Tag: change

HAVE YOU SHIFTED? – ‘SOCIETIES & YOU & ME: BIG CHANGE, LITTLE CHANGE’

metamorphosis-dragonfly
RP If you look in the mirror and this is what you see great things are ahead – or perhaps you should re-boot your life? – Lol!
WikiPedia – A dragonfly in its final moult, undergoing metamorphosis from its nymph form to an adult.

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HAVE YOU SHIFTED? – ‘SOCIETIES & YOU & ME: BIG CHANGE, LITTLE CHANGE’ session 12 25/03/15

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.” ― Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh. He also says; “Breath is my anchor.”  BREATH MANTRA – IN: ‘breath…’ OUT: is my anchor

QUESTIONS: Q 1. On your spiritual or inter-spiritual journey have you undergone one big life-changing event or a series of smaller ones – i.e. little steps of insight or one big ‘shazam’ experience?  Q 2. Is the history of humankind a mirror of the inner struggles of the individual’s spiritual journey?  What are the successes so far – e.g the establishment of the Red Cross (cf The Good Samariton?)  Q.3 Is it useful to see so-called paradigm shifts in as the social co-equivalent of what happens to us as individuals?

A) Ulrich Leonard Tölle became Eckhart Tolle – One night in 1977, at the age of 29, after having suffered from long periods of suicidal depression, Tolle says he experienced an “inner transformation.” That night he awakened from his sleep, suffering from feelings of depression that were “almost unbearable,” but then experienced a life-changing epiphany.

Recounting the experience, Tolle says;  “I couldn’t live with myself any longer. And in this a question arose without an answer: who is the ‘I’ that cannot live with the self? What is the self? I felt drawn into a void! I didn’t know at the time that what really happened was the mind-made self, with its heaviness, its problems, that lives between the unsatisfying past and the fearful future, collapsed. It dissolved. The next morning I woke up and everything was so peaceful. The peace was there because there was no self. Just a sense of presence or “beingness,” just observing and watching.”  (remember his zen quote ‘No self – no problem!?

Tolle recalls going out for a walk in London the next morning, and finding that “everything was miraculous, deeply peaceful. Even the traffic.”  The feeling continued, and he began to feel a strong underlying sense of peace in any situation.[7]

Tolle stopped studying for his doctorate, and for a period of about two years after this he spent much of his time sitting, “in a state of deep bliss,” on park benches in Russell Square Central London, “watching the world go by.” He stayed with friends, in a Buddhist monastery or otherwise slept rough on Hampstead Heath.

His family thought him “irresponsible, even insane.” Tolle changed his first name from Ulrich to Eckhart; by some reports this was in homage to the German philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhart.

A 2012 interview article states that he saw the name Eckhart on one of a pile of books in a dream, and knew he had written the book; soon after in real life he ran into a psychic friend who called him Eckhart out of nowhere, so Tolle changed his name. SOURCE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle

B) SAUL BECAME ST PAUL – As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. —Acts 9:3–9, NIV

C) PARADIGM SHIFTS in society – All disciplines have assumptions. Empirical sciences are data-based and assume that theories can be formulated to explain that data. Empirical sciences also assume that data is neutral – which it is not. A paradigm is a result of these assumptions- it is the existing beliefs, practices, and general perspective of a discipline. The paradigm of a discipline is expressed through various products of the discipline such as laws, theories, generalizations, methods of collecting data, and methods of evaluating data.

Paradigm Shift – Findings that do not fit within the existing paradigm may cause a paradigm shift may occur. This happened with Einstein’s theory of relativity. It was previously believed that time was constant throughout the universe. Einstein showed that it was not, so the paradigm shifted- now the belief is that time is a dimension like space.

Some of the “classical cases” of Kuhnian paradigm shifts in science are:

1543 – The transition in cosmology from a Ptolemaic cosmology to a Copernican one.

1687 – The transition in mechanics from Aristotelian mechanics to classical mechanics.

The acceptance of the theory of biogenesis, that all life comes from life, as opposed to the theory of spontaneous generation – began in the 17th century & was not complete until the 19thC with Louis Pasteur.

1920 – The transition between the worldview of Newtonian physics and the Einsteinian relativistic worldview.

DATE ? – The development of absolute dating. (Techniques include tree rings in timbers, radiocarbon dating)

1965 – The acceptance of plate tectonics as the explanation for large-scale geologic changes.

In social sciences – In Kuhn’s view, the existence of a single reigning paradigm is characteristic of the sciences, while philosophy and much of social science were characterized by a “tradition of claims, counterclaims, and debates over fundamentals.”[5]Others have applied Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shift to the social sciences.

EXAMPLE; The movement, known as the Cognitive revolution, away from Behaviourist approaches to psychological study and the acceptance of cognition as central to studying human behaviour.

RP Many think the term is frequently inappropriately used or mis-applied – or even too troublesome.

