Reversing the Process...

First what is the process. It can be seperated like this

1. The womb- Openness Nothingness

2. State of the infant- Undifferentiated. Form has been formed from nothing, but there is no differentiations.

3. State of the Child- Discrimination, yet differentiation is not imbedded. Joy, sadness, anger all come and go. When one is hunger one eats...

4. State of Discrimination- Differentiation has become universal. Good, bad... Beautiful, ugly... yin and yang divide...

5. State of conditioning- Virtue arises... Do good and good will come to you. Be happy because compared to others you are lucky. Desires becomes identified as self. The artificial has become the real.

6. State of emotions- Conditioning is complete and temperment emerges. External impacts condition the senses. This calls for desire and emotions. Temperment is considered natural... But how can acquired nature be primal nature?

7. State of boredom- As acquired conditioning runs affairs mundane energy increases and "celestial" energy retreats. One gets bored of oneself. Negativity isn't complete ,but positivity is retreating. Once the negativity is completed one dies... Not necessarily physically.

So how do you reverse this?

1. Refining the Self- One burns away the false and seeks the truth. Burning away temperment and acquired energies which are now habits. Controlling anger, conquering self.

2. Finding the Innocent Mind- Refining the self is not forced... It is not rigiourous practices imposed on oneself. Instead it is first recognizing the true mind and then using it. True mind lights the darkness... Right and Wrong become clear. Without the true mind the false will be true. So even if you force the mind with your mind you do not have direction. This is why rigourous practice does not work. How can one reach selflessness when one is trying to reach selflessness? This is what is meant by seek it and you cannot find it.

3. The Loss of Spirituality?- Efforts for spiritual development wane while accomplishments wax... Some believe that sitting quietly that the mundanity will decrease by itself. This is wrong...

4. Assembling the Five elements- For the celestial to grow and the mundane to weaken one must reassemble the 5 elements into one. They work harmoniously together.. they are manifested into action through: Benevolence, Justice, Courtesy, Wisdom, and Truthfulness.

5. Opposites are Polarized (fun with Pun)-  The five elements are actualized through yin and yang or opposites. Benevolence is created through Hatred, so on...etc etc etc. The five elements unite when yin and yang unite, or when opposites polarize. When one is no longer two. This is the state of the Child... Acquired conditioning exists but it does not lead the primal self. Conditioning submits to the primal. Or emotions submit to will.

6. Reality-This is the time when reality becomes real, and the mundane things in life have become celestial. Giving us energy to burn of the residual conditioning.

7. Open Nothingness-The fire of reality burns away the acquired conditioning and the "spiritual embryo" is complete. The state before birth has been reached. One has reversed the process. As taoist would say, one has become immortal. Not to say that they physically live forever.

This is the process as I understand it. Notice the interdependencies. There are many ways to interpret the taoist texts... this is one way. Others consider it chemistry and they seek longevity in a bottle to drink. Others see it as sexual and they practice taoist sexual techniques. Some see it like yogis and meditate all day. This is how I understand it. The rest of the ways don't make sense to me. How can one who is seeking selflessness find selflessness?

Do you meditate?

Meditation... the act of clearing ones mind and letting go. Often a very confusing subject to many. There are so many people "out there" telling you how beneficial it is... and how to do it. It is the hype of the spiritual world. Even doctors are singing its praises. The new wonder drug hype... Except its not a drug. Why you do it is up to you... how you do it is up to you.

I take martial arts for those of you who do not know. I have taken classes ,with differentiating time tables, in as many as 7 styles or schools. These styles are pretty different from on another... as different as can possible be (considering they are all martial arts). But the one thing that all of these styles have in common. They are all the best styles and they are the right way to do things. As Bruce Lee once said...(in shorthand) All styles started out as theory and have now evolved into gospel truth, indoctrinating the practicionars into rigid sets of self defense. Well it seems that all things follow these patterns and meditation is included.

Some say to breath in through the nose out through the mouth... some have visualization techniques... some you are supposed to keep your eyes slightly open... some closed... etc etc etc. Many people try out these techniques, and expect to find some kind of relgious experience to partake into the divine. And most of them want instant results.

