DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: Buddhism

  • Panpsychism.

    This collection of molecules, currently finds Panpsychism a satisfactory model of non-simultaneously apprehended events, after reading this fine introduction, overview.

    Cavendish, Spinoza, Bruno and others had latched onto the coattails of an ancient yet radical idea, one that had been circulating philosophy in the East and West since theories of mind first began. Traces of it can be found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christian mysticism and the philosophy of ancient Greece, as well as many indigenous belief systems around the world. The idea has many forms and versions, but modern studies of it house them all inside one grand general theory: panpsychism.

    https://www.noemamag.com/the-conscious-universe/

  • From My Interview With Robert Anton Wilson 2002

    [I remember that in Palm Springs; December 2000 you said: “If the United States government wasn’t trying to dominate the whole world, we wouldn’t be threatened by terrorism.]

    RAW: That’s just before they fired me, [laughs] isn’t that an odd coincidence?

    [some “Prophecy” from the Prophets Conference, I reckon]

    RAW: Yeah well, that’s why if your gonna run a commercial Prophets’ Conference you don’t want any real prophets so they’re not gonna disturb everybody. In Illuminatus! I had terrorists blow one wall off the Pentagon – just like happened, and in Schrödinger’s Cat I had Wall Street blown up just like what happened and I don’t claim this is ESP or precognition, it’s just common sense. The United States cannot go on bombing two thirds of the world year after year, decade after decade, over and over without somebody hitting back eventually, I knew it had to happen, you don’t need ESP you just need a little horse sense. CNN keeps referring to it as “the day the world changed,” well the world didn’t change; people have been dropping munitions on one another ever since Nobel invented modern munitions. People love dropping bombs on one another, it’s one of the favourite human pastimes, they’re almost willing to give up football , I mean – it’s been going on for ages, the only thing that changed is that the United States has been doing most of the bombing for the last 50 years and everybody got used to that, oh yeah we got to bomb another country for their own good, it’s only collateral damage. The United States gets bombed and they say the world changed. The world didn’t change, it’s just the United States got included in with the rest of the world. If you go around bombing people year after year, decade after decade; you’ll have somebody bombing you back, Jesus!, no, no; that’s not the reason they did it, they hate us for our freedom , all the freedoms like the freedom to pee into a jar before you get a job interview, that’s the kind of freedom we really need.

    [Instead of throwing shit we might just “pee” on one another you know] [laughs]

    RAW: I’m more and more examining Jerry Falwell’s idea that God joined Al Qaeda, you know he said that right after the thing; he said – “God joined Al Qaeda because there were too many gays, feminists and ACLU lawyers in the United States,” – and apparently he thinks there are no gays, feminists or ACLU lawyers in the territory controlled by Al Qaeda, so that’s where his god is obviously strongest, or that his god helped the planes hit their targets, and I’m more and more inclined to believe that. God seems to me – as my leg problems get worse and worse – God seems to me like the character described by Jerry Falwell and Osama Bin Laden – he’s a mean, rotten, Sadistic son-of-a-bitch, that’s the only kind of god that makes any sense to me, which is why the three religions I like most; Confucianism , Buddhism and Taoism never say anything about God at all, they don’t even deny god, well Buddhism does, or some Buddhist sects do very explicitly. I remember the first time I ever heard the Dali Lama was on BBC and the interviewer said “some people say Buddhism has no god is that right,” and the Dali Lama said “yes very true,” and the interviewer said “but isn’t the Buddha mind something like god?” and the Dalai Lama said – “the Buddha mind is the inside of all things, it is not an almighty creator,” – Jee’ a religious leader who makes some sense. I read a book by him and I didn’t find any bullshit in it at all. As the one living 100% bullshit free religious leader on this planet, they haven’t found another – well maybe Bob Dobbs, [laughs] O.K; he seems bullshit free too – well he’s not bullshit free, but the bullshit is highlighted with jokes and so you know it’s a joke. All the rest of them remind me of “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” the wizard of Oz.

    To read the entire interview, go HERE.

    If you think all this effort was worth the price of a cup of coffee, support me HERE.

