Be an Island Unto Yourself (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.), Attadipa Sutra: "An Island to Oneself" (SN 22.43); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Gypsy Kings "Bem Bem Bem Maria"

(Gypsy Kings) "Bem Bem Maria" with slide photos of islands in Tahiti, Caribbean, and Polynesia

SUTRA: Be an Island Unto Yourself
"Meditators, be islands unto yourselves [Note 1], be your own refuge, having no other; let the Dharma be an island and a refuge to you, having no other.

"Those who are islands unto themselves...should investigate [this crucial question] to the very heart of things [2]:

"'What is the source of sorrow, disappointment, pain, grief, and despair? How do they arise?' [In other words, what is the origin of suffering?] Here, meditators, the uninstructed ordinary worldling...

• [Continues as in SN 22.7].

When an island, take selfies of your island.

"Change occurs in this living body, and it becomes different [as by old age, sickness, and death]. On account of this change and difference, sorrow, disappointment, pain, grief, and despair arise.

1. [The same, as with this body or form, is said with regard to:
2. feelings
3. perceptions
4. mental formations
5. consciousness [which in Buddhism are collectively referred to as the Five Aggregates of Clinging].

"But seeing [3] the body's [radical, moment-to-moment] impermanence, its changeability, its waning [4], its hurtling toward destruction, one says:

"'Formerly as now, all bodies were [utterly] impermanent and unsatisfactory and subject to change.'

"Thus, seeing things as they really are, with perfect insight, one abandons all sorrow, disappointment, pain, grief, and despair.

"One is not worried at their abandonment but, unworried, lives at ease -- and thus, living at ease, one is said to be 'assuredly liberated [5].'"

1. [The same, as with body, is said with regard to
2. feelings
3. perceptions
4. mental formations
5. consciousness].

• For more see also: DN 16
• See also "The [Parable of the] Raft"

NOTES: 1. Atta-dipa. Dipa means both "island" (Sanskrit dvipa) and "lamp" (Sanskrit dipa), but the meaning "island" is well-established here. The "self" referred to is, of course, the unmetaphysical pronoun "oneself": cf. SN 3.8, n. 1. 

2. It is necessary to withdraw, to be "an island unto oneself," at least for a time (as any meditator knows), not for any "selfish" reasons but precisely in order to make this profound introspective investigation. In another sense Buddhists would, of course, agree with John Donne that, socially speaking, "No man is an island." 

3. As Woodward remarks in KS [Book of the Kindred Sayings, translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. III, PTS 1924], one would expect to find here the words which he inserts in the text: "The well-taught Ariyan disciple," as in many passages. If one in fact sees these things and reflects as said in the text, one will cease to be a "worldling." 

4. Viraga: elsewhere translated as "dispassion" (SN 12.16, n. 2), also has this meaning. 

5. Tadanganibbuto means rather more than Woodward's "one who is rid of all that."

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Skeptic.com lectures and signings at Caltech's Baxter Hall; Wisdom Quarterly

A Universe from Nothing:
Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing

WHERE DID THE UNIVERSE COME FROM? What was it before? Why is there something rather than nothing?

Such questions have been at the center of religious and philosophical debates about the existence of "God," but in recent years science has been closing in on answers.

In a cosmological story that rivets as it enlightens, pioneering theoretical physicist Dr. Lawrence Krauss explains groundbreaking scientific advances that turn these basic philosophical questions on their heads.



One of the few prominent scientists today to have actively crossed the chasm between science and popular culture [while ignoring mysticism?], Krauss reveals that modern science is addressing the question of why there is something rather than nothing with surprising and fascinating results.

With characteristically wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations, Krauss takes us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved -- and the implications for how it is going to end.

As Richard Dawkins writes: "This could potentially be the most important scientific book with implications for supernaturalism since Darwin."

EMPTINESS:
"Form is impersonal,
And the impersonal is form;
Form does not differ from the impersonal;
The impersonal does not differ from form;
Whatever is form, that is impersonal."