There is not a problem with this... But the problem is often times people seperate life and sprituality. Or life and Religion. There is everyday life and then we set aside some time for our spiritual side. This is non-sense. Our everyday life is much more responsible for our "spiritual" side then the 5 min to 1 hr time frame when we "meditate".

Taoist Tale:

A young disciple approached his master after dinner, and asked him to clarify a little on how the Tao works and how to follow the Tao.

The Master looked at the disciple and said, "Have you finished your Bowl of Rice?"

The Disciple Replies, "Yes Master"

"Then go wash your dish."

At these words the young disciple understood the Way and was immediately enlightened.

So... Here is a "spiritual" excercise that you can put into practice everyday, and whoever lives with you will agree when you say it was a religious experience.

Wash the dishes... And don't use the dish washer...! Fill up one side of the sink with warm soapy water. Put your hands in the water and feel the warmth. Take a deep breath and pick up your sponge. It is a good idea to rinse the dishes first. And get to work. Focus on washing the dishes, don't let your mind wander.

Afterwards you may find that doing the dishes can be quite fun... and very relaxing. When the Mundane becomes the Celestial then you are on the path, and can no longer seperate everyday life with spiritual.

Have fun...

Addendum: Understanding a concept is worthless, only practice has any value. It is easier to do these type of everyday practices, then it is to sit quietly and wait. When you sit quietly it can clear you mind while you are sitting quietly. But if you are trying to "overcome" self or ego, and return to mindlessness. Then it is necessary to practice it, not sit quietly and wait for it to hit you for the rest of your life. Meditation is a tool, not a key... You can meditate without sitting down and closing your eyes or counting your breath or visualizing. In fact these things are just confusing and can get in the way of development. Notice I didn't say progress. If you want out of the process of death and birth and death again... you must reverse the process.

Til next time.

"Make determination endure...

If you want to accomplish something that endures unchanging,

It requires work that endures unchanging."

- Unknown

"Patience.... Discipline.... These are not gifts nor virtues, These are continual practices"

-Known

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

-Albert Einstein

"Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain."

-Marcus Aurelius

"The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything."

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached."

-Simone Weil

"The creator is both detached and committed, free and yet ensnared, concerned but not too much so. ... If motivation is too strong the person is blinded; if the objective situation is too tightly structured, the person sees none of its alternative possiblities."

-Robert Macleod

"If the individual is narrowly concentrated on the goal, to the exclusion of other relevant aspects of the problem situation, he is often unable to achieve a solution. The creative thinker must stand sufficiently detached from his work."

-Mary Henle

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self."

-Albert Einstein

"To understand is to perceive patterns."

-Isaiah Berlin

"Patience is the companion of wisdom."

-Saint Augustine

Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination. For in a civilization equipped with immense technological power, the sense of alienation between man and nature leads to the use of technology in a hostile spirit (to the "conquest" of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with nature).

~ Alan Watts, Psychedelics and Religious Experience

So what is the point?

I was recently asked about the point of meditation the other day, and I told him the point of meditating is to meditate. He couldn't quite grasp this concept. So many people miss the point , mostly because they are working towards some goal that is supposed to have value. People that play chess usually play chess to win. A lot of musician play music to make money. People go to school to get a good job.

My mom asked how my Martial Arts was coming along ,and I told her it was going quite well. She knows that I am an non-violent type, so she asked me why do I want to learn to be violent? She also wanted to know if I am working at this goal so that I can make a living at it? She doesn't understand the point of it.

Value...in mathematical terms it is an assigned or calculated numerical quantity. This is a pretty good definition. While we are discussing mathematics... What did you come into this world with? Zero. What do you leave this world with? Zero. What is the net gain? Zero. So is everything valueless? If you don't gain anything then what is the point?

What is value really worth? Many people define their "self worth" on their valueables. Your worth what your vaulables are worth or your accomplishments or legacy. But chasing after valuables is worthless. It takes you away from the point...? Without a point can anything be valuable? If there is no purpose then there is no usefullness then there is no value then there is no worth.