D) WHAT I WAS became WHAT I NOW AM – WHAT YOU WERE became WHAT YOU NOW ARE

Q. 4  If you, within, have had a paradigm shift from what was the old & the new inner paradigm?  Q. 5 How important is self-knowledge? Which self is it that we come to know – small self or big Self? Or both? Do we hide from it? Is it thrust upon us?  Q. 6 What kind of knowing flows from gnostic or irfan-ic experiences that enable self-knowing?  Q. 7 Is the ‘no self’ the higher or lower self – or is there only one self?        -0-

TAGS: self-knowing, Kuhn, mystical experience, life-change, knowing, gnosis, irfan, paradigm shifts, Pauline conversion, spiritual journey, self-knowledge, change………..

Shambhala Sun – Life is Tough: Six Ways to Deal With It (March 2013)

Shambhala Sun – Life is Tough: Six Ways to Deal With It (March 2013).

Life Is Tough: Six Ways to Deal With It

An ancient set of Buddhist slogans offers us six powerful techniques to transform life’s difficulties into awakening and benefit. Zen teacher NORMAN FISCHER guides us through them.

There’s an old Zen saying: the whole world’s upside down. In other words, the way the world looks from the ordinary or conventional point of view is pretty much the opposite of the way the world actually is. There’s a story that illustrates this.

Once there was a Zen master who was called Bird’s Nest Roshi because he meditated in an eagle’s nest at the top of a tree. He became quite famous for this precarious practice. The Song Dynasty poet Su Shih (who was also a government official) once came to visit him and, standing on the ground far below the meditating master, asked what possessed him to live in such a dangerous manner. The roshi answered, “You call this dangerous? What you are doing is far more dangerous!” Living normally in the world, ignoring death, impermanence, and loss and suffering, as we all routinely do, as if this were a normal and a safe way to live, is actually much more dangerous than going out on a limb to meditate.

While trying to avoid difficulty may be natural and understandable, it actually doesn’t work. We think it makes sense to protect ourselves from pain, but our self-protection ends up causing us deeper pain. We think we have to hold on to what we have, but our very holding on causes us to lose what we have. We’re attached to what we like and try to avoid what we don’t like, but we can’t keep the attractive object and we can’t avoid the unwanted object. So, counterintuitive though it may be, avoiding life’s difficulties is actually not the path of least resistance; it is a dangerous way to live. If you want to have a full and happy life, in good times and bad, you have to get used to the idea that facing misfortune squarely is better than trying to escape from it.

This is not a matter of grimly focusing on life’s difficulties. It is simply the smoothest possible approach to happiness. Of course, when we can prevent difficulty, we do it. The world may be upside down, but we still have to live in this upside-down world, and we have to be practical on its terms. The teaching on transforming bad circumstances into the path doesn’t deny that. What it addresses is the underlying attitude of anxiety, fear, and narrow-mindedness that makes our lives unhappy, fearful, and small.

Transforming bad circumstances into the path is associated with the practice of patience. There are six mind-training (lojong) slogans connected with this:

Turn all mishaps into the path.
Drive all blames into one.
Be grateful to everyone.
See confusion as buddha and practice emptiness.
Do good, avoid evil, appreciate your lunacy, pray for help.
Whatever you meet is the path.

Death came knocking at my door – followed by Thich Nhat Hanh inviting me to tea!

“If you are average you have 30 months to live,” the Consultant said 10 months ago.

Having found out that my remaining life is likely to be very much shorter than the expected 20 to 30 years caused a reorganization of priorities, a focusing, a greater willingness to live in the now!

But support is flying in from all directions! I recently found this extract from Thich Nhat Hanh – it is comforting, elevating, beautiful, sweet, inspiring, a source of quiet joy as is everything that emanates from this man, one of the greatest teachers of our time ;

“When I drink tea it’s very pleasant

to be aware 

I am drinking cloud.”

What happens when you die?

by Thich Nhat Hanh

A transcription from a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh during a retreat with five hundred people in Hong Kong on 15 May 2007 (apologies for any inaccuracies of mine — Editor)

In order to answer what happens us when we die, we need to answer another question – what happens when we are alive?
What is happening now to us? In English we say ‘we are’ but it’s proper to say ‘we are becoming’ because things are becoming. We’re not the same person in two consecutive minutes.

su_ong1A picture of you as baby looks different to you now. The fact is you are not exactly the same as that baby and not entirely a different person either. In a picture of you as a five year old, you are not exactly the same as that child and not entirely a different person either – the form, feelings and mental formations are different.
In the middle way there is no sameness and no otherness

You may think you are still alive but in fact you have been dying everyday, every minute, cells die and are born – for neither do we have funerals or birthdays (laughter).

Death is a very necessary condition of birth. With no death, there is no birth. They inter-are and happen in every moment to the experienced meditator. For instance a cloud may have died many times, into rain, streams, water. The cloud may want to wave to itself on earth! Rain is a continuation of the cloud. With a meditation practitioner nothing can hide itself. When I drink tea, it’s very pleasant to be aware I am drinking cloud.

