Author: drquantumyogi

Musings, personal

Je ne parle pas la langue des fromages…

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But I can have a conversation in a DIY store with a man about how to remove “bouchons” in the pipe to the septic tank. He saw the implement which I had in my hands and we were quickly on the same wavelength. He sold me a French tool to do the job. I have generally been impressed with these tools. They can be very inventive and are usually well made.

This afternoon I have a session {on the cards} with my plumber’s rods to clear a blockage and I need to get the engine number from the sit on mower in order to replace the air, oil, and petrol filters.  I will probably change the spark plugs too. The mower is nearly twenty years old…I’ll probably drain the engine oil and do a full service, a makeover. I may light some wellness candles. 😉

The kind of conversations I have today are way less highfalutin than I once was accustomed to. If for example I found myself in the company of big cheeses I would have little to say to them and I would not share the same ideology, “world” or language.

It would be really funny to observe how any academic big cheeses might treat / interact with me if they met me, face to face, in person, today. What would they say, would they say the same things to my face?

In the hallowed halls they might feel secure. In the forest or in a mud filled field they would be less comfortable. They might be used to talking down to people and for others to fawn at their lofty status…

How would I react? I doubt I would be in awe…

Weird…

Je ne parle pas « plus » la langue des fromages…

Musings

Expert Advice

Humanity has never been so fortunate before. Now expertise is available on all subjects at the click of a mouse. Some may even charge you a buck for their advice. There is no legal definition of “expert” on the internet.

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In certain circles it is common to seek expert advice to provide credibility. If it was on a scientific matter, you might ask The Royal Society to look into it. An underling would probably be assigned to put together some evidence which the big cheese might then present as a report. Members of parliament, for example, might not understand how academia works.

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If you are a big cheese professor it is likely that you would refer to the wisdom and expertise of other cheeses. In fact, you might have a strong cheese orientation. Say you wanted an opinion on Buddhism then you might try to inquire of a famous Buddhist. The status and provenance might seem to be important if you are a cheese. Obviously high status means greater depth of knowledge.

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If you are famous then you can probably get past gatekeepers to talk to high status beings.

A lot of stock can be placed on the say so of experts. People may forget that many experts need to make a buck and burnish their shiny reputation.

If you want to know about someone it is probably best to interact with them yourself, rather than ask another what they are like. But now “referees” are also experts when we are seeking knowledge and the “goods” on someone else.

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It is possible for example that someone might ask people who have not spoken with me for a decade or two about what I am like. Yet because they have met me once they might be considered an expert…in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king…

Musings, Personal Development

Our Perceptions of Others

We often form perceptions of other people from how they are presented to us. Or by the descriptions and hearsay of others. Those perceptions can be idealised or demonised. There is a familiarity about some of the perceptions we hold, a warm familiarity which we cherish and cling to.

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Charlie Stayt is roughly the same age as me and went to the same school. It is possible that I met him nearly fifty years ago.

In nearly every case the perceptions that we have of others are incomplete. We may only see one facet and yet we extrapolate and generalise from that facet. From time to time our perceptions can be called into question. We can be shocked that our perceptions were not as all encompassing as we once thought. Our tendency to conclude prematurely is a weakness which we often forget about. Yet we do it over and over.

Climate Change, Dreams

Flood Tempest Dream 21-03-23

This dream coincides with the vernal equinox, it comes after the IPCC climate change report is made public and after I tried to download same.

The dream starts with us inside a building made of concrete. From the room we are in I can hear a gale blowing outside and rain lashing the building. It is night. The tempest comes in waves, there is loud followed by quiet and lull. The tempest is severe and as dawn approaches its force starts to wane a little.

Just after dawn, I leave the room and go out onto a terrasse. I look down at the river below it is a torrent and in flood. It runs past the outbuildings of the house which we are in. This is not our house. The river is brown and raging. From time to time I can see a tree being swept along in it. I call to the wife to come see. She joins me on the terrasse.  

As we watch the river in flood its level continues to increase. It sweeps away a shed like out building and a veranda which is a part of the house we are in. It leaves a “cliff” of several metres height where the foundations once were. The river is truly raging. We know that where we are standing is safe. We look across to the other side of the river and the trees there are largely flattened and the field in which there was once crops is very badly wind damaged and flattened. We see debris of other buildings in the river. We go inside to look for breakfast. The ‘phone lines are dead and the electricity supply is intermittent.