• A Universe from Nothing
• Dr. Lawrence Krauss
• Baxter Hall, Caltech
  
• 2:00 pm, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012
  
• Tickets at door, first come, first served. Seating is limited. $8 for Skeptics Society members and the JPL/Caltech community, $10 nonmembers. Admission fee is a donation that pays for lecture expenses.

My Path to Freedom (sutra)

Michael Olds (translator) "A Little Spell of Emptiness"; edited by Wisdom Quarterly
(Don Gissel/Flickr)

I, Ananda, live
In the fullness of freedom
Free of empty habits
Not an empty Abiding

The Path to Freedom

I hear tell: Once upon a time, the Lucky Man [Tathagata, the Buddha], in Savatthi-town, East Park, in the House of Migara’s Mother came visiting.

At this time, Ananda, just emerging from his afternoon’s sit down practice, went to the Teacher, greeted him, and sat down to one side. There he said:

Sir, at one time, the Lucky Man was residing among the Sakyans [the Buddha's extended family clan] in the market town of Nagaraka. And I also was there. In that place I recall having heard, learned, studied, grasped, face-to-face with the Lucky Man, this statement made by him:

"At this time, Ananda, I reside in the fullness of emptiness." Did I hear this correctly?

Yes, Ananda, you heard, learned, studied, and grasped this correctly. Previously, as well as now, I reside in the fullness of freedom.

In the same way, Ananda, as this House of Migara’s Mother is free of the disturbances of the city: free of elephants, cows, horses, donkeys; free of dealings with gold and silver; free of groups of men and women, and there is only this that remains to disturb the peace, that is, the vibration emanating off the recluses here.

In the same way, a recluse, paying no attention to the disturbances of the city, paying no attention to human beings, pays attention only to the vibration emanating off the forest. One takes to paying attention only to perception of the forest. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the city. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of human beings. This way there is only that disturbance which emanates off perception of the forest."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the city. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of human beings. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the forest."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being; this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to human beings, paying no attention to the forest, one takes to paying attention only to perception of earth, and cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

In the same way as one would regard a bull’s hide, stretched out to cure, held down by a hundred pegs, its life gone, when one pays attention to Earth, one does not think about anything on Earth such as dry land or rivers or swamps or marshes with plants with branches and thorns or mountains or plains. One only pays attention to the vibration which emanates off perception of Earth.

One takes to paying attention only to perception of Earth. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."...

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the forest, paying no attention to Earth, one takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the forest. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of Earth."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the forest. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case, a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to Earth, paying no attention to the Sphere of Unlimited Space, takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness. And one cleans out, tidies, up and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness."

...[O]ne takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere Where No Thing is There. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness, paying no attention to the Sphere Where No Thing is There, one takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the Sphere Where No Thing is There, paying no attention to the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception, one takes to paying attention only to the mental High-Getting that is Sign-less. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the six sense-realms bound to this body reacting to life."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

One understands, "This Mental High-Getting that is Sign-less is something that has been constructed, thought out. Whatever has been constructed and thought out is subject to change and coming to an end."

Knowing and seeing this, one's heart is free from the grip of sense pleasures. One's heart is freed from the grip of illusory existence. One's mind is free from the grip of blindness. In Freedom comes the knowledge of Freedom, and one knows:

"Left behind is Rebirth, lived is the Best of Lives, done is Duty’s Doing, crossed over am I; there is no more of this [suffering in rebirth] for me!"

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of sense pleasures. This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of illusory existence. This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of blindness."

Thus, "This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of sense pleasures. This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of illusory existence. This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of blindness. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the six sense-realms bound to this body reacting to life."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case, a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And, Ananda, all those shamans [shramana, Buddhist monastics, wandering ascetics] or brahmins [brahmana, temple-bound priests] of the long distant past who attained [are attained or will attain] the highest surpassing purity of freedom and made it an abode, all of them did so by attaining this same highest surpassing purity of freedom and making it an abode....

Wherefore, Ananda, train yourself this way: "I will attain the highest surpassing purity of freedom and make an abode of that."

Sex, robots, and what is "consciousness"?

Seven on consciousness, Chien Chi Liu on robotics (Wisdom Quarterly)

(T2) Gynoids and actroids, female robots, are advancing rapidly to serve humans.

