Evoking the classical god of religious ecstasy.

Come blessed Dionysos,

 bull-faced god conceived in fire,

 Bassareus and Bacchos,

 many-named master of all.

 You delight in bloody swords,

you delight in the holy Maenads,

 as you howl throughout Olympos,

 all-roaring and frenzied Bacchos.

 Armed with the thyrsos, wrathful in the extreme,

 you are honored

 by all gods and all men

who dwell upon the earth.

 Come, blessed and leaping god,

 bring abundant joy to all.

Excerpt From The Orphic Hymns Apostolos N. Athanassakis

A Roman fresco depicting Bacchus, Boscoreale, c. 30 BC

Maybe it's a stretch. If I've learned anything studying Dionysus, it's that he's amorphous and can serve many purposes.

"Ein begriffener Gott ist kein Gott" (A god who is understood is no god).

I no longer party, but I feel amazed during and after meditation often. I'm no pagan, but I respect the love of nature, and psychology, and I'm Jungian enough to appreciate mythology. I read slowly now, but there's a book I'm reading, here's the beginning of it.

The ecstacy makes me think about Amitabha, and the non-dual discriminating wisdom he evokes.

Here's another I like from The Orphic Hymns:

50. To Lysios Lenaios

Hear, O blessed son of Zeus and of two mothers,

 Bacchos of the vintage,

unforgettable seed,

 many-named and redeeming daimōn,

holy offspring of the gods,

 reveling Bacchos, born of secrecy,

plump giver of many joys,

 of fruits which grow well.

Mighty and many-shaped god,

 you burst forth from the earth to reach the wine press,

to become a healer for men’s pain,

 O sacred blossom!

A sorrow-hating joy to mortals,

 O lovely-haired …,

a redeemer and a reveler you are,

 your thyrsos drives to frenzy,

you are kind-hearted to all

 gods and mortals who see your light.

I call upon you now,

 come, O sweet bringer of fruit.

The homeric hymn to Dionysus. 

Poem

Laughter, crying

The room is illuminated by the street lights

finding the notebook

after picking my way between

toys

art supplies

children’s books.

The full moon

and venus

are behind

soggy clouds

She sleeps next to me

she rises her head up

like a weird sleepy pondering

(like her mother)

who wore makeup

and went to a work party

so I get her tonight

our shared custody

While reading Louise Gluck

I imagine a Civil War battlefield 

full of corpses

past selves, 

past relationships

Who am I now, alone

meditating myself towards

enlightenment

Dismantling 

the poor but time rich,

I squander my wealth

so much

but not on this

Can poetry save 

this thing I call

me?

The meditation doesn't works like this:

now relax! or happiness now!

but what relaxation can I observe

following the breath

what does my happiness consist of?

There’s no steam rolling

military orders

or classroom time outs

It’s seeing with prejudice

the rill of rapture

trickling

direction my mind

You watch how feelings

launch an armada of thoughts

how thoughts flavor 

and perfume the mind

How insight is noticed

(not frog marched)

and invades the whole body

How frightened I am

by letting go 

of the accompaniment 

of my neurosis

how insight is like a 

space walk

Dogen made fun of space flowers

theories to tide one over

while not meditating

How much of the mind is 

wurvival mind

trying to save

the unsavable?

The subtle breath

really is exquisite

ready for purpose

the deepening absorption

on the breath

rapture breaks the dam

gushing

gushing

out of control

it settles a little

The limpid waters

you notice a spring

replenishing

without causing 

a ripple

My whole body

what is happening?

what is happening?

I can’t write

unconditioned words

I direct this absorption

to disentangling

cessation

relinquishment

I clap my fist and let it go.

