Today… be silent…

Today... be silent... let go, let it be. A time for cleanup of our inner and outer life.

Some of the greatest Zen masters were cooks and janitors. Some of our best days are when we do cleaning up; moving around from thing to thing, cleaning, sorting out, and putting everything away in its place. At the end of the day, you look around and feel happy with the sense of clean, clear spaciousness all around.

Unrealized true wealth

Failing to acknowledge our true wealth we keep grasping for more, like hungry ghosts who are never satisfied while constantly eating!

We are born with true wealth, but constantly forget to realize the wealth we already have. Failing to acknowledge our true wealth we keep grasping for more, like hungry ghosts who are never satisfied while constantly eating! Thus, we go about despoiling the earth, corrupting relationships, and twisting societies into grotesque forms that promote needless suffering for ourselves, others, and the earth as a whole. Realizing true wealth leads to personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal fulfillment. Furthermore, the long-term survival of life on earth depends upon true wealth realization.

We need deep psychological and spiritual healing of individuals, groups, communities, nations, and the earth. The bedrock of this healing is a return to this present moment, not in a selfish, narrow way, but in a way that includes the totality of what is here–there as well as past–present–future. It is nothing less than the ancient ideal of enlightenment of all sentient beings.

Light Crosses

These crosses are parking light polls. But they are suggestive of the Cross. I walked by them for over a year without noticing what they looked like. Reminds me that the mind sees so little of what's "out there".

Is time poverty the price of progress?

Computing power doubles every two or less years; yet, our work day gets longer. We’re more scattered with less time.

The idea of "time poverty" naturally came up while lecturing on Moore's Law - which states that computing power doubles every 18 months. Suddenly I asked "Why if computing power doubles every two or less years, is it that our working day does not go down? Why is it that so many people now complain about having too much to do? Why do we complain so much about not having enough time?" For decades we have refined automation, labor saving, time saving devices, and computers do our routine labor and thinking for us. Elusive is the dream of a world with time for loved ones, time for creativity, and time for real self development.

Stall wall writing in Physics Department restroom

A stall wall aphorism found in the Physics Department men's restroom. Good metaphysics!

Hear yourself!

All day, or for just one hour: no radio, no television, no computer, no phone, no reading. Stay with yourself. Hear yourself! Much will be learned.

It’s normal, natural to want to be entertained. We’re all like children. We want to be distracted from ourselves. Our “self” in the sense of the small self, the ego, engages in a painful struggle for against a hostile world. Call it reality. It wants to withdraw from the battle. Listening to the news on the radio; or, watching “reality television” (where we tune into the lives of other “real” people) gives us relief from ourselves. We also keep going to our computers or phones to be thrown outward to somewhere outside our little self.

I’m not saying that radio, television, computers, phone and books are bad – I’m saying that to use these to escape deprives us of the precious opportunity to come closer to our big Self – the ground of our consciousness, which is also everyone else’s consciousness. This is the ultimate reality experience. Life is short; we have no time to waste. Be all you can be. Be here now. Afterwards, take a break; turn on the radio, TV, computer. Remember to come back again to your Self, again and again.

Peet's Tea and Coffee

Walking around in the early morning before the sun comes over the hill. I love go down to Peet's in the morning to pick up a cup. Life is good.

Success not related to time

"Success is not directly related to time", said Mark Allan. Otherwise, internet millionaires could not be rich so fast.

Time moves at the speed of thought! In a flash we can leap into another dimension. Success, money, and time are related in that “leap” like way – which is to say that they are not directly related. In one hour you could make $1, $10, $100, $1,000, $10,000 or more. It’s close to magic how money really is. Close to the true nature of thought. In a year, you could go from middle class to rich levels of wealth. And, wealth has many meanings here. Time moves at the speed of thought, money is a little slower, money is a link between thought and matter.

My first born was only a few years old. He overhead me complaining that I was not making enough money. He said, “Dad! I have the solution. Just make more money every hour.” That was many years ago. If we value our time more than money, we may find ourselves with more time but less money. If we value our money more than time, we may find ourselves with more money but less time. What we value is what we put our attention on. The usual logic is “either-or”. So, the way out of the paradox here is to embrace both money and time.

You are the world

The world comes into existence when you awake and goes out of existence when you sleep. You are the world!