Douglas Adams, author of the visionary comedy classic series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, defined robots in a futuristic marketing campaign as "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with." This may apply equally to marital devices already in use by women or the proxy products being developed by single Japanese nerds cooped up in laboratories in Yokohama.

Their amazing advances showcased in five years ago boggle the mind because this is what is being shown to the public not what is state-of-the-art. Covert black budget projects already involve androids. Robotics already dominate automobile manufacturing. Gynoids are not too far behind, with the misuse of psychological findings on the subtleties of what provokes human sexual response.

People are such that relations with inanimate objects already take place. And some with paraphilias even prefer the practice which keeps one safe from threatening intimacy issues. We are vulnerable to attachment but may feel safer expressing shamed impulses with automatons as the prophetic film "Westworld" once envisioned.

What is Consciousness?

An interesting question is, Can robots ever have consciousness? I think it is safe to say that they already possess a rudimentary form of awareness that qualifies as "consciousness." Are they able to tap into the metaconsciousness that connects all living organisms? Probably not, but the melding of organic life and artificial technology certainly seems to overcome that obstacle to full integration and conscious operating.

Buddhist phenomenology and psychology in the Abhidharma defines "self," or the ego-soul-individual, as a coherent and interdependent set of aggregates, "heaps," or grouped components. There are many such components. But for simplicity they are usually defined as five groups: (1) form, (2) sensation, (3) perception, (4) other mental formations, volition being the most salient, and (5) consciousness.

While they may sound like useless rubrics that have no meaning, they in fact represent a very profound understanding and intimacy with the inner workings of ourselves. To know oneself is to know these aggregates (skandhas). And when we speak of a "self" or what belongs to a self, invariably we are referring to one or more of these sets. As theoretical as it may seem, this is true in a conventional sense. It is possible to directly observe it, even if few attain this vision. The ultimate truth called anatta is to see that form and mind are empty, and the very emptiness is form and mind.

"Form" usually means body. But it is not limited to visible or tangible bodies. It is called "form" because it includes subtle bodies not seen by the denser eye faculty but visible to the refined mental faculty. The form group actually includes four things, qualities of materiality spoken of for the sake of simplicity as the Four Great Elements (solidity, extension, energy, cohesion) and derived elements. These subatomic elements can be seen directly in deep meditation and understood at the profoundest level without recourse to high tech equipment.

The mind itself is far subtler and better suited to the examination. Seeing things as they truly are, the information is undeniable and potentially liberating. At a subatomic level what one sees are called kalapas, which Wisdom Quarterly has frequently discusses. They are the ultimate constituents of matter. The ultimate constituents of mind are called cittas.

Mind is even more interesting than form. As a technical Abhidharma term, "mind" refers to the four remaining heaps (sensation, perception, volition, consciousness). Each is defined in exacting terms that should not be confused with the meaning or connotations that limit the English words used to translate and roughly approximate technical Pali and Sanskrit terms. The Buddha taught these things in great detail which has continued in the oral tradition for the sake of seeing things as they truly are, becoming detached, and thereby attaining liberation. They are not philosophical speculations as many treat them.

For instance, there are 50 formations (sankharas). But for simplicity this heap of factors is simply called "volition" (merely a representative member of the group). Moreover, sensation and perception (two of the three preceding heaps) are also mental formations. But they are so important as to merit special treatment when revealed by a supremely enlightened buddha. (An ordinary enlightened individual would not be able to discern them without instruction). This is one of the special characteristics that distinguishes an enlightened being from a samma-sam-buddha, or "supremely enlightened discoverer and teacher of liberating truth."

So fine are the distinctions that to make them known, the Buddha spent seven weeks meditating and reviewing the psychological and material data -- name and form (nama-rupa) -- rediscovered under the Bodhi tree to systematically organize it for teaching. He had to find a comprehensible way of conveying what he found.