When you are parents, you die and are reborn as your children. “You are my continuation, I love you.” The Buddha told us how to ensure a beautiful continuation – a compassionate thought, a beautiful thought. Forgiveness is our continuation. If anger, separation and hate arise, then we will not ensure a beautiful continuation. When we pronounce a word that is compassionate, good and beautiful that is our continuation.

When a cloud is polluted, the rain is polluted. So purifying thoughts, word and action creates a beautiful continuation. We can see the effects of our speech in our children. My disciples are my continuation ­– both monastic and lay. I want to transmit loving speech, action and thought. This is called karma in Buddhism.

This body of mine will disintegrate but my karma will continue – karma means action. My karma is already in the world. My continuation is everywhere in the world. When you look at one of my disciples walking with compassion, I know he is my continuation. I don’t want to transmit my negative emotions, I want to transform them before I transmit them. The dissolution of this body is not my end. Surely I will continue after the dissolution of this body. So don’t worry about my death, I am not going to die.

Let us meditate on the birth of a cloud. Does it have a birth certificate? (laughter) Examine the notion of birth – the notion that nothing can come from something, from no-one to someone. Is it possible for something to come from nothing? Scientifically this is not possible.

The cloud was water in an ocean, lake, river and heat from the sun gave it birth – the moment of continuation. For instance, birth – before you were born you were in your mother’s womb. The moment of birth is a moment of continuation. Is the moment of conception the start? You are half from your dad and half from your mum already, this is also a moment of continuation. When you practise meditation you can see things like that.

It is impossible for a cloud to die. It can become water, snow – it cannot become nothing. It is also impossible for us to die. Speech, action and thought continue in the future. The person who dies still continues because we are not capable of using meditators’ eyes. They continue in us and around us. All our ancestors are alive in us. Our ancestors are in our chromosomes.

I wrote a book ‘No Death, No Fear’. When conditions are right I manifest and when not, not. There is no coming, no going. Before she manifests we should not call her non-existing. Before manifestation you cannot call her non-being. They are a pair of opposites.

Meditating on the nature of creation and being may be the best way to understanding God. The theologian Paul Koenig describes God as the Ground of Being. Who then is the Ground of Non-being? This diminishes God. In Buddhism both notions of being and non-being can describe reality. Similarly, above and below, Europe and here.

Nirvana is the absence of all notions, birth and death, coming and going, sameness and otherness. According to Buddhism, ‘to be or not to be’ is not a real question.

Meditation takes us beyond to a place of fearlessness. We’re too busy, so we become victims of anger, fear. If we have really touched our nature of no birth/death, we know to die is one of the root conditions to realise oneself.

We have to learn how to die in every moment in order to be fully alive.

This teaching on the middle way is the cream of Buddha’s teaching. Many of our ancestors realised this and were not afraid of death.

We should be able to release our tensions. We are the karma we produce every day in our daily life, if we know how, to ensure continuation. I have a disciple in Vietnam who wants to build a stupa with my ashes. He wants to put a plaque with the words ‘Here lies my beloved teacher’. But I want to write ‘There is nothing here’ (lots of laughter). Because if you look deeply there is continuation.

I treasure the time I have left, more for me to practise. I want to generate energy of love, compassion and understanding so I can continue beautifully. I would like you to do the same. Use your time wisely. Every moment produce beautiful thoughts, loving, kindness, forgiveness. Say beautiful things, inspire, forgive, act physically to protect and help. We know we are capable of producing beautiful karma for good continuations and the happiness of other people.

When the time comes for dissolution of this body you may like to release it easily. You aren’t to grasp – releasing body and perception. Remember the image of a cloud in the sky seeing continuation in rice and ice-cream waving to itself. You can already see your continuation. The art of living is continuation. For myself and the other beings.

Sariputra – one of Buddha’s main disciples, Ananda and other friends went to see Anathapindika a lay disciple who was a businessman and dying. He had made time to come to dharma talks and weekly practice.

When the Venerables came they asked whether the pain had diminished. He replied that it was increasing. The monks led him on a meditation on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. After a few minutes there was no more suffering and he smiled.

When you sit close to a person dying talk to them of happy experiences in their life. Touch seeds of happiness in them…………………………………………..

It speaks to the greatest joys and the greatest hurts of my life.

Let us ‘inter-be’, as this great Zen master teaches, from every atom of his being. If he is not the real McCoy, there is no real McCoy.

To read the full article go HERE

Note from WikiPedia on the theologian Paul Tillich and ‘God as the Ground of being’;

Tillich described God

(spatially) as the “Ground of Being” and (temporally) as the “Eternal Now,”[47] in tandem with the view that God is not an entity among entities but rather is “Being-Itself”—notions which Eckhart Tolle, for example, has invoked repeatedly ………were paradigmatically renovated by Tillich, although of course these ideas derive from Christian mystical sources as well as from ancient and medieval theologians such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas