Explorations

Dokkodo

thebigdipper — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:48:30 +0000

Do not turn your back on the various Ways of this world.
Do not scheme for physical pleasure.
Do not intend to rely on anything.
Consider yourself lightly; consider the world deeply.
Do not ever think in acquisitive terms.
Do not regret things about your own personal life.
Do not envy another’s good or evil.
Do not lament parting on any road whatsoever.
Do not complain or lament bitterly about yourself or others.
Have no heart for approaching the path of love.
Do not have preferences.
Do not harbour hopes for your own personal home.
Do not have a liking for delicious food for yourself.
Do not carry antiques handed down from generation to generation.
Do not fast so that it affects you physically.
While it’s different with military equipment, do not be fond of material things.
While on the Way, do not begrudge death.
Do not be intent on possessing valuables or a fief in old age.
Respect the gods and buddhas but do not depend on them.
Though you give up your life, do not give up your honour.
Never depart from the Way of the Martial Arts.

Second Day of the Fifth Month, Second Year of Shoho [1645]Shinmen Musashi

– William Scott Wilson Translation

Ajahn Fuang

thebigdipper — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:01:22 +0000

The body isn’t really ours. Wherever you see anything that’s “yours,” uproot it, take it apart, and let it go. Take it apart: the earth, the water, the wind, the fire. That’s all there’s been to it, all along, since who knows when. That’s all there is to it now. The problem is that we’ve been deluded about it and so we’ve latched onto it. We’ve been deluded just like everyone else. Deep down, doesn’t the mind already know this? Of course it knows, for that’s the nature of the mind: to know. We have to know. So bring this knowledge in and take it to heart. You have to be your own refuge, you know. If you’re the sort that has to take refuge in other people, then you’ll have to see things the same way they do, which means you have to be stupid the same way they are. So pull yourself out of all that and take a good look at yourself until things are clear within you. Keep contemplating things until there’s just the “knower” inside. This knower isn’t paired with anything else. It doesn’t have a mate. It’s single. It’s one. It doesn’t have anything. So focus in on the knower and make it one. Get so that it lets go of everything. It lets go of pleasure, lets go of pain, lets go of equanimity. It’s bright, all on its own. Keep focused there until there’s nothing left but a state of oneness. Then ask yourself: is it male or female? There’s no “male” or “female” in there at all. It doesn’t place labels on anything. And when you’ve gotten there, that’s the end of those issues.

Effort

thebigdipper — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:24:56 +0000

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt

The Path to Truth

thebigdipper — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:44:57 +0000

The path to Truth, or Reality, or Essence is very simple: It requires a Selfish man, an individualist not afraid of the annihilation of individualism, a fearless man not afraid of powers within him that are much greater than himself, and a man of suicidal relentlessness once his commitment is given. All that is necessary to find the Truth is an unconditional commitment, -not putting a time upon the commitment nor a greater value on any other desires or fears. If a person sincerely makes a commitment he automatically becomes a vector in a sure direction. But if we wish to see the commitment become an Absolute result in this lifetime, we must be conscious of our limited time, and of ways and means to expedite the realization. All energies must give priority to the vector. Every hour must be used in a way to expedite the success. So that as soon as the general commitment is made, we should immediately commit our energies which are generally used for anger or pleasure so that transmutation will bring Intuition. The voice of Intuition will be our most valuable teacher. It will furnish all future planning for the campaign. But do not rest. Make violent efforts but do not disturb the sleepers.

-From The Direct Mind Experience by Richard Rose

The meaning of courage

thebigdipper — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:46:09 +0000

“To take the unsettled self in hand, under whatever conditions, and return to the mind with which one set out; to pick oneself up again, after the mind changes, weakens, and breaks down, and stiffen the determination; to carry through the oft-reconstructed original vow—isn’t this the meaning of courage?” — Soko Morinaga Roshi

Gems from Stockdale

thebigdipper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:38:17 +0000

“No, “station in life” can be changed from that of a dignified and competent gentleman of culture to that of a panic-stricken, sobbing, self -loathing wreck, maybe a permanent wreck if you have no will, in less than an hour. So what? So after you work a lifetime to get yourself all set up, and then delude yourself into thinking that YOU have some kind of ownership claim on your station in life, you’re riding for a fall. You’re asking for disappointment. To avoid that, stop kidding yourself, just do the best you can on a common-sense basis to make your station in life what you want it to be, but never get hooked on it. Make sure in your heart of hearts, in your inner self, that you treat your station in life with indifference. Not with contempt, only with indifference.”

“Fear is an emotion, and controlling your emotions can be empowering.”

– James Bond Stockdale (The Stoic Warriors Triad)

Henry Rollins on the Iron

thebigdipper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:40:07 +0000

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds. — Henry Rollins

Baidarka finished

thebigdipper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:42:26 +0000

Baidarka finished

Epictetus II

thebigdipper — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:02:00 +0000

XIV. If you would have your children and your wife and your friends to live forever, you are silly; for you would have the things which are not in your power to be in your power, and the things which belong to others to be yours. So if you would have your slave to be free from faults, you are a fool; for you would have badness not to be badness, but something else. But if you wish not to fail in your desires, you are able to do that. Practice then this which you are able to do. He is the master of every man who has the power over the things, which another person wishes or does not wish, the power to confer them on him or to take them away. Whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither wish for anything nor avoid anything which depends on others: if he does not observe this rule, he must be a slave.

— Epictetus from The Enchihiridion (George Long trans.)

Show me a man who is sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy. Show him: I desire, by the gods, to see a Stoic. You cannot show me one fashioned so; but show me at least one who is forming, who has shown a tendency to be a Stoic. Do me this favor: do not grudge an old man seeing a sight which I have not seen yet.

— Epictetus, Discourses Book 2 Chapter 19 (George Long trans.)

Human nature

thebigdipper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:46:24 +0000

Human nature is very irrational.
– Dr Albert Ellis