• Anyone is capable of becoming a buddha. But to do so is such a herculean endeavor as to be almost impossible. It is enough to make the best use of the Buddha's Teachings. That is to say, if we all wished for it, vowed to complete it, and strove diligently from this day forward, it would be aeons before even one of us were able to accomplish that kind of supreme teachable enlightenment. We would have to wait until this dispensation ended, then rediscover the ultimate truth, and revealing it by establishing a new dispensation of the Dharma in the world, which would have long since forgotten the Teachings of the historical Buddha.

"Consciousness" (viññana or vijnana) in a very technical sense is defined pragmatically as being of six kinds. Consciousness is awareness through the six sense. "Mind" is not a thing but rather a dynamic process. If form or materiality is only the interplay of the Four Great Elements (the major qualities and their derivatives) then mind or mentality is only the interplay of these four formless constituents of being. Together they comprise the Five Aggregates of Clinging.

This is a fancy way of saying that mental processes are interdependent: They interact with one another, arising based on a material (kama) and, more importantly, a fine-material (rupa) base.

With impingement on a physical and/or a fine-material base (which means impingement is not limited to the gross flesh we touch and are well aware of but rather to more subtle conceptions of form), there arises sensation (pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral). The brain, which is not the contents of the skull, is also a sense organ: It receives mental impressions not available to five ordinary senses.

Interestingly the development of "higher" faculties, what we commonly refer to as "psychic" abilities, depends in part on the physical base. The physical eye-base is responsible, when activated and developed, for clairvoyance, the ear clairaudience, and so on.

Of course, subtle sights and subtle sounds are not perceived through the eyes and ears. But they share a base of derived-materiality such that their subtle forms are discerned by the mind, a faculty capable of perception with a physical basis not in the cranium. But it is a matter of degree, for they are received in the same way, as impulses that eventually get processed in the brain like ordinary sights and sounds.

The base of consciousness is not in the head. The "mind door" is very specifically located in another part of the body, which cultures throughout the world have long known, but which we are led away from by modern neuroscience that increasingly focuses us to search above the neck.

• But rather than thinking about, speculating on, or merely contemplating these things and whether they are true or not, it is far more useful to develop (bhavana) direct-knowledge (jnana). The Dharma is here for realization not for wholesome discussion, and especially not for unwholesome discussion. The Truth will not do a person good who does not put that Truth into practice as truth. To talk about it without practicing for realization is like reading a menu without ever eating.

This depth of Buddhist teaching is alive and well in Burma, which more than any other country, more so since it was blocked off from the world by a police state dictatorship, preserved, practiced, and developed the Abhidharma.

See in particular the freely available teachings of the modern enlightened Buddhist master Pa Auk Sayadaw, paauk.org. We cannot say nearly as much for the dominant Burmese dry-insight tradition advocated by Mahasi Sayadaw, which ignores the Buddha's emphasis on "right concentration," (samma-samadhi) defined by the Buddha as the development of the first four absorptions (dhyana) as the basis for successful insight (vipassana).

More

• Kokoro: kokoro-dreams.co.jp
• Sanrio: sanrio.co.jp
• Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Tech."HRP-4C": video
• Press release: aist.go.jp
• Intelligent Robotics Lab: is.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? engadget.com
• Inanna: Sumerian goddess of love, sex, fertility

"Hypnodog" puts Skeptics in Trance (video)

Seven and Ashley Wells (Wisdom Quarterly)Animal X investigates the case of the hypnotizing dog

Ever since I heard about Hypnodog from Kevin & Bean, on MTV's former casting office, KROQ radio (Los Angeles), I couldn't believe it. He'd gone missing. They were reviewing British news reports: "If you see him, don't look him in the eyes. That's how he hypnotizes people!" I always dreamed it was true but feared shock-jocks Kevin Ryder and Bean Baxter were just pulling our chain. But it is true! There really is a dog that can hypnotize even skeptics and put them into immediate trance. If only he could come to the Zendo and do the same for me.

Is jhana (Japanese, Zen; Chinese, Ch'an; Sanskrit, dhyana; English, "meditative absorption") nothing but self-hypnosis? Jhana is far more than hypnosis. It's a fully lucid and concentrated state of mind that does not waver from the chosen object of attention, whereas hypnosis is a level of sleep. Maybe all states of waking reality are just levels of sleep. The way to Awakening (bodhi or "enlightenment") passes through stages of profound tranquillity and serenity. They purify the mind of the Five Hindrances that obstruct insight and wisdom.