More Dogen Shōbōgenzō quotes

Past post

Quotes from Gudo Wafu Nishijima and Chodo Cross edition (book 1 of 8) BDK English Tripiṭaka Series version of Shōbōgenzō (2007). Chapter 1: Bendōwa p. 13-16

Someone asks (supposedly Senika in Avatamsaka Sutra), “It has been said that we should not regret our life and death, for there is a very quick way to get free of life and death. That is, to know the truth that the mental essence is eternal. In other words, this physical body, having been born, necessarily moves toward death; but this mental essence never dies at all. Once we have been able to recognize that the mental essence which is unmoved by birth and decay exists in our own body, we see this as the original essence. Therefore the body is just a temporary form; it dies here and is born there, never remaining constant. But the mind is eternal; it is unchangeable in the past, future, or present. To know this is called ‘to have become free of life and death.’ Those who know this principle stop the past cycle of life and death forever and, when this body passes, they enter the spirit world. When they present themselves in the spirit world, they gain wondrous virtues like those of the buddha-tathāgatas. Even if we know this principle now, our body is still the body that has been shaped by deluded behavior in past ages, and so we are not the same as the saints. Those who do not know this principle will forever turn in the cycle of life and death. Therefore we should just hasten to understand the principle that the mental essence is eternal. Even if we passed our whole life in idle sitting, what could we expect to gain? The doctrine I have expressed like this is truly in accord with the truth of the buddhas and the patriarchs, is it not?”

I say: The view expressed now is absolutely not the Buddha’s Dharma; it is the view of the non-Buddhist Senika. According to that non-Buddhist view, there is one spiritual intelligence existing within our body. When this intelligence meets conditions, it can discriminate between pleasant and unpleasant and discriminate between right and wrong, and it can know pain and irritation and know suffering and pleasure—all these are abilities of the spiritual intelligence. When this body dies, however, the spirit casts off the skin and is reborn on the other side; so even though it seems to die here it lives on there. Therefore we call it immortal and eternal. The view of that non-Buddhist is like this. But if we learn this view as the Buddha’s Dharma, we are even more foolish than the person who grasps a tile or a pebble thinking it to be a golden treasure; the delusion would be too shameful for comparison. National Master Echū of great Tang China strongly cautioned against such thinking. If we equate the present wrong view that “mind is eternal but forms perish” with the splendid Dharma of the buddhas, thinking that we have escaped life and death when we are promoting the original cause of life and death, are we not being stupid? That would be most pitiful. Knowing that this wrong view is just the wrong view of non-Buddhists, we should not touch it with our ears. Nevertheless, I cannot help wanting to save you from this wrong view and it is only compassionate for me now to try. So remember, in the Buddha-Dharma, because the body and mind are originally one reality, the saying that essence and form are not two has been understood equally in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, and we should never dare to go against it. Further, in the lineages that discuss eternal existence, the myriad dharmas are all eternal existence: body and mind are not divided. And in the lineages that discuss extinction, all dharmas are extinction: essence and form are not divided. How could we say, on the contrary, that the body is mortal but the mind is eternal? Does that not violate right reason? Furthermore, we should realize that living-and-dying is just nirvana; Buddhists have never discussed nirvana outside of living-and-dying. Moreover, even if we wrongly imagine the understanding that “mind becomes eternal by getting free of the body” to be the same as the buddha-wisdom that is free of life and death, the mind that is conscious of this understanding still appears and disappears momentarily, and so it is not eternal at all. Then isn’t this understanding unreliable? We should taste and reflect. The principle that body and mind are one reality is being constantly spoken by the Buddha-Dharma. So how could it be, on the contrary, that while this body appears and disappears, the mind independently leaves the body and does not appear or disappear? If there is a time when body and mind are one reality, and another time when they are not one reality, then it might naturally follow that the Buddha’s preaching has been false. Further, if we think that life and death are something to get rid of, we will commit the sin of hating the Buddha-Dharma. How could we not guard against this? Remember, the lineage of the Dharma which asserts that “in the Buddha-Dharma the essential state of mind universally includes all forms,” describes the whole great world of Dharma inclusively, without dividing essence and form, and without discussing appearance and disappearance. There is no state—not even bodhi or nirvana—that is different from the essential state of mind. All dharmas, myriad phenomena and accumulated things, are totally just the one mind, without exclusion or disunion. All these various lineages of the Dharma assert that myriad things and phenomena are the even and balanced undivided mind, other than which there is nothing; and this is just how Buddhists have understood the essence of mind. That being so, how could we divide this one reality into body and mind, or into life-and-death and nirvana? We are already the Buddha’s disciples. Let us not touch with our ears those noises from the tongues of madmen who speak non-Buddhist views.

 

Wikipedia on the skandhas

The five aggregates or heaps of clinging are:

form (or material image, impression) (rupa)

sensations (or feelings, received from form) (vedana)

perceptions (samjna)

mental activity or formations or influences of a previous life (sanskara)

consciousness (vijnana).

In the Theravada tradition, suffering arises when one identifies with or clings to the aggregates. This suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates. The Mahayana tradition asserts that the nature of all aggregates is intrinsically empty of independent existence.

Dogen Shōbōgenzō quotes

Dogen Zenji (1200-1253)

All quotes from Gudo Wafu Nishijima and Chodo Cross edition (book 1 of 8) BDK English Tripiṭaka Series version of Shōbōgenzō. Chapter 1: Bendōwa

"This Dharma is abundantly present in each human being, but if we do not practice it, it does not man- ifest itself, and if we do not experience it, it cannot be realized." (p. 3)

"After the initial meeting with a [good] counselor we never again need to burn incense, to do prostrations, to recite Buddha’s name, to practice confession, or to read sutras. Just sit and get the state that is free of body and mind." (p. 5)

"The grass, trees, soil, and earth reached by this guiding influence all radiate great brightness, and their preaching of the deep and fine Dharma is without end. Grass, trees, fences, and walls become able to preach for all souls, [both] common people and saints; and conversely, all souls, [both] common people and saints, preach for grass, trees, fences, and walls." (p. 7)

"Those who chant endlessly are like frogs in a spring paddy field, croaking day and night. In the end it is all useless." (p. 9)

"The mind that craves gain is very deep, and so it must have been present in the ancient past." (p. 9)

"Just remember, when a practitioner directly follows a master who has attained the truth and clarified the mind, and when the practitioner matches that mind and experiences and understands it, and thus receives the authentic transmission of the subtle Dharma of the Seven Buddhas, then the exact teaching appears clearly and is received and maintained. This is beyond the comprehension of Dharma teachers who study words." (p.9)

"Remember, among Buddhists we do not argue about superiority and inferiority of philosophies, or choose between shallowness and profundity in the Dharma; we need only know whether the practice is genuine or artificial." (p. 9)

"...we are prone to beget random intellectual ideas, and because we chase after these as if they were real things, we vainly pass by the great state of truth." (p. 10)

"At the same time, because we cannot perceive it directly,60 we are prone to beget random intellectual ideas, and because we chase after these as if they were real things, we vainly pass by the great state of truth. From these intellectual ideas emerge all sorts of flowers in space: we think about the twelvefold cycle62 and the twenty-five spheres of existence; and ideas of the three vehicles and the five vehicles or of having buddha[-nature] and not having buddha[-nature] are endless." (p. 10)

If you google "flowers in space" you get a picture of all the flowers they have grown in space. In 1253 when Dogen died and Shobogenzo was published, I wonder how much they imagined space travel. 

I think about space when I read "holding to nothing whatever," when I'm reading the Heart Sutra. I could get getting anxious when there's no gravity, but you evolve past that disorienting feelings in the spiritual life.

Another fun fact is that the Sobogenzo was written in Japanese, not Chinese, which most of the texts, even in Japan, were written in at the time. 

Dogen seems to be against chanting, reciting sutras, studying abstruse or fanciful doctrines. He's just for sitting endlessly in meditation. So far, 10 pages in.

Buddhadasa quote

According to Lord Buddha, the causes of everything in the world are rooted in the vedana. All activities occur because the vedana force us to desire and then to act out those desires. Even the rounds of rebirth within the cycle of samsara the cycles of birth and death, of heaven and hell-are themselves conditioned by the vedana. Everything originates in the feelings. To master the vedana is to master the origin, the source, the birthplace of all things. Thus, it is absolutely necessary to understand these feelings correctly and com-prehensively. Then we shall be able to master our feelings, and their secrets will never again deceive us into behaving foolishly.

Once we master the highest and most sublime vedana, we can also master the lower, cruder, more petty vedana. When we learn to control the most difficult feelings, we can control the easy, simple, childish feelings as well. For this reason we should strive to achieve the highest level of vedana; namely, the feelings that are born from samadhi. If we can conquer the most pleasant vedana, we can be victorious over all vedana. Should you bother to give it a try? Should you endure any difficulties that might arise? Should you spend your precious time on this practice? Let us consider wisely.

It may seem curious that in striving to realize the highest vedanà our aim is to control and eliminate these feelings rather than to enjoy and indulge in them. Some people might think it strange to search for the highest vedanà only to master and control them. It is important to understand this point correctly. By eliminating these pleasant feelings we obtain something even better in return. We receive another kind of vedana, a higher order of vedana one that perhaps should not even be called vedana something more like nibbana or emancipation. So it is not so unusual or strange that we wish to achieve the best vedana in order to eliminate the pleasant feelings.

From p. 34 of Mindfulness with Breathing (1988/96) by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

Patikulamanasikara

Also called Asubha (not beautiful and neutral) meditation. I think it's the most mentioned meditation in the Pali Canon. 

"Just as if a sack with openings at both ends were full of various kinds of grain – wheat, rice, mung beans, kidney beans, sesame seeds, husked rice – and a man with good eyesight, pouring it out, were to reflect, 'This is wheat. This is rice. These are mung beans. These are kidney beans. These are sesame seeds. This is husked rice'; in the same way, the monk reflects on this very body from the soles of the feet on up, from the crown of the head on down, surrounded by skin and full of various kinds of unclean things [as identified in the above enumeration of bodily organs and fluids]" (Wikipedia)

The parts of the body according to 2500 years ago (32 parts): head hairs (Pali: kesā), body hairs (lomā), nails (nakhā), teeth (dantā), skin (taco), flesh (maṃsaṃ), tendons (nahāru), bones (aṭṭhi), bone marrow (aṭṭhimiñjaṃ), kidneys (vakkaṃ), heart (hadayaṃ), liver (yakanaṃ), pleura (kilomakaṃ), spleen (pihakaṃ), lungs (papphāsaṃ), entrails (antaṃ), mesentery (antaguṇaṃ), undigested food (udariyaṃ), feces (karīsaṃ), bile (pittaṃ), phlegm (semhaṃ), pus (pubbo), blood (lohitaṃ), sweat (sedo), fat (medo), tears (assu), skin-oil (vasā), saliva (kheḷo), mucus (siṅghānikā), fluid in the joints (lasikā), urine (muttaṃ).

It's not quite a body scan, and it's not quite a 6 elements meditation. "In addition to developing sati (mindfulness) and samādhi (concentration), this form of meditation is considered conducive to overcoming desire and lust." (op cit)

It supposedly conquers lust, and I'm skeptical, and I've had a few lustful meditations, so I'm going to try it, and report back. I don't like the language of "impurity" either, misses out the wisdom of equality. Honestly I think everything my body I am grateful for. The calling it of ugly rubs me the wrong way. Maybe that's my conditioning. Maybe I could recognize my conditioning around the attractiveness of the body. 

I once did a meditation at the Bodies exhibit at South Street Seaport, where Chinese prisoners donated their bodies that were rubberized and cut in all sorts of interesting ways so you could see inside. You don't really need to do the corpse meditation too many times, once might be enough, but doing it once is perhaps good. Most people don't have charnel grounds to go to, so the Bodies Exhibit was the best approximation.

It's about bringing balance.

Links:

Written meditation instructions.

Lead through on YouTube (BuddhaDhamma Foundation) by Ajahn Asoko. He meditates, then talks about the meditation before it begins at 25 to talk about the meditation, prior to that he does a little meditation. Supposedly Ajahn Chah would do a walking meditation where you can put a bit down when you turn, and then when you get back put another part down, and then all these parts of the body are scattered all over the ground. All that goop is yucky. Then Ajahn Chah suggests you put it all back together. 1:05:00 begins questions. Do you have to keep the order of the list? Probably best, but of course you are free to do what you want. It's a really good suggestion to do this in walking meditation, I've been wanting to juice up and refresh my walking meditation. 

Chant

8 page pamphlet on Asubha meditation.

(The above is a goddess of fruitfulness and fecundity, from early Buddhist times in India at a recent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.)

Not sure how to express what I'm trying to express

I'm reading Kristin Neff's Self Compassion, and on page 93-94 she discusses what I consider to be reduced secular Buddhism. It's about not putting the second arrow in, preventing mind made suffering. It's the creativity over reactivity. Enlightenment as overcoming trauma and conditioning.

