe endless momentHe realizes the personWho is seeing it.unknown

The Real Thing [Johnny Young] © Chappell 1969 Come and see the real thing, come and see the real thing, come and see Come and see the real thing, come and see the real thing, come and see There’s a meaning there, but the meaning there doesn’t really mean a thing Come and see the real thing, come and see the real thing, come and see I am the real thing! Give the background to this. Comment: 1. The ‘meaning’ is the product of the intellect, and founded on the opposites. It doesn’t really mean a thing, because ‘meanings’ aren’t real, only the things themselves. 2. Look within, thou art Buddha! Each of us is ‘the real thing’. Each of us is the perfect ‘real thing’ that is us.

From Sunflower Sutra --We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we're all beautiful golden sunflowers inside, blessed by our own seed golden hairy naked accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sunflowers in the sunset,Digney’s comment: Right on!• Use Tao Te Ching Verse 48, and Basho’s old pond haiku to calibrate Chinese and Japanese translations respectively.• Cold Cliff's remoteness Is what I love. No one travels this way; Clouds lie around on the peaks; A lone gibbon howls on the ridge. What else do I cherish? It's good to grow old content. Cold and heat change my appearance; The pearl of my mind stays safe

Cold MountainRHS comment: How clever we’ve become, but how far we’ve travelled away from wisdom.

• Patches of snow Here and there On the shaded banks; Spring stream half flowing, Half dried up. Windy days, Now cold, now warm; Staff and sandals Sometimes home, Sometimes out. Chugan Engetsu (1300?1375) he's teasing us with the opposites - implicit is 'it's all the same!'

• 22/7/01: In the article “On safari with Elvis”, in the Sunday magazine of the Sunday Telegraph, about a photographic assignment in Tanzania: “By day six I had hit safari stage three – a sort of Zen calm. As we drove up into the Ngorongoro highlands, I could dreamily watch Africa without impatience, knowing that something amazing would happen at any time.” (my bolding) Why can’t we all adopt ‘a sort of zen calm’, in the sure knowledge that something amazing (and always unique) will happen at every time?

• Bob Dylan sings “I step outside to the busy street / But nobody’s goin’ anywhere.” Everybody is busy going somewhere, but nobody is going anywhere! Compare the potent wisdom in this to Christmas Humphrey’s story as follows (p103):When Hyakujo was with his Master, a flock of geese flew overhead. ‘What are they?’ asked the Master, himself giving the ‘lead’ for once. ‘They are wild geese, sir.’ ‘Whither are they flying?’ ’They have flown away, sir.’ Baso fiercely tweaked his nose, and said, ‘You say they have flown away, but all the same they have been here from the very beginning.’ Hyakujo’s back was wet with perspiration. He had satori. Note that, in the Asiapac Comic Series ‘Origins of Zen’, this story is given as between the master Mazu, and the disciple Baizhang Huaihai.Also recall the Smith’s Weekly cartoon about Jacky saying to Mary, as she steps giddily off the merry-go-round “You spent your ‘tixpence, and where you bin, eh?”

• How fitting it is that the Dali Lama is chosen as a child.

• If a problem can be solved, then there’s nothing to worry about. If a problem can’t be solved, then there’s no good worrying about it.

• Thought 20/7/01(written 10/5/01) Man is the only animal with the gift, and the curse, of the ability to think in terms of the past and the future. Hang on a moment, I hear you say, what about the squirrel, frantically collecting nuts to store for the winter when fresh food will be in short supply. Does the squirrel, in fact, have a notion of future? Does the squirrel think “Righto, it’s heading for winter so, to safeguard my future I must store nuts now? I suggest not. Rather, a genetic structure, built painstakingly over countless generations, triggers the actions – without any conscious thought of future (or indeed the necessity for it). The same can be said of the bear, emerging from its cave after hibernation. Does it think “I’ve been asleep for the past period of time, now I’d better find a feed quickly, to get my strength back for the future.” Again I suggest not. Rather a genetically coded message triggers activity in the stomach and that, in turn, triggers the need to hunt.Etc etc.

• Thought 20/7/01Add this to the ‘Hangups and Putdowns’ list. Israel has had a ban on the music of Wagner, because he was reputed to be the favourite composer of Adolf Hitler. Just imagine that – a national inability to enjoy what may be beautiful music to the ear, because of a decreed hangup. Daniel Barenboim, in a recent concert (7/01) in Israel, announced to the audience that he would next play Wagner (Tristan & Isolde?), which he did. Some walked out. Those that remained gave a standing ovation at the conclusion of the performance.

• Thought 20/7/01The honeyeater is feeding on the paperbark tree just outside the window, as I make my morning cup of coffee. But for the window, I could reach out my arm and touch it. It is oblivious to my presence, devoting its complete attention to the current activity. It fossicks and feeds, finding small insects in the folds of the bark and leaves. Every ten seconds or so, it interrupts its feeding to throw its head back and sing a joyous song – a high pitched rolling trill declaiming its total contentment. In words, manimal would cry out “Life is so good!”What a sorry lot we are - how restrained. If someone were to sing a few joyous bars from time to time during a meal it would draw surprised looks and sideways shakes of the head. We suppress our natural joy so often that it wilts and decays.

• Thought 18/7/01Wherever you are, you’ve always missed the last train. On the other hand, you’re always in time for the next train!Wisdom is: when taste transcends trend (i.e. when you stop drinking bourbon and coke because it’s trendy, and instead drink it neat or with water just to enjoy the taste).

• Quotes from the Web, 16/7/01Unless we change the direction we are heading, we might end up where we are going. Chinese Proverb

"To return to my own trees, I went among them often, acknowledging their presence with a touch of my hand against their trunks." Ruskin Bond (compare with Whitman)

"Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so called scientific knowledge." Thomas Edison (compare with Whitman)

"Wildlife is decreasing in the jungles, but it is increasing in the towns" Mahatma Gandhi

• DailyZen 11/7/01 (my bolding)Madness, the way they Gallop off to foreign shores! Turning to the One Mind, I find my Buddhahood, Above self and others, Beyond coming and going. This will remain When all else is gone. Tanzan (1819?1892)

DailyZen 3/7/01 (my bolding)I explain to you matters Pertaining to enlightenment, But don't try to keep

Your mind on them. Just turn to the ocean Of your own essence And develop practical Accord with its nature. Yangshan

DailyZen 6/7/01 (my bolding)As for the pure knowledge That has no teacher, How can it be attained by Thought or study? Huanglong

DailyZen 8/7/01 (my bolding)Unaware of illusion Or enlightenment, From this stone I watch The mountains, hear the stream. A three-day rain has Cleansed the earth, A roar of thunder split the sky. Ever serene are linked phenomena And though the mind's alert, It's but an ash heap. Chilly, bleak as the dusk I move through, I return, a basket brimmed With peaches on my arm. Genko (1505)

• “A mind unconscious of itself is a mind that is not at all disturbed by affects of any kind. It is the original mind and not the delusive one that is chock-full of affects. It is always flowing, it never halts, nor does it turn into a solid. It has no discrimination to make, no preference to follow, it fills the whole body, pervading every part of the body, and nowhere standing still.”

Takuan (1573-1645) .Compare to The Soul of The World! For ‘affects’ read intellectual thought. Note the

reference to solid – the body is not the Soul.

• *Every day priests minutely Examine the Dharma And endlessly chant Complicated sutras. Before doing that, though, They should learn How to read the love letters Sent by the wind and rain, The snow and moon. Ikkyu (1394-1491)

* email 160301; Hi ElanaI just read your #25 Journal. I found a couple of word treasures in there.Thank you for again letting me into your orchard to pick the choicest, sweetest fruit. The two quotes that caught my mind and heart were: "Buddha" is a temporary name for what cannot be seen when you look, what cannot be heard when you listen, whose place of origin and

passing away cannot be found when you search. The single source of all awareness is called "Buddha". It doesn't change when the body deteriorates; it is always there. [compare to Paulo Coelho's 'Soul of The World']

We are all different. That's what makes dialogue so refreshing. So I must tell you that I have mixed feelings about your G. BlueStone. I find his writing too ornate for such a simple subject. His fine prose had me hooked till he started with the circles, spheres and orbits. I think he is just too clever with his words. He seems to try too hard, to become mesmerised by his own cleverness. His second last paragraph hasn't much to do with Zen, but is excellent descriptive prose. In his final paragraph he says "illusions become the truth". I have become wary of any writings which talk about the "truth". Where is the "lie"? In fact, "truth" is as illusory as "illusion". So he is effectively telling us that an illusion becomes an illusion. Then his ultimate statement: "The art of life is to know the borders of the mundane sphere, to keep the narrowness from taking over your life." In my mind, the art of life is to simply live it. In fact, the art of life is to simply live it. Why does he make such a welter of something so simple? I feel he is hiding the cake in the icing.

Don't get me wrong, I love descriptive poetry and prose. For example Aldous Huxley and Algernon Charles Swinburne are favourites of mine. I just think that Zen needs simpler treatment - such as given by Xiatang.

I hope you don't take offence with my taking contrary views, as none is ever intended.

I'll offer a variation on your tag line, which suits me better: "Nothing hidden, go and find it."

Regards and fond wishes, as always.Dick

I am tapping this out at home, in my study (but will take it to work, to send). To the left of my computer and on top of the 2-drawer filing cabinet is a small TV and, sitting atop, is a magnificent wooden Buddha, carved and painted in Indonesia. He is about 300 mm tall and quite heavy. To my right, sitting in my bookshelves, is a polished, stained and oiled wooden Buddha that I bought in Korea about 20 years ago. In 40 years, I have found only five Buddhas with earlobes fat enough, and smiles serene enough, to please my soul. One more is in the rumpus room, while the other two are in my office at work. Last week I found a pair in a shop on the edge of the bay, and I bought them for my grandchildren. For the Princess (Hannah, a quirky blonde 2) a golden seated Buddha, while Patrick ("the Prince", 4) got a travelling Buddha, complete with bundle over the shoulder. They are both fascinated and bemused by them. Hannah carries hers, heavy as it is, around the house. She told her other Granny "When you rub his belly he says 'Good luck!'.

• “Practice thusness continuously, and you will be thus.” Dogen (1200-1253), Daily Zen Journal #32.Everything after this was in ZENZ.MCW, so I discarded ZENZ.MCW, 26/8/01.* "And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste."A B Paterson, Clancy of the Overflow.

• Daily Zen Journal #30: "An ancient master said, 'The mountains, the rivers, the whole earth, the entire array of phenomena are all oneself." From Dialogues in a Dream (1344) Muso (1275-1351) taken from The Roaring Stream - A New Zen Reader edited by Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker (1996).

"The beater and the beaten;Mere players of a game

Ephemeral as a dream." Extempore poem by Muso to disciple, from World of The Buddha: A Reader - From The Three Baskets to Modern Zen, edited by Lucien Stryk (1969, out of print).

• 10/6/01Knowledge: the accumulation of 'facts' (information); some Macquarie Dictionary definitions: "1. acquaintance with facts, truths or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition. 7. the body of truths or facts accumulated by mankind in the course of time. 8. the sum of what is known." Savants have vast knowledge. They can read and remember precisely, vast numbers of facts, such as addresses, birthdays etc. Yet they are generally autistic and have difficulty with normal communication and social skills. Are they wise?Intelligence: the ability to rationalise and reason. Einstein was intelligent. Was he wise? One Macquarie Dictionary definition: "1. capacity for understanding and for other forms of adaptive behaviour; aptitude for grasping truths, facts, meaning etc."Wisdom: simply knowing? some Macquarie Dictionary definitions: "1. the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgement as to action; sagacity, prudence or common sense."

• 5/6/01: A lion basks on a clump of rounded granite boulders, his five lioness mates and their cubs scattered in the grass around him. The lionesses are at ease with one another. The cubs play happily together. The pride is content. Other lions respect this dominant lion. In Utah a man lives happily with his five wives and 23 (?) children. The family is content. Other men want to send him to gaol for 25 years for committing polygamy and having under age sex. Manimal is burdened by concepts. Lion are not.

• Last year I celebrated my 60th birthday. What does this mean? It means that the body that I inhabit, that arrangement of molecules, those flesh and bones that bear my name, have been out of the womb for 60 years. It says nothing about the age of 'my' soul. The soul is ageless. The soul flowed into my body in the womb, and will flow out on my death, leaving the 'dead' arrangement of molecules for disposal, to go back into the universal atomic collection - into the earth, the air and the water. I say 'my soul' only by way of explanation. I realise full well that the soul which inhabits me is not a discrete chunk of the total soul that sustains all living things, the 'Soul of the World'. My soul is not individual. It will not rise from my dead body like some sort of ghost, with a definite (if not spooky!) shape, and go off in search of a new individual to inhabit. Rather we are all connected to the one soul, like a giant arrangement of fairy lights connected to the one power source. When my light goes out, another will come on somewhere. (Damn, that’s good!)The soul is as ageless as the water that fills a newly formed lake. Imagine a geological disruption to the earth's surface that forms a depression which quickly fills with water. Later, people can say that the lake was formed in such and such a year, that it is so many years old. Yet nobody would be foolish enough to ascribe an equivalent 'age' to the water. The water is ageless. It simply inhabited the lake for a while, giving it its life. When a lake loses its life force, its 'soul', and dries up, we say that it is 'dead'. But the water doesn't die. Like the soul, it is indestructible. It simply flows on to give life somewhere else - perhaps to a rain cloud, a river, or simply a muddy pond.

* DailyZen 100501:Study the teachingsof the pine tree, the bambooand the plum blossom.The pine is evergreen,firmly rooted, and venerable.The bamboo is strong,resilient, unbreakable.The plum blossom is hardy,

fragrant and elegant.Morihei Ueshiba

* Be sure to link these two in WIMTAW:"The universe is a void in which there is a dreamhole. The dream disappears, the hole closes. It's the instant of going into or coming out of existence that is important . . . the sadness of birth and death, the sadness of changing from dream to dream, the constant farewell of forms . . . saying ungoodby to what didn't exist."

Alan Ginsberg, in 'Laughing Gas', Kaddish and Other Poems, 1958-1960.and"So you think you can make the present palatable by projecting into the future. You're living in the past pal. It's the future that f**** you up Brian. It's the maggot in the apple. You see, you're all pissed off with the present and there's nothing wrong with the present. The present's fine. The present's perfect. The present's peachy-f******-creamy. The only thing wrong with the present is the bastard doesn't exist. Because the present is the future and the future is the past and it's all the same f****** bag of bones anyway. It's a constant process of coming into being and passing away, coming into being and passing away. The future is now."

Johnny to Brian in Naked, movie.and"Yesterday is history / Tomorrow is mystery / Today is a gift / That's why they call it "the present".

Anon and"Time gave birth time and time again - and produced nothing but itself."

Movie, SBS television, Antonia's Line, 1/3/01.

* 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' by Brooker/Reid, a Procol Harum classic. From the last verse:

If music be the food of lovethen laughter is its queenand likewise if behind is in frontthen dirt in truth is clean

* The song: "Is that all there is? / Is that all there is? / If that's all there is my friend / Then let's keep dancing." Compare this to the wisdom of Antonia:Antonia: "Nothing dies forever. Something always remains, from which something new grows. So life begins without knowing where it came from, or why."Therese: "Why?"Antonia: "Because life wants to live."Therese: "Isn't there a heaven either?"Antonia: "This is the only dance we dance."

Movie, SBS television, Antonia's Line, 1/3/01. We are born with the cup of life, but we are the only one's who can fill our own cup - with the stuff that lif'es made of, which is nothing more than the wonder that is life itself.

* From Daily Zen quotes, 27/4/01:Zen is not conception or perception;If you establish an idea,You turn away from the source.The way is beyond cultivated effects;If you set up accomplishment,You lose the essence.Shoitsu (1202-1280).

See for yourself. Directly transcend the

principles and activities of the buddhasand patriarchs. Go through the forest ofthorns. Transcend the barriers ofpotential described by ancestralteachers. Pass through the silvermountain and iron wall. Then for thefirst time you will realize there is atranscendent fundamental endowment; youcan sit, helping people solve theirsticking points and untie their bonds.Shoitsu (1202-1280).(my bolding - the Soul of The World?)

* From Daily Zen quotes, 11/4/01:If you think that you havecut off illusory mind,instead of simply clarifying

how illusory mind melts,illusory mind willcome up again,as though you had cutthe stem of a blade of grassand left the root alive.Menzan Zuiho (1682-1769)

This is important for WIMTAW. We should not be too dismal about the realisation that manimal is an inferior form of life. Rather we should accept the realisation and get on with life, realising that our intellect causes us difficulties while at the same time opening up whole worlds of stimulation in communication by image and word.

It is nonsense to insistthat we cannot achieveenlightenment withoutlearned and pious teachers.Because wisdom is innate,we can all enlighten ourselves.Hui-neng (638-713).

• From an email to Elana, 11/4/01: While you are enjoying Spring (man's word to describe nature's annual rebirth), we are into Autumn (man's word to describe nature's annual time of hibernation, when leaves go brown and drop and animals burrow and sleep). Our two Eastern Water Dragons (marvellous, primeval looking lizards) still appear in the yard daily, so true Autumn hasn't arrived yet, in spite of the calendar.

• If man had hooves instead of feet with toes, he would find it hard to balance. Hooved animals, on the other hand, have four feet, like a table, and so have no trouble balancing. In fact, fingers and toes would be an impediment when running - they would get in the way.

• Are we the same as our brain, or different? (can't remember the source of this).

• "Moloch whose name is mind." from Ginsberg's Howl. Worth developing.

• From the web, searching for the source (Genesis 1:28) of "man shall have dominion ...", found the following:

Azariah, J and Macer D, "Historical roots of our ecological crisis in East and West", Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 6, pp 125-128, 1996.

It stated, amongst other things "The Greek philosopher, Aristotle considered that Man is unique among the animals because he is rational."

Now rational is defined in the Macquarie Dictionary as: adj. 1. agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible. 2. having or exercising reason, sound judgment or good sense. 3. being in or characterised by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid.; the patient appeared perfectly rational. 4. endowed with the faculty of reason: man is a rational animal. 5. of or pertaining to reason: the rational faculty. 6. proceeding or derived from reason, or based on reasoning: a rational explanation. (the other definitions are scientific).

This definition depends heavily on reason. which is defined in the same dictionary as: n. 1. a ground or cause, as for a belief, action, fact, event, etc.: the reason for declaring war. 2. a statement in justification or explanation of belief or action. 3. the mental powers concerned with drawing conclusions or inferences. 4. sound judgement or good sense. 5. normal or sound powers of mind; sanity. 6. Logic. a premise of an argument. 7. Philos. intellect as opposed to sensibility. 8. by reason of, on account of; because of. 9. in or within reason, in accordance with reason; justifiable or proper. 10. it stands to reason, it is obvious or logical. -v.i. 11. to think or argue in a logical manner. 12. to draw conclusions or inferences from facts or premises. 13. to urge reasons which should determine belief or action. -v.t. 14. to think out (a problem etc.) logically (oft. fol. by out). 15. to conclude or infer (fol. by that). 16. to bring, persuade, etc., by reasoning. 17. to support with reasons.This definition depends on logic, which is defined in the same dictionary as: n. 1. the science which investigates the principles governing correct or reliable inference. 2. reasoning or argumentation, or an instance of it. 3. the system of principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge or study. 4. reasons or sound sense, as in utterences or actions. 5. convincing force: the irresistible logic of facts.Further dependencies abound. Let's conclude with fact, which is defined in the same dictionary as: n. 1. what has really happened or is the case; truth; reality: in fact rather than theory, the fact of the matter is. 2. something known to have happened; a truth known by actual experience or observation: scientists working with facts. 3. something said to be true or supposed to have happened: the facts are as follows. 4. Law. a. an actual or alleged physical or mental event or existence, as distinguished from a legal effect or consequence. Thus, whether certain words were spoken is a question of fact; whether, if spoken, they constituted a binding promise, is usu. a question of law. b. an evil deed (now only in certail legal phrases): before the fact, after the fact. 5. in fact, really: indeed.Notice that a fact is not only that which is known to have happened, but also that which is said to be true or is supposed to have happened!The dependencies continue. There's truth (a rich hunting ground), and argument.The paper goes on to say that 'rationalism' is "the belief that the workings of the universe could be understood through reason rather than revelation."Thomas Aquinas (125-1275) " recognized that man's rationality is his divine element which God has put in him."

* DailyZen 30/3/01"Meaning to get a way from intellectualization and avoid word traps, I sailed across

the sea to search for the transmission beyond the teachings; went on pilgrimages till my sandals broke? and found water in the clear stream, the moon in the sky."

Kakua (1143-?)

* DailyZen Issue #26; The Chun Chou Record of The Zen Master Huang Po (taken from The Zen Teaching of Huang Po On the Transmission of Mind translated by John Blofeld):

"If you students of the Way do not awake to this Mind substance, you will overlay Mind with conceptual thought, you will seek the Buddha outside yourselves, and you will

remain attached to forms, pious practices and so on; all of which are harmful and not at all the way to supreme knowledge."

