background noise

"background noise" is a collection of draft materials for my work on "applied buddhism", meant to blend principles, practices and philosophy into modern way of life

Jun 12

antistatic

antistatic is all about living.

We want people to live our works, not just interact with them.

We’re dedicated to bring a captivating and immersive projects, backed by our huge experience of rich media development and intensive studies of cognitive and behavioral sciences.

Being free from commerce and restrictive deadlines, our development process is more like crafting, advancing forward gently and thoroughly, polishing our experiments until they’re believable and vivid enough to live them.

We’re working on something beautiful to happen.
Stay tuned.


May 18

Like an elephant

К этому посту Ярослава.

Сначала я хотел написать о том, что “призвание” - понятие весьма субьективное и эфемерное. Человек - это скорее процесс, чем сущность, и четкое осознание и понимание “призвания” - это все-таки большая редкость. Еще я хотел написать о том, что “уникальность” собственного мира - тоже крайне субьективна, и паттерн “Шерлок Холмс” имплицитно предполагает сохранение уникальности, как образующего признака, иначе граница между “Мастером” и “Шерлоком Холмсом” начинает стираться. Еще хотелось написать о том, что признак “Форреста Гампа” - отсутствие долгосрочных планов и стратегий вполне может быть присущ и “Мастеру”, и “Шерлоку Холмсу”, и уж тем более “Кочевнику”.

Но это все не отвечало бы на собственно вопрос Ярослава. А то, что на него отвечает, уже давно написали до меня:

“Let one walk alone, committing no sin, with few wishes, like an elephant in the forest.”

- The Dhammapada


Mar 16

Non-attachment

Kitano Gempo, abbot of Eihei temple, was ninety-two years old when he passed away in the year 1933. He endeavored his whole life not to be attached to anything. As a wandering mendicant when he was twenty he happened to meet a traveler who smoked tobacco. As they walked together down a mountain road, they stopped under a tree to rest. The traveler offered Kitano a smoke, which he accepted, as he was very hungry at the time.

“How pleasant this smoking is,” he commented. The other gave him an extra pipe and tobacco and they parted.

Kitano felt: “Such pleasant things may disturb meditation. Before this goes too far, I will stop now.” So he threw the smoking outfit away.

When he was twenty-three years old he studied I-King, the profoundest doctrine of the universe. It was winter at the time and he needed some heavy clothes. He wrote his teacher, who lived a hundred miles away, telling him of his need, and gave the letter to a traveler to deliver. Almost the whole winter passed and neither answer nor clothes arrived. So Kitano resorted to the prescience of I-King, which also teaches the art of divination, to determine whether or not his letter had miscarried. He found that this had been the case. A letter afterwards from his teacher made no mention of clothes.

“If I perform such accurate determinative work with I-King, I may neglect my meditation,” felt Kitano. So he gave up this marvelous teaching and never resorted to its powers again.

When he was twenty-eight he studied Chinese calligraphy and poetry. He grew so skillful in these arts that his teacher praised him. Kitano mused: “If I don’t stop now, I’ll be a poet, not a Zen teacher.” So he never wrote another poem.


Feb 28

Leave the body at rest, like an unmovable mountain.

Leave the speech at rest, like an unstrung guitar.

Live the mind at rest like a shepherd after dusk who has brought his flock home and sits content by the warm fire.


Jan 31

On monasteries

Another complication brought by modern way of life is monasteries. Still being a very respective institute, the differences between monastery life and worldly life are way bigger now than, let’s say, 1000 years ago. For that time, going to the monastery was not uncommon, good and respectable move. For our time, going to the monastery is something in between crazy and heroic.

Ages ago, monasteries has played a big role in the life of the society. Nowadays, they’re existing very much on their own, decreasing influence of Buddhism on the society greatly.


Jan 6
“Wait, wait,” a follower once cried after the Buddha as he disappeared into the forest. “I stopped a long time ago,” Buddha replied. “When will you stop?” Buddhist tale

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep prajna paramita

Clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty, transforming all suffering and distress.

Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form;

Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form; sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness are also like this.

All things are marked by emptiness — not born, not destroyed;

not stained, not pure; without gain, without loss.

Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness;

no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;

no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought;

no realm of sight to no realm of thought;

no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance

to no old age and death and also no ending of old age and death;

no suffering, also no source of suffering, no annihilation, no path;

no wisdom, also no attainment. Having nothing to attain, Bodhisattvas live prajna paramita with no hindrance in the mind. No hindrance, thus no fear. Far beyond delusive thinking, they attain complete Nirvana.

All Buddhas past, present, and future live prajna paramita and thus attain perfect awakened enlightenment.

Therefore, know that prajna paramita is the great mantra, the wisdom mantra, the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra, which completely removes all suffering.

This is truth, not deception. Therefore, set forth the prajna paramita mantra, set forth this mantra and say:

Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi Svaha.

The Heart Sutra

Om Mani Pedmé Hung

“Om” is sound of the universe. “Mani” means jewel, “Pedmé” means lotus, so together its jewel in the lotus.

And the funny part - “Hung” has no specific meaning here, its not for its meaning, but for the completeness of the vibrational tone. “Hung” is the consort of “Om.”


On honesty

Its very important to be honest to yourself. Being honest means paying attention to your own thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Awareness of self and honesty to self are interlinked, there’s no one thing without another. Being honest to self, you’re moving closer to the enlightenment.


On concentration

Concentration (attention, focus, whatever) is tricky. Its hard to practice properly.

When meditation, I’m often falling into “possessing” kind of concentration. You can compare it with watching movie, when your mind moves with object of concentration.

Proper way to concentrate is “observing”. Let everything go. No regrets, no worries. Do not care of anything at all. After then, start noticing object of concentration. Do not allow it to move your mind, just observe. If you feel it starts to enter into your mind, let everything go again, and start over.

upd: Its called nyon-yid (deluded awareness) in Dzogchen. Gotta dig Nyingma stuff a lil bit deeper.


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