After breakfast we head uphill along the lanes to explore. The lanes have evidence of gravel having been washed down. We round the corner and look at where the forest once was. 90% of the trees have been flattened by the wind. There is a scene of devastation. There has been a fire there possibly caused by lightning strike. We move on and into the village. People are cleaning up after the flood. The river still rages at the bottom of the hill.  

We are joined by L and the three of us move off together back towards our house. There are now three dreamers. We show L the devastation of the river and the remains of the buildings, pointing out where the river has washed the foundations away. She finds it difficult to believe. Together we sense that this is a beginning and not and end. We go inside.

Alexandros, a dreaming nagal’s courier, arrives at the door. He and I go down to the port to look at the damage there. The road is strewn with debris but we can navigate it. When we get to the port, into which the river flows, there is disarray. Many of the boats have been wrecked. Others have been washed out to sea. The blue fishing nets and buoys are scattered. The harbour wall is intact. On the port quay the fishermen are assessing the damage. They are witing for the tide to go fully out and the river to subside before they venture out. The wind has died down and there is a sense of aftermath. There is a sense that this dream is a taste of things to come.

Dream ends.

Musings

UBS and Credit Suisse

As I mentioned in this blog a while back, problems for Credit Suisse were a harbinger for deeper problems.

This from Reuters..

“It should be clear that after more than a week into the banking panic, and two interventions organised by the authorities, this problem is not going away. Quite the contrary, it has gone global,” said Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist, Jones Trading.

“The reports that UBS is acquiring Credit Suisse will likely magnify Credit Suisse’s problems by moving them to UBS.”

And this week the UK is going to be worrying about whether Boris the bullshitter did or did not “party-on-down” during lockdown…

Priorities?

“I know while the world collapses let’s all go on a jolly to Rwanda with Cruella to check out their interior design…”

I once had a bank account with UBS in Bern, they were ace. When I called them during the previous crash they were very happy to re-open my account over the ‘phone.

And now the Kuomintang are reported to be visiting Peking…

It is really important that uncle Boris clears his name….it is a world #1 priority.

buddhism, Cause & Effect, Karma, Mental Health, Musings, personal

Drawn Back to the Bodhicaryāvatāra

“The Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra or Bodhicaryāvatāra translated into English as “A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life”, is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text written c. 700 AD in Sanskrit verse by Shantideva (Śāntideva), a Buddhist monk at Nālandā Monastic University in India which is also where it was composed.”

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To anyone who studies {and enacts} Buddhist philosophy it quickly becomes obvious that many of the foibles of modern life are not considered to bring enlightenment. Self-promotion, greed, gossip, attachment to worldly goods and gonadal corporeal acts are considered to be hindrances to attaining bodhi-mind. One could say that the ambitious “cut and thrust” of modern society is at odds with Buddhist thought and society actively discriminates against anyone who practises and embodies the precepts.

To use a metaphor; if you do not blow your own trumpet sufficiently loudly you will never get promoted up the greasy pole. Buddhism does not promote such trumpet blowing.

Modern western society discriminates against people who are not forceful, nor demanding, ambitious or manipulative. People who won’t play the itchy back game do not advance in our society as it currently manifests. If you can’t be bribed with some desire, some wish, then you are not to be trusted. If you do not want there are no levers to apply. If you don’t bullshit and hype like everyone else, but are accurate and modest, then you can appear as a nothing, a no-hoper.

People in general do not like it if you reject their ethos and mores. They are likely to judge you and condemn you if you renounce their ways of being, this is especially so if you look like them and talk like them. {I can, for real, talk reductionist science better than your average human.}

I have an ongoing joke, if I wore Buddhist robes instead of black Levi’s 501s people would cut me more slack for my apparent “eccentricities”. If I tipped up at a UK science conference in Saffron or Magenta, people would metaphorically shit a brick, especially those who once had my acquaintance.

But I am not a clown, nor do I do tricks.

Similarly, if one practises Christianity as per Jesus and not the church, there would be conflict with what modern society deems to be dandy.

If what I was “told” is correct then in two previous lives I did indeed wear Buddhist robes and in another I was a Christian priest. I have been “told” that this is my very last incarnation on this planet.

When you look at all that stuff which people largely unthinking engage in, you can’t help but wonder why. Humanity is not happy, satisfied and at peace. There is precious little equanimity and a horde, a host of drama. There is a mental health crisis, allegedly.