* 18/3/01: Hannah was being unruly in the back of the car on the way back from Sydney. In desperation I said "Hanna, why are you being such a bad girl", and she replied "I not bad Pa-Pa, I jes' naughty." What a lesson here, from a 2 years 5 months old child to a 60 years old man. Naughty is childishness, mischief, creativity, testing the bounds. But it's not bad, any more than it's good. I must be more tolerant of this wonderful, short-lived period of 'naughtiness'.

On Friday (9/4/01) Pam told me a story that further reflected on childish perceptions of good and bad, as relative to the 'doer' or the 'doee'. Pam had told her to eat only one alphabet biscuit, as she was preparing a sandwich. Hannah ate the lot. Pam said "That's naughty Hannah. I told you I was making you a sandwich", to which Hannah replied "It's a bit naughty Nana, but it's good too."

* Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Genesis 1:28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

* Bobby McFerrin's "Don't worry, be happy" says "In your life you have some trouble / When you worry you make it double - don't worry, be happy."

* From Daily Zen ~15/3/01Cold and heat change myAppearance; the pearlOf my mind stays safe

Han shan

"Enlightenment" and "Nirvana"?They are dead treesTo fasten a donkey to.The scriptures?They are bits of paperTo wipe mud from your face.The four merits and the ten steps?They are ghosts in their graves.What can these thingsHave to do with youBecoming free?

Te-shan (780-865)

(speaking of the enlightened?)Finding the universalIn every particular,Whether coming or going,They remain unmoving.Finding silence whichContains thoughts,Whatever they doThey hear the truth.

Hakuin (1685-1768)

* From Issue 25 of The Daily Zen Journal "The Perception of Sages":- "Buddha" is a temporary name for what cannot be seen when you look, what cannot be heard when you listen, whose place of origin and passing away cannot be found when you search.- The single source of all awareness is called "Buddha". It doesn't change when the body deteriorates; it is always there. compare to the Soul of The World]These two quotes by Xiatang (birth and death unknown), taken from Zen Essence - The Science of Freedom, translated and edited by Thomas Cleary (1989).The Monkess often says that Zen awareness is non-discursive. Discursive is defined as: "1. passing rapidly or irregularly from one subject to another; rambling; digressive. 2. proceeding by reasoning or argument; non-intuitive." So basically, non-discursive means intuitive!

* Thought on 'eschewing mediocrity': Does the falcon swoop on the field mouse distractedly ? Does the lion fell the gazelle with other than 100% concentration on the task? Does the magpie preen itself with an element of disinterest? Does the bee take honey from the flower nonchalantly? Do the garden skinks copulate with other than complete dedication? Perhaps manimal can learn from this, as he goes about his life in a half-assed way. Even when the lion yawns in the sun, it isn't bored. That's a manimal-made attitude, not a natural state. As Kerouac said "Cats yawns because they realise that there's nothing to do", verse 59, The Scripture of The Golden Eternity.

* A poll conducted by the Media Business Group in England in 1998 found that 95% of British men aged 20-34 would rather watch soccer's World Cup on television than have sex with the woman of their dreams.

* Sunday Telegraph 25/2/01: An RSPCA survey shows that many Australian cats and dogs are overweight. 41% of dogs were overweight or obese, "because owners are either too lazy or too loving." Compare this situation to the following statement by 'doctor and bestselling new-age author Deepak Chopra: "No animal has a problem unless people give it too much food. In nature you won't see an obese lion, dog, tiger, bird. And the people who will live longest are those who listen to their body, and aren't programmed to do otherwise."

* DailyZen ~2/3/01."Profound quietude delivered me to the transparent moonlight."Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529). [what a beautiful phrase - and this was via a

translator!]

In heaven and earth no spot to hide; bliss belongs to one who knows that things are empty and that a person too is nothing. Splendid indeed is the Mongol longsword - slashing the spring wind like a flash of lightning!

Bukko [first sentence is pure Zen. What does the second suggest?]

* "We're captive on the carousel of time / We can't return, we can only look behind / From where we came / And go 'round and 'round and 'round in the circle game." Song, The Circle Game, Joni Mitchell.

* "Time gave birth time and time again - and produced nothing but itself."Movie, SBS television, Antonia's Line, 1/3/01.

"Isn't it terrible that nothing exists?" (Young Therese, after discussing Plato with Crooked Finger').Antonia: "That's why there's so much."

Movie, SBS television, Antonia's Line, 1/3/01.Antonia: "Nothing dies forever. Something always remains, from which something new grows. So life begins without knowing where it came from, or why."Therese: "Why?"

Antonia: "Because life wants to live."Therese: "Isn't there a heaven either?"Antonia: "This is the only dance we dance."

Movie, SBS television, Antonia's Line, 1/3/01. My bolding ('The Soul of The World'?).

* Thought at Howzat, 22/2/01:We seem to see our life as one that goes through a number of distinct stages: we are baby, child, youth, young man, man, middle-aged man, elderly then aged (if we make it that far). We think of ourselves as leaving one stage to enter the next. Even the Bible reinforces this:"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." From the first letter of Paul of Tarsus to the school at Corinth, Chapter 13, verse 11.Is it any wonder then that we often lack empathy with those in the other stages. I suggest that the pure manimal (the sage) is one who, rather than going through a stage, is one who gains stages. Such a person will always retain the mischief and wonder of a child, while managing to attain the wisdom that only comes to the elderly.

* Received by email Fri 23/2/01:If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:There would be: 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south, and 8 Africans. 52 would be female and 48 would be male. 70 would be non-white and 30 would be white. 70 would be non-Christian and 30 would be Christian. 89 would be heterosexual and 11 would be homosexual.6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.80 would live in substandard housing, 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition, 1 would be near death and 1 would be near birth.1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education and 1 would own a computer.When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.The following is also something to ponder...If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.Someone once said: What goes around comes around.Work like you don't need the money.Love like you've never been hurt.Dance like no-one's watching.Sing like no-one's listening.Live like it's Heaven on Earth.Pass this on, and brighten someone's day.

Nothing will happen if you do not decide to pass it along. The only thing that will happen, if you DO pass it on, is that someone might smile because of you.Happy friendship week everyone!

* Extracts from letter to Elana, 20/2/01:I am especially intrigued by the fact that AD sufferers have only the present moment. I say their life is a continuum of moments. This state, of course - living in and for the moment and not tormenting our minds with bad moments from the dead past, or imagined bad moments from the phantasmal future - is a steady theme with the old masters (and in the collation I am working on). So, on the one hand it is a disease, and on the other an enlightened state. The duality of the opposites again!

the fullest and most rewarding moments seem to be, paradoxically, those magical moments of emptiness, when the mind is free of extraneous thought and receptive to essential emotion, such as might be provoked by the sight of the sea, or the sounds of a bird at nightfall. This is the 'lull before the storm', when satori is most likely to flash in the brain.

* From Daily Zen ~20/2/01 (Issue 23)

The Great AffairTa Hui (1088 1163)

There is no deficit or surplus; like cutting up sandalwood, each piece is it.RHS comment: each piece is only a piece. At the same time each piece is, like the whole, sandalwood, so there is no essential difference between the piece and the whole. Size, like the concepts of deficit and surplus to which it gives birth, is simply a mind construct of manimal. Sandalwood is sandalwood. That is its suchness. I also love the use of the ubiquitous it. What a wealth of meaning in such a small word, a mere two letters.]

All this time there's just been a lump of flesh born of your parents. Unless you come up with a bit of energy, it is subject to the control of others. What else is there outside the lump of flesh? What can you hold to be wonderful, mysterious, or marvelous? What can you take to be Enlightenment or Nirvana? What can you take to be True Thusness or Buddha Nature? [my italics. The wondrously evocative 'lump of flesh' description again, to strip all pretence and affectation from the body of manimal, and reinforce its simply supporting role to the essential Buddha-mind. I recall the following use by Lin-chi: 'In this lump of flesh, there is a true person without position constantly going in and out through your faces. Those of you who have not verified this yet; look, look!' It still prickles my skin when I read it.]

Even if you had a thorough knowledge and understanding of the entire Buddhist Canon, on the last day of your life, when birth-and-death comes upon you, you won't be able to use it at all. [RHS comment: note the 'birth-and-death' description of that which happens on the 'last day of your life'. Stunning. Mind shaking (as it was intended). Birth and death are just categories that we manimals have created to help us come to grips with the coming and going of the 'lump of flesh'. The Soul of The World rolls on omnipotently and independently of the state of repair of the 'lump of flesh'. Not only will 'you' (Soul of The World plus lump of flesh shroud) not be able to use the knowledge and understanding that 'you' have painstakingly acquired, but neither will anyone or anything else. Since 'knowledge and understanding' are mental constructs only, they die with the brain. Not being essential, they do not pass back into the Soul of The World, that universal life pool.]

It's as if you're trying to leap out of the water before the boat has capsized."Ta Hui (1088-1163) [c.f. Mark Twain's quote (something like): "There have been a

great many problems in my life, most of which have never happened." What difficulties our intellect creates for us!]

excerpted from "Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui", translated by Christopher Cleary (1977).

Penetrating the ten directions, the ten thousand things are of one suchness.Rinzai (d.866)taken from "The Zen Teaching of Rinzai" by Irmgard Schloegl (1976).

* From Daily Zen ~19/2/01:Spring has its hundred flowers,Autumn has its many moons.Summer has cool winds,Winter its snow.If useless thoughts do notCloud your mind,Each day is the best of your life.

Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183-1260) [my italics]

* From email to Elana 20/10/00I have seen over a number of years, as I have acquired wisdom, the same subliminal realisation coming through in the work of a number of writers from different cultures and backgrounds (for example Whitman, Omar Khayyam, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Laotse, Tagore). Sometimes I get a flash from the most unlikely source - perhaps in the translated sub-titles of a Korean movie. For example:

"There is no beginning and no end. That which does not come into being cannot die."and"When the moon in my heart is under water, where does the master go?"

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For The East?, Korean Movie, SBS, 26/8/93.

also

"Life has its ups and downs, like the waves."and"Forget the past. Live just like moving water."

Winter Araring, Korean movie, SBS, 27/10/93.

And from the great Kurosawa (consider the converse too):

"In a mad world, only the mad are sane."From the Japanese movie Ran (Director Akira Kurosawa).

Because my knowledge is not mainstream, I can sometimes feel alone, isolated. Then I suddenly see or hear a phrase which someone totally different from me (time, age, sex, colour, creed or whatever) has stated and I feel that warmth of common affinity. To keep striking these, again and again, is a wonderful thing. My collection is called Wisdom, Wit and Whimsy, and I am currently editing it for publication (I hope).

Sometimes (often) that common affinity, common knowledge comes through the eyes of another creature, so:

Such long eye contactWith the old, limping magpieThen she turned away.

This was a blissful encounter as we looked into each others eyes fixedly for so long. She turned away because she saw nothing in (behind?) my eyes that she needed. Such moments are treasures.

I have also begun writing a work which demonstrates these common threads in the sayings of others, weaving them together with my own thoughts. I have started, but need to stop working at my profession for a while to apply myself seriously (lightly actually, you know what I mean) to the task.

I really do appreciate your taking the time to respond to my emails. I can't imagine how busy you must be, with the large membership you now have (I have added quite a few myself).

* From email to Elana 21/12/00"Take the time to rest serenely in Blue Sky Mind."Some thoughts triggered by this statement (from Daily Zen): Is not a grey sky calm and illuminating? The light from a grey sky is sometimes so even, so penetrating, so defining and clear, even though less intense than the sunlight from a blue sky. Blue skies only exists because there are grey skies. Thoughts here of the duality of the opposites, the futility of categorisation ... Why not just 'rest serenely in Sky Mind'?

My mother has Alzheimer's disease. I visit her twice weekly. Because of her confusion, we cannot hold a prolonged conversation, nor speak rationally of the day's events. What we do is look at photos and read poetry. Though she had limited education, living and working on the farm, my mother has always had a great love of poetry, which I inherited. She has a book into which she previously wrote many of the poems from her youth - poems she learned at school and poems she found and loved later. Although her memory is faulted (she often has difficulties remembering who I am), she can still complete most of the lines for me. Well, one of those poems comes to mind. It is The Rainy Day, by Henry Longfellow:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;It rains, and the wind is never weary;The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,But at every gust more dead leaves fall,And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold and dark and dreary.It rains and the wind is never weary.My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past.And youth's fond hopes fall thick in the blast.And my life is dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart and cease repiningBehind the clouds is the sun still shiningThy fate is the common fate of allInto each life some rain must fallSome days must be dark and dreary.

I see the final line as the key. All else is emotional and poetic technique. If we didn't have dark days there would be no bright days (no blue sky).

* Dailyzen ~24/1/01:Just don't seek from others,Or you'll be far estranged from Self.I now go on alone;Everywhere I meet It:

It now is me; I now am It.One must understand in this wayTo merge with thusness. Dongshan Liangjie (807-869)

* Dailyzen ~22/1/01:When the tracks of our inventions disappearAnd we see who we really are.Cold Mountain

The realm of buddhahood is not some external world where there is a formal "Buddha." It's the realm of the wisdom of a self-awakened sage. Zen Master Ta-hui (1088-1163)

Cold and heat change my appearanceThe pearl of my mind stays safeCold Mountain

* Dailyzen ~11/1/01:My primordial nature has no liking for the life in the cities. To be free from the noise I built a little thatched cottage far away in the depth of the mountains.Wandering here and there I carry no thought. When spring comes I watch the birds; in summer I bathe in the running stream; in autumn I climb the highest peaks; during the winter I am warming up in the sun. Thus I enjoy the real flavor of the seasons. Shih t'ao (1641-1717)

The mind is like the ocean water, the body is like the waves. As there are no waves without water and no water without waves, water and waves are not separate, motion and stillness are not different.Now Zazen is going right into the ocean of enlightenment, thus manifesting the body of all buddhas. The innate inconceivably clear mind is suddenly revealed and the original light finally shines everywhere.Those who wish to illumine the mind should give up various mixed-up knowledge and interpretation, cast away both conventional and buddhist principles, cut off all delusive sentiments, and manifest the one truly real mind - the clouds of illusion clear up, the mind moon shines anew.The Buddha said, "Learning and thinking are like being outside the door; sitting in meditation is returning home to sit in peace." How true this is! While learning and thinking, views have not stopped and the mind is still stuck - that is why it is like being outside the door. But in this sitting meditation, Zazen, everything is at rest, and you penetrate everywhere - thus it is like returning home to sit in peace.An ancient said, "When confusion ceases, tranquility comes; when tranquility comes, wisdom appears, and when wisdom appears, reality is seen." Keizan Jokan (1264-1325) - taken from Timeless Spring - A Soto Zen Anthology; edited and translated by Thomas Cleary (out of print)

** All below was taken to Hawks Nest 3/2/01 for incorporation into WIMTAW (note, though, that I have changed a few things today 23/12/06) *** 1/2/01: Nothing that we say or do is important to the process of living. For, by the time we comprehend what has been done or said, they have slid into the realms of the past. They are history. The process of living takes place only in the present. It comprises an infinite succession of infinitesimally brief moments of now. The past plays no part in the present and, therefore, no part in the essential process of living.

"Death has always been life's way of making room for the next generation." David Suzuki, Race For The Future, SBS TV, 1/2/01.

David Suzuki says that biodiversity is the key to the survival of the planet earth. Yet manaimal continually strives for sameness and against difference - so the formation of clubs, societies, and the fighting of opposites (arab against jew, black against white, japanese against korean, french against german ...).* "It came like a lightning flash, like knowledge from the gods." Edward O Wilson, "Naturalist", on Watson-Crick 1953 discovery of DNA's structure. [did he have satori?] from Decoding Darkness, Tanzi & Parson.* It is said: "When the physical body decays and dissolves back into fire and air, one thing remains aware, encompassing the universe."

Unfortunately, people today have been confused for a long time. They do not know that their own mind is the real Buddha. They do not know that their own essence is the real dharma.

... the World Honoured One ... said, "All living beings, and all sorts of illusory events, are all born in the completely awake subtle mind of those who realise suchness."

The Realized Ones of the past were just people who understood the mind, and the saints and sages of the present are people who cultivate the mind; students of the future should rely on this principle.

The essence of mind has no defilement; it is originally complete and perfect of itself. Just detach from illusory objects, and it is enlightened to suchness as is.

All the above from Son Master Chinul, which was taken from "Minding Mind - A Course in Basic Meditation", edited and translated by Thomas Cleary (1995). * There are 297 (397?) words in the Ten Commandments, and 300 in the American Constitution. What a fuss we make writing down the rules that manimal needs to live by, if it is to be in harmony with his fellow manimal. We are the only living creature on planet earth who finds it necessary to do this. What does this say about manimal?* "I feel like Zeno's arrow - I never get there." Quoted in "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat". What is Zeno's arrow? 6/3/95

Answer: Zeno of Elea (490?-430 BC), in his Paradoxes, tried to prove the absurdity of believing that reality is made up of many changing things. He argued that if a thing moves, it must move either where it is or where it is not. But it cannot move where it is, because there it is at rest. Nor can it move where it is not, because it does not even exist there. So, he concluded, motion is absurd. (World Book Encyclopaedia). Compare with Chuangtse’s Futility of Categorisation.* Adaptation: Carro sparrows (nectar, bark); chameleon; manimal?* SBS program 30/12/00 "Compay Segundo - A Cuban legend", about Francisco Repilado Menox, >90, sprightly, still singing and playing (salsa?). He holds n o morbid thoughts about death, quoting José Marti who said "Have a child, plant a tree, write a book." He has done all of these.* Hongzhi is a 12th century Chinese Zen Master who is mostly unknown to us today, but was an immense influence on Dogen. He was the first to articulate silent illumination, commonly known as "just sitting." Although this meditation does not ultimately involve concentration on an object or stages of advancement, it is not without technique. In his Practice Instructions Hongzhi urges practitioners to "take the backward step and directly reach the middle of the circle from where light issues forth," With thoughts clear, sitting silently, wander into the center of the circle of wonder. * If you want to be no different from the buddhas and Zen masters, just don't seek externally. The pure light in a moment of awareness in your mind is the Buddha's essence within you.

Linji (d.867) i.e. "Look within, thou art Buddha."* Each of you has a priceless treasure. There is light emanating from your eyes which illuminates mountains, rivers, and the great earth. There is light radiating from our ears which apprehends all good and evil sounds. The six senses- day and night they emanate light and this is called the "light emanating samadhi." You yourself can't comprehend it, but it is reflected in the four great bodies. It is completely supported within and without, and never

unbalanced. It's like someone with a heavy load on his back, crossing a bridge made from a single tree trunk, but never losing his step.

And now if you ask what is it that provides this support and where it is revealed, then I just say that not a single hair of it can be seen. No wonder the monk Zhigong said,"Searching inside and out you'll find nothing. Actions in the causational realm are a big muddle."Take care!Guishan Da'an (793?883) * From Zen and The Brain, p141: "I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched . . . Eventually the watcher joined the river and then there was only one of us. I believe it was the river." Norman Maclean* "Success is over rated. Everyone craves it despite daily proof that man's real genius lies in quite the opposite direction. Incompetence is what we are good at: it is the quality that marks us off from animals and we should learn to revere it."

Stephen Pile, The Book of Heroic Failures. [my bolding]* An anagram to show the duality of the opposites:

EvangelistWhen you rearrange the letters:Evil's Agent

* My teacher said to me, "The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside."

Dazhu (487-593) Christ said "I am the great I am" (reference?). Ali simply said "I am the greatest". xxx

said "Look within, thou art Buddha". (or is the accent on 'thou'?).* Animals conquest by strength alone. The superior subdues the inferior, to secure a female or territory. This keeps the gene pool ever stronger. Manimal conquests by strength also, for major territory. But for females, manimal often is forced to resort to intellect rather than strength. I see a picture in my mind's eye of two men competing for the female by playing chess! The vanquised slinks off, never to play chess, or to copulate, again.0* (Dailyzen 11/00):

For years I forged my spirit through the study of swordsmanship, confronting every challenge steadfastly. The walls surrounding me suddenly crumbled; like pure dew reflecting the world in crystal clarity, total awakening has now come.

Yamaoka Tesshu, 1830. [my emphasis - satori!]

Unaware of illusion or enlightenment, from this stone I watch the mountains, hear the stream. A three-day rain has cleansed the earth, a roar of thunder split the sky. Ever serene are linked phenomena, and though the mind's alert, it's but an ash heap. Chilly, bleak as the dusk I move through, I return, a basket brimmed with peaches on my arm.

Genko [my emphasis -the ashes of past fires?]

In the ocean of the holy dharmaThere is neither movement nor stillness.The essence of the wave is like a mirror;When something comes, the reflection appears.When there is nothing in the mind,Wind and waves are both forgotten.

Gido [my emphasis - the wind that caused the wave that appeared in the mirror ...]The Wisdom of Lao-TzuLin Yutang (1948)

The Wise Ones of Old

The wise ones of old had subtle wisdom and depth of understanding, so profound that they could not be understood. And because they could not be understood, perforce must they be so described:Cautious, like crossing a wintry stream,Irresolute, like one fearing danger all around,Grave, like one acting as guest,Self-effacing, like ice beginning to melt,Genuine, like a piece of undressed wood,Open-minded, like a valley,And mixing freely, like murky water.