During sleep you live in a world of dreams, and sometimes utter quiet. Of these two states, the dream world is most like waking life. The quiet state is most like the condition of total enlightenment - which is beyond the world altogether. Is not life itself, when recalled (as memories) like a dream? A dreamer sometimes realizes they are in a dream, and thereby breaks the power of the dream.

It's a blessing

It's a blessing when someone asks you about meditation; it supports your own meditation.

A mediation question is a gift. It turns our focus to the fundamental nature of our consciousness. It humbles us, because so much is at stake: the mind of the person asking. Answer carefully from the depths of your heart. Admit what you don't know. Thank the questioner, for they have compelled you to return to mediation in that moment. Only in meditation, can a question about meditation be answered.

On my walk around

Good to be alive. Just walking.

Store Art

Mystical artwork. Seen on Telegraph Avenue near campus.

Party Line

When I was a kid living on a diary farm in Los Angeles, our telephone line was shared by four families. It was called a "party line".

The World Wide Web opened up social networking sites that expose us to each other's private worlds and fantasies. But, when I was a child we had the four line party line. I loved it! When my parents where in another room, I would quietly pick up the phone receiver. Suddenly, I'd hear a phone conversation between two people who where strangers. It was exciting! A glimpse into another personal world. Actually, I was too embarrassed to listen for more than a few seconds. Just to know that they were there - to know that I could hear them was enough. A bridge had been made between two private worlds. Today's technologies provide more and more tools to hear and see each other's private worlds. Even mainstream broadcast television offers "reality TV" - we can look in continuously the life of a family as they go about their days. Now, we've got lots of "party lines"!

"Progress" in meditation

To go for "progress" in meditation makes enlightenment a receding horizon. Effort works against us. Sit and wait. Grace may come.

This issue of progress in meditation comes up often. Students tell me that they are not making any progress at all. But, the problem is that meditation is not about progress - it's about giving up control and surrendering to what is. What is, is what is - both outside and inside. How can there be progress in the realm of surrender. True surrender is giving up control. So there may be no progress in the sense that the ego is controlling how things will go. If the ego must control - that is not meditation. If the ego steps aside - the very idea of progress goes away! That is meditation.

Confused mind

Sometimes the mind is confused & chaotic. Just watch it. Trying to change it, will only add another layer. Just watch it. It passes.

Meditation in the Marketplace

Many escape to a mountaintop to get away from the world's clamor, but in the end the "master's path" requires us to return to the marketplace. How do we stay conscious in this bustling world of business, errands and family life? Audio of talk, meditation, and dialogue presented on Saturday, January 26th 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm at Elephant Pharm:

Audio

Action and stillness

Action & Stillness, Saturday, June 23rd, 3-4 p.m. - presented at Elephant Pharm in Berkeley.
LISTEN TO: Action and Stillness talk (10.8 mb; time 23:40)
Image from Daily Zen Greeting Cards.

Not words, not books

No words, no books
instead
move to love's quiet music

Mitt Romey on respect for many religions

NOTE: I am not endorsing Mitt Romey for President. But, am impressed with his wording on the issue of religion.

Mitt Romey's December 6, 2007, speech on religion contains the following, beautiful passage. Worth quoting:

"I believe that every faith I have encountered draws its adherents closer to God. And in every faith I have come to know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of the Evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the ages, and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims. As I travel across the country and see our towns and cities, I am always moved by the many houses of worship with their steeples, all pointing to heaven, reminding us of the source of life's blessings.

Remember, remember!

The following verse, constitutes a Hindu prayer uttered at the moment of death and often said in funeral rites. It's a good prayer for living well.

Absolute and relative – he who knows these two together, through the relative leaves death behind and through the Absolute gains immortality.

The threshold of Reality is veiled by golden light.
Reveal It, O Lord, for the guiding purpose of my life is to know the truth.

O Lord of light, the knowing one, the golden guardian, giver of life to all, spread apart your rays, gather up your brilliance, so I may perceive your finest and most splendorous nature, the cosmic spirit that lies at your heart.

For I myself am that!

Let my breath merge with the cosmic breath; may my body be as dust.

Remember, O mind, remember what has been done.
Yes, remember, O mind, remember what has been done!

O Agni, show us the right path, lead us to eternal freedom, You who know everything.
May we not be diverted from our goal, for with all devotion we submit ourselves to You.

from
"Isha Upanishad"
Translated by Alistair Shearer and Peter Russell