Something in the way of life is not working…maybe it will one day lose its gloss…

 Anyway, today I am drawn once again to Śāntideva and the Bodhicaryāvatāra…

It is a candle in a dark and often petty world…

buddhism, Quotations

Bodhisattva and Pratyekabudda

From Wikipedia

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva (/ˌboʊdiːˈsʌtvə/ BOH-dee-SUT-və; Sanskrit: 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), romanized: bodhisattva) or bodhisatva is any person who is on the path towards bodhi (‘awakening’) or Buddhahood.

In the Early Buddhist schools as well as modern Theravada Buddhism, a bodhisattva (Pali: bodhisatta) refers to anyone who has made a resolution to become a Buddha and has also received a confirmation or prediction from a living Buddha that this will be so.

In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva refers to anyone who has generated bodhicitta, a spontaneous wish and compassionate mind to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. Mahayana bodhisattvas are spiritually heroic persons that work to attain awakening and are driven by a great compassion (mahakaruṇā). These beings are exemplified by important spiritual qualities such as the “four divine abodes” (brahmaviharas) of loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuṇā), empathetic joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha) as well as the various bodhisattva “perfections” (pāramitās) which include prajñāpāramitā (“transcendent knowledge” or “perfection of wisdom”) and skillful means (upaya).

In Theravada Buddhism, the bodhisattva is mainly seen as an exceptional and rare individual. Only a few select individuals are ultimately able to become bodhisattvas (such as Maitreya). Mahayana Buddhism generally understands the bodhisattva path as being open to everyone and Mahayanists encourage all individuals to become bodhisattvas. Spiritually advanced bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya and Manjushri are also widely venerated across the Mahayana Buddhist world and are believed to possess great magical power which they employ to help all living beings.

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From Britannica

bodhisattva, (Sanskrit), Pali bodhisatta (“one whose goal is awakening”), in Buddhism, one who seeks awakening (bodhi)—hence, an individual on the path to becoming a buddha.

In early Indian Buddhism and in some later traditions—including Theravada, at present the major form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and other parts of Southeast Asia—the term bodhisattva was used primarily to refer to the Buddha Shakyamuni (as Gautama Siddhartha is known) in his former lives. The stories of his lives, the Jatakas, portray the efforts of the bodhisattva to cultivate the qualities, including morality, self-sacrifice, and wisdom, which will define him as a buddha. Later, and especially in the Mahayana tradition—the major form of Buddhism in Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan—it was thought that anyone who made the aspiration to awakening (bodhicittotpada)—vowing, often in a communal ritual context, to become a buddha—is therefore a bodhisattva. According to Mahayana teachings, throughout the history of the universe, which had no beginning, many have committed themselves to becoming buddhas. As a result, the universe is filled with a broad range of potential buddhas, from those just setting out on the path of buddhahood to those who have spent lifetimes in training and have thereby acquired supernatural powers. These “celestial” bodhisattvas are functionally equivalent to buddhas in their wisdom, compassion, and powers: their compassion motivates them to assist ordinary beings, their wisdom informs them how best to do so, and their accumulated powers enable them to act in miraculous ways.

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From Wikipedia

Pratyekabuddha

Pratyekabuddhayāna (Sanskrit: प्रत्येकबुद्धयान; traditional Chinese: 緣覺乘; ; pinyin: Yuánjué Chéng) is a Buddhist term for the mode or vehicle of enlightenment of a pratyekabuddha or paccekabuddha (Sanskrit and Pali respectively), a term which literally means “solitary buddha” or “a buddha on their own” (prati- each, eka-one). The pratyekabuddha is an individual who independently achieves liberation without the aid of teachers or guides and without teaching others to do the same. Pratyekabuddhas may give moral teachings but do not bring others to enlightenment. They leave no sangha as a legacy to carry on the Dhamma.

In Theravāda teaching

Pratyekabuddhas are said to achieve enlightenment on their own, without the use of teachers or guides, according to some traditions by seeing and understanding dependent origination. They are said to arise only in ages where there is no Buddha and the Buddhist teachings (Sanskrit: Dharma; Pāli: Dhamma) are lost. “The idea of a Paccekabuddha … is interesting, as much as it implies that even when the four truths are not preached they still exist and can be discovered by anyone who makes the necessary mental and moral effort”. Many may arise at a single time.

According to the Theravada school, paccekabuddhas (“one who has attained to supreme and perfect insight, but who dies without proclaiming the truth to the world”) are unable to teach the Dhamma, which requires the omniscience and supreme compassion of a sammāsambuddha, who may even hesitate to attempt to teach.