Who can find repose in a muddy world?By lying still, it becomes clear.Who can maintain his calm for long?By activity, it comes back to life.He who embraces this TaoGuards against being over-full.Because he guards against being over-full,He is beyond wearing out and renewal.

Because the eternal principle of life, Tao, works silently and apparently without action in the way that spring comes round every year, because Tao does not claim credit for its individual acts and is content to be silent, it becomes the image for the Taoist sage.

The Demeanor of the Pure Person

The pure person of old slept without dreams, and waked up without worries. They ate with indifference to flavor and drew deep breaths. For true people draw breaths from their heels; the vulgar only from their throats. Out of the crooked, words are retched up like vomit. When people's attachments are deep, their divine endowments are shallow. The pure people of old did not know what it was to love life or to hate death. They did not rejoice in birth, nor strive to put off dissolution. Unconcerned, they came and unconcerned they went. That was all. They did not forget whence it was they had sprung; neither did they seek to inquire their return thither. Cheerfully, they accepted life, waiting patiently for their restoration (the end). This is what is called not to allow the mind to lead one astray from Tao, and not to supplement the natural by human means. Such a one may be called a pure person.Such people are free in mind and calm in demeanor, with high foreheads. Sometimes disconsolate like autumn, and sometimes warm like spring, their joys and sorrows are in direct touch with the four seasons, in harmony with all creation, and none know the limit thereof...The pure people of old appeared of towering stature and yet could not topple down. They behaved as though wanting in themselves, but without looking up to others. Naturally independent of mind, they were not severe. Living in unconstrained freedom, yet they did not try to show off.They appeared to smile as if pleased, and to move only in natural response to surroundings. Their serenity flowed from the store of goodness within. In social relationships, they kept to their inner character. Broadminded, they appeared great; towering, they seemed beyond control. Continuously abiding, they seemed like doors kept shut; absent-minded, they seemed to forget speech.

Chuang-tzeChuang-tze uses water as the symbol of spiritual calm which is described as "the nature of water at its best," and as a symbol of Tao itself which alternates between perfect tranquility and periodic motion. When the body is kept hustling about without stop, it becomes fatigued. When the mind is overworked without stop, it becomes worried, and worry causes

exhaustion. The nature of water is that it becomes clear when left alone, and becomes still when undisturbed... it is the symbol of heavenly virtue.

from The Wisdom of Lao-tze by Lin Yutang 1948* Think of your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. Are you angry with them for their heritage? What did they do, irreversibly, to your world, to your detriment? They were part of the age that wiped out the dodo bird, the American buffalo for example. Now think about your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren.What system are we part of, for which they might look back at us with hate? Atomic wars? Squandering the non-renewable energy resources? For example, consider the energy being wasted by lights, air-conditioning, non-essential electrical appliances and gadgets ... all being produced from non-renewable coal resources through one-third efficient power stations. What energy are we planning to leave them, after we have finished?* 12/11/00: "the time has come, the warthog said, to think of other things ..."

Nobody needs to follow a sect, cult, faction, party or whatever. Be your own. Listen to your self. You won't feel lonely in your personal party, because you will know that there are many wise persons, like yourself, who also have their own personal party. If you like, you will all be members of a personal party party. Brainwash your self so that your mind is clean of all extraneous thoughts, then follow the doctrine of your clean, pure, mind.

What a funny word - brainwash. It should be braindirty. For the process of indoctrination adds dirt, or ‘noise’ to the mind and brain.* Ubiquity - a good word to build a story on.* 11/11/00:* " ... the child will one day become an ancestor" Amy Chapin, in 'What Book!?'* Write something on the wondrous, near flightless, almost rare kakapo.* From DailyZen

If useless thoughts do notCloud your mind,Each day is the best of your life.Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183-1260)

Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life. Breathe out and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe; breathe in and bring the cosmos back inside. Next, breathe up all the fecundity and vibrancy of the earth. Finally, blend the breath of heaven and the breath of earth with that of your own, becoming the Breath of Life itself.

Morihei Ueshiba [good word 'fecundity', meaning 'fruitfulness, or fertility, as of the earth'. Whitman uses it too, as in: "???".

If you want to cut directly through, ... just always let go and make your heart empty and open.When things come up, deal with them according to the occasion. Be like the stillness of water, like the clarity of a mirror. Whether good or bad, beautiful or ugly approach, you don't make the slightest move to avoid them. Then you will truly know that the mindless world of spontaneity is inconceivable.

Ta Hui (1088-1163) [note the wonderful zen in the apparent contradiction of 'truly know' and 'inconceivable'].

Lifetimes seldom fill a hundred years.Why suffer for profit and fame?

This body's existence is like a bubble'smay as well accept what happensevents and hopes seldom agreebut who can step back doesn't worry

we blossom and fade like flowersgather and part like cloudsworldly thoughts I forgot long agorelaxing all day on a peak.

From Mountain Poems - Shih-wu (1272-1352). Shih-wu is almost unknown today. At forty, rather than accepting a temple appointment, he headed into the mountains continuing his life as a hermit.

* "I never saw a wild thingsorry for itself.A small bird will drop dead frozen from a boughwithout ever having felt sorry for itself." D H Lawrence

* From DailyZenFrom "The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind" (translation by

John Blofeld, 1958)"When body and mind reach spontaneity, the Way is reached and Mind is understood.""A sramana is so called because he has penetrated to the original source of all things."The sramana were called " sages who, abandoning learning, have come to rest in spontaneity.""Merely acquiring a lot of knowledge makes you like a child who gives himself indigestion by gobbling too many curds.""All the concepts you have formed in the past must be discarded and replaced by void." [the only times that true connections are made with Natural Purpose are when this is done e.g. admiring a sunset. This is a potent statement.]"When Bodhidharma came from the West, he just pointed out that the substance of which all people are composed is the Buddha. ... So I tell you, Mind is the Buddha. As soon as thought or sensation arises, you fall into dualism."[Huang Po has fed us statements of great wisdom then, right at the end, when we think we have it all sorted out, he casually drops the following large pearl]:"Beginningless time and the present moment are the same. There is no this and no that. To understand this truth is called complete and unexcelled enlightenment".* The Japanese word zen - ch'an in Chinese, dhyana in Sanskrit - means meditation.

* "If one clings to what others have said and tries to understand Zen by explanation, he is like a dunce who thinks he can beat the moon with a pole or scratch an itching foot from the outside of a shoe. It will be impossible after all".

Mu-mon (1183-1260)

* Such long eye contactWith the old, limping magpie,Then she turned away. 1/10/00I need her, the leaf, the water and the rock, to satisfy my relationship with the 10,000 things. She doesn't need me. She knows her place in the scheme of things - without conscious thought. She wears it like feathers. * From DailyZen ~4/10/00

In this lump of flesh, there is a true person without position constantly going in and out through your faces. Those of you who have not verified this yet; look, look!

Lin-chi

Alone I go, and alone come back, and get myself some freedom. Finally, no dusty thoughts hang up the top of my head. From here on in, I'm throwing out true and false together. Isn't this Cold Mountain's finest flowing stream? [my bolding]

Hsu Yun (1840-1958) [Compare to “Beware of those two great impostors, success and failure”, written at the entrance to Wimbledon.

The morning glory blooms but an hour.Yet it differs not in heart from a giant pine,That lives for a thousand years.

Matsunaga Teitiku [Instead of "in heart" it could read "in soul". Perhaps that was what was written in the original.]

The Practice of MeditationTruth is perfect and complete in itself.It is not something newly discovered;It has always existed.Truth is not far away.It is nearer than near.There is no need to attain it,Since not one of your steps leads away from it.

Dogen [a seminar here, about "seeking the truth"]

Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage (extracts)Shitou Xiqian [700-790; an early Chinese Zen master. He was called one of Zen's

two 'great jewels' (the other was Mazu Daoyi). For some years, he meditated continually in a hut built on a rock at Nan Monastery, and was thus called Shitou ("Priest Rock Head")]

Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature.

Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.The vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from.

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.Open your hands and walk, innocent.

If you want to know the undying person in the hut,Don't separate from this skin bag here and now.

* From DailyZen ~19/10/00When I've faded awayThe kettle will still whistleAnd the birds still sing.I wonder if you'll recognizeThe sound of my voice.

Ji Aoi Ishi* From DailyZenDeep in the mountains, on an isolated peak, I live on my own in a stand of pines. In a simple hut, I sit meditating without concerns, silent and alone, dwelling peacefully, lighthearted. Once you've awakened, it's done: no effort needed. [my bolding]

Yung-chia (d.713)You must see your essenceBefore you attain enlightenmentWhat is seeing essence?It means seeing your own fundamental nature.What is its form?When you see your own fundamental nature,There is no concrete object to see.

This is hard to believe in,But all Buddhas attain it.

Xuefeng (822?908)Advancing has nothing to do with near and far, yet delusion creates obstacles high and wide. Students of the mystery, I humbly urge you, don't waste a moment, night or day!

Shih-t'ou (700-790)Buddha said, if you want to know the realm of buddhahood, you must make your mind as clear as empty space and leave false thinking and all grasping far behind, ... it's the realm of the wisdom of a self-awakened sage. ... Detach from all the clinging of the discriminating intellect and your false, unreal, vain thoughts which are also like empty space. Then this wondrous effortless mind will be unimpeded wherever it goes.

Zen Master Ta Hui*I take my place with heaven and earth and receive breath from the yin and the yang. I sit here between heaven and earth as a little stone or a little tree sits on a huge mountain. Since I can see my own smallness, what reason would I have to pride myself?"

Zhuangzi * At Howzat, during a class, the instructor said "It's important to keep your heart rate up", to which I added "The most important thing is, in fact, to keep your heart rate above zero."* 26/10/00: Bob Dylan's "It's not dark yet ..." and Leunig's "All my father left me ..." We manimals seem to see life as a journey, a trip we take in order to get somewhere worthwhile. "I went to town to shop." or "I drove to Sydney to go to the zoo." The journey is seen as incidental - something that must be endured on the way. Everyone knows the sounds of the children, from the back seat of the car - "Are we there yet?" The journey is not seen as the event. The event is when you get there. So the journey is spent looking forward. The moments of the journey are lost.“Expectancy is the greatest impediment to living: in anticipation of tomorrow it loses today.” Seneca, on Time.Holloywood's first major female film producer had this to say about this attitude and the inevitable cosequence of seeing our whole life as a journey:"Life's a trip . . . then you get there."You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, Julia Phillips.So, if we persist with this view of life as a journey, the inescapable conclusion is that the event, which we spend our life journeying towards, is death! Is death, then, to be the ultimate event of our life? Is this why we were given life, to live it simply as a journey towards death? Is this why we were granted intelligence? The simplest living creature knows (without knowing!) that life is the event and the purpose simply to live it till stopped by death.No, death is not the event. Life is the event. Life is the event. Life is the event.The journey was the short trip from the womb. There is no further journey to be taken towards life. Life is here and now. Life is the only event we have, and the only event we need.* 27/10/00 (at Howzat): There is great joy to be had in life in meeting targets. We set ourselves a goal - to pass an exam, to run 100 metres in 11 seconds, to climb a mountain - and the joy flows when that goal is achieved.So many people pass through life so absorbed in what they failed to achieve yesterday, or what they are concerned about achieving tomorrow. All of the time, while looking agitatedly backwards and nervously forwards, they are making (or missing opportunities to make) continual present achievements, and not reaping the joyous rewards.Animals, those creatures free of manimal's intellectual burdens, live by the joy of rewards - they just don't know it (or need to). Living the pure life is the only way they know. Their drive is instinctual. On waking, for example, animal stretches, relieves itself, avoids danger, eats and takes some sun. If threatened, it protects itself or its kin. In the natural breaks, the animal looks after itself by cleaning, preening, sharpening ... If all that is done, it takes a nap. Each essential activity in the animal's day is a goal achieved - each brings joy. Watch a magpie, after waking, eating, drinking, bathing - or simply to welcome the close of day - burst into spontaneous, joyous song. How many manimals sing so joyously and so often?!

Why can't we see the simplicity and joy of natural purpose? Why do we bother to scare away the simple pleasures with our self-made mental phantoms?• Manimal is nothing special. That simple realisation takes the stress off - stops us continually striving to live up to the expectations we place on ourselves, in the traditional belief that we are something special, that there is some divine purpose we are here to fulfil. The simple realisation that we are not something special, that we are, in fact, no more or less than an ant, or a sparrow, or a warthog or a lion, may stop us living with hang-ups and insecurities, with the necessity for "shrinks" and books on advanced navel-gazing. It may stop the countless suicides of those who are tired of continually failing to jump the bar, which we set so high. Like the other animals, we are just life forms, born to get on with our lives and then to die.Imagine the mental torment that a person goes through before deciding on, and then committing, suicide. This act goes against nature, where the genetic imprint drives each living creature to survive. Look at the ‘humble’ sparrow. Has anyone ever seen a sparrow suicide – for example to lie down in the path of a car. No, the sparrow just gets on with its life, in its own jaunty fashion, through all weathers, whether food is scarce or abundant, and then it dies. Why would it suicide? Why should we?

"I'm still a kid aren't I? I'm still a carbon based life form."Michael Kearney, child genius who completed college at 10, when asked if he

thought he was different (or special). Sunday TV, 2/7/95.* 4/11/00: From Sayings: The Wisdom of Zen, Ed. M D Mascetti

The seed of what was become Zen was said to have been sown during one of Buddha's discourses to his disciples, called "The Sermon on the Mount of the Holy Vulture". Buddha sat silently for a very long time, while his followers waited on his words of enlightenment. Finally, he lifted up a single lotus flower for them all to see, revealing (to the enlightened) the innermost mind of Buddha-nature. They were all puzzled, except Mahakashyapa, who silently took the flower from the Buddha, with a quiet smile. His singular reaction caused Buddha to say "I have the most precious treasure, spiritual and transcendental, which this moment I hand over to you, O venerable Mahakashyapa." The wandering monk Bodhidharma, who is said to have brought Zen Buddhism from India to China in 520, was a direct spiritual (?) descendant of Mahakashyapa.

" ... the aim of Zen practitioners was not to escape from the world, but to achieve the kind of detachment and insight that would enable them to become immune to wordly entanglements."

The patriarch said, "When discrimination doesn't arise, the light of emptiness shines by itself."

"Constantly calculating and making plans, flowing along with birth and death, becoming afraid and agitated - all these are sentiments of discriminating consciousness." (as compared to wisdom) [my emphasis]

The only time that death is important to a living being is at the instant of its arrival. Why then do we allow it to intrude so often into our lives?

"The time of a baby's gurgle is compared to a seeker when he leaves the mind of dividing and choosing. That's why a baby is praised." Sekishitsu4/11/00: wisdom is timeless, and doesn't differentiate between the simplest living creature (which has it in abundance) and all of the different forms of manimal, of its own invention. It both underlies and overlays self.* 15/10/00: All things can be reduced to xx piles of atoms. So. it's the arrangement and shape, rather than the essence, that gives each individual thing its character, and it's the soul that gives every individual thing its life. Ditto all coloured things: tree, sky, flower, Mona Lisa painting ... can be broken down into the three basic colours i.e. red, yellow and blue.* 15/10/00 (From DailyZen):"If you can stop the mentality of constant frantic seeking, then you are no different from Zen masters and Buddhas." Linji (866)."For one who wants to directly experience this path, the normal mind is the path. What is meant by the "normal mind?" It is the mind that is free from construction and production,

right and wrong, clinging and rejection, ordinary and saint. It is your everyday walking, standing, sitting and lying down, your personal encounters and contacts with things, which are all entirely just this path." Ma-tsu Tao-I (720-814).* Mad thoughts: What is a bee? asked Geoff's young grandson. Tell him it's a flower f***er, I joked. Then I got this wild thought. Imagine that people were inseminated like flowers, by a third party bee. Let's make a baby tonight, dear. Have you got the bee? Both parties lying there naked, and the bee goind from the man's penis to the woman's ... well you got it.* 8/10/00: "Buddha is concealed within the sentient beings. If for an instant of thought we become impartial, then sentient beings are themselves Buddha. In our mind itself a buddha exists, our own Buddha is the true Buddha. If we do not have in ourselves the Buddha mind, then where are we to seek Buddha?"Evocative of "Look within, thou art Buddha!" * 17/9/00: the things that you see when you make the time to look, to reconnect to the natural things. See for example ther haikus of 16/9/00 - the details of life.* 16/9/00: Manimal is the only animal that has secrets. Manimal feels the need to be continually dishonest - and dishonesty is not just telling an untruth when asked. It is also failing to declare a truth when not asked. These two aspects of dishonesty set us apart from the anmimals.* "Directness comes from life." p107 "Seeds From a Birch Tree". RHS' comment: Directness is life, just as life is directness. (IFF statement)

From the same book, a wonderful definition of life: "The feeling of a single moment happening now."

From the same book: makato - sincere feeling (is this the Japanese word for empathy?).* 7/9/00: From haiku book:

"There is one thing which flows through all great art, and that is a mind to follow nature, and return to nature." Matsuo Basho. Compare with Pam Burridge's answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?" which was "To be the best you can be ... then pass it on."

"Cockscombs ...Must be 14Or 15."Haiku by Masaoka Shiki, translated by Janine Beichman, quoted in the haiku book

"Seeds From a Birch Tree".What a treasure trove this haiku is! "Must be" has a certainty about it. Arrogance

almost. Manimal doing what manimal must. Putting things in categories. Counting things. Why does manimal always have to count things (I do it constantly). A flock of birds flies over. Why can't we just enjoy the beauty of the formation? Why must we count them? Imagine you're Shiki. Imagine you are critically sick in bed, and you see a beautiful bunch of flowers. You are wilting and they are fresh and vibrant. You are a poet and decide to write a haiku about the emotions that this sight stirs in you. With haiku you only have 17 syllables and "Cockscombs" takes up two. So, with 15 syllables left, do you write about their colour, their scent, their beauty? No, you write about how many were in the bunch. "Must be 14". Positive. But hang on ... "Or 15". Shiki has been pulling our collective legs. He has really sucked us in. "Or 15." Or maybe "Or 13." What he's saying is "It simply doesn't matter." It's not relevant. His feelings for the sight of the cockscombs cannot be described by anything founded in the intellectual process. "The true Tao cannot be talked about. The Tao that is talked about is not the true Tao." So here is Shiki's masterstroke. Here is what makes this possibly the greatest haiku. He is saying "Cancel lines 2 and 3." That only leaves line 1. So Shiki's haiku is a one-word, two-syllable haiku. "Cockscombs." Any further description is superfluous. Brilliant!* 1/9/00: If we go onto an aircraft with excess baggage we suffer a cost penalty. Manimal carries excess baggage all the time, in the form of hang-ups and put-downs, all created by choice in the mind, and suffers the penalty of not enjoying life to the full. Animals

carry no such excess baggage. They just get on with life. The story of the old monk and the new monk, and the young lady trying to ford a stream.* 23/8/00: "Heaven, Hell and the Hereafter"; good title for a WIMTAW chapter; Alexei Sayle quote on re-incarnation; only manimal has the concepts of life after death. Is this because only manimal has a conscious belief that he will die, and needs the comfort of an alternative to total extinction? The higher animals are burdened with no such mental ballast, and just get on with their perfect lives, until they cease to live and are replaced with others of their kind. Trace the beliefs of the different religions.* 22/8/00: You tap the keys. Electrons resonate. Waves bounce. The deal is done. Three points up on yesterday's trade. Zeros accrue to your account. The inheritance grows.

But when you cease to breathe, what will you have done with the life that you were uniquely privileged to spend?

The lion dies. He was the leader of the pride. He fought off all of the pretenders. His seed had flowered many cubs. Many of these went on to lead their own prides. He had succumbed to no other lion. He had lived a perfect life.

The other lion dies. He had fought the leaders of many prides and always lost. He had no surviving cubs to carry his genetic print. He had succumbed to all. He had lived a perfect life.

Point and counterpoint. For every success there must be a failure, and there must be successes for survival. Failure is as essential as success to existence, and as worthy.

Over the entrance at Wimbledon it says: "Beware of those two impostors, Success and Failure" (correct quote?).* 23/8/00: Why would anybody wear a T-shirt emblazoned with "Shit happens"? Is it supposed to be clever? Is it supposed to be deep? I prefer "Life happens".* I am the 10 year old Dick Sanders child, with an extra 50 years experience, (and almost a 10 year old's wisdom?).* 13/8/00: from Dailyzen

"You will see then that both your body and mind, together with the mountains, rivers, space and earth of the outward world, are all within the wonderful, illumined and true mind." Surangama Sutra

"Deep green needles glow against a cobalt sky;They radiate something that only few can sense.Snow white peaks, tops shrouded in the clouds,Shine and echo, shine and echoThrough both sides of the skin line.Oh, in all of this does lie some deep implication,Yet when I try to say more, I become silent, mute."

* 9/8/00:"Cats yawn because they realizeThat there's nothing to do." KerouacAnimals have that (innate) wisdom, which manimal has to consciously, continually

work to preserve, as it threatens to be overwhelmed by the confusion of the opposites, which we call 'intellect'.* 7/8/00: (Reflecting on having just turned 60) Age brings wisdom and the wisdom that comes with age (and only with age) fosters a calmness and contentment that pervades all aspects of one's life, including moments of intense grief and despair. The calmness stems from the absolute knowledge of what is relevant, what is essential, and what is not - the knowledge that there are no answers to be relentlessly pursued, because there are no essential questions to be asked. All the questions anguished about by manimal are a product of its intellectual mind, which was not here before we were born, and will not persist after we will die.* 7/8/00Hi M'lady MonkessLast week I turned 60, whatever that means.

