Causal reactions and all-encompassing Buddha nature

This one is going to be a controversial blog to others as much as it will be to myself.

I was re-listening to a wonderful Alan Watts lecture tonight "Zen Bones" which ends with a Zen poem.

He who would understand the meaning of Buddha nature

must watch for the seasons 

and for causal relations. 

Every voice is the voice of Buddha, 

every form is the Buddha form.

I felt it, I knew it. So I wanted to test it.

I chose the most awful experience I could get my hands on. To make it my meditation tonight.

This is a video which has made me suffer above all sights, animals are my true weakness, my love for them goes past even the love for humans. So this is truly intolerable cruelty for me. It has made me cry, shout and scream in anger, awful extreme rage. 

It was different- to watch it. Absolutely different. What I ended up with was this realization.

My reaction is also a season, a causal reaction, also a Buddha form, just as the cruelty on display, just as the suffering on display. Whatever the reaction is.

The sadistic tendencies of those who suffer and cause suffering
vs my warrior spirit which has suffered and gone into a violent outburst against the sadists
vs a non-dual state of being which can watch cruelty at peace with an understanding it is all light Are they different in nature?

It is a controversial state for myself, that I find myself in. Me- who at one time had deep crises when I discovered the nature of the world and cruelty. Who had panic attacks at work when I had to sell foie gras as a special, and I couldn't do it- I said to my boss to fire me- but I wouldn't do it! Many panic attacks, many identity crises, not from being me, but from being a human being cause of all the animal cruelty I found out bit by bit... I didn't want to be part of a species who was capable of the worst. 

Yet slowly it balanced from seeing the whole struggle of us humans. Acceptance emerged of being in-between darkness and light. And then slowly the understanding came that light cannot exist without darkness. That there are really neither alone. Both of divine essence.

And now- I am here. Is it less unjust, less horrendous? No. And yes. The peace that I have in me now- I am still at a loss- what is this peace- I am with the poem, the essence of it, I know that the peace comes from that same source. But this meditation was unsettling- the peace itself disturbing- its a strange dichotomy. My mind tells me that, it tells me I shouldn't be at peace, remembering the past feelings. Of course my ego is part of this also- what- take away the main identity of who "I" am...? The main thing "I" am against? Whats the point when there is nothing to be against...?

I am guessing I am at a stepping stone from one state to another, polar opposite states. Unsettling to be at peace with something that was the deepest unsettlement! 

It is a meditation I chose which will still be difficult for some time.

But its good to grab the Bull by the Horns I feel.

Shadow self

"To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self. Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle."


— DR. CARL GUSTAV JUNG



“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.” - C.G.Jung

The Shadow, is a psychological term introduced by the late Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Carl G. Jung. It is everything in us that is unconscious, repressed, undeveloped and denied. These are dark rejected aspects of our being as well as light, so there is positive undeveloped potential in the Shadow that we don’t know about because anything that is unconscious, we don’t know about.

The Shadow is an archetype. And what an archetype simply means is that it is typical in consciousness for everyone. Everyone has a Shadow. This is not something that one or two people have. We all have a Shadow and a confrontation with the Shadow is essential for self awareness. We cannot learn about ourselves if we do not learn about our Shadow so therefore we are going to attract it through the mirrors of other people.

- From article "The Shadow Dance-Understanding Repetitive Patterns in Relationships"

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The unconscious mind is a powerful tool, a guide, a helping hand to let us see what it is that we are missing from our wholeness, what haven't we accepted as parts of ourselves, what is holding us back. The stronger our shadow aspect is, the stronger are the connecting fears.
I realised today, doing shamanic meditations, that my shadow totem animal is the snake.

When I was young I fell seriously ill. This was straight after a traumatizing experience of running away from a snake in the living room of our country house. For about a week I was raving with high fever and hallucinating. I remember only the snakes- snakes covering the floors, the walls, hanging down from a ceiling. My grandfather, who I had a profound link with, was having nightmares at the same time, he was walking in the shadow lands of death with me, as he later said. On leaving me behind as he woke, he was afraid that I would remain in those shadows forever.

Whenever I have nightmares now, the subject has never changed, I am still haunted by snakes. What has changed though is a realisation that maybe there is something within me in my subconscious mind that is desperately trying to connect with me. As if little chippings of self are separated from us during traumas and then look so alien to us that we don't recognise our own spirit fragments anymore. Now I see that perhaps I have been trying to avoid and to run away from an important part of myself.


As Jung says, "Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."


And from shamanism: "As the Shadow Totem walks, flies or swims beside us, we may come to understand, and ultimately integrate, the darker reflection of our Personality. By understanding the Contrary Medicine that this Animal Spirit brings to us and absorbing the Lessons and Wisdom he/she has to impart, we transmute the Medicine from something to be feared or repressed, to an integrated and cohesive Center.