From Rigpa Wiki

Pratyekabuddhas (Skt.; Tib. རང་སངས་རྒྱས་, rang sangyé, Wyl. rang sangs rgyas), or ‘solitary realisers’, are followers of the basic vehicle, and more specifically of the pratyekabuddha yana, who attain the level of a pratyekabuddha arhat by themselves, in solitude.

According to some early schools of Buddhism, and the Mahayana, pratyekabuddhas first hear the teachings of the Buddha, then study and reflect upon the twelve links of interdependent origination, and accumulate merit for a hundred kalpas. They pray to be reborn in a world to which no buddha has come, and they attain realization without relying on a teacher. They usually teach visually rather than verbally; for example, by displaying miracles such as transforming the upper part of their bodies into fire, and the lower part into water.

‘Intermediate Buddhas’

They are sometimes referred to as ‘intermediate buddhas’ and their enlightenment is considered to be a higher form of realization than that of shravakas for two reasons: their accumulation of merit, and their accumulation of wisdom.

The shravakas accumulate merit for up to sixteen lifetimes, whereas pratyekabuddhas accumulate merit for a hundred kalpas. In their accumulation of wisdom, shravakas only realise one type of selflessness—the selflessness of the individual—whereas pratyekabuddhas also realise half of the selflessness of phenomena. For the same reasons, the pratyekabuddhas’ realization is considered inferior to the full enlightenment of those following the bodhisattva path. A bodhisattva accumulates merit for three countless aeons and fully realises both types of selflessness.

Cause & Effect, Karma, Musings, Postulates, Questions, Rāja yoga, Yoga

Salacious Gossip

One of the perhaps most difficult things to quit, to give up, when one seeks to adopt a “spiritual” way of life is the modern addiction to salacious gossip in all its forms. One could say that gossip is a bedrock of social media and that it sells newspapers and magazines. Humanity lives vicariously through the lives of others presented for our consumption. Gossip is pushed like a wrap of fentanyl laced heroin.

Many would say, “oh no not me, I am not a gossip”. Well they may not be a pusher but they will score a wrap from time to time. This pays the pushers.

Quite a while back I was thoroughly shocked by an old acquaintance from school. We met up and he wanted to know the ins and outs of both my private life and those of anyone we knew in common. I was genuinely surprised because it was so obvious that he was almost salivating. “Really?”, I thought.

I have joked that the collective noun for a group of academics is a gossip of academics.

In principle an academic is detached and has a cool considered oversight. But that is not the case, they seemed obsessed about who got which grant, who has the higher measure of esteem and where people are in the “blessed” league tables.

Lofty pursuance of academic thought, nah. One upmanship and gossip about who is on the up and who is on the down are readily to be found. If there is any sex scandal, all the better. In the past academia had its own version of the casting couch too. Academia gets a metaphorical hard on for scandal. It likes the salacious just like anyone else.

Trungpa suggests that the Ego is forever trying to use spiritual teachings for its own benefit. Thus, gossip about whichever guru may masquerade as intelligent inquiry, when in fact it is just gossip clothed differently.

If you look at various publications you can classify a very large amount of their content as being gossip related and much of it hearsay carefully couched so as to avoid libel court action. It seems we all want to know what people are speculating as to the minds of Harry and William. There are “clairvoyant” royal “experts” who can read their minds for our “benefit”.

I know that at various stages of my life I have been a subject of gossip. The use of “a” is deliberate because I was only one topic amongst a host. It rarely occurs to people that gossip can damage even ruin careers. But people, it seems, cannot resist and love the attention from listeners which a juicy titbit might offer them

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“Have you heard about…”

“Really? Well, I never…”

I will make a postulate.

You cannot achieve liberation whilst you are a purveyor and consumer of gossip. If you are in anyway attached to gossip you are not free. You are addicted and suffer from the fear of missing out on the latest juicy and salacious titbit. You damage the web of life by your obsession.

You may be able to do the most complex asana but if gossip has you, then you are simply a bendy gossip.

In order to be free one has to reorient oneself apropos of gossip, maybe go cold turkey.

Here are some questions to help. Honesty instead of justification may help.

Do I like to hear gossip?

Do I find it a tad salacious?

Have I ever damaged anyone by gossiping about them?

Have I ever been damaged by gossip?

Am I perhaps more addicted to gossip than I would like to admit?

Is gossip in any way life enhancing?