When I was 20 I was continually seeking answers to all of those questions forced on us by our intellectual processes: why are we here; what is the purpose of life; what is the meaning of life; what comes after infinity ...The beat period was at its peak and it was trendy to read Kerouac and Ginsberg (Dos Passos, Miller, Durrel, Huxley ...). It was also cool to "get into Zen". The usual author was Alan Watts. Fortunately for me I chose instead Christmas Humphreys. I have never managed to finish Watts' primer, which I feel lacks life. Very early in Humphrey's little pearl of a book I read about the goose in the bottle. It's hard to describe how I felt. Veils dropped, bells rang, I had a neurochemical rush and wanted to run out and tell people ... I guess I had satori. I devoured the book. Then I discovered the Tao Te Ching and read that "by doing nothing, everything is done"! Whack across the head again! Then Basho's frog-in-the-old-pond added a layer to the subliminal message. Finally, with the Futility of Categorisation (Chuangtse?), the metamorphosis was virtually complete. I threw away "why" and started to truly admire the sparrow. I have never been concerned with why since (why? - just kidding!).I like your page because of the selection of writings you show. Perhaps, as I spend more time in there, I may be able to proffer some myself.Keep smiling.DickPS Have you read Kerouac's "The Scripture of The Golden Eternity"?* " ... all in all it's just another brick in the wall" (Pink Floyd, "The Wall"). Every time manimal is "clever", every time he does something with artifice, something ingenuine, puts intelligence before sense, does something out of harmony with the "ten thousand things", he effectively puts another brick in the wall that divides him from true life, from natural purpose.* John T Bruer, in his book "The Myth of the first three years: a new understanding pf early brain development and lifelong learning", refers to the brain development of a child during the first three years as "the early stage of exhuberant synaptic formation"!!!* Top Ten Epithets, or Greatest Statements of Aaaaaalll Time: Walk on!; Seize the day; Be the best you can, then pass it on; Me, We; I yam what I yam; Just do it!; I am the great I am; etc* Brain, heart, body - these are the main aspects of corporate manimal. But what of the mind and the soul? Are these unique to manimal? The soul is not, but the mind???* Manimal often strives to be exclusive. Animal finds safety and naturalness in being within the herd i.e. being inclusive.* Galileo Galilei was hailed as the father of modern physics. He was also a poet, writing a 301 line poem called "Against the donning of the gown". In this poem he claims that people could better appreciate one another's true virtues if everyone were to go naked, and that a man's dress tells no more about his true capabilities than a fancy flask discloses of the wine inside it.* The first rule of life is to do what you have to do and, when this is done, consider what you want to do. The trick in life is to make them one and the same. Manimal has difficulties with this. Animal has no conflict. What he/she has to do, and what he/she wants to do are, to the animal, the same.* Scientists have shown (Nature, Vol 405, 15 June 200, p 756) that the humble, despised cockroach can detect minute air movements using tiny hairs on two posterior appendages. From this it can surmise the direction of an impending attack, and scurry away. This is why they have survived so long. Animals in the wild, who live with the constant possibility of forming a meal for a predator, are continually alert, with their acute senses of hearing and smell helping them to wake to another day. It seems that all creatures except man live in continual anticipation of attack, and are therefore most often able to avoid it. Manimal, on the other hand, generally has no daily fear and, hence, is not continually vigilant. Manimals senses are not kept honed. They are dull from disuse. Imagine the sensations we could feel if our senses were continually operating at their potential! Because manimal is not continually in danger, he generally tends to succumb to it when it appears. Another good reason why manimal is destined to fade into extinction.

* Monuments & Memories; "Don't put no headstone on my grave ..."; animals leave no monuments, no material memories - just the genetic code that gradually imprints the memories of all the great members of the species into their very being. This is the natural way; there are wise, noble, kind animals too - exceptional members of their species; yet they neither seek, nor receive, any memorial when they pass on - no material memento of their being; on the other hand, they leave an even more magical and important memento - their exceptional genetic im print, to be carried by their children and passed on for an eternity.

Just imagine the wisdom of Pam Burridge's spontaneous reply to the question "What is the meaning of life?" She replied "To be the best you can, and pass it on." The first part of the answer was wise - the second inspired.* Ethology is the study of everyday behaviour.* 6/7/00: "Happiness is an illusion; only suffering is real." Voltaire. What a load of codswallop. Everything we experience is real. Even simulated experiences are real.

"Porphyry regards other animals as our brothers, because they are endowed with life as we are, because they have the same principles of life, the same feelings, the same ideas, memory, industry - as we. (Human) speech alone is wanting in them. If they had it should we dare to kill and eat them? Should we dare to commit these fratricides?" Francois Voltaire. That's better.* 29/6/00: "His eye is on the sparrow, And I know that he cares for you and me." Mahalia sang about her God, and used the sparrow to show that God saw all creatures as equal. Now I won't say that a sparrow is the same as an eagle, for that would take us into the crazy realms of relative thought. I will say, instead, that a sparrow is an eagle, just as an eagle is a sparrow.* 25/6/00: "If men and women cease to believe in God, so that the very idea of God passes out of their minds, they will come to resemble a race of fantastically clever monkeys ... and their ultimate fate will be too horrible to contemplate." 'Wise theologian" Father Karl Rahner, Sunday Magazine, 25/6/00. What arrogance! Man has believed in God for centuries (millenia) and look at the state of the world today - famine and disease in many countries, while others wastefully pursue material riches; greed is the creed, wars flourish, terrorism abounds, bombs explode and bullets rip. And while all of this God fearing, man-made mayhem continues, clever monkeys and other God-free animals just get on with their lives, as they have done before man, and certainly before man's notions of God.* 23/6/00: The following from Justin, plus my reply:

J: Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

D: Both equally. The key word is more. The man who is really not to be pitied is the man living in perfect freedom who has nothing to say. Equally the person who had nothing (that they need) to hear. "By doing nothing, everything is done."* 15/6/00: Searching for the truth, looking for the answers, seeking enlightenment - all these are future-focussed activities. We forego the certainty of now for the allure of the future, which is just an abstract notion of our own making anyway.* 15/6/00: All great artists have empathy, without which their creations would be simply lifeless reproductions of reality.* 15/6/00: With one eye on the carrot of the future, dangling provocatively from a pole held out in front, and the other in the rear-view mirror of the past, is it any wonder that manimal has such difficulties in appreciating the reality of the living now?* Isn't it amusing how we refer to something bad as "ordinary"? For example, it's teeming rain and the conditions for the football match were described as "ordinary" or even "very ordinary".* Why is man the only male animal whose penis is unprotected at all times?* Why do we call an obnoxious person a "mongrel", or a "bastard"? Neither term means an obnoxious person or animal. They are meant to be derogatory about an animal's or manimal's parentage. But there is nothing to suggest that one's parentage has anything to do with one's obnoxious actions. Mongrels make wonderful, gentle and faithful pets. Similarly some of the world's great people have been born of unmarried persons.

* For every Hitler, there's a Mother Theresa (and vice versa).* 6/6/00: Mahatma Ghandi, Jesus Christ ... Each knew all mankind with the absolute knowledge "that passeth all understanding". Yet, paradoxically, that knowledge of, affinity with, empathy with, all mankind caused them to become alienated from all mankind. It set them apart from the "common man" and, although revered and worshipped with a single-minded fanaticism, it made them terribly alone. Their higher state set them apart and made them friendless.* In WWW there are some quotes which are under Wit (or especially Whimsy which have within them great wisdom. Ditto there are many quotes (which I tend not to include), which purport to enshrine "the wisdom of the day", which I find quite whimsical. This is reminiscent of the chess notation which uses !? to signify a move which looks at first brilliant, but which, on closer inspection, is foolish. There is also the notation ?! which looks foolhardy but which, on closer inspection, is brilliant. "The futility of categorisation" as Chuangtse (?) put it.* I was born here and I'll die here, against my will I know it looks like I'm movin' but I'm standin' still Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from Don't even hear a murmur of a prayer It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.

Bob Dylan, last verse of "Not Dark Yet", from Time Out of Mind 1997.Perhaps the last line of each verse is Dylan-speak for the message from Seneca to

Lucillus when she said: "Where will you find the man who sets any value on time? Who reckons the value of a day, or understands that he is dying daily? For herein we are deceived; we look forward at death, whereas death in a great measure is already passed; all the lapsed years of life are already in the tenure of death."

In the past, batteries (and their performance) faded slowly. Modern batteries "hold their charge" almost to the end, then fade quickly. So, when they are tested they show that they are "charged" even though they may be more than half way, in the sense of time, through their useful life. This is analagous to the human life. We see ourselves as "charged" right up till the time of our imminent death. Then the shock of death. Better to take Seneca's view, that we are still fully "charged", but that "death in a great measure is already passed". Or, as Dylan says "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there". There is nothing morbid about this. In a sense it's a realisation of our fortune to have had those past years of life, (where others have not).

See the third last line, last verse. Often people stay in hurtful situations because they have an innate feeling that they got there to escape something else, that it's better to stay with the known, even when that includes known pain, than leave the "comfort" of that situation for the unknown.* Elvis, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis were the pioneers, the ones who built the bridge between blues and rock and roll, in the 50s, and then just rocked on over.* "He was an animal" ... "he ate like a pig" ... he made an ass of himself" ... "Bird Brain" ... Do animals say "He made a manimal of himself"?

Boxing is considered a brutal sport for manimals. Yet compare our boxing with the brutal, and essential, fighting that takes place between two male red kangaroos, or deer, or lions or ...* Animal is minimal, manimal is maximal! Animal lives a simple, ascetic life, whereas manimal is always looking for more.* Up in the morning c.f. warthog and manimal. Warthog emerges from the burrow, cautious for predators; sniffs the air; relives itself and trots off for sunshine and food; manimal stares into the mirror, counts grey hairs, ponders age, checks cellulite, pulls in stromach and flexes, turning to admire th side view; checks for wrinkles; worries about the tasks of the day ahead. Fenech, as an orator renowned for his emotion ("I love youse all") rather than his rhetoric. Yet he showed wisdom when he said: "xxx". Ali also "xxx". See also Lionel Rose wisdom, #xxx.

* 27/5/00: from the book "Century": "There were pictures with green skies and purple seas. There were paintings which could have been explained only by abnormal eyesight or wilful fraud on the part of the painter. If they really paint in this manner because they see things in this way, then these unhappy persons should be dealt with in the department of the Ministry of the Interior where sterilisation of the insane is dealt with to prevent them passing on their unfortunate inheritance." Adolf Hitler, speech at Munich, 18/7/37. How reminiscent of the Harry Chapin song "Flowers Are Red":Flowers Are RedThe little boy went first day of schoolHe got some crayons and started to drawHe put colours all over the paperFor colours was what he sawAnd the teacher said .. What you doin' young manI'm paintin' flowers he saidShe said ... It's not the time for art young manAnd anyway flowers are green and redThere's a time for everything young manAnd a way it should be doneYou've got to show concern for everyone elseFor you're not the only one

And she said ...Flowers are red young manGreen leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan the way they always have been seen

But the little boy said ...There are so many colours in the rainbowSo many colours in the morning sunSo many colours in the flower and I see every one.

Well the teacher said ... You're sassyThere's ways that things should beAnd you'll paint flowers the way they areSo repeat after me ...

And she said ...Flowers are red young manGreen leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan the way they always have been seen

But the little boy said ...There are so many colours in the rainbowSo many colours in the morning sunSo many colours in the flower and I see every one.

The teacher out him in a cornerShe said ... It's for your own good ...And you won't come out 'til you get it rightAnd all responding like you shouldWell finally he got lonelyFrightened thoughts filled his headAnd he went up to the teacher

And this is what he said ... and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always doesAnd they moved to another townAnd the little boy went to another schoolAnd this is what he foundThe teacher there was smilin'She said ... Paintin' should be funAnd there are so many colours in a flowerSo let's use every one

But that little boy painted flowersIn neat rows of green and redAnd when the teacher asked him whyThis is what he said ... and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan the way they always have been seen.* Think how coy we manimals are about our naked bodies. Some married couples never see each other naked. All of the "funny business" takes place in the dark, out of sight under the sheets. Imagine how embarrassed one manimal would be if the other actually saw his naked arse? Yet dogs and cats wlk past us every day, exposing their bare arses to us and no one turns a hair. Why should it be any different for manimal. Ditto balls. The kangaroo's retractable balls. * Do animals have a sense of humour? Certainly the manimal-like chimpanzee seems to find some things funny. But perhaps that's because we can relate to the way they excpress their humour. Other animals may see the funny side of things also, but not show it. Perhaps, like the Chinese, they are inscrutable. Perhaps the same could be said of grief. I recall film of a gorilla clutching its dead baby, its grief apparent.* "No sooner is it a little calmer with me than it is almost too calm, as though I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy. " -- Franz Kafka

Kafka was a dark person. I think his quote would be universal if "unhappy" were replaced by "emotional". When we are emotional we shed our intellectual constraints and become more natural, till the intense emotion (laughter, fear, sorrow ...) passes. That is why we get a "true feeling of ourselves". Unlike manimal, the animals have the true feelings of themselves all of the time!

"People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past. " -- Milan Kundera

Ah, the difficulties we create for ourselves with our concepts of past and future. The past, like the future, is lifeless, since it is only a concept. I prefer Omar Khayyam's "Alike for those who for To-DAY prepare, And those that after a To-MORROW stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries 'Fools! your reward is neither Here nor There!' Last week I was having lunch with a young friend, and the subject of the future came up. I spontaneously remarked "Today is only yesterday's tomorrow, so what do words mean anyway?" When I mentioned this to my daughter-in-law she wisely added "Today is also tomorrow's yesterday".

"To seek fulfillment is to invite frustration." -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti was a wise man. I don't know if the wisdom of his statement is totally apparent. It's the seeking that causes frustration, because we already have fulfilment, during the complete continuum of moments that is our life. To seek is to look to the future, which doesn't exist!* 27/4/00: The person who goes through life always concerned with seeking "the truth" or "the answer", or "the meaning of life" or whatever other delusory creation of the fertile manimal imagination, is like someone trampling through a luxuriant flower garden, to get to the fence in the hope of seeing a beautiful flower on the other side.* 27/4/00: Mahalia Jackson sang "His eye is on the sparrow". We tend to disregard or despise what is common, what is ubiquitous. People pass the sparrow on the street without a second glance, yet the sparrow is a beautiful bird - the cock bird with his starkly maked face and breast, and the hen, pretty in her subdued livery of fawn. "Familiarity breeds contempt" ... "A weed is a flower whose virtues have not yet been discovered" ..."The grass is always greener on the other side" ... "An expert is someone from out of town".* 26/4/00: Why do people always want more? What fosters greed in manimal? Why can't manimal see that "usual life", ordinary life, simple life, is enough, that the ultimate pleasure of life is simply the living of it?

Think of the song "Is that all there is?" The line goes "Is that all there is? Is that all there is? If that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing". My answer is "That is certainly all there is, so stop wishing for more and enjoy life's dance - keep dancing."* 25/4/00: You're walking along a path and someone is approaching from the opposite direction. Your head turns as they get near and you look at them, ready for eye contact and a greeting. But they look straight ahead, making no eye contact, and pass by without making a connection.

Now think of two animals approaching, each a stranger to the other. Can you imagine that they would pass without looking, without speaking, without making contact? No way. There would certainly be an exchange, either a friendly greeting or a territorial challenge. Animals always connect, whether as friend or foe. Many manimals seem to feel that they can avoid connectedness. What are they afraid of?

Think of the quote:"One thing's for sure - interconnectedness ain't all smiley, smiley, let's come together,

drink a coke, pat a puppy, and sing Barry Manilow songs." My corollary: "But it is essential to a complete life."

The Tao of Muhammad Ali, by Davis Miller.* The lines from Kenny Roger's song "The Gambler" are a perfect manimal statement of natural purpose i.e. "you've got to know when to hold up; know when to fold up; know when to walk away, know when to run". Animal doesn't know that it knows these things. It just does them and "walks on".* Why does music so appeal to manimal? Birds make music, bees hum, cicadas and crickets chirp their one-note song, dogs howl, cats cry, but is all this music, in the way that manimal makes and uses music?* Where are all of the dead animals and birds? Apart from road kills, how often do you see a dead bird or animal on the ground? Where do they go? Are they all just taken into the food chain by other birds and animals?

Manimal is the only living creature that has graves, plots, headstones, mouments. Manimal is the only creature that seems to need his/her presence to be marked and remembered - to be commemorated. Other creatures just die and drop, and are either taken into the food chain or rot into the earth. They return to the Essence. Why isn't manimal just content with living, then dying? Thes thoughts were provoked by Jerry Lee Lewis' song "Don't Put No Headstone On My Grave". My request is for my ashes to be put into the leaf mulch somewhere in the bush at a place not readily relocated. Or simply scattered into the sea. Why want the ashes put anywhere at all? Well, I think that burial is a direct way of the disused body returning to the Essence, but the practice consumes vast tracts of land. Cremation appeals more, but the ashes, unless taken and returned to the Essence by family

or friends, probably end up in a rubbish tip, and this is a less appealing way of returning to the Essence.* (13/4/00; at lunch with Andrew Masson): Today is just yesterday's tomorrow. So what do words mean anyway? Why do we put so much importance on relative concepts?* 14/4/00; Quote from the song Ebony & Ivory; black supremacists want everyone to be black; white supremacists want everyone to be white; if the latter (for example) got their way, what would they then have to rail against? Black-haired whites; quote the Blue Eyes example of applied racism; We all need both black and white for the contrast they provide; the black print on a white newspaper page enables us to read. Black helps us appreciate white, just as white helps us appreciate black; imagine if the KKK banned everything black (quote from the Wonderful O of James Thurber) ... white print on white pages in white books, white lines at the centre of white roads ...; * People who always want "more" will be most unhappy when they have everything, for when you have everything there is no "more" to be had, no "more" to be wanted. People who find happiness when they have little, will always be happy, and will appreciate each gaining.

"By doing nothing, everything is done".* There is some considerable unhappiness in my life and I am continually happy.* "The Little King Who Couldn't Dance": Grouches, groaners, cranks and moaners, they're so unfair. If you can't be gay and merry, lock yourself in solitary.Though it hurts you, though it hurts you, be a pleasanter guy. You may even learn to like it, if you give it a try. You can laugh and sing and dance as gaily as an elf but ... don't expect to get much help if you don't help your self.* Let's learn from the lips of the seers who have come before.*** all below has been incorporated into WIMTAW **** A child is the purest form of manimal.* Dialogue = communion, and communion = a life shared, with natural purpose. All living things commune. All things require communion with other things to exist. Not only "No man is an island", but no thing is an island, not even an island. An island communes with the surrounding lake or seas.* Do you feel you are different, dear reader. Do you feel that no one shares your thoughts, your way of existence. Well, dear reader, be surprised by your very sameness to others. * What diseases and ailments of manimal are also found in the higher animals? What is the purpose of the common diseases. What is the purpose of the diseases that are unique to manimal? Who is the expert on these matters?* From "The Odd Body" by Dr Stephen Juan, extracts in the Sunday Telegraph Sunday Magazine 2/4/00:

By the age of four a typical person will have acquired half the intelligence they will have acquired by age 17.By age six they will have acquired two-thirds. The rest comes in the subsequent years of life.

Mosquitoes prefer blondes.A baby learns to smile in the womb, but does not learn to frown until about six

months after birth.An infant's vision switches from two-dimensional to three-dimensional at four months

of age. Infants hardly ever vary from this timetable by more than two weeks.Genetically, 90 per cent of human genes are identical to those of a mouse.Research shows that 100 laughs burn off calories equal to the amount burned off in

10 minutes of rowing.* 26/3/00: Walk along the shoreline at the beach. Watch the footprints you leave. What is more important, the prints or the person who made them? Look back and see them washed away by the waves. Message: concentrate on what you are, not on what you've done or where you've been. * To most intellectual people nonsense is stupid. To the Zen adept, however, non-sense is super-sense, a brain-shaking leap away from the intellect towards true enlightenment.