  • WE’RE ALL BUDDHIST NOW

    We’re all Buddhist now
    Since 3000 years they have known
    The dangers of ignorance and run away ego
    The result of disharmony and war
    With nature

    Every Sutra Mantra Yantra and Tantra
    Helps defeat the ideological virus
    Killing untold Billions for thousands of years
    Pull down thy vanity dears
    Mind-body speech every moment charm

    Work on sympathy empathy and calm
    Healthy union of Yoga and mindfulness progress
    There are different kinds of Buddhism
    A practice not so much a religion, no reliance on pigeon

    The divine holy sentient omniversal dung force
    In ALL things besides any almighty creator God noun
    The practice of seeing Gods in all things great and small
    Generates attention and mindfulness
    We need YOUR attention to objects today
    Mindfulness body health and speech clarity
    Angels and demons in all things equal

    Before Bill Hicks said “Love all the people”
    Numerous Buddhist teachers express same
    We also love the sheeple and the morons

    Front and center, inner and outer wore on our sleave
    World dharma from Rimpoche to Kerouac and
    The Kali Yuga
    Better practice that Yoga to follow body and breathe

    Perpetual Ganga Puja, river prayer
    Dealing with uncertainty and indeterminacy
    Impermanence of all things
    The process oriented philosophy
    Things in motion and motion in things
    Stop the wheels of samsara with forgiveness

    No absolutes like in Taoism and Quantum Mechanics
    Aware of the infinite flux of beingness
    And the hard-luck impossibility of duality
    Pluralistic and multiplistic empathic mindful
    These are a few of my favorite things
    Self isolation with compassion for all sentient beings

    You are all equal in sentience
    Team human equivalence #TeamHuman
    We are all equal and always have been
    After this stupid virus has passed
    New equivalences will emerge
    We are all Buddhist now

    Practice empathy sympathy and compassion
    Let it guide you mind body and speech
    By osmosis let intelligence and sense propogate
    So mote it be

    World wide Universal Basic Love
    With basic income and basic healthcare and basic
    Intelligence and…

    –Steve “Fly Agaric 23”

    19th March, 2020.
    #Loveamoron

  • THOUGHTS: WHERE DO THEY GO?

    “If you let liars into the government, you put everybody at risk”–James O’ Brien, a few minutes ago on LBC talk radio, UK.

    Whenever I’m fortunate enough to catch one of my own thoughts and follow it, I try to imagine how such a similar thought may arise in others. You can save a lot of time by working to slow the avalanche of distracting thoughts using traditional methods, follow your breath, sit still, isolate your consciousness temporarily to recharge and repair. However, a lot of people consider meditation as pass/time for snowflakes, and need further nudging and poking to begin to recognize the importance of trying to follow their thoughts and questioning where they come from and where they go? And how often are you updating that data-set?

    A healthy mid/waypoint between Zen meditation and simply changing your mind about something revolves around the language that you use and how you use it. The introduction of a few modifications to a language can produce results similar to those gained from meditation, they can affect a new expanded awareness, from the individual psychological sense of self…to the ontological social-cultural sense of reality. Every time we hear, think and speak we are confronted with the paradox of Language vs. The Equation.

    The symbol systems we use to communicate our message and those we leave out are worthy of meditation. Meditation, to return to the theme, or some kinds of meditation…aim to reach beyond language and bridge the ideological gaps, to move towards experiencing things as they actually are: perpetually changing, decentralized, incomprehensible. And invoking compassion to fill the holes of what cannot be known.

    “Language is a virus from outer space.”–William S. Burroughs.

    In all seriousness and sincerity, we should all spend a moment to meditate on Coronavirus and where possible, try to follow our thoughts, our hopes and our fears. Try to track them to where they originate, where is the source of those thoughts and where are those thoughts going to…and now? This process of self-analysis and listening to your own head and heart, once in touch with your own mind-body system, can be shifted to cast judgement on others or external signals from…out there. Hopefully with compassion due to understanding the process you’ve just been through, like solidarity, not a choice but duty when faced with the incomprehensible, the uncertain and the indeterminate of a global pandemic turning endemic. We must search for that common ground between all human beings, such as to wish them a happy healthy life, for example. Wish well, wish hard, wish often. Practice practice practice.

    The global coronavirus brings complexity and chaos to the existing complexity/chaos/disorder inherent in subject-object duality, underlying most division and confusion around the world, the roots of disinformation? To repeat, never give up trying to understand that which you currently do not, experiment, research, measure, study, and in equal measure…both on yourself and on others…the internal and external infinite flux of beingness. Man, and women, is the measure of all things, somebody else said.

    To conclude: If you want to fight for your future and live in a healthy, well-informed community of self-owning ones, consider starting by following your own thoughts, where do they come from, where do they go? Then if your feeling brave, begin to use the same logic and reason, the same thought tools to break down the news headlines and the gossip down the pub and the WHO guidelines and each and every message communicated down to the very last pixel, or phoneme.

    “Free your mind and your ass will follow…”–Funkadelic.

    Thanks for reading, stay safe.
    Love all the people!

    –Steve Fly

    [DISCLAIMER: I make no claim to expertise in meditation or spiritual practises. I’m more of the “do what thou wilt to find compassion for others” persuasion. As we head into a spiritual and material crisis, I recommend a linguistic hazmat suit, neurolinguistic relativity and multi-model agnosticism to nudge us towards a compassionate, interconnected, co-operative global village.]

    http://www.hilaritaspress.com/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen

    https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2020/03/journalists-toolbox-studying-coronavirus/

    A song I wrote called THOUGHTS, based up some of the above.