When the pain of past traumas have been embraced, healed and resolved, then we may look upon our Shadow Totem in a new light, understanding that all along, he/she is merely a reflection cast from our own unresolved issues, lessons and pain.  With understanding, healing and integration, the Shadow is no longer a separate and dark entity that relentlessly pursues us, and we come to see that where our footsteps fall, no fractured Shadow is cast, for there is only the light of the Integrated Self. "


Also an interesting article from the Buddhist view on facing the shadow self - "Inviting the demon".

Spiritual warrior in Buddhism and Shamanism

"Generally speaking, we regard discomfort in any form as bad news. But for practitioners or spiritual warriors- people who have a certain hunger to know what is true- feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we are holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, its with us wherever we are."

- Pema Chodron "When things fall apart" full chapter online

The concept of a spiritual warrior has connotations in almost all religions and nowadays the new-age movements. Yet I find in shamanism a close link to the Shambhala warriors.


The only person who can survive the transformative path of the shaman is the Spiritual Warrior. The average human seeks comfort, safety, wealth, and a “healthy distance” from the true realities of life. The spiritual warrior actively seeks change, the facing of his fears and demons, and truth in all its starkness. A large proportion of a shaman’s training is learning to take full responsibility for his incarnation on Earth, and acquiring the qualities of a Spiritual Warrior.
The student learns the way awareness works and is taught to make a strategy for his life. By applying himself to these principles on a constant, everyday basis and by developing the profound qualities of impeccability, the student will activate the qualities of the Spiritual Warrior within. Once the Spiritual Warrior has been birthed, the student will then have the tools to enable him to walk the path towards total freedom.  source

Here are some of my favourite shamanic meditations from Kenneth Meadows wonderful book "Where eagles fly"

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Adversity is not a punishment of an anrgy deity, but an interplay of energies that provides an opportunity for growth in a new direction.

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Celebrate each day as it comes to you as if it is the only one in your entire existence. Compassion comes through a recognition that all living creatures are our "relatives".

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Detachment does not mean retreating from the world to escape its responsibilities. It is being in the world but not of it.

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Follow your heart, for what you feel is nearer to the truth than what you think.

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Innocence is not that which is separate from moral wrong, for innocence is not divisive. An innocent child lives for the moment. The past is forgotten and the future does not exist. Only the moment has importance. That is innocence.

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Look to a way, that is not a route to a destination but rather a journey itself, for you cannot become what it is you aspire to unless you can be it where you are now.

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Rainbows are a demonstration of all colours combining together into a wholeness, and illustrate that separateness is an illusion. A rainbow indicates that all paths that are harmonious are ways to wholeness, all races are part of a greater unity, and all paths that create beauty are deserving of respect.

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Take anything to its extreme and you lead it to its destruction.

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The most joyful sounds are heard not with the ears but with the Spirit. Only by finding the solitude of our personal Quiet Place can we experience the sound of silence.

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To love Nature is to love your Real Self, for Nature itself is an expression of the essence of what you are.

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Truth wears many masks in order to teach us not to mistake appearances for the reality.

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Zero is the Nothing that precedes creation, out of which an infinity of numbers and combinations is possible, and to which everything returns, for it shares itself with all that can be numbered and contains within it everything in existence. An apt symbol for Great Mystery.

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You alone have the power to make something of yourself simply by choosing to do so.

Overcoming duality

Nondualism may be viewed as the understanding or belief that dualism or dichotomy are illusory phenomena. Examples of dualisms include self/other, mind/body, male/female, good/evil, active/passive, dualism/nondualism and many others. It is accessible as a belief, theory, condition, as part of a tradition, as a practice, or as the quality of union with reality. 1


HINDUISM

[Hindus believe that] Maya is the limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled. Maya is held to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self — the Cosmic Spirit also known as Brahman.
Each person, each physical object, from the perspective of eternity is like a brief, disturbed drop of water from an unbounded ocean. The goal of enlightenment is to understand this — more precisely, to experience this: to see intuitively that the distinction between the self and the Universe is a false dichotomy. The distinction between consciousness and physical matter, between mind and body, is the result of an unenlightened perspective. 2


ZOROASTRIANISM

About 10-11 BC the Iranian prophet Zarathushtra saw in his revelation the universe as the cosmic struggle between aša “truth” and druj “lie.” The purpose of humankind, like that of all other creation, is to sustain aša. For humankind, this occurs through active participation in life and the exercise of good thoughts, words and deeds. 3


BUDDHISM

Buddhism teaches the middle way, a non-attached state of neither craving for pleasure nor avoiding pain.

“'Everything exists': That is one extreme.
'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme.
Avoiding these two extremes,
the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle.…”

- from the Kaccayanagotta Sutta

TAOISM

Taoists seek a perfect harmony with the “way” - Tao, praising the wu-wei- the doing of non-doing.

“The great tao flows everywhere,
to the left and to the right,
It loves and nourishes all things,
but does not lord it over them.”

"The scholar learns something every day,
the man of tao unlearns something every day,
until he gets back to non-doing."