Devotion takes you past that, and perhaps is mysticism. Seeking unconditioned happiness. The unconditioned, the transcendental is a black hole of meaning, because language is conditional. You can't talk about the unconditioned. Merging with an archetypal Buddha. Depth psychology. Wisdom inaccessible to the intellect. 

Sex scandals in Buddhist sanghas are caused by nihilism and despair. Human sexuality undercuts most projects except hedonism. Containing sexuality is part of Christianity. The Buddha saw no connection to supporting the spiritual life, and banned sexuality for monks.

Narratives that really juice you up to do the hard work, to keep the discipline. Meditate 2 hours a day, vigilance with ethics, pushing yourself to study the culture, the ideas, the tradition. Pushing yourself to interact with other, develop friendships which are mercurial at best. Sangha is like politics, you have to really tolerate your ideals being violated by the reality of messy humans. Most sanghas are grandma sanghas who press eject at the smallest problems or power plays meant to build buildings. There's nothing wrong with trying to control your environment. Creating good conditions for practice, but wait, how do we get to the unconditioned? Devotion? I love devotional practices, but I don't know if they get you beyond the conditioned. 

The perfection of wisdom tries to express. It’s hard not to see quibbles with doctrine minutiae that isn’t yet common knowledge. I suppose this blurb is a kind of playing with simplified and more than Buddhism. Hyperbolic versus plain Buddhism.

equanimity

There's an article saying, "don't forget equanimity," in Tricycle. 

Something clarified seemingly in my mind. Some people get nervous when they get concentrated and the chatter that makes them feel accompanied and not so alone, like a TV on in the background, an external world exists, so to, we find comfort in the internal world. When the internal world is relatively blank, it can be like being in the wilderness. Even in the lack of others, people can feel vulnerable. What can happen? Walking down a crowded street, you're pushing past others at times, people bump into your, you have to alter you vector, take others into account. It's annoying maybe at times, but it's also comforting in that you know others exist and you're not all alone. Some people really don't like feeling alone. I've come to enjoy feeling alone. In some periods of my life all I wanted was to be left alone, there were so many people, I had a rather rich life. There are other periods of time where nobody calls, nobody emails, nobody visits. I'm all alone. When you sit down and the chatter settles, that can be scary in a way. It's also quite a relief and can be gladdening too. This is a state you will have to become comfortable and open to in the practice.

Doing the 16 steps of anapanasati has been interesting, contemplating things I don't naturally contemplate. I don't really contemplate equanimity directly. I often think like many of the contemplations in anapanasati that equanimity gets short shift, and could stand some actual meditation time.

Sitting with K on zoom, he's abandoned the think of a person in metta, in favor of locating that quality and then just radiating it, amplifying. I suppose if you can't find it, you explore the barriers. I've been surprised to come across a rill I hadn't seen before. That style of meditation lends, in my mind, to a 4 stage Sublime Abodes meditation that doesn't give equanimity short shrift. You can do a 4 stage Sublime abodes practice, 40 minutes, 10 minutes for universal loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. 

One image for equanimity is a circle that just touches a horizon. You don't want the circle away from the line, not touching the world. And you don't want to be engulfed with the world, such that you're overwhelmed. It's a fairly simple image, but a powerful one to explain equanimity. 

Where you go there, if it gets sidetracked or too complicated, you can always reset with that. Just like when I get lost in metta, I think, "may you be happy, may you be well," like a sheep herder that gathers the herd. The whole point of meditation to me isn't to stop thinking or calm the mind, though that can happen in spurts, it's more to notice what the mind is doing and apply various things to funnel it towards the meditative focus. (Also tune into the body and feelings and indeed insights.) In equanimity there will be questions of what equanimity really is, how does one get it, what is false equanimity, what are acceptable methods of striving for it? So many questions. Sometimes it's about the questions and not pat answers. It's similar to the insight tetrad, indeed, it might be the insight quadrant of the sublime abodes. 

Thoreau quote

"But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head, and I am not where my body is, - I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. 'What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods? I suspect myself, and cannot help a shudder, when I find myself so implicated even in what are called good works, - for this may sometimes happen."

-Henry David Thoreau in Walking