    Occupy by Dr Marshmallow Cubicle

     

     

  • Where are the love preachers?

    Where are the love preachers?

    Hi, well not you, and you and you. This is for the greater public to chew on. Where are the love preachers, the fully qualified and respected religious and non religious humans demonstrating all around the world love, tolerance and compassion. Any leads?

    Oh yeah, well there are loving Buddhists. Some but not all Buddhists demonstrate such perpetual positive love vibes that I am hinting at. Yes, I agree. To play devil’s advocate, however I ask, outside the buddhist center, where do I tune into love preaching and practice, made to reach all the divided people? Yes, sure, everybody should take a look at basic Buddhist doctrine and adopt and learn from their well versed practical systems, which include attention to mind body speech, and techniques to train and relax. To work to attain clarity of beingness, all the good stuff. Yes. If you can turn Netflix off, and get away from Instagram and snapchat, Buddhist teachings teach and preach love. I answered my own question, but remain unsatisfied when I look around at the chaos and division, the ideology and entrenched positions. The lack of willingness to accept new data, instead, preferring to stand solid like a rock, unmoving.       

    The unfortunate truth that I deduce in the land of Trump and Brexit, reflects an atmosphere of nihilism. A case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. What I see as a new combination of groupthink and nihilism, “it’s all fucked”, “All politicians are the same”, “All religions are crazy” “All poor people are stupid”, “all bankers are criminals”. The hopeless require love, crushing fierce love that sneaks upon their being, gifting them with understanding, a two-way conversation in the interests of peace throughout the nation.

    All convictions make convicts. I digress, here I’m trying to refine my theme, where are the love preachers (in popular culture) these days. Some might say Russell Brand, and I agree that from a UK perspective, he fits the role. If we can overlook his history, check our ignorance, Big Brother, and Ms. Perry, I can agree that yes, Rusty Rockets demonstrates a consistent compassion in his public facing, often independently crafted communiques. Plus he preaches in some sense, he’s not afraid to speak with an instructive tone and authority, which I feel is important here. He’s not a performance poet, yet still exhibits a playful prose. Kudos. Besides Russell Brand, then, who and where are the UK love preachers, and where is the support, the resources and the platforms for such needed love preaching training? We need a planning committee for huge future love preach events at this critical moment in UK history. I call for a new love-in, a new trans-love energy field. Fight tight fists with open arms, fight lies and coercion with relative truths and invitations to think. Leaving and arriving is a part of the process.   

    I’m talking about Curtis Mayfield love, about unconditional love for all sentient beings, Rumi love, the love and forgiveness and understanding often ascribed to angels, but clear and present and without doubt, dancing on the tip of the tongue of our leaders, and public intellectuals and representatives. We need love training camps, love to mean understanding and tolerance, a love rehabilitation movement from coast to coast, continent to continent. As Bill Hicks said, “love all the people”. Teach them by example, love to mean acceptance, love to mean fierce blessing and passionate expression. We need trans love energies in all our hearts and bodies and minds.

    And where possible, scientific love, exploration of synonyms for love and the introduction of love’s sibling, peace. All words that connect positive actions, all the ways of othering. Know thyself, love others when you find intellect.

    My own feelings, due to my model agnostic outlook, and willingness to adopt and even believe (temporarily) almost anything, religious ideas like infallibility, spiritual practices like meditation, falsification theory and scientific reasoning, suspension of judgement. The joy of philosophy for me, and the study of consciousness, and social psychology and art and poetry, and music, is to discover new ideas, new arguments, new data. I maybe overly afflicted with forces of neophilus, and less willing than most to adopt a conservative attitude. However, any path forward for the unity of people and cultures divided by political matters, must include othering. We must be able to listen, at least, to the other point of view. And this may require some very clever, smart and collaborative intelligence from independently minded, everyday compassionate people. What I’m calling love preachers.

    I am willing to go that extra few yards here, and remind you that loving thy enemy can be fun and in fact, at its most potent thrives on comedy, laughter, and mockery of the opposite, and opposing forces of love, and peace. To mean, prejudice, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia are targets for any love preacher, serious about contributing something useful to society now. Today. Unlike many other religious organizations and government departments, who continue to make grande claims about moral and ethical superiority, and use the same words such as love, peace, justice, but in a different context, the new love preacher stands dogma free. The love preacher avoids absolutes, and communicates in a probability informed language of nuance, and prose.  

    Get out there and preach love, man, get up in the face of the people with unusual understanding and examples of tolerance. In love you will find optimism, in optimism, love. Speak truth to power, sing sweet to sour, sing songs of sunshine during an unexpected April shower.

    –Steve Fly