The deeper troubles arise when we confuse ourselves and our fundamental relationships to the world with fictions (or figures of thought) which are taken for granted, unexamined, and often self-contradictory. ― Alan Watts (in The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are)

Excellent and very rich (15-part) online course on the philosophy of the Yogācāra (Cittamātra-Vijñānavāda) tradition by the Buddhist scholar Jay Garfield. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ0A...

01 Emptiness and the Mind Perceiving It with Dr. Jay Garfield 05-09-20

YouTube video by Sravasti Abbey

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Four key factors led to the global conquest of the world by Goliaths: large populations, better military technology, pandemics, and an eagerness to exploit people and places. In other words: babies, bombs, bacteria, and barbarism. ― Luke Kemp (in Goliath's Curse)

Grass doesn't grow on busy streets. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eJW...

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“There is neither an independent world of delusion of ordinary unenlightened people, nor an independent world of purification of enlightened sages; the worlds of the imagined and the consummated natures are both relative and interrelated, being encompassed by the other-dependent nature.”

Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, ignorance cannot exist in the presence of awareness that rests without concepts. — Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche (in Progressive Stages of Meditation of Emptiness)

To see a world in a grain of sand And a Heaven in a wild flower. . . .

CJ@drolma.bsky.social · 6d ago

"Look into a flower and you will see the whole Cosmos. " - Thich Nhat Hanh.

Our criteria for success are disastrously skewed. In my view, a successful person is one who does more good than harm, on any scale. On this measure, most billionaires are massive failures, while humble folk in my neighbourhood who look after other people are highly successful.

Whatever the mind may be, when you seek it out, you realize it as empty. Whatever state of mind with which you realize, when you thoroughly seek out its essential nature, you will realize it as empty. Realizing in this way, you enter into the yoga without sign. — Kamalaśīla

Most plastic items are too small for recyclers to bother sorting and processing, or they're assembled in such a way that it's less expensive to just make new plastic. In fact, only 5% of Americans’ plastic finds new life. (Published Aug. 2024)

When Is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means.

Companies whose futures depend on plastic production are trying to persuade the federal government to allow them to put the label “recyclable” on plastic shopping bags and other items virtually guaran...

propublica.org

The number of Amazon workers on Medicaid and food stamps nearly TRIPLED since 2020. Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart drivers now top the food stamp list. In other words: your taxes are covering what billionaires won't pay in living wages. This is disgusting and inhumane.

The crypto industry is hoping you won't notice as they quietly push the CLARITY Act through Congress. Masquerading as "reform," this bill does nothing to stop Trump's crypto corruption or the use of crypto by criminal networks & other bad actors. We must expose their scheme.

Self-control, being thoughtful of others, and friendliness—these states of mind are meritorious and the seeds of fruit both hereafter and here. — Nagarjuna (in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, transl. Siderits & Katsura)

A moral act is the expression of a moral being. It is not just about, or even mainly about, an outcome. What we call a morally good action is not a thing, but the result of the disposition of a morally good being towards the world. — Iain McGilchrist (in The Matter with Things)

Read my biography of Henri Bergson and: - wow your family and friends with your insights into pure durée - learn about the time Marcel Proust was best man at a wedding -access the immediate data of your consciousness - find out why a philosopher caused the first ever traffic jam on Broadway

"Noise" is what silence does. It's God reminding and then immediately forgetting herself.

You must reject all clear conceptualizations whenever they arise, as they inevitably will, during the blind work of contemplative love. If you do not conquer them they will surely conquer you. — The Cloud of Unknowing (edited by William Johnston)

"Let me take you down 'Cause I'm going to Sunflower Fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung up about Sunflower fields forever"

"If our existence were composed of separate states with an impassive ego to unite them, for us there would be no duration. For an ego which does not change does not endure, and a psychic state which remains the same so long as it is not replaced by the following state does not endure either."

"I’ve struggled hard to realize this, enough with trying to explain it! Those mired in greed and hate can’t really understand this teaching. It goes against the stream, subtle, deep, obscure, and very fine. Those besotted by greed cannot see, for they’re cloaked in a mass of darkness."

I have previously written about one reason that billionaires find the AI story so compelling: at root, many billionaires just don't believe most other people are actually, fully real. How could they? Achieving billionairehood requires that you inflict pain on vast numbers of people. 13/

You are not a human being, you are *being* appearing as human. — Adyashanti (in Emptiness Dancing)

One recurring (nonlucid) dream theme is that I lecture others on how to lucid dream (all while I'm unaware that I'm dreaming). The audience usually looks on unimpressed, or they shake their heads and walk away. Dream characters are in the know—they're probably some of the wisest people one can meet.

In what we call death, the body does not disappear. It continues its journey forth. Not a single element is lost. The body simply transforms into air and water and earth and sky. —Norman Fischer

After my morning runs, I do a (very modest) version of charnel ground practice, picking up litter, dropped doggy bags and diapers, and urine-filled water bottles by the wayside. Great way to work w/ disgust/revulsion but also (unexpectedly) anger: 1/2

"No matter what kind of thought occurs, its experience is, in itself, something unidentifiable—it is unobstructedly aware and yet not conceptualizing. As for perceptions, they are a mere impression of unobstructed presence, which is insubstantial and not a clinging to a solid reality."

Realize yourself as the ocean of consciousness in which all happens. This is not difficult. A little of attentiveness, of close observation of oneself, and you will see that no event is outside your consciousness.

"Because people are unaware that their attachments to projections of what they grasp and of the one who grasps are nothing but perceptions of their own minds, they fall prey to views of existence and nonexistence in which they are abetted by...the habit-energy of their projections."

Waking up is very simple. It's right now. Enlightenment is not something removed from you, a particular thing you have to get. It's not something to get an idea of or to figure out. You're experiencing it right now, though you may be ignoring the experience. —Steve Hagen (in Meditation Now or Never)

Dearly beloved, Lettuce pray that industrial farming be replaced with local organically grown produce, in climate-controlled, labour-friendly, worker cooperatives, for healthy people, neighbourhoods, and climate. Oh Yeah. 🥬✌️😇 #mind-in-nature 📸 ALT