* 21/11/99 thoughts: Do the strictures of rhyme and melody produce words that inspire e.g. as in a haiku? Is this how Paul Simon hit on the inspirational One Trick Pony, or Diamonds on the Soles of His Shoes, or Graceland, or Kodachrome, or Ace in The Hole? Think also of the mind-tickling words that flow from the so called "free-form" prose and poetry of Allen Ginsberg. So do constraints and restraints actually, paradoxically, liberate the thoughts of true artists? * The most beautiful, moving, emotional music/songs of all time? I can't split between Mahalia Jackson's Lord's Prayer at the 1957? Newport Jazz Festival and Jussi Bjorling and Robert Merril's In The Depths Of The Temple. The latter is a wonderful example of what can be achieved when manimal is in harmony with his kind. Isn't it interesting how harmony is only achieved by two or more voices singing in different registers!?* The ubiquitous sparrow. Except for people at sea, or travelling high in the air, each of us encounters them every day. So they are a natural barometer (elaborate more) for gauging how much we allow ourselves to be distracted away from "natural purpose" each day or, to put it positively, to gauge how we align with natural purpose during each and every day. If we can answer in the affirmative the question "Did you take time today to admire a sparrow", then we are living our life with attention to the important things. If we have to answer in the negative, it is a warning to review our priorities. We were probably spending "sparrow time" preoccupied with things material or concepts intellectual, neither of which has anything whatever to do with natural purpose.* A stone is alive! What is 'life'? Does it need a brain, heart, gut and a vascular system? A tree has life. It also has a vascular system (but heart, brain, gut?). A stone has life because it has energy, and energy is life.

Energy is life so everything, animate or inanimate, has life.The rock on the river bank has life (potential energy, due to its height and the force of gravity). When it falls, through erosion, tremor or being dislodged by a passing animal, and drops into the river, and rolls with the currents, its energy simply transforms (kinetic energy, due to its mass and velocity). Nothing ever dies. Things just rest awhile, and the energy moves on somewhere else, to bring life to some new thing, within the Soul of the World.

Think of the "life" in an avalanche, a mud-slide, a rock fall.* Why is a sense of humour so essential to the attaining of wisdom by manimal, and so irrelevant to the higher animals. Perhaps it's because we need the non-sense, the absurdity of most humorous situations, to continually challenge and recalibrate our intellectual processes, to take us away from the "relatives" and back to the essential, the "absolutes".The higher animals don't need humour, because they have never had the burden of the opposites, and the need for regular recalibration.* Only the very young and the old are wise. Babies eat when hungry, cry when in need, and sleep when tired, "without a second thought" (or indeed without a first thought!). The young are living the Zen credo; they are born wise. They know all they need to know. Then that knowledge gets lost in the confusion of education, the smokescreen of the opposites. With age, some manage to see through this folly, and strive to regain the wisdom they had as a child. Some never see past the illusion, and die without ever becoming wise again. How to do it? By losing, discarding ...* Only manimal has clothes. Only manimal needs clothes. Only manimal has pornography. Only manimal needs pornography. Only (heterosexual) manimal seems to need to look at the private parts of the opposite sex to get aroused. Higher animals wait for the female to "ask for it" then they mate (have sex). If a female manimal "asks for it, she's deemed to be a "slut"!* All animals communicate ... by body language, sign language and by voice sounds. Only the manimal communicates opinion i.e. relative judgements based on the opposites. The higher animals deal only with absolutes. When the purpose of life is simply to live, there is no scope for adding in the complications imposed by relative thinking and the resulting actions.

Write about the difference in thinking not I am alive, then I'm dead i.e. extreme, shock horror, but I have lived for 50 years of my alloted span i.e. I have already had a lot, and I still have some to go.* Thoughts while lying awake in the early hours, 24/2/00:

"Notches, slots and lines". A notch is where a division starts but not yet exists. A single axe blow into a tree is not important. When the next blow, at an angle, produces a chip, a notch is formed. But there is yet no division. All around the notch is the same thing, the tree. When the tree is nearly cut in two, there is still no division. The moment the final, severing blow is administered, however, the notch becomes a line, and there is division. What was, until this moment, a single tree, is now a fallen tree and its stump. So a line defines a division.

Now a river, seen from space, is a line, and rivers often divide states, or even countries. And a river clearly has two sides. People standing on opposite sides of a river are analagous to people with opposite opinions. Now consider attempts to bring their opinions closer, by moving along the river banks. If they move in opposite directions, then their positions will become, as expected, even further apart than they started. But if they move in the same direction, they remain as far apart as before, no matter how far they move! The only way their opinions will ever unite will be if they move towards one another, if they cross the river, the line of division.

Now consider an enclosed body of water, such as a lake. Imagine it's perfectly round. Let's continue the analogy and remember the expression "their opinions were diametrically opposite". So we imagine two people on diametrically opposite sides of a round lake. Say one is at "3 o'clock" and the other at "9 o'clock". Now imagine they each moved off, at the same time, in the same clockwise direction. The one at "3 o'clock" would move immediately north, while the one at "9 o'clock" would move immediately south. So, to move in the same direction (clockwise), each would have to move in a different direction at any given point in time! If they moved at the same speed, they would always maintain their relative positions (opinions), no matter how far they moved in the same direction! So much for categorisation! For them both to come together, each would have to move in different directions, one clockwise and one anti-clockwise. Even in a tangential sense, they would never be pointing in the same direction, even at the point at which they meet. In fact, at the point at which they meet, they would actually be facing in opposite directions!

i.e. to meet, you must always cross the water. Even then, at the time instant of meeting each is pointing in an opposite direction. It seems that the only way to meet, and be pointing in the same direction, in the case of the circular lake, is for each to move in the same direction e.g. clockwise, but at different speeds so that, at the time of coming together, each isd pointing in the same direction. At that time, each can assume the same speed. etc etc

Ladies' notches; the surgeon's incision (makes a line with the scalpel, to create a hole); the need for topology;* Two animals of the same species are always honest with one another, a trait that manimal finds at best difficult, and usually impossible. Why?

Imagine two warthogs, one of whom is unhappy with the other being in her space. Also, imagine two manimals in the same situation. Which one would anguish "Oh, how can I ask her to move away without hurting her feelings? What if she creates a scene?" Which one simply grunts meaningfully? And, when the deed has been done, and each has the peace and comfort, withing her own space, that she sought, which one ponders "I bet she'll never speak to me again ... perhaps I should have said it differently ... what if she tells all of her family that I'm a cranky bitch?" And which one simply gets on with life, the incident forgotten?

Warthogs are not honest by choice. They never have to weigh up the options - honesty or dishonesty. These are relative terms we manimals have dreamed up. It's not that, of the two options, they only have honesty. It's simply that they have neither option. They are honest without having the concept of honesty. They simply do what they do. How much simpler if manimal followed their fine example.

* The warthog lives an exemplary life. It is exemplary because it is natural. There is no artifice, no affectation, no posturing. The warthog rises in the morning with the feeling of rising in the morning, but no concept of rising in the morning. The warthog rummages for food with the feeling of rummaging for food, but no concept of rummaging for food. It has a feeling of hunger but no concept of hunger.

Many people think that the warthog is ugly. The warthog does not think it is ugly. The warthog does not think it is beautiful. The warthog simply knows, without the concept of knowing, that it is a warthog, and walks on contented.* The world that John Lennon imagined in his inspirational song, as a respite from the world of man(imal) was, in fact, the world of animals!* 1/2/00: It's the process that's important, not the outcome. You spent your 'tixpence . . .* 26/1/00: I have often put the proposition that empathy is the quality that enriches the life of manimals. I have just had the thought, though, that perhaps it is bad for manimals and animals alike (realising that 'bad' is a relative term). Empathy means helping the weak, and this goes against the basic law of life - survival of the fittest. Perhaps, because of empathy, manimal will become a weaker species and become extinct. Mum used to say "You've got to be cruel to be kind." Perhaps that means that we must subdue our empathy, not help the weak, and be kind to the remaining race of manimals as a result.

In the wonderful Australian documentary "Faces in The Mob", two kangaroo mothers are contrasted. One is protective of her young, encouraging it to come into the pouch whenever there is a sign of danger. The other is a "slack bitch", totally unconcerned about her progeny, which she allows to wander off without protest, and for which she turns away as it tries to re-enter the pouch. $$ continue* 17/1/00: I am amused by people who devote so much of their life's energy to "searching for the meaning of life". To look for the meaning of life just as foolish as to look for the meaning of a flower, a stone, or a meat pie! The meaning of a flower is a flower; the meaning of a stone is a stone; the meaning of a meat pie is a meat pie; and the meaning of life? you guessed it - it's simply life itself. The meaning of life is found (it was never really lost, just hidden by the smoke screen of our intellectual mind-games) in the living of it.

We are born, we live, then we die. That's it. That's enough for every form of life except manimal. We are the only life-form that seeks more - that hopes and prays for a life hereafter, with every pious second spent one less for the living.

Jack Kerouac, in Lonesome Traveller, said of his time at Desolation Peak:"Sometimes I'd yell questions at the rocks and trees, and across gorges, or yodel -

'What is the meaning of the void?' The answer was perfect silence, so I knew. -"Those who "search for the truth" are amusing also. Truth has no absolute value

whatever. Truth, like its counterpoint the lie, is a construction of the manimal. No other animal bothers itself with this distraction, this obstruction to living. Whatever lies plague us are of our own making. Why do we find it so difficult to make a truths? Think of the "problem" of the goose in the bottle. We had no problem allowing our mind to put it in, but we can't seem to allow ourselves to just as simply take it out. What a perverse creature is manimal!* 16/1/00; Philosophers try to cleverly play with words, while seers try to awaken the soul with words.• Fanatics and addicts are the same. Both live blinkered lives. Both are excluders. To live a natural life - "Usual life" - one must have a clear, open mind. This is impossible for fanatics and addicts, who have turn all of their senses to serving their addiction, or the source of their fanaticism.• *** NOTE: entered into WIMTAW, and amended, between 4 and 18/12/99 ***• The true person is childlike and naked - uncluttered by concepts or clothes. (elaborate)• See how tentative we humans are when we meet someone for the first time, keen not to make a bad impression, trying to figure the other person out quickly. Imagine if we humans met one another for the first time as dogs do, by getting down on all fours and sniffing bottoms! That would take the pretence and pomp out of our actions!

• Note the last verse in "Peace In The Valley" which says:Well the bear will be gentle and the wolves will be tamedAnd the lions shall lay down by the lambsAnd the beasts of the wild shall be led by a childAnd I will be changed from the creature that I am."

That is, I will become a higher animal.• Note the use of euphemisms to sell the concept of war e.g. "gooks" (the enemy is non-human. Gook does not evoke a human mental image.) and "kick ass" instead of "blow to bits". Note how the enemy called a truce at Xmas (WW1), toasted one another, then next day blew one another away.** "The essential things in life"; essence, essential, "down to earth; quintessential; write about them.** Think about the fuss the human animal makes about fornication. The higher animals just simply mate. None of that, "Let's get to gether behind the bush when the rest of the herd is not looking. We could make great music together." None of that "What will the others in the herd think." It's just "Let's mate." "Righto."

No animal converting to homosexuality because the other sex just makes it too difficult to score. No animal committing suicide because its partner has sex with another.** The wisest saying of all time? How about Popeye's "I yam what I yam." When he said this he was saying "Whether I suit you or not, whether I am ugly, malformed, dangerous or useless to you, it counts for nothing for I yam what I yam. I can be no other." When he spoke he was speaking for the winner, and equally for the loser. He was speaking for the warthog, in its beautiful ugliness, just as he was speaking for the gazelle. He was speaking for the Protestant equally as he was for the Catholic, for the thorn bush as for the lily, for the rough stone as for the smooth, for the commoner as for the king, for the black as for the white, the rich as the poor. He was saying, in essence that the form of me is of no consequence, I am the essential me and as important to the spin and vibration of the natural processes as any other. I am me, and I am here because I must be. I am needed.** "There are some things in life that you don't have to know how it works. The main thing is that it works. While some are studying the roots, others are picking the fruits. Success just depends on which end of this you want to be." From IMC, Issue 169, 13/10/99.** "What you see depends on what you thought before you looked."

Eugene Taurman (from www.squarewheels.com). Good commentary on bigotry, channelled thinking.** "The Life & Times of Life & Times"; 17/9/99; wonderfully thought provoking SBS program on ageing and time. Extracts:

"With the exception of your neurones, and your muscle cells, the cells that were present in your body 10 or 15 or 20 years ago are no longer there - so that you are literally not the same person that you were 10 years ago. As a matter of fact, when you celebrate your birthday you should only be celebrating the birthday of your neurones and muscle cells, which have been around since birth. Everything else is new." Leonard Hayflick, University of California, San Francisco.

Consider the creosote bush, an arid lands plant in USA. The original single bush sends out roots radially, underground. New bushes grow in a ring, then these send out roots etc. So the ring grows with living bushes, as the old die progressively within the ring's centre. "King Clone", a creosote bush and the oldest living plant at the time it was dated, was 11700 years old. The plants that make up the living ring aren't that old, but the ring itself is. In a similar way the sequoia or redwood trees, said to be hundreds or thousands of years old, are only really about 30 years old. This is the age of the living, outer, wood. The inner, ancient, wood is dead.

"We all understand that our lives are finite. But there is an aspect of our bodies that is indeed immortal and that is either our sperm or egg cells, that go on to provide a new generation. So that you and I and our viewers represent the leading edge of an immortal lineage of cells that have been in existence for many millions or tens of millions of years."

Leonard Hayflick, University of California, San Francisco. [RHS' comment: So, for those of us who procreate, life is a circle. For those who don't, life is a mere dot.] In fact, life may not be a circle so much as a Mandelbrot pattern, with circle growing on circle in an infinite diversity of patterns! (see "The Web Of Life" by Fritjof Capra, which refers to Benoit Mandelbrot's book "The Fractal Geometry of Nature"). Also note, in view of Hayflick's last sentence, Algernon Charles Swinburne's lines, in Hertha, "In the buds of your lives is the sap of my leaves: ye shall live and not die."

"It's funny to hear someone being referred to as 'aged'. As if, before they were 'aged', they had no age." Alain Prochiantz, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. [RHS' comment: compare to Laotse's 'The futility of categorisation'. In the system of opposites, 'young' is the antithesis of 'old'. But what is the opposite of 'aged'?]

"Cell division is also time, because cells don't merge back together." Alain Prochiantz, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. [RHS comment: Interesting to try to list all of the things in life which, like cell division, are not reversible. Certainly the most fundamental of these is cell division.]

"I believe that time is a deformation. In living beings, time is essentially a deformation. Time isn't some outside entity affecting things externally - time is embedded within the deformation. Ageing is history. It's a process of individuation. Each individual is unique, precisely because of history, because of time.

Let's say we take a person who's never played the violin, for instance, and we teach that person to play it. Not so easy with an adult, but still let's look at the hand in the sensorial cortex, at the density of neural networks involved in the hand's sensations. It's all up there. When I pinch myself it hurts because my cortex has hundreds of representations of my hand. So, looking at the density of neural networks called 'hand', the brain's hands, if you like, increase very fast. Using a PET scan we'll see that within a month the hand has significantly grown in the brain because its sensitivity has increased and exercise has modified its representation in the cortex. That's individuation. It's history. If I hadn't studied the violin, my hand wouldn't have changed. So we are organisms built in relation to the world, in relation to others, to our environment. And this process of building only stops with death precisely because our brain changes according to our history. I don't really know what an individual is. We are subjects in the process of individuation. There is no point in evaluating positively or negatively what happens after 10, 20, 25, 30 or 40. It makes no sense. It would be denying that individuals exist. I'm in favour of all artefacts. I'm happy to try any pill and so on. Still, I believe that the best pill is to be alive. I mean, not to be certain what will happen next." Alain Prochiantz, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.** Thoughts on patterned thinking. 20/8/99. The new wonder drug for curing heroin addicts is Naltrexone. DT 12/8/99 says "The drug is a long lasting blocking agent that stops the body craving heroin . . Receptors in the brain shut down, preventing a "high" if heroin is used . . It can also treat alcoholism."

On the radio on Friday night I also heard that it can stop people from smoking. In other words it seems to arrest patterned thinking. Would an obsessive compulsive lose his/her obsessive behaviour patters if he/she took Naltrexone? Would someone on Naltrexone lose their religious belief? Since patterned thinking is caused by repeated learning, and stored as memory, is there a link between the effects of Naltrexone and the effects of AD? Recently it was stated that medical researchers had established a link between obsessive compulsives and those in love. Both apparently had abnormal amounts of the same chemical in their blood. Would Naltrexone cause someone in love to lose their feelings of love towards their loved one?** "Implication is more powerful than specification" quoted by Michael Fortin, IMC e-zine, 28/7/99. Think of the full meaning of this quite profound statement. See the chest beating of the silverback gorilla (rather than the tearing to pieces of his rival) or the roar of the lion, or the display of many animals, including the hymn animal - all designed to imply, so as to avoid the actual deed. etc etc [** I just read this again, 20/9/99, well after it was written. It must have been conceived late at night, fatigued and on a mental 'high'. I meant to write

'the human animal' and I wrote instead 'the hymn animal'! There must be a book in that subliminally inspired whack of satori alone. **]** There are said to be FIVE senses i.e. sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. I contend that there is a sixth, namely balance. This is worth expanding on some time.** We speak of the Animal Kingdom, to describe the "inferior" members, the "dumb animals", but of the Human Race.** Our perception of normality is well represented by the normal distribution curve. In the thick middle we have the bulk of the group, and at the thin edges we have the two extremes. If we think in terms of intelligence, for example, the two extreme ends would represent a fool (on the left, or minus side) and a genius (on the right, or plus side). But what if our normal distribution curve were actually a section through a Mexican Hat, three-dimensional distribution shape. Then which extreme limit the fool sat on, and which the genius sat on, would be totally dependent on which way the solid surface was sliced. That is, I contend, a fool is a genius and a genius is a fool. It just depends on the point of view we choose top adopt. [Later thought - 'point of view'. I never analysed this phrase before. In all cases it refers to the point on the perimeter on the mexican hat from which we take our view. Catholics in Northern Ireland simply admire the view from the opposite edge of the religious hat to the Protestants.** "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Attributed to novelist Philip K Dick in Nature Australia, Winter 1999. Good statement to build on in terms of belief versus knowledge.** Consider the genius of Beethoven, then listen to a Lyre bird sing its ad lib song, weaving the songs of birds with the sounds of four wheel drive vehicles, cameras, wood chopping etc. It not only composes, "on the fly", but sings all of the parts!

Consider the genius of Le Corbusier, then look at the architectural masterpiece of the swallows, with their apartment blocks of mud. They not only design, they build!** Use "Man is the superior animal" as a PMI exercise for a school thinking class.

Note: what we are is good, in fact what we are is perfect. Why do we have to play word games to convince ourselves we are better?• Good idea for a book, in the vein of Tao of Pooh. Perhaps I should write a Tao of Alice (even better, the Alice of Tao). [Later, in deference to that great Everyman Fred Fernakapan, what about 'The Fred of Tao'? i.e. the opposite of 'we have lost the fred.'** We never die. The I will die, because I am the subjective creation of myself and others, a mere concept. But the me will always endure. It is an essential, indivisible and enduring part of the "ten thousand things". So, in essence, one can never get up from the Table of Life (the Table of Isness).** The beat poet Philip Lamantia says "There is this distance between me and what I see." (Strange how some seemingly simple statements are so stunning in their import.) This leads to the thought that you can never touch what you see, and only the blind can touch what they see.

*** This latter is surely a koan: "Only the blind can touch what they see." ***Lamantia's stunning observation could provoke an interesting comparison with the

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which suggests that you can never measure anything because, by the very act of physical measurement, you change that which you are trying to measure. Werner Heisenberg was a Nobel Prize winning German atomic physicist. His principle specifically states that the position and velocity of an electron in motion cannot be measured with high precision. For example, to find the position of a moving electron, a ray of light must strike it. Because the electron is so small, the light must have a short wave length. Such radiation (a gamma ray) has a high frequency and high energy, which cause it to change the velocity of the electron. So the very means used to determine the position of the electron changes the electron's velocity.** Consider the circle of I am, I think, I believe, I know, I am, . . Now consider the question: Why were humans given the ability to intellectualise? It wasn't to know, because all living things, all animals, know. Was it to think? If so, to what purpose other than to destroy ourselves with uncertainty? To believe? If so, to what purpose other than to rail against, and

isolate ourselves from, others with dissimilar beliefs? Neither of the two options (think and believe) is worthwhile. Neither contributes to natural purpose, to the perpetuation of the species. Both strike against it. Surely this conundrum proves that homosapiens is inferior to all other living things, those that simply know.

The Fitzgerald translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam tells us:The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and Noes,But Right and Left as strikes the Player goes;And He that tossed Thee down into the Field.He knows about it all - He knows - HE knows!

The human child is closest to the true Buddha spirit. It hasn't started to think or believe. It "only" knows. Yet we think children are inferior and adults superior.The only adult that can have the Buddha spirit of a child is an adult who has resisted the illusions of intellectuallism, and managed to retain his/her childish open-eyed outlook.** When I hold a pebble between my fingers, my now flesh mingles with the 300 million years old patina of the stone. The interaction of the "new" and the "old", the "soft" and the "hard", is now. They are both now. Yet they are both 300 million years (or some infinitely greater time number) old also, as history is only a continuum of a billion trillion instantaneous presents. We date the stone's age at 300 million years, but its atoms are eternal and so are mine. We are the same!** Why is it that the human animal derives so much pleasure from the ridiculous? Why is it that we warm to such as Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Monty Python, and Gary Larson cartoons?

I feel that it is because the fantastic, illogical situations they portray or evoke are not only nonsensical but, most importantly, non-sensical. They are not things that come from our intellectual reasoning, from what we have been taught, which derives from the "duality of the opposites". Rather, in that mad instant when we are caught up by a reaction that is beyond the intellect, we actually have satori! We experience an emotion that is irrational, that is pure and basic, that takes a brief moment into the realisation of the absolute.** I have a friend who will only drink (or, at the very least strongly prefers) Shiraz red wines from the Hunter valley of NSW. Doesn't this smack of the Protestant Northern Irelander who won't contemplate Catholics? Can you imagine, to take inspiration again from the higher animals, a spiny anteater approaching an anthill alive with scurrying ants and saying "No way! These are from the left side of the hill. I only eat ants from the right side of the hill. No way I'll eat these!"** Compare empathy in the human animal (a restricted commodity) with empathy (a natural commodity) in the higher animals. Note the beautiful empathy of the chimpanzees for their kind, while they, on occasions, absolutely enjoy hunting, killing and eating the smaller Colobus (?) monkey.** 28/4/99 just watched a video of an ABC program, made in 1959, of the "beats" - a very, narrow, establishment view of beats as dirty, lazy people pursuing a formless type of literature. In particular, the compere, and some of the intellectuals whom he interviewed (including VERY YOUNG Robert Hughes and Clive James, both then at Sydney University) ridiculed "part time beats", people who were advertising executives by day and "beats" at night. That riled me. They were talking about my time, the time when I started to get sense. In 1959 I was a conventional (trainee) certificated metallurgist by day and a definite, 24 carat, 99.9999% pure, beat by night. So what was a beat anyway . . ? What attracted me to the "beats"?

Well one thing's for sure. I was raised on poetry, at home and at school. I saw the beauty in the way that words could be arranged to evoke images in the mind that the eye could not see in reality. Then, when I was 15, we received an issue of the CAB (Current Afffairs Bulletin) at school. I was in third year - a skinny, pimply, red-haired "under achiever". That issue had, on the front cover, the first stanza of a poem by a new age poet called Allen Ginsberg. It started "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness; Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night; Who, poverty and tatters and hollow eyed and high; Sat up smoking in

the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats . . ." It just simply, at that young age, blew me away. If this was the "beats" then it had something with which I solidly emphasised, I must be a "beat"!.

Beat was not so much formless (as the ABC program evinced) as boundless; evocative, enabling you to fix your own images from the emotions it stirred. Compare Ginsberg's "ellipsis" and de Bono's "Po", the Japanese sumuiye (?) painting and the haiku. Beat introduced me to many of the formative influences in my life - those things that led me from thinking to knowing - "the goose in the bottle", "by doing nothing everything is done" . .

Now here's a paradox of grand proportions, and surely one that exposes the frailities of the very system of intellectual learning on which we are supposed to collectively base our normal lives. Normalcy should, by its very definition, be a safe haven. Normalcy is where the majority exist. Think about a normal distribution curve - 95% of whatever it represents is in the fat middle bit, the two standard deviations that lie either side of the "average". It's at the extremes, those little skinny bits at the edges, well away from the middle, where all the terror, the discomfort, should be. Yet, isn't it true that these are the very places we go to, to escape the terrifying pressures that living within the confines, the strictures, of normalcy put on us? So is normalcy terrifying, and the extreme safe? How astute of Laotse then when he wrote, in xxxx BC on The Futility of Categorisation. What a rod we create for our backs when we (are forced to) embrace the process of intellectual thought, so firmly rooted in the apposition of ideas, from an early age. Weaned on a diet of apposites, of one thing continually set against the other, in each and every aspect of our thought and dialogue, is it any wonder that we find our terrors in normalcy?

Note the difference between, and the simultaneous sameness of, "normal lives" and Zen's "usual life".** Theory of the nth lobe of the brain (i.e. "dick thinking)** Book title "Less then an ant and . . loving it!"

The human animal is also the only animal that litters!** Imagine this conversation as a white rhino passes a black rhino in the African veldt: "Coon!" And the racist reply "Honky!"

Now imagine a warthog wandering into the territory of a group of other warthogs, never met before. "Hey, what religion are you?" the group challenges. "Catholic, of course, and proud of it", the interloper exclaims. "Tyke bastard!" the warthog leader shouts, as his group attack the stranger with rocks and sticks. "This is a Protestant area. F*** off!"** Men going underground into mines is much like (in reverse) prairie dogs coming to the surface.** Paul Olivier wrote, for his doctoral thesis "The Universe is One". He might have subtitled it " . . . and Zero, Two, One Hundred, . . . and Infinity".

Talking about such things is so much farting of the mouth. Muhammad Ali stated something far more profound than the loftiest of philosophical works, when he said simply "Me, We".** "Seize the day!" was the exhortation of the teacher to his young students in Dead Poets Society. He didn't say, "Seize the minute!", "Seize the hour!" or "Seize the year!" Or even "Seize your life!" He said "Seize the day!" Why did he do that? Perhaps because he knew, without consciously thinking about it, that a day is a complete cycle of the sun, the time space between its rising and its setting. And since it is surely the sun that gives life to all things, a day is, in fact, a complete cycle in our life. Not "A day in the life of . . . ", but "A life in the day of . . . !". We all live a life each day. This is why we must "Seize the day!", to live each of our daily lives to its fullest potential.** 'There are so many little dyings, it doesn't matter which of them is death.'

Attributed to the poet Kenneth Patchen. Compare to my concept of each day as a life.** "Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there." From The Alchemist, p129 (my accent). (Note how the brain believes, based on rational thought, while the heart knows, based on its essential connection to the Soul of the World.)

11/5/99 I'll say that again (it's so good!) "The brain believes . . . the heart knows."I'll say that again (it's so good!) "The brain believes . . . the heart knows."I'll say that again (it's so good!) "The brain believes . . . the heart knows."

** "The desert takes our men from us, and they don't always return," she said. "We know that, and we are used to it. Those who don't return become part of the clouds, a part of the animals that hide in the ravines and of the water that comes from the earth. They become a part of everything . . . they become the Soul of the World." From The Alchemist, p99 (my accent). RHS: Oh! my friends, do you understand what those few words evince . . .do you KNOW?** The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity." From The Alchemist, p104 (my accent). Also note the quote, from the movie Death In Therapy "What comes next is now."** Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens).** 13/12/98; pollution, "do the right thing' pleading etc; of all the animals, only man pollutes his own environment. A bird doesn't foul its own nest.** 13/12/98; everything ends eventually and, as that thing ends, another always begins.** "That's the one thing I can't believe about the West. Everybody asks 'how old are you?'... we never cared about that in Africa. We just cared about survival."

Waris Dirie, Somalian former model, author ('Desert Flower'), and current UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation (FGM), 11/98.

A great endorsement of "usual life". A great credo for those trying to adopt a 'usual life' way of life - Take time to admire a sparrow.

Admire a Sparrow - great book title.** From G.O.A.L.:

Chinese MaximAll persons are alike; the only difference is in the education.(RHS - a lot here to think about. The first, obvious interpretation is that some are

more intelligent than others. The deeper, more essential meaning is that, without education, all persons, like the other animal groups, really are alike. It's only how we react to the intellectual processes provided by education that sets us apart from one another).** From G.O.A.L.:

Zulu Version Of LifeAs the breath of the oxen in winter,as the quick star that runs along the skyas a little shadow which loses itself at sunset."i.e., to state the obvious, life is in the instant.

** Concept of seeing each day as a full life, rather than seeing each day as part of a diminishing life. With the latter there is an expectation of another day, as if life owed it to us. This is why so many do not appreciate the value of waking up each morning, being granted another life to make best use of. If we accepted each day as our life, we will treat it as precious and live it to the full, whether working or playing, sick or well, rather than just frittering it away with the thought "There are plenty more where that came from." There may not be. Thought prompted by the following:

"Everybody gets a full life." Henry, as he was dying, to best friend, gifted artist David Hockney.

Compare to Des Renford, legendary Aussie marathon swimmer, who said, when asked how he could possibly swim for ten or twenty hours at a time "I never do. I always say to myself that I will swim for one hour. Then, when I have done so, I tell myself that I will swim for one hour. And I simply keep doing that till I get there."

Again, compare this to the example of the "higher animals". Times are tough . . . there has been a major drought . . . can you imagine a higher animal thinking "How the hell

will I survive this? What will it be like next week . . . next month." More likely, like Des, they will wonder about the next hour. Then, later, they will plan for the next hour, and so on.** Life's not about money or material possessions. None of the higher animals use money. Is this then why man alone was given intelligence, so that man, of all the animals, could accumulate money? Doesn't make much sense, does it?** Compare human pomp and ceremony (Pope, Queen, changing of the guard . . . ) with the higher animals and their total lack of anything ingenuine in their actions.** Thought 24/9/98: why do I love cotton and wool? Because they ARE me. We are one. They derive, like me, from the ten thousand things. They are, like me, part and all of the ten thousand things. Take your average cotton shirt. Look deep inside a thread, go into the fibres, look at the organic, living thing they are made of. How could one be ONE with all of the ten thousand things, and NOT love cotton? How could one fall for the con of synthetics, things squirted out of a man-made orifice into a man made solution.

I got this thought while watching a John Lee Hooker documentary, which showed his roots and negroes picking cotton. John Lee IS cotton.** "Some of it's magic and some of it's tragic, but I had a good life anyway."

Jimmy Buffet.Let me spell out that which only needs spelling out to the lesser (human) animals "it's

all natural life". The human is the one animal that puts unsubstantial epithets like "magic" or "tragic" on things which are a natural part of the stream of life anyway.• Suggested book title "Ramblings Of A Lesser Animal".** A cannot agree with B under any circumstances. Each has, through patterned thinking, taken an entrenched position e.g. the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Yet A may be prepared to concede its position to a modified A position. It's only a little concession, and its not taking a B position after all. So why not? Similarly the next small concession. Eventually after a number of concessions, A finds itself actually at B's position! ** Why does the melding of human voices in choral harmony strike an essential chord in the soul? Perhaps it is because nature, natural life, "usual life" IS harmony.• Visiting Mum at Lakeside Lodge for her birthday 30/8/98. Inside dementia confusion, especially crying Doris, who had lost her handbag and was inconsolable as to how she could get home without the cab fare. Outside Mum's window, a blue wren flying up and down against the pane chasing insects. Provoked this haiku:

Inside aged eyes stareOutside the window a wrenSharp eyed, pecks insects.

** From the book "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly", by a man who suffers a massive stroke that leaves him only the use of his left eyelid to communicate, about letters he receives from friends:

"Other letters simply relate the small events that punctuate the passage of time: roses picked at dusk, the laziness of a rainy Sunday, a child crying himself to sleep. Capturing the moment, these small slices of life, these small gusts of happiness, move me more deeply than all the rest."

RHS comment: "What is Tao?" "Usual life." Also compare with "Seize the day!"** message to Justin, 28/8/98

1 Our intellectual processes are based on opposites (big & small, black & white etc). For us to REASON, we need an opposite for each and every intellectual concept. What is the opposite of TIME?

2 What would you rather dive into, a pool of water or a pool of stones. Water of course, because it is SOFT and the stones are HARD (opposite concepts again). Yet water wears away stone but stone, no matter how it tries, can never wear away water.

RHS comment: No wonder intellectualisation screws us up. Better to stick to ABSOLUTE REALITY and simply accept the stone-ness of stone and the water-ness of water.** email from Justin, 27/8/98:

To realise the value of one year: Ask a student who has failed a final exam.To realise the value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature

baby.To realise the value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.To realise the value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.To realise the value of one minute: Ask the person who has missed the train, bus or

plane.To realise the value of one second: Ask a person who has survived an accident.To realise the value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won a silver medal

in the Olympics.Time waits for no one. Treasure every moment you have. You will treasure it even

more when you can share it with someone special.My spontaneous reply:Time doesn't exist, in the sense of a PERIOD, except as a mischief we intellectual

animals have created for our mind.Life is a continuum of moments, each of immeasurably short duration.Aldous Huxley said "Time must have a stop". I now know that it never started!

** 23/8/98: "Some of the Dharma", Jack Kerouac, p117 -"A crystal intelligence hides like a diamond in the heart of the night.Without this crystal intelligence there would be no musing, no mystery, no Russians,

no darkness, no unreality, no rooftops, no silence, no vague strange uneasy emotion rising out of our phantasmal personal notions."

The power of the last phrase! What sets us apart from the other animals - our phantasmal personal notions! What a story there!• 16/8/98: In the book, adopt the quote and comment style i.e. what they said and how I reflect on it. Similar to one of the Zen books.** 16/8/98: Consider Whitman's "I could live with animals . .", Paul Simon's "He makes me think about all of these extra moves I make, All the herky-jerky motion and the bag of tricks it takes, To get me through my working day, One-Trick Pony", Jimmy Buffet's "With all of our running, and all of our cunning, If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane" (Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes) and Kerouac's "Sociability is a big smile, and a big smile is Nothing but teeth. Rest and be kind" (Kerouac, The Scriptures of The Golden Eternity).

These men have all confronted the bow-tie mirror and seen through and beyond to what is essential in the living process. They have seen the "secret God-grin in the trees and in the tea pot" (Kerouac, verse 20, The Scriptures of The Golden Eternity).** 16/8/98: "There's an intrinsic value in doing something without being the best at it." Susie Gephardt in The Washington Post. To which I add, ",or even trying to be." i.e. "What is Tao?" "Usual life."

"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful." Alice Walker in USA Weekend. Comment on the duality of the opposites. Second sentence is redundant. "If all is reducible to the One, then to what is the One reducible?" . . . "Beauty would not exist if it were not for ugliness."** 9/8/98: "Wherever you go, it's always the same face in the mirror." Just think of it. You can go half way around the world and be in a totally different country, with strange people, exotic climate, all new sensations, yet when you look in the mirror, you see the same face as before. "So where you bin hey?"** 7/8/98: Ginsberg & Kerouac as "the pure true gospellers of the ten thousand things". They, plus Whitman and other souls gifted with our sight, had absolute empathy with the ONE THING, which is EVERY THING!** 5/8/98 thought: Imagine the wisdom to know the absolute joy of being part of the living process, while at the same time realising that, as individuals, each of us is less significant in that eternal process than the dried excrement of an ant.

Good title for a book: A Higher Being But A Lesser Animal.In relation to : "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well" and "If you sit, just sit; if

you walk, just walk; but don't WOBBLE", consider this: Did you ever see one of the higher

animals do anything half-assed? They rest absolutely 100%, they play 100%, and they hunt 100%. They don't need to be given the message - they've always had it.** 31/7/98 thought: As you get older you see more of the world . . . without travelling.** Instinct: consider the buzzard born in captivity, who still KNOWS to take a stone in its beak to break an egg to feed on it. Then consider the characters (persona) adopted by people during regression under hypnosis. Is the former due to genetic imprints, or are both tapping into memories, which exist on a level and in a dimension we cannot imagine, which continue after the body has died, and which are accessed by certain animals according to a certain access code. PURSUE this line of thought.** "Non, rien de rien. Non, je ne regrette rien." Edith Piaf, the little sparrow. For all the great tragedies of her life, she regrets nothing. Great emotion, great tragedy. Yet we humans are the only animals that actually do have regrets. We reach back into the memory bag, look at the memory, and have regrets or not. No other has the luxury (burden) of this indulgence. The other (higher) animals reach back into their memories for functional, utilitarian clues to assist them in their passage through useful life. If it’s useful it’s OK, if it’s not, it’s not. What's regret got to do with it when the whole purpose of waking up in the mornings is to simply get on with life?** 14/7/98: I KNOW that the answer to the question as to "life, the Universe and everything" is not 42. I KNOW that there is NO answer to the question, because no question exists. There simply is no question, none worth a single nanosecond's application of one's intellectual processes. It ("life", "the universe", existence", or whatever breath utterance we care to make to put an intellectual shape to our self-induced anguish) simply IS, and that's all there is to KNOW.** 14/7/98: Consider - the urge to display ("show off", "strut your stuff" in human terms) is quite natural. It is an intrinsic feature of the behaviour of all of the "higher" animals and insects. In other words, let's not get hung up about wanting to.** Empathy - the key to EVERYTHING. Consider then

" 'What would I do,' I said to Pooh, 'if it wasn't for you?' and Pooh said, 'True.' "A.A. Milne.Intended poetry or rhyme . . . or just one of those marvellous insights that we are

given and yet rarely grasp?And the intuitive genius of Kerouac when he wrote"...the stars are coming out, and don't you know that God is Pooh-Bear..."Jack Kerouac.

** Thought (3/6/98): A humorless man cannot be a wise man, just as a wise man cannot avoid laughter.** "No! . . . No!" Hart shouted with disbelief jumping up and down with joy and with his effort to see Stofsky coming; searching for a term to express his relief and excitement, and finding only a negative one strong enough."

John Clellon Holmes, 'Go', p. 165 in "The Portable Beat Reader".Compare with our use of "No way!" When most excited, most impressed, we turn to

negatives! 'Heavy shit!, 'Out of control!', 'Filthy'. So much for the relativity of the opposites! So, if we use negatives to express a positive, surely all is one!** Latvian liberators - an example of the futility of categorisation. When the Germans arrived in (1941?) Latvians saw them as liberators from the Russians. They then saw extermination camps under the Germans (e.g Salispils) etc. Then they were "liberated" again by the Russians, who subjugated their country until 1991.** Compare primal rage and intellectual rage. Only man has the latter, and look at the problems that it causes.** Does the white rhinoceros discriminate against the black rhinoceros because of its colour. Does it sneer and snort "nigger" when they meet?** We often say that "In a perfect world such and such a "bad" thing would not happen". Yet it is a "perfect'" world precisely because the imperfect happens along with the perfect. It is "perfect" because there is a balance of both.

** I stayed in Shalom College, at the University of NSW, in February 1998. The following was from a three-page information sheet issued by Shalom to guests, under the heading of "Food".

"The College is run in accordance with Orthodox Jewish Dietary Laws and our kosher kitchen is supervised and offers only kosher food. You will notice that we have two kitchens, one milk and one meat, as milk and meat are not mixed in the same meal by kosher law. Food from the milk kitchen is always eaten on the tables with blue table-cloths and food from the meat kitchen, on the tables with red table-cloths. At breakfast there is a fry-pan for cooking eggs and the procedure is to break your egg into a glass first to see if there is a blood spot in it. If there is, discard it as it is not kosher an cannot go into the frypan. If in doubt, check with the supervisor, Henry, who will answer any questions you may have about Jewish dietary laws.

