Gnostic: Demiurge's prison of 'reality'

(Secret Files)

• Gnosticism seems to be the Western version of the Vedic/Hindu concept of God (the One or the Supreme) at "divine play" (lila), coming under the illusion (maya) of separation. But all is one. Who is this Demiurge, this false God that created this simulation/illusory reality (duality) around us and the cycle of endless rebirth (samsara)?

What I found in Himalayas: skiing down

Mahavatar Babaji quotes

What I found in the Himalayas that the West couldn’t give me

(Increasing Frequency) Sept. 30, 2025: ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT TREK. On my journey through the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalayas, I went searching for what was missing in my life — a deeper sense of meaning, peace, and connection.

Mahavatar Babaji in the Himalayas

Along the way, I encountered wise old babas, mystics who live in solitude high in the mountains, carrying with them timeless wisdom passed down through generations.

These mystical encounters opened my eyes to lessons that the modern world, especially the West, often overlooks. From simple moments of silence to profound conversations about life, purpose, and spirit, the Himalayas revealed truths I didn’t know I was seeking.

Join me on this journey into the heart of the mountains — where the air is thinner, but the wisdom is infinite. 🌄✨ #Nepal #AnnapurnaCircuitTrek #Himalayas

Skiing down the most DANGEROUS mountain

I skied down Mount Everest (world first, no oxygen)

Andrzej Bargiel: Red Bull paid

(Red Bull) Nov. 7, 2025: MOUNT EVEREST. Ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel becomes the first person to climb Mt. Everest and ski back to Everest Base Camp without supplementary oxygen. After nearly 16 hours climbing in the high altitude “Death Zone” (above 26250 feet or 8,000 meters, where oxygen levels are dangerously low), Bargiel clipped into his skis on the summit of allegedly the tallest mountain on earth [which may in fact be Mt. Sumeru or K2] and started his descent via the South Col Route. He reached Camp II that night and rested. The summit ridge and Hillary Step had taken longer than planned, meaning darkness made it dangerous and difficult to navigate further that day. The next morning, he skied through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall guided by a drone flown by his brother, Bartek, before safely arriving at Everest Base Camp to become the first person to ascend and descend Mt. Everest on skis with no supplementary oxygen.

• What I found in the Himalayas that the West couldn’t give me
• (RED BULL) I skied down Mount Everest (world first, no oxygen)
• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Path to Enlightenment (in brief)

Buddhism (the Dhamma) reached ancient Greece

Continued: Siddhartha had previously turned his back on fundamental "meditation" (lit., jhana/dhyana, the pleasant meditative absorptions that unite the mind in a highly coherent state called samadhi), thinking instead that the path must be one of penance, suffering, striving, austerities (tapas [blaming the body as if it were in control of the mind]), self-torture, self-abnegation, and manly (virile) effort (viriya) when it is really the Middle Way that avoids both extremes of hedonism and self-torture. (There is such a thing as "sane asceticism" undertaken with a competent monastic).

He one day realized that he had been avoiding the bliss and pleasure (piti) of absorption as if it were like sensual pleasure. Realizing that it is utterly unconnected to the ordinary pleasures of the senses, he allowed himself to pursue these eight super states (the four material and four immaterial absorptions). This provided the temporary purity of mind/heart necessary for breaking through and realizing the ultimate truth of mentality and materiality, of mind and body.

• 

  The Heart Sutra is about the anatta of khandha

  The five phenomena (form; feeling, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness) are referred to as the Five Aggregates clung to as self throughout the Buddhist sutras and commentaries of the Pali canon and are the focus of the world-famous Heart Sutra, the favorite Mahayana Buddhist text nearly no chanter of the Sanskrit seems aware of.

What we take to be real is an illusion, whereas what is in fact verifiably real is at a more basic level of reality. What we have been calling "mind" all along breaks down to feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Cittas or "mind moments" are the ultimate constituents of these impersonal processes. And what we have been calling "body" is not "me" or "mine" but ultimate matter (the Four Elements or qualities and characteristics of particles called kalapas).

• It is completely mistaken to assume that the Buddha's use of the term "Four Elements" has anything to do with the ancient Greek or classical Indian understanding. There are not four "things" in matter. Instead, there are four categories of characteristics/processes or potentialities of matter: fluidity, density, support, temperature... for a total of 12 traits or states of material phenomena.
• This is a practical, tangible, realizable reality (Four Elements Meditation by Pa Auk Sayadaw) not a theory of particle physics. This is about name-and-form (nama-rupa) not Western science. It is personally verifiable here and now. It is not going to win anyone a Nobel Prize in theoretical physic or microbiology. It is a PRACTICE of clear-seeing (vipassana), not a theory or paradigm to be argued about so that one becomes entangled in a thicket of views.

When one sees this directly, the mind/heart let's go, and one is freed. Free from what? Free from delusion, free from ignorance about these things, free from identity and personalization, free from suffering (pain, disappointment, unfulfillment, distress). So every five-minute version of the life of the Buddha should include these eleven elements:

1. Raised in privilege and comfort
2. Feels lack (unhappy, unfulfilled)
3. Renounces position, power, privilege
4. Sets off on spiritual quest for ultimate truth
5. Learns meditation (jhana practice) and yoga (restraints, practices, pacification of mind and body)
6. Avoids the tempting extremes of penance and sensual pleasures
7. Gains stillness (samadhi) through the absorptions
8. Emerges from jhana and takes up fourfold mindfulness (of body, feeling, mind, and mind-objects)
9. Practices Dependent Origination
10. Awakens to the ultimate truth that all things are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal
11. Letting go (real renunciation takes places) and light dawns, knowledge-and-vision arise.

• How to develop Four Elements Meditation
• Text by Dhr. Seven; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Knowing and Seeing Nirvana

X. Knowledge and Vision of Release

Wow, look at all those fish and gravel!

§ 75. "It is just as if there were a pool of water in a mountain glen — clear, limpid, and unsullied — where a person with good eyesight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.

"It might occur to that person, 'This pool of water is clear, limpid, and unsullied. Here are these shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.'

"In the same way — with mind stilled [calmed and concentrated], purified, and bright, unblemished, free of defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability — the meditator directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental defilements (asavas).

There is much to know and see with clarity

"One discerns as it is, 'This is suffering (dukkha)... This is the origination of suffering... This is the cessation of suffering... This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering... 

"These are mental defilements... This is the origination of the defilements... This is the cessation of the defilements... This is the way leading to the cessation of the defilements.'

"One's heart, thus knowing and seeing, is released from the defilement of sensuality, the defilement of becoming, the defilement of ignorance. With liberation, there is the knowledge, 'Liberated.' One discerns that, 'Rebirth is ended, the high life has been fulfilled, the task is done. There is nothing further for this world'" (DN 2).

What is there to know and see?

Enlightenment=awakening (bodhi)

§ 76. "Vision arose, clear-seeing arose, wisdom arose, knowledge arose, illumination (enlightenment) arose within me with regard to things never heard before:

"'This is the noble [enlightened] truth of suffering [understanding what is and is not disappointment]... This noble truth of suffering is to be comprehended... This noble truth of suffering has been comprehended...

"This is the noble truth of the origination of suffering... This noble truth of the origination of suffering is to be abandoned... This noble truth of the origination of suffering has been abandoned...

"This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering has been realized...

"This is the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering has been developed.'

"Meditators, as long as my knowing and seeing (knowledge and vision) — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened (become enlightened) to the unexcelled right awakening...

"But as soon as my knowing and seeing — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was truly pure, only then did I claim to have directly awakened to the unexcelled right awakening...

"Knowing and seeing arose in me: 'Unshakable is my liberation. This is my last rebirth. There is now no more further becoming'" (SN 56.11).

What does one see when awakening?

§ 77. "What a Wayfarer [Tathagata, successful practitioner, arahant] sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are mental formations (fabrications)...such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' [These are the Five Aggregates clung to as self.]

"Because of this, I say, a Wayfarer — with the ending, fading out, cessation, letting go, and relinquishment of all speculation and thinking, all I-making and mine-making and obsessions with conceit [the habit of seeing everything in terms of an I or self or soul] — is, through lack of clinging (that sustains it), liberated."

"But, Master Gotama [the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama], the meditator whose mind/heart is thus liberated, where does that person reappear [where is that being reborn]?"

"'The designation 'reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."

"In that case, Master Gotama, that person does not reappear."

"The designation 'does not reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."

"In that case, Master Gotama, that person both does and does not reappear."

"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."

"In that case, Master Gotama, that person 'neither does nor does not reappear."

"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."

"How is it, Master Gotama, when Master Gotama is asked if the meditator reappears [is reborn]... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear [which exhausts the four logical possibilities], he says, 'that designation does not apply' in each case?

"At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled. At this point, I am confused. The small amount of clarity coming to me from your earlier conversation is now obscured."

"Of course you are befuddled, Vaccha, of course you are confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this dhamma [reality, teaching, ultimate truth], hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.

"For those holding other views [other doctrines or dhammas], other practices, other goals that would satisfy them, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know [and see]. That being the case, I will now put some questions to you. Answer as you see fit.

"What do you think, Vaccha, if a fire were burning in front of you, would you know, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"

"Yes..."

"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"

"...I would reply, 'This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and timber as its fuel (sustenance).'"

"If the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know, 'This fire burning in front of me has gone out'?"

"Yes..."

"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction has it gone? East? West? North? South?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"

"That does not apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on fuel fed by grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that fuel and not being offered any other — is classified simply as 'out' [extinguished, unbound, no longer clinging to fuel]."

"Just so, Vaccha, any physical form by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump [that does not grow back once it is cut down], deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.

"Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, boundless (unbound), hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears [is reborn]' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply.

Wow, who knew there was so much to see!

"Any feeling... Any perception... Any mental formation (fabrication)... "Any consciousness by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.

"Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea [of space]" (MN 72).

• Ven. Thanissaro (American Geoffrey DeGraff) Noble Conversation: A Study Guide altered (restored to customary rather than idiosyncratic translation of terms where possible) and edited by Wisdom Quarterly 

(British Monk) Who needs more than the sutras?

FIGHTING, anger, self-talk, emotions

Sir, please don't come at us in anger, please.

Never be angry: How to stay calm in every situation

(ThinkZone) Attia & Huberman. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a renowned neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has made significant contributions to the field of neuroscience through his research on brain plasticity, visual system development, and the mechanisms underlying various neurological disorders. Dr. Peter Attia is a prominent figure in the fields of longevity, health, and performance optimization. He is a physician, researcher, and speaker who focuses on promoting a deeper understanding of human health and well-being.

The Monster's idol Mike Tyson

Prison homosexuality exposed by bi Tyson

Who is Naoya "The Monster" Inoue?

The Pretty Boy Floyd of the ring

Naoya Inoue (井上 尚弥), a professional boxer, was born on April 10, 1993. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes. He is one of only three male boxers in history (along with Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk) to become the undisputed champion in two weight classes in the "four-belt era," becoming the second to do so [3, 4]. Nicknamed "The Monster" (怪物 Kaibutsu), he is known for his exceptional punching power, possessing a knockout-to-win percentage of 90%. More

• Never insult Naoya Inoue or this is what happens (brutal KO)
• Bully ANGERED Naoya Inoue and regretted it badly
• Naoya Inoue vs. Gervonta Davis: most insane fight ever

"Signal To Noise (CC-BY) by Scott Buckley" is under a Creative Commons (cc-by) license. Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: • 🕰️ Mystery Music (No Copyright) - "Signal..."

Fair Use Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, the fair use doctrine allows for the limited use of copyrighted material for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. 1. This video does not have a negative impact on the integrity of the original works. 2. The primary purpose of this video is for educational and instructional use. 3. The content of this video has been transformed and recontextualized. 4. Only necessary bits and pieces of the original videos have been utilized to convey the intended message.

If any copyright owners wish to have the video removed, please reach out to us via the provided email address at: 0thinksmart0@gmail.com

• Naoya Inoue; Attia and Huberman, ThinkZone, July 1, 2024; Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"The Heart Sutra" (RAP version)

The Heart Sutra [Mantra] by MC Yogi (feat. 10,000 Buddhas) is closer to an actual RAP song

"Heart Sutra - Rap" by Chogyal Rinpoche

Avalokita [Kwan Yin] hears the cries of the world

(Chogyal Rinpoche) 🇬🇧 This rap was composed with the intention of making the daily recitation of the sacred Heart Sutra easily accessible to young people. May it be of benefit. [Don't show it to your grandmother or her head may explode.]

ma sam jö mé sherab parol chin

makyé mingak namkhé ngowo nyi

soso rangrig yeshe chöyulwa

dü sum gyalwé yum la chaktsal lo

• VIDEO: The Mexican Buddhist Cholos of Thailand (AFP)
• VIDEO: "Reincarnated" rap music by Kendrick Lamar

diké dak gi töpa dü chik na

chomdendé gyalpö khab jagö pungpö ri la gelong gi gendün chenpo dang

changchub sempé gendün chenpo dang tab chik tu zhuk té

dé tsé chomdendé zabmo nangwa zhejawa chö kyi namdrang kyi ting ngé dzin la nyompar zhuk so

yang dé tsé changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa nyi la nampar ta zhing

pungpo ngapo dedak la yang rangzhin gyi tongpar nampar ta o

dené sangye kyi tü

tsé dang denpa sharibü changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk la diké ché mé so

rik kyi bu gang lala sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa chepar döpa dé jitar labpar ja

deké ché mepa dang | changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk gi tsé dang denpa shara datibu la diké ché mé so

Wait, wait! Shouldn't we decide if we're East Coast or West Coast first? (sanghabuild.org)

.

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

sharibu rik kyi bu am rik kyi bumo gang lala sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa chepar döpa dé ditar nampar tawar ja té

pungpo ngapo dedak kyang rangzhin gyi tongpar nampar yangdakpar jesu ta o

zuk tongpa o | tongpanyi kyang zuk so

zuk lé tongpanyi zhen mayin no

tongpanyi lé kyang zuk zhen mayin no

dezhindu tsorwa dang | dushé dang

dujé dang | nampar shepa nam tongpa o

sharibu detawé na chö tamché tongpanyi dé

tsennyi mepa | makyepa | magakpa

drima mepa | drima dang dralwa mepa

driwa mepa | gangwa mepa o

sharibu detawé na tongpanyi la zukmé

tsorwa mé | dushé mé | dujé nam mé | nampar shepa mé

mik mé | nawa mé | na mé | che mé | lü mé | yi mé

zuk mé | dra mé | dri mé | ro mé | rekja mé | chö mé do

mik gi kham mepa né yi kyi kham mé

yi kyi nampar shepé kham kyi bardu yang mé do

marikpa mé | marikpa zepa mepa né gashi mé

gashi zepé bardu yang mé do

dukngalwa dang | künjungwa dang

gokpa dang | lam mé | yeshe mé | tobpa mé

matobpa yang mé do

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

sharibu detawé na changchub sempa nam tobpa mepé chir

sherab kyi parol tu chinpa la ten ching né té

sem la dribpa mepé trakpa mé dé

chin chi lok lé shintu dé né nya ngen lé depé tarchin to

dü sum du nampar zhukpé sangye tamché kyang sherab kyi parol tu chinpa la ten né

lana mepa yangdakpar dzokpé changchub tu ngönpar dzokpar sangye so

detawé na sherab kyi parol tu chinpé ngak

rigpa chenpö ngak | lana mepé ngak

minyampa dang nyampé ngak | dukngal tamché rabtu zhiwar jepé ngak

midzünpé na denpar shepar ja té

sherab kyi parol tu chinpé ngak mepa

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

• Tibetan and English translation of the Heart Sutra: lotsawahouse.org/words-of...

THE HEART SUTRA (English)

Standard English translation (by the great Edward Conze) with minor edits by Wisdom Quarterly (The Heart Sutra | Buddhist Traditions | Amherst College)

Om! Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy!

Avalokita, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond.

He looked down from on high, beheld but five heaps, and saw that in their own-being they were empty.

Here, O Sariputra,

form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form;

Emptiness does not differ from form, and form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is emptiness, that is form.

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.

Here, O Sariputra,

all dharmas [phenomena] are marked with emptiness;

They are neither produced nor stopped, neither defiled nor immaculate, neither deficient nor complete.

Therefore, O Sariputra,

in emptiness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness;

[There is] no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables [tangibles], or objects of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to:

[There is] no mind-consciousness element; there is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.

There is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment.

Therefore, O Sariputra,

it is because of one's non-attainmentness that a bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings one has not been made to tremble.

One has overcome what can upset, and in the end one attains to Nirvana.

All those who appear as buddhas in the three periods of time [past, present, future] fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.

Therefore one should know the prajna-paramita as the great spell [mantra], the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this:

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

(Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!)

This completes the Heart of perfect Wisdom.

What's rap if not bad lyrics 'n a good beat?

Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Grandmaster Flash on "The Message"

Greatest rapper of a generation Justin "Elvis" Biel?

Get Out The Way: "Move B**h" (Ludacris)

It's a beautiful sentiment to present this timeless classic of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajna Paramita) literature to youth in an idiom they might appreciate and listen to more than grandmotherly droning and chanting in a temple setting. But it does bring up one minor problematic question: What is rap? Is it like poetry in that anything is if it says it is? The phonebook well-read can be [made to be] "poetic." So drop a beat behind it and any ol' grouping of words is "rapping"? May be. We can ask Weird Al or Justin Timberlake. But it seems to us that real rapping, which is why the young at heart like and relate to it so much, is its brutal honesty, simplicity, and funky @$$ beat.

The uncensored (explicit) version just has more umph and gusto.

It's the beat, the beat, the beat propelled by a propulsive lyrical accompaniment consistent with the feel or underlying sentiment of the genre. One has to wonder if N.W.A would have had as much success -- with the exact same musical elements -- if their lyrical content and message were "Officers Is Nice" instead of "F*** the Police." Similarly, what is arguably the greatest rap song ever [if such a thing were possible to accurately determine] might not really be with weaker lyrics. In the case of Ludacris' "Excuse Me, Miss, If I May Just Get Through," or as it is known on internet radio "Move B*tch," where "bitch" refers, of course, to a pregnant dog driving in front of him and his featured artists. Ergo, if we're going to really have a Heart Sutra Rap, methinks we need to get real, gritty, and street, not simply rely on poetic feet.

• When is music Cultural Appropriation: Elvis Presley vs. The Beatles

The corrosive effects of listening to rap music on violent office workers

• MC Yogi, "Heart Sutra [Mantra] Rap," 2023; Chogyal Rinpoche, Sept. 18, 2022; Edward Conze (trans.), "The Heart Sutra"; Office Space (Mike Judge); Grandmaster Flash; Weird Al Yankovic, "White & Nerdy"; Ludacris, "Move B*tch"; Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Brother Jason (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Jan. 4, 2025

Alan Watts: Who am "I"? (Heart Sutra)

COMMENTS

Edited by Wisdom Quarterly

(@Michael-qi7in) This man is brilliant. I never in my life expected this much in a video of less than half an hour in length. Alan Watts, to my amazement, explains in one video everything I've come to personally understand about Buddhism (a term I don't even like) which to me is a philosophy [not a religion].

The Buddha was one of the greatest philosophers -- and for this he's not credited, not, I think, understood....

Whereas a lot of others, many Buddhists included, may see this video as just another Westerner trying to explain Eastern Philosophy and failing to do so, no, this is wrong. He gets to the heart of Buddhist philosophy, far beyond many long practicing Buddhists, at least as I understand reading the Heart Sutra, the Tripitaka [Three Collections of Buddhist texts], and the other Mahayana Sutras.

He doesn't mention bodhisattvas in a video on Mahayana Buddhism until 25 minutes in. Up until then, and to my disappointment, he had explained in an absolutely brilliant way the Buddhist concept of anatta or anātman, "non-self," anicca, anitya, or "impermanence," and he made reference to dukkha ("unsatifactoriness"), commonly translated as suffering or unease. These three things are the Three Universal Marks of All Existence in Buddhism, called the tilakkhana, trilakshana.

Around my neck I wear a cheap vajra pendant, and my impulse to buy this had less to do with Buddhism, I admit, but more to do with my own personal "spirituality" and understanding of existence and phenomena at the time.

I was fascinated with the sphere [enso] at the center, which is said to represent -- Mr. Watts said it at the very end -- it's commonly translated as "nothingness, voidness, emptiness" or as I've heard from certain speakers and readers, "zero," that of emptiness/śūnyatā which, in my understanding, is a representation of all Three Marks of Existence in Buddhism, the trilakshana represented in śūnyatā.

To say I'm satisfied having discovered this video does what words often do, fail. It's an injustice. I'm so satisfied that I wish I found it a long, long time ago. It's brilliant!

To quote the Heart Sutra, invoking the concept of śūnyatā and the trilakshana as I understand them, I encourage everyone to go read the whole Heart Sutra.

It's less than a five-minute read [when you don't count the 100,000 lines of the Prajnaparamita leading up to what everyone thinks is the Heart Sutra, which is just the closing summary and climactic conclusion that includes the famous mantra gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi swaha or "Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, oh what an awakening, so it is"] as recited by the Triratna Buddhist Community:

"Here then, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. Form is only emptiness, Emptiness only form."

• [This could be interpreted to mean, "Within this Dharma (Doctrine), materiality (the Four Elements and their derivatives collectively) is impersonal (empty, not a self nor the property of a self, selfless), and the impersonal is none other than form. Form is impersonal just as the impersonal is form." The same is then said, of course, of the other four heaps or aggregates clung to as self/soul/I/me/mine. - Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly]

Why do humans keep dying? (Solution)

Why are you always smiling, Buddha?

"Why must we die?" This question is slightly misguided because "we" don't really die. The Complicated Game, the Samsaric Carousel goes on turning.

If we don't really die, what happens? The problem is in how we define "we." Who dies, what dies? This illusory sense of self separate from its causes and conditions that are the basis of the "self" (the Five Aggregates clung to as self).

How can we say they die if they go on beyond this life. (There is life after life, which is the whole problem, endless cycling through samsara. Why do we cycle? It is because we do not see Dependent Origination. If we do, when we, the problem resolves. In a sense, there never was a problem -- except that in a conventional sense, it was a giant problem. It's hard to give an example, parallel, or analogy, but it is possible that by giving one, a wise person may see the problem.)

First, can two seemingly contradictory things be true? Yes. Look: Is there absolute up and down? Yes, where gravity pulls hardest is "down," and where it doesn't is "up." And it matters. Keeping our orientation is important, even in a pool where the pull of gravity is lessened for our semi-floating bodies. But what about space (in the ether)?

I never asked to be born. - Did you want to stay
where you were? - No, that's not what I meant!

Suddenly, there is no absolute up or down; it doesn't matter. We just float and spin and can't right oursevles because there is no "right" only, maybe, a consensus agreement of this will be up and that will be down like when we're on earth. Now, here's the trick: Are they both true, or is only one true, or are neither true? We see that on earth, it's true. We see that deep in space, it's not true (there is no absolute up or down). How can they both be true, given that they're opposites? Here's the kicker: Where's earth? Earth is in space. So, in a sense, in space it is both true and not true that there is an absolute up and down.

• (The resolution is that it depends, as with most things in life). In the micro it matter, in the macro it doesn't, but they're not separate).

There are two dimensions within one reality (one with up and down, one without them) both at the same time. What we wear matters to others because of looks, except in the dark.

So imagine yourself in prison. It sucks. You don't want to be there. But further imagine that all the time you've been inside, the door to the outside has be "open" in the sense that it hasn't been locked. No one inside knows it's unlocked, so are you locked up or not?

Devas learned more than humans did.

Literally, technically, no. But conventionally, in every important sense, yes. You both are and are not at the same time. There's no confusion. You could explain and explain, but we on the outside already understand. We, unlike you all inside, can see that it's unlocked, so we don't understand the problem. But there is a problem, a big problem, and that is that you don't know. You live in an illusion, and because of it you never even test the door. You dream of getting out, but the easiest exit goes untested. (This is just an example. But isn't life this way?) There is an escape, there is a way out, there is a solution, but we on the inside don't know it.

And if someone who slipped out comes back in to tell us, "Hey, you'll never guess, there's a way out. Follow me, and I'll show you." Will people follow? No way. Only very few with faith in that person would even dream of suspending disbelief and investigating. It is exactly like The Allegory of the Cave by Plato.

It is exactly like the predicament of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni (a Scythian prince who let go, found a way out, came back to save everyone with that wisdom, and found out that "no good deed goes unpunished").

So here we at Wisdom Quarterly are doing the same thing, suffering the same punishment, wondering why we don't shut and just go find that door.

See, as in The Cave, so in the Illusory Prison of Life, there are pleasures here, safety in the familiar, a lack of recognition of what bad is coming our way -- old age, sickness, disappointments of all kinds, death, loss, separation, misery, and big troubles -- all that is going to happen if we stay here.

In The Cave, the beings cling to their chains and aren't going to have some "madman" unchain them and lead them out of the only world and safety and familiarity they've ever known. Though the Buddha comes by banging a pot in the street, announcing that there is a way out of this Illusory Prison of Life, do humans and devas run to him in joy? Or do they hide under their covers or beds, fearing that he is threatening to take away their good times, their petty pleasures and joys to exchange them for hardships and austerities?

Many completely misunderstand that he is offering slightly bitter medicine and stay suckling at the teat of sugary white goo, growing fat and further addicted.

So who will die, what will die?

It's all right to let go now.

We could say that the Five Aggregates clung to as self (form, feelings, perceptions, mental formation, and consciousness) will disintegrate and fall apart. But this can't be death because (a) they reform and (b) they are dying at every moment.

They are not "things" in the sense of compacts, but are "processes" in the sense of being nothing more than constituent parts. It's like thinking that a segment of hose water is ours.

• (Imagine an 11-foot green hose with a one-foot segment in the middle that is clear, and saying that clear portion we can see through, that water is ours. Is it? Sure, let's say we've been deeded it and have enforceable water rights with written documentation that it "belongs" to us. We own no other water, but that water is ours. What is ours? It's never ours really, except in the way an NFT belongs to someone: in name only. If we insist, like that NFT owner, that it is ours, okay, what is ours? That water we "own" is always moving. Do we own the H20 molecules? If so, which ones? The ones now, the ones now, the ones later, the ones that already passed? We don't control the spigot or anything else, but cling to the ones we can see passing right now as "ours.")

What is the water passing in this example? If we wanted to get symbolic, we could say it represents the moisture passing through this body we cling to. Do we cling to the urine the body makes and refuse to relinquish it? No, we understand it's a process and more water is coming. Do we cling to the remainder (poop) of the food we ate? No, not most of us. We gladly relinquish it and get as far away from it as possible.

As for all that is watery, what do we do? Thirst (tanha, the Buddha called it by analogy).

But before it prepares to pass, we cling to it, love it, fear losing "self" (in the sense of the first aggregate, form).

The Buddha has been trying to tell the world of humans and devas this since the first sermon, the Dhammacakkapavatana Sutta. Quick witted Anna Kondanna got it. We have been much slower.

All that is (re)born is born to die

(Lana Del Rey) "Born to Die" - "Not having been, they come to be; once having been, they cease." What all? The Five Aggregates clung to as self.

ANSWER

So in answer to the question, "Why must we die?" (or "Why do humans keep dying?") It is because what we call "we" (we humans and other kinds of beings like angelic devas) are actually compounds of constituent parts called khandha, the Five Aggregates clung to as self. This self is a composite, and each element, each component is ultimately impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal. It true nature, which is not apparent to us in normal mundane consciousness (but can be brought into consciousness by heightening our attention and purifying mind/heart of distractions, hindrances, and obstructions to vision). When we know and see its true nature, we see that things are not at all like they seem. What appears solid, stable, alluring and able to satisfy desires, and personal is actually many streams of form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousnesses (all processes, not things). We keep dying from moment to moment, every moment, because like moving water, there is nothing stable or permanent about this process of changing elements, guided along by our karma (deeds) and their many faceted results. Knowing and seeing this firsthand, the heart turns away and we can easily let go of clinging. By letting go, no longer seeing any appeal in this dangerous game of clinging to the painful, the mind is freed. We awaken to the first stage of enlightenment called stream entry. (But it's of no use trying to tell this to anyone because the ego will not stand for it, will not listen, will not be convinced, will not accept. It is only by practice that knowledge and vision arise. Then knowing and seeing, there is no doubt, and letting go is as easy as falling down. Look, the prison is open. Look, all the forms, feelings...and all things clung to are not "self." Let go of what is not me or mine. Be set free.

• Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly