December 2011
1 post
1 tag
October 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Sankharas and stream of consciousness
When ignorance and craving underlie our stream of consciousness, our volitional actions of body, speech, and mind become forces with the capacity to produce results, and of the results they produce the most significant is the renewal of the stream of consciousness following death. It is the sankharas, propped up by ignorance and fueled by craving, that drive the stream of consciousness onward to a...
3 tags
Viparinama Dukkha
I’ve found some very interesting definition of viparinama dukkha. I’ll save it here for later reference. Irrelevant to the fact is his definition correct or not (I’d say its more likely sankhara dukkha), I’m pretty sure this feeling is very familiar to the most of us. -df
Thus, from the experience of social conditions there arises both physical and psychological suffering....
5 tags
Dynamics of the Meditative Path
Preliminary practices: inner space
Dynamically: Paralysis of ego functions other than observing ego
Danger is self-fragmentation
Emptiness misunderstood as incompleteness
Egolessness misunderstood as loss of psychodynamic ego
Concentration: oceanic feeling
Dynamically: Merger of ego and ego-ideal
Danger is self-annihilation
Emptiness misunderstood as a real nothingness
Egolessness...
September 2011
14 posts
5 tags
"Terror and delight"
“…when the path of insight is analyzed carefully, stages with predominantly two contrasting affective tones can be discriminated, what the Visuddhimagga, the classic textbook of Buddhist psychology, calls experiences of “terror and delight”
…
…experiences of terror, on the other hand, derive from the investigating aspects of the mindfulness practice and from...
4 tags
Importance of the conceptual understanding
“Confusion over what is meant by ego can arise here, with many mistaking egolessness for abandonment of the theoretical/ metapsychological/structural ego. Egolessness, in this case, is confused with the absence of repression, or with liberation from psychological defenses, a view which often encourages the release of buried sexual or aggressive longing. This can be thought of as a...
5 tags
Importance of both mindfulness and concentration
“Refusing to progress either on the path of concentration, by focusing the mind on a single object, or on the path of mindfulness, by moving from attention to content to attention to process, the meditator can be caught up in a fascination with psychological material without moving toward any resolution of conflict. Rorschach studies of experienced meditators showed no diminution of internal...
4 tags
Mindfulness // Bare attention
“Preliminary practices of meditation, just like beginning psychoanalysis, require the meditator to take his or her own experience as the object of awareness. In Buddhist terms, the attentional strategy is called “bare attention,” while in psycho-analytic terms it is called “evenly suspended attention” or free association. Both require what Freud called the suspension...
4 tags
Dual orientation of narcissism
“Guntrip (1971) insists that “every personality” hovers “between two opposite fears, the fear of isolation in independence with loss of ego in a vacuum of experience, and the fear of bondage to, of imprisonment or absorption in the personality of whomever he rushes to for protection” (p. 291). These two poles, of grandiosity or omnipotence on the one hand, and...
1 tag
4 tags
False view on (and fear of) emptiness
“This is also the fundamental danger for the rest of us in progressing on the path of meditation. We are all prone to ignore the falsely conceived self by dwelling in the tranquil stabilization that meditation practice offers. These states, which can become ineffably sublime, offer experiences of oneness far removed from our usual personalities that can be mistaken for emptiness by an...
5 tags
Emptiness, depressive personality
“In the depressive personality, emptiness functions as a kind of one step beyond loneliness. Not only is the loved object missed and longed for, but there is an internal void and a feeling of an incapacity for love. There may be a deeply felt sense of unworthiness that attributes the loss of the other to the person’s own badness (Kernberg, 1975); thus depressed persons come to feel...
5 tags
Emptiness, schizoid personality type
“The schizoid personality tends to feel emptiness as an “innate quality” (Kernberg, 1975) of their being that makes them different from other people, who they can see have feelings of “love, hatred, tenderness, longing or mourning” (p. 215) that they find unavailable within themselves. The schizoid stance has been seen as a defense against feeling longing for...
5 tags
Emptiness, narcissist personality type
“Emptiness in the narcissist is a result of the void that is created in the internal world of object relations through the constant devaluation of others (Kernberg, 1982). This is a pervasive feeling that can be temporarily interrupted only by admiration from others (Kernberg, 1975), which tends to be all that is sought in intimate relationships.
…
Narcissists are much more likely to...
2 tags
The Buddhist Doctrine of Non-Self, and the Problem... →
Highly recommended article for proper understanding of “non-self”. One of “the Middle Way” articles.
5 tags
Emptiness, borderline personality
“…borderline personality, for instance, what is most lacking is the synthetic or integrative capacity of the ego to consolidate and maintain multiple, conflicting self/object representations. The relationship of the self with internalized object relationships is distorted by the defense of splitting, in which all good and all bad representations of the same person cannot be integrated....
3 tags
“It is said that someone who tries to meditate without a conceptual understanding...”
– Kalu Rinpoche, “The Dharma”, Albany: S.U.N.Y. Press, 1986. (p. 113)
2 tags
“The practice of bodhisattvas has emptiness as its realization: when beginning...”
– Dayi Daoxin, fourth Zen Patriarch
August 2011
3 posts
2 tags
“Originally, the various `emptinesses’ were needed to break through...”
– Dogen, thirteenth-century Japanese Zen master
1 tag
Endings - Deus Ex: Human Revolution OST by Michael...
3 tags
July 2011
3 posts
3 tags
On "false view"
As mindfulness develops the ability to discriminate successive moments of awareness, the emphasis is usually first on noting the successive arising of new mind moments. These perceptions begin to shake the foundations of what is termed “false view,” that is, the identification of the individual with the products of his own psyche.
- “Psychotherapy without the Self: A...
1 tag
Enlightenment and imperfections
Questioner: But doesn’t enlightenment clear away imperfections and personality flaws?
Roshi: No, it shows them up! Before awakening, one can easily ignore or rationalize his shortcomings, but after enlightenment this is no longer possible. One’s failings are painfully evident. Yet at the time a strong determination develops to rid oneself of them. Even opening the Mind’s eye...
2 tags
Ego Ideal / Ideal Ego
The ideal ego is “an idea which the ego has of itself” (Hanly, 1984, p. 254), an idealized image of what the ego actually is, a secret, tenaciously guarded, deeply held belief in the ego’s solidity, permanence and perfection.
The ego ideal is that towards which the ego strives, that which it yearns to become, that into which it desires to merge, fuse or unite. Unlike the ideal...
May 2011
1 post
1 tag
Evanescence - Hello
April 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the...”
– Okakura Kakuzo
1 tag
Sting - Shape Of My Heart
March 2011
2 posts
1 tag
К предыдущей цитате.
Касаемо предыдущей цитаты. Канон отличается многословностью, поэтому я привел только часть сутты. Между тем (для тех, кто не очень уловил/понял), суть сутты в том, что чувственные удовольствия только кажутся приятными по причине того, что утоляют нашу жажду чувственных удовольствий, в то время как сами по себе эти удовольствия болезненны.
Эта идея только на первый взгляд нелогична - используемое...
2 tags
“So too, Māgandiya, in the past sensual pleasures were painful to touch, hot, and...”
– Māgandiya Sutta, Pāli Canon
February 2011
1 post
1 tag
Listen
December 2010
1 post
1 tag
“The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of...”
– Julian Assange
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
Deus Ex: Human Revolution “Icarus”...
October 2010
3 posts
2 tags
“Concentration and mindfulness go hand in hand in the job of meditation....”
– Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
2 tags
Сущность Будды
Для буддиста необходимо осознавать свои ошибки и воспринимать их спокойно, patiently. Нетерпение, как правило, все равно проявляется - его также необходимо осознавать и (тут все это начинает напоминать Уловку 22) воспринимать его спокойно, with equanimity.
Для этого нужен не только высокий уровень осознанности, но и терпение по отношению к своему нетерпению. Терпение, сливающееся с осознанностью...
1 tag
Anders Trentemøller - Shades of Marble.
September 2010
5 posts
1 tag
“Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige’s wall there was this one:...”
– Hagakure
1 tag
“Желательно каждый день вечером планировать следующий день и составлять список...”
– Хагакурэ
1 tag
“Не одалживай чужой силы, но полагайся на свою собственную, отрешись от прошлых и...”
– Банкэй, “Хагакурэ”
1 tag
“Другим
Ты можешь сказать,
Что это слухи.
Но когда сердце спрашивает,
Как ты...”
– Госэн вака сю
1 tag
“В стихотворении
В заброшенной деревне под глубоким снегом
Ночью расцвели...”
– Hagakure
August 2010
5 posts
2 tags
“Будь верен текущей мысли и не отвлекайся. Вместо того, чтобы изнурять себя...”
– Hagakure
2 tags
Value process over aims
GTD list is not something etched in stone - its just a reflection of your current aims and activities. It’s constantly changing, all the time. So no big deal if something is not done, or something has gone unexpectedly. GTD is an instrument of awareness, of reflection. GTD is the place to be aware of your intentions and aims, not the place to make agreements with yourself. Making agreements...
2 tags
"Frameworks for Thinking" book
“Frameworks for Thinking” (Cambridge University Press) is a handbook on frameworks for thinking, every framework is reviewed and evaluated in terms of purpose and actual and potential use. 41 framework is reviewed, so reviewer can choose one best suited for him (or his pupils).
1 tag
Nova June - More. Old, but still very chilling.
2 tags
City Shrines
Small shrines can be found all across Japan. They differs from relatively big (with parks and stuff) to very small, just few square meters.
Those shrines are ultimately important. They’re tearing apart illusion of your routine life and bringing you down to the reality as is. It is a kind of mental cold shower or momentarily meditation. Just pay attention to them, let everything go for a...
May 2010
1 post
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...
March 2010
1 post
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...
February 2010
1 post
2 tags
“Leave the body at rest, like an unmovable mountain.
Leave the speech at rest,...”
January 2010
8 posts
2 tags
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,...
2 tags
“Wait, wait,” a follower once cried after the Buddha as he disappeared into the...”
– Buddhist tale