Emerging from them, one turns the now wieldy mind to objects of liberating-insight (vipassana) with amazing results. One can see subatomic particles (kalapas), or traces of them, and even more subtle mental-processes (cittas and cetasikas). These are necessary to examine and reveal the true nature of materiality and mentality. Seeing things as they really are -- radically impermanent, disturbingly unsatisfactory, and utterly impersonal -- the mind pulls away from them. And light arises, knowledge arises, enlightenment blossoms. These liberating-insights lead progressively to knowledge-and-vision of nirvana here and now, in this very life.

O where, O where is Hypnodog to soothe my monkey mind?

(StorytellerMedia) Oscar is a 10-year-old Labrador-Retriever, but he's no ordinary family pet. He has hypnotized thousands of people across Britain. Hugh Lennon and his animal companion have toured venues around the country confounding sceptics and sending volunteers into a deep sleep. Just one look into Oscar's deep brown pools and participants go under. Hugh Lennon puts Oscar's talent down to his special stare. Even when he was a puppy Lennon noticed Oscar sitting and staring at him while the other dogs in the litter ran around. Dogs are well known for their special ability to sense things about people and put them at ease. They are often used in hospitals to lift the spirits of the ailing and calm the nervous. Oscar uses his huge eyes to relax people [and hold an intention or feeling] as they are hypnotized. But this sort of behavior isn't restricted to the stage. Animals in the wild are known to hypnotize other creatures with a threatening stare. Lions make their prey feel vulnerable with a hypnotic stare. And the mongoose is known to be able to hypnotize snakes.

Meditating and the Universe (video)

Bhikkhu Bodhi, America's most prominent Buddhist scholar, discusses meditation as it corresponds to Buddhist cosmology. His explanation comes from a lecture series on the Middle Length Discourses he gave at BAUS in upstate New York. This discourse (MN 4, the Bhayabherava Sutra) focuses on the realization of the Three Knowledges. The Buddha's goal was nirvana (Pali, nibbana) rather than exalted states of concentration (the jhanas or meditative absorptions). But the fact is that the way to nirvana is through the jhanas. Therefore the Buddha defined "Right Concentration" in the Noble Eightfold Path as mastery of the first four jhanas. With that foundation in serenity and concentration, insight becomes possible.

Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is Form (video)

(DiscloseTV) This episode features the following noted experts: Fred Alan Wolf, Peter Russell, Prof. Al-Khalili, York Dobyns, Robert Anton Wilson, Dean Radin, Richard Alan Miller, Michael Talbot, Gregg Braden, Prof. David Deutsch, David Wilcock, Khemp Yurmed Tinly, Nassim Naramein, John Hagelin, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, David Bohm, and Bill Hicks.

It covers consciousness, mind and brain, reality, atoms, quantum physics, parallel universes, light, particles, space, time, holograms, entanglement, superposition, duality and nonduality, observer effects, the nature of energy, words, illusion, ego and anatta, perception, the infinite, our senses, science and spirituality, information, vibration, and imagination.

Vibration Creates Form

Clip from the David Icke documentary Freedom Road

Tiny particles of sand are strewn on a smooth disk and subjected to vibrations being passed onto its surface. The grains immediately begin to take form and arrange themselves into a multitude of geometrically perfect designs. Some sound vibrations create known geometric patterns such as hexagons (honeycombs), pentagrams, crosses, spirals, and other permutations.

The amazing complexity seen in nature -- for example, the patterns found on animals and insect wings -- are easily explained with this simple experiment. Sound vibrations give birth to form. In one particular vibratory sequence, opposite oscillations were resonated though a disk. The sand particles are then condensed upon one another, rolling into spheres. The smaller spheres begin to revolve around the larger ones, much like orbiting planets. This is the portrait of our universe.

Zoom into organic cellular structures and its atomic foundations, and there it is as well. Why should this be so? "Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form" (Heart Sutra). This is a short clip from David Icke's "Freedom Road." Download the complete video at:

• http://www.theinfovault.net/