So what is the point? 

Intrinsic value is the only real substanence, and it isn't even tangible. The point of meditation is to meditate. The point of dancing is to dance. The point of living is to live. The value is intrinsic. What is intrinsic value? The joy of being or doing. When you reach your goal it is the journey that matters then. But most of the time people don't pay any attention to the journey. There are only obstructions to the goal. What is the point of racing to a goal? You achieved a goal ,but lost the point. So is there any value in it?

Either way we end up with nothing, so how you journey or why is up to you. But remember this... Happiness is based upon happenings, Joy is free and free flowing. All you have do to is unblock the flow. Usually the obstruction is you. Listen to the Music of life, and dont forget to Dance.

"i am no longer of this world, i am far from myself; i am no longer a part of my own person. i am within the essence of things themselves." -braneusi

Halloween... Good thing I didn't get any trick or treater's, I ate all of the candy.

Well this weekend I helped my Kung Fu School set up a haunted house in our kwoon, and I also helped by being a wall guy. Which means that I stick my hand out of the walls and grab people. There was a lot of laughs and a lot of screams, fun had by all. It cost 2 dollars to take a tour, and you could go through as many times as you wanted. Of course not many people went through more than once, why would you? But there were some kids that couldn't have been older than 11 that went through several times. They went through with people that hadn't ,and they would point out everything that was going to happen before it did. It made them feel special to know what was going to happen when the other people didn't. I know we all have friends or relatives that are exactly like this. Trying to watch a movie with one of them will drive you crazy. The truth is most of us are like that. We feel like we are special if we know something other's don't and take much pride in sharing what we know. We use others as comparison to see how much farther along we are then they are, and we like to feel superior. It doesn't even matter if it is something trivial. These comparisons are essential for us to make judgements on ourself and others. Without comparisons how can one judge? This is when all of our labelling and dissecting comes into play nicely. Our language itself is based upon labels and nice neat boxes of ideas. Many of our words are actually defined by its opposite, or they are mutually defined by one another. But in fact most if not all of our "opposites" are really the same thing. They are termed opposites only through comparisons and judgements based on perspective. And example would be hot and cold... There is no such thing in nature, there is more or less energy. That is not opposites. That is energy. Another would be blowing and sucking, is there really a difference... It depends on which side you are on really. If you are living inside of a balloon the balloon is punctured, you would be sucked towards the hole, if you are on the outside you will be blown from the hole. It is still the same force. When you compare and contrast one and seperate it into two, you only complicate things. When you judge or compare yourself to another, you only complicate things. You also end up with a lot of ups and downs. In life you will find that you end up on both sides of the balloon at times. If you only feel you are worthy when you are on one side then you are in for a rollercoaster of a lifetime... literally. Sometimes you will know when something is going to pop up because you have experience, and sometimes you won't know. It is a nice thought to give someone insight into your prior experiences, but you must know when it is the right time and the right place. If you don't know the right time or place then you will probably be a spoiler. Teachers are not spoilers, in fact the best teachers allow us to discover these laws on our own, and then to reflect upon them. They do not teach us anything new, there can be no new knowledge introduced to our brains. We have to infer it from the one or the "Self" and put it in light to a particular perspective. The teacher can only guide us to the one. There are many paths, but they all lead to the "one" source. Teachers are always students, they have to be to teach. They must learn or infer which path you are on at the moment and lead you back to the source. If you are not first finding out where others are coming from before you attempt to teach someone then you are only masterbating. If you want to really teach someone something you must make love, it takes two. So next time you ejaculate something such as experience or opinion, think... am I masterbating or making love?  If you do not understand why I use that terminology let me say this. Masterbating is for self pleasure only, making love is mutual discovery of pleasure.

"We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way - an agreement that holds through our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language."

-Benjamin Lee Whorf

"To understand is to perceive patterns."

-Isaiah Berlin

"We can invent only with memory."

-Alphonse Karr

"The simplicities of natural laws arise through the complexities of the language we use for their expression."

-Eugene Wigner

"The length of a minute depends entirely on which side of the bathroom door you are on" -unknown