“The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.”

-Lao Tze

Duality and the battle between the yin and the yang is all around us. The materialists vs the spiritual, science vs religion, consumerism vs ecology, the "bad guys" vs the "good guys". My question is- does there have to be a vs? For me the only way of overcoming duality is by seeing straight through it. Everything is inter-dependent, therefore it is impossible to take sides.

The underlying unity and the source from where everything arises is eternal, therefore there is no right or wrong way to come to the place where we already are.
You can be a balanced person who will find peace and understanding in the Buddhists "Middle Way". Or you can be like myself- born to dance the dance of extremes, and find exactly the same thing. The lesson from extremes has for me been a powerful tool of understanding. How clearly one extreme turns into its opposite! Utter hopelessness turning in an instant to overwhelming optimism. Despair taking a minuscule step and reaching the state of bliss. The extremes form a circle and in between lies nothing but the timeless/infinite space of the Void. We are trained to look at the opposites as a linear line, that is the veil that is hiding the truth.

Nobody can explain the intrinsic truth behind the yin and the yang better than Alan Watts





"[The non-dual traditions] are more interested in pointing out the Nondual state of Suchness, which is not a discrete state of awareness but the ground or empty condition of all states... [They] have an enormous number of these 'pointing out instructions', where they simply point out what is already happening in your awareness, anyway. Every experience you have is already nondual, whether you realize it or not. So it is not necessary for you to change your state of consciousness in order to discover this nonduality. Any state of consciousness you have will do just fine, because nonduality is fully present in each state... recognition is the point. Recognition of what always already is the case. Change of state is useless, a distraction... subject and object are actually one and you simply need to recognize this... you already have everything in consciousness that is required. You are looking right at the answer... but you don't recognize [it]. Someone comes along and points [it] out, and you slap your head and say, Yes I was looking right at it..."

-Ken Wilber “Brief history of everything”

"Siddharta" online, quotes and film

"Now, he thought, that all transitory things have slipped away from me again, I stand once more beneath the sun, as I once stood as a small child. Nothing is mine, I know nothing, I possess nothing, I have learned nothing...when I am no longer young, when my hair is fast growing gray...now I am beginning again like a child."

"The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth...in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the future...Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man [are] only separated by shadows, not through reality...Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence."

"[Siddhartha learns that] a true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something. But he who found, could give his approval to every path, every goal; nothing separated him from all the other thousands who lived in eternity, who breathed the Divine."

"[A]ll the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life...then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om - perfection."

"From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny. There shone in his face the serenity of knowledge, of one who is no longer confronted with conflict of desires, who has found salvation, who is in harmony with the stream of events, with the stream of life, full of sympathy and compassion, surrendering himself to the stream, belonging to the unity of things."

"When someone is seeking...it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything...because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal."

"Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good - death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me...I needed lust [and] to strive for property...to learn not to resist them."

"He saw the face of a newly born child, red and full of wrinkles, ready to cry. He saw the face of a murderer, saw him plunge a knife into the body of a man; at the same moment he saw this criminal kneeling down, bound, and his head cut off by an executioner. He saw the naked bodies of men and women in postures and transports of passionate love. He saw corpses stretched out, still, cold, empty. He saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships to each other, all helping each other, loving, hating, destroying each other and become newly born. Each one of them was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that was transitory. Yet none of them died, they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another."

Hermann Hesse's "Siddharta" online

Here's the movie as well, though I have to say that all the movies that have been inspired by my favourite books have always disappointed me immensely. No film can give justice to the talent of the author themselves, it can give a poor duplication at best (that's if they don't change the plot like Hollywood disastrously often does).

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 5

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 3

Teachings: Dalai Lama Quotes

http://www.bamboointhewind.org/teaching_dalaiquotes.html

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 2

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 6

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 4

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 1

YouTube - 12 Transforming Problems - Discovering Buddhism

Awakening the limitless potential of your mind, achieving all peace and happiness. This thirteen-part teaching series touches on all the vital points of Tibetan Buddhism as presented in the Gelug Lineage of the Dalai Lama's tradition. Hosted by Richard Gere and Keanu Reeves, the series includes teachings with some of the great Tibetan lamas of our time as well as experienced Western teachers. Each video also contains personal interviews with student practitioners. A clear and accessible presentation of the Mahayana path for both beginners and experienced students, the series is an excellent resource whether it is used on its own, in conjunction with the Discovering Buddhism courses taught at FPMT centers, or with Discovering Buddhism at Home: An FPMT Correspondence Program. It is also a perfect gift for friends and family who may want to learn more about Buddhism.

YouTube - Dalai Lama - Exclusive Interview 2 (TWO) on april 8th

YouTube - Dalai Lama - Exclusive Interview 1 (ONE) on april 8th

My favourite videos by my favourite philosopher

Work as Play



Time and the More It Changes



Conversations With Myself

The Middle Way

Alan Watts Teaches Meditation

Zen