People are not permitted to remove cutlery or crockery from the dining area as this would contravene Kashrut (Jewish Dietary Law). If you wish to take food or drink out of the dining room please ask staff for plastic cutlery and crockery. No food can be brought into the dining room, the kitchen or the dining room microwave that did not come out of our kitchens. There is another microwave to be found in the first floor common room for the heating of permissible items. We cannot permit people to bring any meat items or any fast-food items from Pizza Hut, Macdonald's or other vendors into the College. Please courteously observe this ruling. Fresh fruit and vegetables are always kosher and there are kosher directories on the sides of the common fridges in the common rooms on each floor if you want to check permissible items."** What a fuss we make about sex. What a farce. Will I, won't I? Will she, won't she? Should I, should she? Could I, could she? What if I . . ? What if she . . ? The female lion, in heat, presents herself to the dominant male, circling in front of him, then lying down, facing away. He mounts, affectionately nuzzling her neck. They copulate, then each rolls aside, panting and satiated. There is no "Was it good for you, darling?" here. It was good, and is good every time. There are no mind games, just the action. They do this every 30 minutes or so for about four days i.e. about 200 times! No fandango here, no fussing and farting, no extended foreplay, no anguish, no guile, no machines or potions, no "Spread your legs, lie back and think of England!", no artifice - just another important aspect of usual life.** The "Seven Deadly Sins". Do the higher animals suffer from these concepts too, or is it only the human animal? "No way" and "Yes" are the answers to those two questions.** All animals communicate. All animals ask, in their own special way of communicating, the essential questions WHAT, WHO, WHERE and WHEN. Only the human animal asks WHY. This suggests that only the human animal is too stupid (paradoxically as a direct result of his unique ability to intellectualise), to see the absolute irrelevancy of the question. The answer is IN the question. Why? Because I am. Or, better, because we are. Or, possibly best, because IT IS. F****** hell, do you have the intuition to grab this? ** Extracts From Jack Kerouac's "The Scripture of The Golden Eternity":

p3 " . . the whole of reality is without origination or first cause. This wisdom sees through any reified notion of existence as well as through any nihilistic interpretation of life."

p5 "Human Godhood is entertaining no notions whatsoever."p6 "We're here to disappear."p13 " . . & it all adds up to nothing, like Dostoevsky, Beethoven or Da Vinci -"{do others besides me see the power of this little couplet - apposing nothing with

three intellectual, so-called "greats") This is a triple-whammy, you-beaut whack in the ear or eye?

p14 "All things is made of the same thing which is nothing." {my comment - "Is the first 'is' just grammatically incorrect, or is Kerouac making a subtle statement about the 'oneness' of things?}.

p14 " . . your goal is your starting place".p29 " . . the personalities of long dead heroes are blank dirt." {compare to the

Muhammad Ali statement "All the things I've done, all the praise, all the fame, don't none of it mean nothin'. It's all only dust."}.

p30 " . . we're waiting for the realization that this is the golden eternity. It came on time." {What a magical postscript - 'It came on time'. We're waiting for it, and it's here! Compares well to the Picnic At Hanging Rock quote}.

p31 "The secret God-grin in the trees and in the teapot, in ashes and fronds, fire and brick, flesh and human hope." {is this yet another unintended definition of Tao - that which cannot be defined?}.

p32 "buddhies"!!! Buddha buddies!p34 " . . thou'rt a numberless mass of sun-motes: each mote a shrine." Ginsberg's

ellipsis - the apposition of logically unrelated words for effect. Sun-motes! And yet I think he is saying: not just specks of dust, but those picked out by the sun and illumined! Look at the recurring DUST theme again.

p35 "Roaring dreams take place in a perfectly silent mind. Now that we know this, throw the raft away." - {Pure Zen}.

p36 "Sociability is a big smile, and a big smile is nothing but teeth. Rest and be kind. {Shun pretence; have empathy}.

p38 "Opposites are not the same for the same reason they are the same." {pure Zen again}.

p46 "When you've understood this scripture, throw it away. If you can't understand this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom. {Great tag lines! He gives a flicker of light then, when your eyes are just about accustomed, he throws the switch and you get the full light show!}** p51 "They've long known that there's nothing to life but just the living of it. It Is What It Is and That's All It Is." {"What is Tao?" "Usual life."}

p52 "Kindness and sympathy, understanding and encouragement, these give: they are better than just presents and gifts: no reason in the world why not. Anyhow, be nice. Remember the golden eternity is yourself. "If someone will simply practice kindness," said Gotama to Subhuti, "he will soon attain highest perfect wisdom." Then he added: "Kindness after all is only a word and it should be done on the spot without thought of kindness." By practicing kindness all over with everyone you will soon come into the holy trance, definite distinctions of personalities will become what they really mysteriously are, our common and eternal blissstuff, the pureness of everything forever, the great bright essence of mind, even and one thing everywhere the holy eternal milky love, the white light everywhere everything, emptybliss, svaha, shining, ready, and awake, the compassion in the sound of silence, the swarming myriad trillionaire you are." {The EMPATHY message}.

p55 "Look at your little finger, the emptiness of it is no different than the emptiness of infinity."

p56 "Cats yawn because they realise that there's nothing to do." {Cats are wiser than the human animal. "By doing nothing, everything is done"}.

p57 " . . the world is nothing but a dream and is just thought of and the everlasting eternity pays no attention to it."

p59 "It was perfect, the golden solitude, the golden emptiness, Something-Or-Other, something surely humble. There was a rapturous ring of silence abiding perfectly. There was no question of being alive or not being alive, of likes and dislikes, of near or far, no question of giving or gratitude, no question of mercy or judgment, or of suffering or its opposite or anything. It was the womb itself, aloneness, alaya vijnana the universal store, the Great Free Treasure, the Great Victory, infinite completion, the joyful mysterious essence of Arrangement. It seemed like one smiling smile, one adorable adoration, one gracious and adorable charity, everlasting safety, refreshing afternoon, roses, infinite brilliant immaterial golden ash, the Golden Age."** Paul Simon's "One Trick Pony" enchanted me from the first listening. Look at the lines

He's a one-trick ponyHe either fails or he succeedsHe gives his testimonyThen he relaxes in the weeds

He's got one trick to last a lifetimeBut that's all a pony needs

(that's all he needs)He looks so easyHe looks so cleanHe moves like God'sImmaculate machineHe makes me think aboutAll of these extra moves I makeAnd all this herky-jerky motionAnd the bag of tricks it takesTo get me through my working day."How could Paul Simon have conceived of the brilliant "gives his testimony then he

relaxes in the weeds"? How did he hit on 'weeds'? Just to fulfill a rhyming need? And 'herky-jerky motion'? This predeliction for selecting the right words to evoke a graphic, emotive response is what characterises a genius.

This is a potent pony story indeed. It tells us everything that needs to be said about the 'oneness' of things. 'He's got one trick to last a lifetime'. Haven't we all, after all? Aren't we all 'One Trick Ponies'? Isn't there but one 'trick' to life and that is simply to live it, simply to be? Isn't the essential One Trick simply Usual Life?

I would make one change, adding two "n"s to make more zenz (neither nor rather than either or):

"He's a one-trick ponyHe neither fails nor he succeeds." Do you really dig the difference?The giving of testimony and then relaxing in the weeds could also be seen as a

metaphor for life and death.• 30/12/97: due to the wonders of modern technology (video recording) Karina is able to watch the 7 o'clock news from some days ago at 10:30 tonight!** You don't need much to have a lot. Sometimes you can have a lot and not have much at all (the folly of applying relative attributes).** Man is the only animal that uses the labels of name, age, religion, sex and nationality to confuse his understanding of his natural purpose (and his ESSENTIAL relationship with the other animals).** 29/12/97: Which is the most ecologically responsible way to dispose of our dead -

(i) cut down trees to clear land for cemetries and to make coffins for burial(ii) cremate and add CO2 and (especially) H2O (both greenhouse gases) to the

environment(iii) ???

** 29/12/97: what is the chemical composition of the human body (C, H, O, N, S, Si etc)?• Note: Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee have a song called "Walk On".** A National Geographic TV program last night (27/12/97) showed how so-called "dumb" animals think. In one example, a grey parrot was shown to have a vocabulary of over 100 words. It did not use them without thought. When showed a square piece of woollen cloth and asked "What matter is this?" it replied "Wool." When shown the same piece and asked to describe its shape it replied "Square". It could clearly distinguish attributes. The parrot was shown a collection of red and green articles on a board, including two green cubes as well as other green shapes. When asked how many green cubes there were, it replied "Two."

The program showed that (even old) rhesus monkeys could not interpret the image in a mirror as their own reflection - they continually tried to attack it as an intruder. Young chimpanzees saw the reflection as another young chimp and pirouetted to show it that they wanted to play. Older chimps, however, with more thinking experience, took about 30 minutes to realise it was their own reflection they were seeing, and then sat intently in front, delighting in the sight of parts of their body (teeth, top of head, eyes . . ) that they normally

would not get to see. The other great apes, such as gorillas and orang utans, reacted similarly. Note that other programs have shown how chimpanzees will put sticks down ant holes, then eat the ants that climb on. There are many other documented examples of the (thinking) use of tools by chimpanzees.

(Much later comment: What's the message? Simply that we have been taught that the human animal is the intelligent one and the others are "dumb" animals. In fact, the major difference is in the schooling systems, and in our BELIEF that we are dependent on intellectual thought for existence, whereas the "higher" animals simply know that they don't need it.** Devolution: the concept of physical evolution, as described by Darwin (READ his treatise, "Origin of Species"), apposed to spiritual devolution. That is, animals have evolved, mechanically and structurally. Man has devolved, spiritually.** Honesty: is one of the characteristics of behaviour that most distinguishes man from the higher animals. The higher animals are invariably and naturally honest in their dealings with one another. Lions and gazelles know full well their roles - as eater and eatee. A female chimpanzee, horse or bird who feels the natural urge to mate, makes it clear to the male of its kind. The male, having made its position in the queue clear to any other males with intention, does what its natural instincts dictate. There is no modesty, no coyness and no impropriety. They simply copulate and return to the main preoccupation - eating (Q: "What is Tao?" - A: "When I am tired I sleep - when I am hungry I eat".) How much more complicated is manimal in its mating needs? How much more artifice, how much more DRAMA? The human female must be more coy, more obtuse - if she doesn't want to be called a slut, that is. My God, we really make a mess of it!** Man is the only animal who seeks to, and is capable of, mass destruction of his own kind. Many large animals, such as whales, regularly kill large numbers of other animals for food. Man is the only animal that kills large numbers of his own kind for material gain (Hiroshima, The Holocaust).

Man is also the only animal that works against the laws of natural selection. In the name of compassion, man saves the weak, and thereby weakens his own species.** "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well". I prefer "Everything's worth doing, so everything's worth doing well". In this context consider Steven Wright's answer to the question "Did you sleep well?" He said "No, I made a few mistakes".** Commitment: managers want their staff to be "fully committed"; coaches want their athletes to be "fully committed". We accept that this is a fair and reasonable expectation and, in so doing, also accept the fact that, at all other times, we are less than "fully committed". The higher animals have no such distinction. They are fully committed ALL OF THE TIME (yet don't know it - "Jesus Christ. What else is there?"). The lion gets up in the morning and must kill an animal to live. The other animals, living on the African plains, get up in the morning and need to avoid the lion's claws and teeth if they are to live. With neither is the degree of commitment an issue. They are absolutely committed ALL OF THE TIME. They are beyond the realms of relativity - beyond the realms of rationalisation. This is why they are the "higher animals" and we are the "lower animals". We think about it (rarely on it). We look for the ways to "get by" with less than absolute commitment. To them life is much simpler and, even to the gazelle who may be the lion's breakfast on any given day, much less stressful. They epitomise the Zen dictum "Walk on". They walk on, while we ponder the phrase's mere meaning.

Think about Mum's "if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well." Think about my (revelatory) extension "Everything is worth doing, so do everything well!" Now look at the higher animals. Surely this is their dictum, their sub-conscious way of life. They need no encouragement to be "fully committed", no exhortation to "run for your life". They (like the extremely Zen Nike ads) "just do it".** "Walking on water wasn't built in a day." - statement by Jack Kerouac to Timothy Leary, both tripping. My translation: "You can't get wiser without getting older."

** Some people are obsessive on the subject of "natives". They are not interested in flowers, shrubs or trees that are not native. Introduced birds and animals are anathema to them.

The following thoughts occurred (raising the old phonies of relativity and categorisation again):

How do native buffs feel when they see eucalypts and wattles in California. Is it good (because they are the "natives" they love to see in Australia) or is it bad (because, in the American context, they are "introduced species"). In other words the same tree, in different countries, can be seen with opposite emotions by the same person. What a mess to be a fanatic! What a mess to be deluded by the relativity of the opposites!

Native buffs hate sparrows, because they are an introduced species of bird. How do they feel when they see sparrows in their original home country of Africa? Are they now acceptable? So we could take a native buff and a sparrow in Australia (hate), put them both on a plane and next day they could both be in Africa. What would the same person now feel about the same bird? As a "native buff" he should admire the bird in its native home. Ridiculous, isn't it?

How does a "native buff" feel about migratory birds?!How does a "native buff" react to the natural flora and fauna in a foreign country,

where it is not clear to him/her what is native and what is introduced? Look at the angst this bigotry causes? Only the "lower", human animal has bigotry.** 1/8/97: I look out the window at work and see about a dozen sparrows in the top-most branches of a flowering wattle tree, feathers fluffed, just enjoying the warm morning sun - 'chilling out'. As I return to my computer I can't help but sigh at the temerity of man to really believe that he (or, for the feminists, she) is the supreme animal.** Consider Ginsberg's "ellipsis" mechanisms and de Bono's "Po" mechanisms, and the connection of both to the "futility of categorisation" thesis of Chuangtse. In Ginsberg's writings, "ellipsis" meant "the juxtaposition of one entity with a second, dissimilar one, without connective" - e.g. "hydrogen jukebox" in his epic poem Howl. Ginsberg and de Bono were each using the apposition of the opposites to shock us into an absolute realisation. Wow! Each was using a mechanism of our intellectual understanding, in the fervent hope that we would "get it". Each was using an intensely intellectual technique to hopefully get us to discard our intellectual veil just long enough that we might possibly see the true way. Just think about it (then get back to . . REALITY!).** Look at my "circle of life": I am, I think, I believe, I know, I am. From absolute knowledge - the original I am of birth - naievete - "by doing nothing everything is done" - so by knowing nothing everything is known, to the wisdom of the ancients, who return to the naievete of childhood and, in spite of all of the intellectual games they have played through their long life, can still know without the need for words.

Now compare this with the statement in the Bible attributed to Christ "I am the great I am". See the connection!! "I am as a new born, beyond reasoning, logic, belief and knowledge. I am so close to God that I am God."

WOW!!Is there room here to throw in Muhammad Ali's "I am the greatest"? Fertile ground

indeed.** If you want to really SEE, sometimes it is best to close your eyes. The blind man sees so much more than we mere sighted mortals.

(to close out all of the external distractions). Nice paradox.** The Zen Master asked, presenting a koan to a younger monk "If all things are reducible to the One, to what is the One reducible?" Here is my answer to the 'unanswerable question': "The One is reducible to all things." If you "see" this, then your eyes are mere baggage.

Self, 11/5/97** See The Wisdom of Zen (speaking of the Essence): 'Even when greeted with swords and spears it never loses its quiet way'. i.e. Genghis Khan, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin - all the great dictators slaughtered millions and, like those they killed, simply passed to dust. The

Essence did not miss a beat. Dinosaurs raged and fought - and the Essence moved implacably on. All great men are now just inked heiroglyphs in history books, or magnetised dots on plastic tape. (Kerouac said, in his Scripture of The Golden Eternity: "The personalities of long dead heroes are blank dirt.") Note: can everyone else besides me see the potency of his adjective "blank"!! If famous, and infamous, men have no effect on the ten thousand things, how much effect will we normal folk have? How much effect will you and I have? So the message is 'just get on with life', appreciate one's complete insignificance in the scheme of things, enjoy life in all of its manifest forms, don't take oneself seriously, . . . and laugh.

We often worry - am I too fat, too thin, too dumb, too ugly . . . ? Am I great, a failure, unappreciated, a genius, downtrodden . . . ? Why can't we accept that it doesn't matter? Why can't we do like the non-human (higher) animals and just get on with life, with what a Zen Master once called 'usual life'? Reflect on Whitman's "I could live with animals . . ."** Compare The Essence, The Ten Thousand Things and Kerouac's Golden Eternity.

Stress is a matter of choice. If we do what we planned to do, it should not cause us stress, otherwise why would we have so planned? If we do what is unplanned it should not cause us stress, because it is beyond our control. Becoming stressed will not change anything. Accept what we cannot change and change what we cannot accept. (On reading this later my comment: F***, this just simply sums it all up!)** It is hard to understand why people go glumly through life with no sense of their own achievements. These people seem to feel that they have to be brain surgeons, do heroic deeds, be world champions at sport etc to gain an adequate feeling of self esteem. Why can't they see that self contentment comes through goal achievement, and that goals need not be sensational. Rather consider the old adage that "if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well". If people can simply appreciate that doing 'usual life' well is a worthy result - indeed the ultimate result - then they can see that every aspect of life completed effectively is a personal 'tick in the box', a 'star on the forehead'. It is possible to gain satisfaction from everything you do. Remember the Zen counsel "If you sit, just sit. If you walk, just walk. But don't wobble!"** The concept of an empathy / greed matrix:

Prepare a definition of each of the nine types.e.g.1 Initiate criminal activities such as murder, rape and robbery.2 Aid and abet criminal activities such as murder, rape and robbery.3 Turn a blind eye to criminal activities such as murder, rape and robbery.4 xxx5 xxx6 xxx7 xxx8 xxx9 Live life selflessly for others. The Mother Theresas of the world.** Consider a child's wide-eyed joy at seeing a flower, and that of a botanist. Note that a child is equally made joyous by a weed as by a flower! (“A weed is a plant whose virtues have not been discovered.” Ralph Waldo Emerson). The child has absolute knowledge, whereas "flower" and "weed" are intellectually produced labels that require us to diiferentiate on relative grounds.

Compare also a baby in the bathtub - splashing joyously and knowing only the waterness - with Archimedes, leaping excitedly from the bathtub and running naked down the street, with the intellectual understanding of the process of flotation, which became his Principle ("if a body is wholly or partially immersed in a fluid it suffers an upthrust equal to the weight of fluid it displaces"). Consider this: for all his "genius", Archimedes knew no more

about water than the child! (indeed, he felt less than the child - his "joy" was confounded by intellectual considerations).** "It is the one life which ponders in the philosophers, which drudges in the laborers, which basks in the poets, which dilates in the love of the women."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Notebooks (quoted in The Portable Beat Reader, page xv).Compare this writer's "one life" with Zen's "usual life". To explain: the Novitiate asked

of the Zen monk "What is Tao?" "Usual life" was the reply. "In the morning I eat, and at night I sleep." (my paraphrasing may not be precise)** "The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot." Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), What Is Man? 1906. Mark had it right. The Bible talks about (specific reference?) our dominion over other animals. We think we are superior. We talk of "dumb animals". When someone does something really dastardly we call him or her an "animal". We are, in fact, an inferior member of the animal kingdom. The other animals just get on with life, doing all and only what is necessary to pursue "usual life". They do not murder, rape, rob, vilify other animals, killing only to protect or to feed. etc** Walter Brennan used to sing a song about a water pump in the desert that had a bottle full of water next to it, with a note asking travellers not to drink the water. Rather, they were to have faith and use that precious bottle of water to prime the pump, then to pump and use all the water they needed, leaving a full bottle of "priming water" for the next person. Without that bottle of priming water the pump was useless. It's a good message about empathy, and against selfishness. The song finished:"Drink all the water you can holdWash your face, cool your feetBut leave the bottle full for others

Thank you kindly, Desert Pete."** Beware of beliefs: the animal that talks (man in case you haven't got the drift!) is the only animal with beliefs, and look at the result -

Crusaders had beliefs and used these to slaughter 'infidels'missionaries had beliefs, and used these to ruin the culture of so called 'primitive'

nationsIrish Catholics have beliefs, and use these to justify the murder of Irish Protestants,

who in turn use their beliefs to justify the murder of their murdererssimilarly the Inquisitors, the Muslims, the Christians, the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan (is

there an end to this madness?). . . .** "Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what Thou shalt be - Nothing - Thou shalt not be less." This from Omar Khayyam. This is Zen, pure and simple. Compare it for example with Laotzu's "Futility of Categorisation" (If there is a time when something exists, there must be a time when something did not exist. All of a sudden something came into existence. If there was a time when nothing existed, there must have been a time when even nothing did not exist. All of a sudden nothing came into existence. Does nothing belong to the category of existence or non-existence?) If we are all nothing, we should all be content because we can never be less. Muhammad Ali had it right. Many thought, with all of his 'I am the Greatest' talk, that he was an egotist - one who thinks only of himself. These poor people do not realise that he really was the greatest, and a man with a deep empathy and universal understanding. He said ('The Tao of Muhammad Ali' by Davis Miller) "All the things I've done, all the praise, all the fame, don't none of it mean nothin'. It's all only dust." Omar would have replied, were he alive, quoting from his Rubaiyat, "Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the dust descend; Dust into Dust, and under dust, to lie, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and - sans End!" Jack Kerouac would have said "The personalities of long dead heroes are blank dirt."** The one-legged seagull doesn't mourn for its missing limb. It does not mope, and seek the sympathy of its peers. It preens and pecks and swims and swoops just like the rest. By night it sleeps, and by day it hunts for food. It just gets on with life, for what else can it do . . . or indeed need to do?

** We often ask "Where to start? Start somewhere. In fact, start anywhere! In Christmas Humphrey's book it said "If I were you, I wouldn't start from here!" Consider de Bono's Po mechanisms to get people off the track so that they can start from somewhere else. No matter where you start, you always get somewhere!** People often ask the question "What is the purpose of life?".

Simply put, the purpose is to be, and then finally to be no more.We are the only animal that bothers with this pointless question. The pebble in the

bottom of the stream doesn't ponder the question, as it plays its part in the "ten thousand things", its form taking a myriad fluid shapes as the stream above bounces and gurgles. The water itself doesn't stop from its rush and run to put the question for which any answer at all is a mere superfluity. The tree, stretching grandly towards the life-giving sun, is unaware of any mystery. So too is the grass below, waving sinuously against the breeze's soft caresses. The kangaroo, contentedly grazing, is asking no question either - and neither is the grey fantail, flopping cheekily through the air as it takes its meal of insects.

None of these needs to ask the question because they all know, without needing to know that they know. They all simply ARE life, and that is all (read AAAALLLL) the purpose there can be.** Selfishness is the basis of all of the 7 deadly sins. Empathy is the key to natural living.** From the book "Jokes From Cyberspace":

How many Zen Buddhists does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to screw in the bulb, and one not to screw in the globe.

Good attempt. MUCH better would be:How many Zen Buddhists does it take to change a light bulb? One. One to screw in

the bulb, and one not to screw in the globe.** Notes For The Camel Lady (this is directed to Robyn Davidson "From Alice To Ocean")

Life, like water, is "electrically neutral". So for every up, there must be a CORRESPONDING down, for each climax a corresponding anti-climax. The greater the joy at the gaining, the greater the sorrow at the losing. If you had loved Diggity less, you would not have grieved so greatly. You must know now, with the wisdom of a further fifteen years, that the grief you felt had NOTHING whatever to do with the desert circumstances. The desert simply took away the social wall that hides our feelings, inpart, from our view in city circumstances. If the trip had taken you less high, you would not have felt so low at the completion of it. This is why the majority of the human race is "happy" to be "just getting by" as you put it. The highs mightn't be as uplifting, but the converse gives the irresistible security - the lows are not as soul destroying either. Is this what is meant by the yin and yang? Is there a universal constant for feelings, imputing a "Universal Law of The Conservation of Emotion", similar to the one for matter. (Does it matter any way??). Is this what Lao Tsu refers to in the Tao Te Ching when he says (amongst other things) "Washing and cleansing the primal vision, can you be without strain?" There is certainly a "Universal Law of The Conservation of Spirit". Without being too concerned with being literal and specific, which is nonsense ("will I be a dog, . . . . in the next life"), there is great sense in the statement (Tao Te Ching) that "Being at one with the Tao is eternal. And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away." {NOTE: as I type this, Robert Johnson is singing "You can bury my body, When I die, So that my evil spirit, Can catch a Greyhound bus and ride."!!]** The difference between writing about, and writing ON a subject. Robyn's (Robyn Davidson's) talent for writing, evocative story telling.• The difference between "normal life" and "usual life".** The concept of "painting yourself into the middle" (as opposed to "painting yourself into a corner") - what's the difference!?• Add something on the concept that we move, with gaining of wisdom, from thinking to believing to understanding to KNOWING.

** Analogue to the "by doing nothing, everything is done", for people whose need to be important (especially short people?) might be "by being nothing, you are everything" - compare to Omar Khyyam's "Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what Thou shalt be - nothing - Thou shalt not be less". In the perspective of the universe we are, when we are alive, no more than what we are dead - nothing. Once this is realised (once we realise this), all need for pretence, striving, trying to be something is seen as a foolish futility. Then one can get on with the real point of our being - usual life, or natural purpose. Also in this context consider the "Quality is in the air we breathe" statement by the Chief Executive of Toyota in Japan.** TAPE THOUGHTS: In fitness class today I noticed a young lady looking in the wall mirror, then pulling the leg of her short leotards down a little to cover some cellulite 'dimples'. This made me think - we spend etc** 21/1/94 We are what we think, we think what we are, and we are what we think we are. A Muslim (e.g.) is a Muslim because of his (acquired) beliefs. He is what he thinks he is. If he has a severe blow on the head, and suffers a total memory loss (amnesia), he will no longer know he is a Muslim - he will have to be told, to reacquire the belief. In such a case, is he still a Muslim immediately after the memory loss occurs?** 1/6/94: A person who doesn't KNOW what he is, even though he be a wise man, is a fool. A person who KNOWS what he is, even though he be a fool, is wise indeed. (We start from nothing, end up as nothing, and are - in the scheme of things - effectively nothing in between). To know this, and be content with the knowledge, is wisdom. A hungry lion, faced with a "successful man" and a "nobody", would take no account of their self perceptions when satisfying his needs.) Paul Simon sings, in his "Ace In The Hole": "Once I was crazy and my ace in the hole / Was that I knew that I was crazy / So I never lost my self control / I'd just walk in the middle of the road / I'd sleep in the middle of the bed / I'd stop in the middle of the sentence / When the voice in the middle of my head said / "Hey! Junior! Where you been so long? / Don't you know me?** Skinner (Harvard), famous psychologist - his theories on CONDITIONING.** Paul Olivier talks about the dangers of Westerners "dabbling" in Eastern philosophy:

"If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much knowledge as to be out of danger."

"See that happy idiot, he doesn't give a damn. I wish I were an idiot, By God, perhaps I am!"

The imbecile on TV, happily running his stick along the palings and joyously whistling.

Consider the small child "dabbling" with the beauty of a flower. The child looks with eyes of wonder, then moves on. No intellectualising here. No deep contemplation. Just an IMMEDIATE understanding and appreciation - an immediate KNOWLEDGE. Why then shouldn't one dabble with the writings of others, taking whatever comfortably fits with one's state of knowledge, like the bee takes honey from a flower - then moves on without a second thought about it.** All creatures, including man, are born with a clean slate. When we are born, we simply ARE. The only knowledge we have is the knowledge that we need, those innate messages imprinted in our genes, the knowledge that allows us to react instinctively to the stimuli that will confront us throughout our life. We might call this "before-the-birth imprinting" of the mind. Think of the cuckoo hatchling, its eyes not yet opened, in the nest of an unsuspecting host bird, immediately pushing out of the nest the eggs (and any hatchlings) of the host bird so that it will receive the undivided attention of the mother bird. These are its instinctive actions to ensure survival. Think of the tiny kangaroo foetus, still incompletely formed, laborously tugging its way upwards through the jungle of it's mother's fur, from the womb to the pouch, where it attaches itself to the teat which will nourish it - again its instinct to ensure survival. This is the knowledge that we have without having to learn by experience.

This is the knowledge born of a million experiences of all those that came before.With all creatures, including man, other knowledge is gained continually after the time

of birth by learning - not book learning, but the "book of life" learning, the learning that comes

from trial and error, from the reinforcement gained by receiving reward for success and punishment for failure. This is the learning that the rat acquires in the maze. Going through the right door gives the reward of food, so this knowledge (the path to the door with the food) is stored for future use. It becomes imprinted in the rat's mind. This is "after-the-birth imprinting" of the mind, that adds to the base of knowledge with which we are born. An example of this for man (and other creatures) is the quickly-learned message that fire is hot.

Many creatures have the power of speech - man's cries, laughter and words, the "where-are-you" call of the male whip bird and his mate's cracking "here-I-am", the wonderful squeaking dialogue between a pod of dolphins. Only man, however, of all the creatures, appears to have the ability to intellectualise. So man has "book learning" too, to add to "after-the-birth" imprinting of the mind gained by trial and error, by success and failure. From this book learning man begins to think about things, to weigh up, to rationalise, to compare (since all book learning is comparative - based on setting opposites or pairs of characteristics against one another). For various reasons, depending on the influences that dominate (family religion, social mores, national customs, traditional bigotry or fanatacism), this rationalisation of things acquired through "book learning", leads man to acquire certain beliefs. As examples, consider the firm convictions of a Jew, and the equally firm but opposite convictions of a Muslim. Look at the problems that these differences cause on the West Bank. Look at the fanatacism of people born in the same street in Ireland, one into a Protestant family and the other to a family of Catholics. Think of the two children born on the same plantation in the American South last century, one to the white owner and the other to a black slave. At the time of birth of each of these pairs of children, the "before-the-birth" imprinting was the same. Each felt safe at the mother's breast, cried with pain, reached for bright objects, splashed gleefully in water. Yet each pair, because of their "after-the-birth" imprinting, especially the communication of traditional prejudices by the spoken and written word, ended up with opposed views, with different beliefs.

The diagram below shows a view of the cycle of life for all creatures. We are born (we are and we know, the knowledge gained from our "before-the-birth" imprinting). We learn, increasing continually our knowledge. At the time of death, we are simply "I am" again. The Thibetan Book of the Dead teaches that at death we liberate our true nature, which is all that we are born with. To the simple circle shown below we need to add two extra stages - for man alone. These are "I think", when the knowledge gained from the spoken and written word leads to the formulation of ideas, then "I believe", when those ideas are confirmed, usually by consistent reinforcement, so that they become guidelines for action. So a child born into the Mormon church becomes exposed to the Mormon doctrine at an early stage, and is required to think about it, based on continual exposure to spoken and written material directed towards the Mormon view. That child eventually reaches a stage of "I believe", through the continual reinforcement of the doctrine.

[to be continued >23/4/95]** "Life is a continuous flow of uncertain transitions" and "At death we liberate our true nature." - SBS TV, "The Tibetan Book of The Dead - A Way of Life."

The former statement, in particular, is an especially potent way of expressing the RHS belief that life, as we know it, is a continuum of present impressions. ** The difference between "normal life" and "usual life"!** Why people keep pets; what you get is what you see; genuine; nothing up the sleeve; no pretense; Whitman's "I could live with animals . . ."; pets ask for little and appreciate everything; born to natural purpose, they never acquire intelligence, rationalisation, and so continue to live according to natural purpose; we, who cannot, admire and cherish this - this is why we enjoy the company of pets so much, often in preference to human company.** 25/6/95 The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat - Oliver Sachs. This is a tremendous resource of material for Zen / lateral thinking. His people have a different view of life - they are not "normal". For example his Mrs O'C (p 136), in her 'dreamy state'

recaptured a crucial sense of her forgotten lost childhood. "The feeling she had was not just 'ictal pleasure', but a trembling, profound and poignant joy." Reinforces the view that there is no past (or future), just a continual succession of 'presents'. The use of memories for a present joy is not 'living in the past'. It is simply a case of presently using continuously stored images from the past (a previous present), to change the present state. The past does not exist and never has. The past is the present that WAS, as the future is the present that MAY BE. Nostalgia is defined as ' a longing and desire for home, family and friends, or the past.' It is a yearning for the past, to re-experience, in the present, sensations from a previous present. Note the curative powers, in Sach's patients, of RE-EXPERIENCE. Compare to the happiness that 'Witty Ticcy Ray' also had, from his 'abnormal' seizures, and his sense of loss when he was 'cured' (brought to normal) by drugs. Note also the dangers of the over-use of re-experience, like the over-use of so- called mind altering drugs. The more of the present spent in re-experiencing sensations from a previous experience, the less fresh experiences and the lesser stock for later re-experiencing. For example consider Sach's man trapped in 1946, relating all presents back to 1946 and so losing all post 1946 'present' experiences. All of his memory stock was restricted to 1946, even those experiences from >1946 presents. Re-experience is, in fact, RECYCLING. Unlike the current recycling movement however, aimed at recovering our non-renewable resources (metals, plastics, glass etc), images of present sensations are infinitely renewable (for as long as we live), so recycling in this sense is not necessary, rather a matter of choice.** How many different THINGS are there in the world. Start with "Consider all living things. They can be divided, in all their diversity, into xx different kingdoms, for example the plant kingdom, the kingdom of invertebrates (?) etc. Now each kingdom can be further divided into phyla (?), based on their collective similarities to one another (and differences from other phyla!). Each phylum can be . . . (all the way down to species, hybrids etc). But even within species, there is an amazing diversity of types. So in homo sapiens we have the different races - negroid, asian, european, . . . And even within races, and further, within nationalities, there is still diversity. Identical twins aside, everyone looks and behaves differently. But let's not constrain ourselves to living things. Consider inanimate objects. Look at the natural diversity in minerals, in ores, in rocks, in rocks. And what about things made by living things - bird's nests, beehives, ant hills, spiders' webs. And, of course, the things made by man - computers cars, tasters (?), buildings, sculptures, paintings, musical instruments . . . . Elaborate on the concept that ALL these things can be ground down to their atoms, and these can be put into a 10 x 10 array of heaps, with 4 heaps left over!! (Idea from a program on SBS, Tue 3/10/95, called Great Wonders of The World, featuring American Danny Hillis, mathematician and physicist, who designed the fastest computer in the world).** What you remember is the SMALL thing. You may have perfectly laundered, perfectly ironed, shirt. What people will always remember is the very small tomato stain.

AGECRIME & PUNISHMENTFANATICSGREEDHEAVEN & HELLLAUGHTERMISCELLANEOUSOPPOSITESPATTERNED THINKINGCalibrationPERCENTAGE PLAYERSPROBLEMSPROPAGANDARATIONALISATIONTQMVENGEANCE

WEIGHT CONTROLWISDOM

ABSOLUTE VALUEWith respect to relative value" the Germans have a word for 'how you see the world', which is weltanschauung.

Man looks down at non-human animals as a lesser form of animal life, and does not try to learn from them. Rather he looks to other humans for his source of knowledge and understanding. In so doing, he learns from those who have learned from those who have learned from others before them, therefore acquiring only that learning based on intellectual thinking. Yet there is much we can learn from the non-human animal (why not refer to animals and manimals?). Manimals tend to measure one another's worth or value in terms of their differences, which are relative. Someone is black, because I am white, or tall relative to my shortness, a Catholic relative to my Protestantism, a homosexual relative to my heterosexuality. On the other hand, animals consider one another only in terms of their absolute animalness. A dog sees another dog solely as a dog, whether it be black white or brindle, and sees its value only in context to the time and place. I thought of this tonight while walking Minttu and Elle. Two entirely different dogs, each great mates and intent (for the entire duration of the walk) in enjoying each other's 'dogness'.

AGEMan is the only animal that measures its age in numbers. It is said that man is also the only animal that knows that he is mortal, that life is of finite duration.CRIME & PUNISHMENT

FANATICSCauses = fanaticism = patriotism = . . .In the name of Christianity, the crusaders butchered men, women and children, and missionaries subjugated whole races of people.In the name of peace ("in our time"), the Americans napalmed innocent Vietnamese and executed others at Mi Lai.In the name of Ireland, the IRA blow up people they have never even met.In the name of . . . . . .Bigots and fanatics lead blinkered lives. Always constrained by their 'likes', and strenuously avoiding their 'dislikes', they live life only within the narrow corridor of the definitions they set for acceptability. They are forever nervous, lest they find themselves in a situation in contradiction to their pattern. [develop this theme of 'the stress of being a bigot'].For bigots the flow of thoughts is a forced flow. For those with wisdom, the flow of thoughts is a free flow, a flow in harmony with all things, a flow in accord with the natural purpose. A bigot is water flowing through the confines of a pipe; an enlightened one is water flowing freely in a stream.GREEDOf all the 7 deadly sins, this is the worst. In its name, relative values are invoked to justify wrong action.HEAVEN & HELLDo non-human animals go to heaven or to hell? If so, there must be an enormous imbalance in favour of heaven (what is an ‘evil’ animal?) So humans in heaven must be in a minority.LAUGHTERArticle in the Daily Telegraph Mirror, titled 'Laughter Is Very Good Medicine', states:

" A good belly laugh does more than lift the spirits, according to scientists who say regular chuckles help the immune system fight off infections.

Laughing is believed to increase the body's levels of immuno globulin A, a substance found in the human saliva which protects us against respiratory disorders.

Sydney University behavioural scientist Dr Carmen Moran said yesterday that laughter was increasingly recognised as a benefit to health."MISCELLEANEOUS** A stint in the army creates respect, strength, orderliness etc. The churches teach compassion and love. Why do we need these institutions to facilitate these necessary feelings.** Money - a means, not an end.• ** The "It is -> I think -> I believe -> I know -> It is" cycle of life **.OPPOSITESWe need both black and white. Think of all the great things written and read. Then realise completely that without the contrast of black on white, we could never read anything!PATTERNED THINKINGPatterned thinking: compare "in the groove" (right action, natural purpose) with "in a rut" (patterned thinking).At birth the mind is truly free of all preconceptions. From this point the naivety is lost. The mind is bombarded with instructions on how to think. Continually repeated messages from family, peers, education and the media cause specific patterns to be worn into the brain. These patterns, like erosional gullies in the hillside, become deeper as they direct the flow of thoughts along themselves, accelerating the patterning process. Set ways of thinking develop. A Jewish soldier in the Middle East can't stomach pork and hates the Palestinians, who in turn throw stones at his turned back. In Northern Ireland a Catholic boy hates his Protestant neighbour and with time will plot to kill him. In the South of the USA, a redneck racist curses a black man with the taunt of "nigger". Outside his simple home the "star spangled banner" waves in the warm breeze. Bias and bigotry abounds. If something is different, it must be wrong. Judgements are always made based on the relative merits of things. The ability to see the absolute value of people and situations is lost.Concept of CALIBRATION: all scientific instruments, however sophisticated, can only give a true value if properly calibrated. This calibration drifts with time, and needs to be reset using a standard or norm For example the mercury cell in a standard potentiometer, the thermochemical standard benzioc acid for standardising a bomb calorimeter. Setting the calibration with an incorrect (possibly biased) standard will result in extremely precise (reproducible) but totally inaccurate results. Similarly, people start life with a natural calibration, have it reset under the influence of education, home and the media and often, for example in the case of bigots, need to be recalibrated to be able to re-attain right action and natural purpose. Consider the deprogramming of prisoners of war, after they have been subjected to long term propaganda, or of people rescued from extremist religious cults. People "get back to nature" as a means of recalibrating, of re-establishing Natural Purpose. Some bushwalk, some hang-glide or parachute, others sail and surf. Natural purpose is lost amongst the high-tech business and industrial world. "Wheeling and dealing"; surfers don't conquer waves (e.g. Aikau @ Waimea). At best, when the ultimate wave is ridden in the ultimate manner, the surfer has merely gained harmony with the wave - become part of its Natural Purpose. There is no battle. On TV tonight (8/12/93) was described a scheme for rehabilitating recidivist car thieves in South Australia. Previously caught in the circular pattern of offend, be caught, do time, be released, offend etc. they were now taken into the desert, during their prison term, and taught tracking, abseiling etc. It takes them out of their pattern and shows them another world, another way. This weakens (hopefully destroys) the crime pattern and enables freer choice of actions when released. Authorities claim a high success rate.Note: in the UNINEWS, Issue 1, 1993, an article entitled "Training the Immune System" describes how patterning can induce or cure medical conditions. Thus the brain and the immune system are in constant communication, and the brain can be preconditioned or predisposed. For example rats were given saccharin water and a fever inducing drug. Next time they were given the saccharin water only, yet had the same fever reaction! Also, the rats were given fever, then a hormone that reduces fever, with the saccharin. The next time they were given a fever, it only required the saccharin to reduce the fever. Humans who

suffered from allergies were given a blue drink, then had dust mites injected into their nostrils, causing an allergic response. When given the blue drink, and injections of saline water only, the allergic responses were again elicited!PERCENTAGE PLAYERSIn life there are three types of people (consider them normally distributed): Type 1 those who don't do their share (don't "pull their weight"). These are often referred to as bludgers. If a society was made up entirely of Type 1 people, it would quickly regress, that is fail and disappear.Type 2 those who do their share, but not a scrap more. These are the percentage players. A society made up entirely of Type 2's will neither regress or progress. The status quo will be maintained. No advances will be made.Type 3 those who do more than their share. These are the achievers. A society made up entirely of Type 3's will continually make advances, and will progress.[is a Type 2 society necessarily a bad thing?][analogy of the three leaking boats. Type 1 boat will sink, unless people from the Type 3 boat contribute to the bailing. Type 2 people will spend all their life "just keeping afloat". Type 3 people will not only keep afloat, but will repair the leak and improve the boat. They will also be needed to continually help keep Type 1 boats afloat.]PROBLEMSThere are no problems. Situations that cause great stress to one person, may not cause any stress whatsoever to another person. And yet, that other person's "problems" may be seen by the original person as nonsense, trivia, even something to be laughed at. Problems are, therefore, relative. They're the reaction of different individuals to given situations. So let's think in terms of situations and not problems.Some people allow situations to become problems, which can poison their whole life. Imagine one's being, one's life force, at any point in time, like a pie. And one slice of that pie, a very small slice, a very small part of that person's life at any given point of time, might be represented by the situation that they see as a problem. Now, with some people, that situation becomes a problem - the problem becomes something to focus on - the problem grows - it becomes an obsession - it debilitates - it prevents them from living in any ways a normal life. All of a sudden it seems like , instead of being a small slice of their life's pie, the problem is the whole pie - and the pie is rotten!What to do about this? The first thing is to realise that, whether the situation will develop into a problem, that will ultimately ruin the quality of life, or whether it will be contained as a situation and not allowed to interfere with the other parts of your life, whether it will be improved as a situation.PROPAGANDAThe use of American war movies, violence on TV and in the movies, comedies such as Mash, to desensitise the feelings of the masses to the real consequence of war and crime i.e. the horrific death and injury of innocent people.RATIONALISATION

TQMFrom Deming's "Out of The Crisis", the following 14 Points For Management"1 Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.2 Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.3 Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality in the first place.4 End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimise total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long term relationship of loyalty and trust.

5 Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.6 Institute training on the job.7 Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.8 Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.9 Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.10 Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.11a Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.11b Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.12a Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.12b Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.13 Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.14 Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.VENGEANCE"Don't get angry, get even". Getting even means carrying around the injustice, looking for the opportunity to wreak revenge. This means that the injustice is not allowed to end. Better to be like the monk and "put the woman down on the other bank", than double the injustice by continuing to carry its burden, long after we had the chance to put it down.WEIGHT CONTROLPeople do not seem to understand the simple rationale behind human weight control. It is simply this: If you consume more in food than you burn up in exercise, you will accumulate the surplus as body fat. That's all there is to it. The fact that some people have a higher metabolic rate than others simply means that they burn up energy faster, even at rest. They need to take in more food, for a given amount of exercise, than people with low metabolic rates. We human beings generally eat three meals a day (intake), whether we need the energy for exercise (output) or not, yet cannot understand why we accumulate weight when we exercise less than the energy available permits.It is interesting to compare this human situation to that of putting petrol in a car. Because a car has a petrol tank of fixed volume, we only add petrol when our gauge tells us that we have nearly consumed it all. if we travel a lot, we need to add a lot of petrol. If we use the car only sparingly, we only need to add a little petrol. Also there is the car's "metabolic rate" to consider. A bigger car will need more petrol, to travel a given distance ("carry out a given amount of exercise") than will a small car.Now imagine a "human car". This car is fed petrol three times a day, into flexible, external tanks, whether it travels interstate or is merely taken out of the garage occasionally for a trip to the shop. We have no problem at all in seeing the lunacy of the situation. We readily comprehend how quickly the former car would simply become thin and "die" from petrol starvation, while the latter (sedentary) vehicle would become bloated with the surplus fuel and, being unable to generate enough power to move the enormous extra weight, eventually "die" also.WISDOMA person is born wise, with the ultimate wisdom that comes from total naivety.