Lost Cat: Cats from space? (Sumerian)

(The Enki Codex) Sumerian tablet says cats were brought to earth, describes their purpose

Can a big monkey find li'l kitty for rare hottie?

"How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise" is a beautiful saying. A few adjustments made it poetic but ruined its original meaning. What it really means, in plain English, is: "It feels horrible to know something when the person who finds out can't do anything about it."

Pasadena is part of Los Angeles, which is part of a giant mountainous forest called the Angeles National Forest, which is probably why it is full of coyotes (and bears, deer, rams, and man-eating lions). "Them coyot's is some wily varmints," the common wisdom goes around town. They'll pick a cat right off the street or out of a yard. It's like cats-and-dogs outside because, after all, these are felines and canines, wild or feral.

What do cats know about anything anyway?

Skulking loners and organized packs of canines lope around the streets, particularly in the foothills of Altadena and other communities, coming down in search of water, bowls of dogfood in yards, and anything on four legs wandering around at night. Coyotes will grab a human baby as quickly as a dingo would if no one is watching.

Bad Kitties worse than Good Boys?

(Cat Dog Diary) Imagine a freaked-out rescued kitten meets a fluffy puppy

Can you help me find my kitty?

When my beautiful neighbor asked me what I thought happened to her Fitzgerald, I diverted: "It's not important what I think. What's important is how we're going to find him before it's too late."

"So you'll help me search by walking around the block for hours, calling out, 'Here, kitty-kitty"?

"No, I won't do that. It hasn't worked for you, and Fitz loves you. I was thinking we go divine."

"Go 'divine'? Kill ourselves and look for Fitzy in heaven?"

"No, of course not! Cats don't go to heaven. Everyone knows that. That's a place for dogs."

"Where do they go then?"

"Well, that's what I intend to find out through some urban shamanic divination procedures. They'll tell us were to look or reveal the whereabouts of all that remains of frisky Fitzy the coyote's Pemican."

"Coyote chow?"

"Possibly. Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, I must have closure!"

"Well, if that's all you need, Dr. Deborah King told me we can do it ourselves. We can cut the dysfunctional energetic ties that bind and give ourselves relief."

"Just find my cat...or else."

She wasn't having it -- skeptic, doubter, distruster, faithless -- so she pushed me to do the only thing I could, which was to go behind her back to meet with a pet detective, a psychic familiar with these sorts of cases.

I only asked the psychic as a favor. She offered her services, saying she had a knack for dealing with beloved pets. I showed her some photos then we took a walk around the block to see if Fitz would run out of wherever it was hiding and come to the psychic like a magnet. That's what she claimed happened before in the rescue of both a pet cat and a tortoise.

"How does anyone lose a tortoise?"

"It was stuck under the fence, which I moved in my search, and it ran to me," she explained.

Not exactly magic, but I would gladly take it in this case.

Closure came for me quickly, and I wasn't even looking. The psychic said pictures and walking were no longer even necessary. She already had a clear story to tell. Coyotes were not to blame, except to the extent that they may have scared, startled, panicked, chased, terrified, or injured Fitz, but not killed and consumed it. This 9-year-old fur baby was driving her human caretaker to distraction, and she was near insanity. But she wouldn't listen.

It was going to be a tough case because I put limits on the remote viewing protocol and told the psychic to stuff her preconceived telepathy and start answering a series of commonsense questions.

She said, "You're being too rigid."

And I said, "Yes, I am, and I want you to narrow your impressions, visions, and telepathic communications with the cat to just answering what I ask. Force yourself to only reveal a tiny slice of all that you know, none of which is being helpful. If you can find it in yourself to answer, just find it physically without answering or saying anything. Just go straight to it or, better yet, just get the cat to run out and throw itself at you like you claim the tortoise did."

She could not, so we started with a flood of potentially useable intel, which sent us across the boulevard to a cul de sac then a yard then a yard then a shack. Wouldn't you know? We poked around...and she wasn't there. She may have been there before, hiding out under the shed, but we didn't find her or any tangible proof she had been there. Now the messages began to come in more strongly. The psychic was saying the cat was alive.

How'd cat cave-dwelling pets begin?

(Trenn) How did wild cats (Felis catus) become human house pets?

Maybe magic and devis can locate this cat

Personally, I took it for a goner, a tuft of colorful hair in a lump of coyote scat. But we found no such lump. I had already asked 80 people at a nearby church meeting; not one of them had seen the cat.

But one church woman was sure she could imitate its voice, and this allowed me to ask the cat questions about why it left. It answered, vaguely: "I was being smothered." That made sense, but was it any reason to leave? My neighbor says their love was mutual. Seems the cat didn't think so.

The owner of the shed wasn't home, so we could only look around the yard and come back to go through the shed, empty it, just as soon as we could get permission. I returned alone (because the psychic claimed not to be feeling well) at 10:00 pm. The owner still wasn't home, and his sympathetic neighbor couldn't grant permission for a search of it. I wandered up and down the alley, calling out, "Here kitty-kitty" like a darn fool, ending up doing what I told her was pointless. I tried reasoning with the cat, sending out my own intuitive feelers for the slightest hint.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Meanwhile, my nagging neighbor was on the phone, who promised a big reward she never really intended to pay out. She was doubting and demanding answers. The psychic started texting, sending new messages, saying the injured, hungry, thirst, confused cat had moved on. Work needed me to drive to the other side of the county for an important assignment. Isn't it just like the universe to all coincide and bombard us with nonsense from all directions (i.e., Everything Everywhere All at Once)?

The three were unrelenting, pulling me in all direction. All I could do was lope and skulk very suspiciously in an alley and around the property for an hour like a cat burglar casing a joint and hoping to catch video of the cat alive to at least have a reason to hope and continue the search. It would have been better to meet with the Council of Coyotes and ask it if any member had made off with a pretty angora calico Afghan tabby furball.

The Buddhist cats of ancient Japan

"How terrible is human attachment, tenacious clinginess, and our utter inability to let go. Such is the plight of humans on this vast plane of existence, the Buddha realized and proclaimed. But how can we let go?

The Buddha answered that. "Cultivate mentally-purifying calm the develop insight. When we see the true nature of things, the heart/mind, seeing the true nature of existence, automatically lets go with no effort on our part to separate. Let me repeat, we do not need to make any extra effort to relinquish. Seeing reality as it is is enough to discard and abandon everything we are consciously and unconsciously clinging to that is bringing about our suffering (dukkha).

E. Hicks

Abraham-Hicks (a council of 12 entities as channeled by Esther Hicks with the help of her very supportive husband Jerry) says that everything we want is downstream. Let go to get it. Stop fighting the way upstream. We are not salmon.

My friend reincarnated as a cat

(Maron in the Garage) Marc Maron: My dead friend reincarnated as a cat

She called and texted me, demanding to know if it was the coyotes who tore and devoured her precious kitty. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the truth was worse than that.

The psychic said the scared cat had been found, wandering and drained, by someone who took it in and loved it better, kept it safer, and gave it so much love that it didn't even want to return "home" now. "Home is where the heart is," everyone knows that. She pushed and pushed me, and all I could say was, "You say you don't want it, this reality we're in [where the cat is dead], but you don't, you don't really mean it. You say you won't stand for it, this circus we're in, but you don't, don't really mean it. What if the truth is worse than that?"

Tori Amos "Spark" - They fed him and it came back wounded ❤️

"Coyotes?"

"No, that's what you already think happened. You want 'closure' to accept that. What if it's worse? What if Fitz doesn't want to come back?"

"Impossible! Fitzgerald needs me, can't live without me..."

"Well, I don't know about that. Wouldn't it be worse to find out that Fitz is fine but not coming back, alive and happy but not with you?"

"What the h*ll are you talking about?! I'll break Fitz out! Who has my cat?! Who's keeping him hostage and away from me?!"

"Why are you asking me? You don't believe in cat psychics, remember? Who cares what she said? You ask me for the 'truth,' but you don't, you don't really mean it."

"Spark"

(Tori Amos | Genius)

[My neighbor] she's addicted to nicotine patches

She's afraid of a light in the dark

It's 6:58 are you sure where my Spark is?

Here, here, here

She's convinced she could roll back a glacier

But she couldn't keep fluffy alive

Doubting if there's a woman in there somewhere

Here, here, here

CHORUS: You say you don't want it

(this reality we're in), again and again

But you don't, don't really mean it!

You say you don't want it, the circus we're in

But you don't, don't really mean it

You don't, don't really mean it!

If the divine Master Plan is perfection [by rebirth]

Maybe next I'll give Jewish a try

Trusting my Soul to the Ice Cream Assassin

Here, here, here

[CHORUS]

How many Fates turn around in the overtime?

Ballerinas have fins that you'll never find

You thought that you were the bomb

Yes, well so did I

[CHORUS]

She's addicted to nicotine patches

She's afraid of a light in the dark

6:58 are you sure where my Spark is?

Here, here, here

•  Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, July 4, 2026 (a true story with details changed to protect the guilty and innocent, a learning experience about human nature beset by clinging and ignorance)

Accepting Life as It Comes - B Wisdom

(Buddhism Podcast) Accepting Life as It Comes - Buddhist Wisdom

To practice equanimity (Pali upekkhā, Sanskrit upekṣā) is to be unwavering or to stay neutral in the face of the "eight worldly conditions" (aṭṭha loka dhamma) [1]:

• loss and gain,
• good-repute and ill-repute,
• praise and blame,
• sorrow and happiness [2].

In the description of meditative stillness and super-consciousness (samādhi), equanimity is present in the third and fourth meditative absorptions (jhānas). More

• Radical Acceptance - Tara Brach

Alan Watts: self, no-self, who controls me?

Alan Watts: Myth of Myself (full lecture), Part 1

Can I choose to sit and see for myself?

(Alan Watts Organization Official) Jan. 23, 2020) Purchase talks and lectures by Alan Watts: "The Works." THE WORKS OF ALAN WATTS AUDIO: alanwatts.com/products/the-works. Thanks for supporting the Alan Watts Organization. Please consider subscribing and turning on notifications for future publications. More about "The Works": The Works includes the following recordings: Essential Lectures Collection... (Official Alan Watts Org) Myth of Myself full lecture, Pt. 1

Choosing self over others is not selfish

(Alan Watts Echoes) Skin encapsulated ego

(Wiara) Let go of trying to control everything. Why?

How to let go according to Buddhism

(Buddhism in English)

(Thich Nhat Hanh) Our minds are lying to us. Observe instead of believing

What if we were to really let go?

• One of the great problems of life is clinging (upādāna). Among all the things we cling to (that clump and cling to themselves as we imagine we are them), we are inadvertently clinging to suffering (disappointment, dukkha). There is temporary release and bliss through the meditations, the jhanas, but really letting go results from "seeing things as they truly are," which is also called "clear seeing" (vipassana).
• Buddhism Podcast, 8/8/25; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Does Buddhism approve of sex?

Does Buddhism approve of sex?

Ego (Buddhism podcast) Does Buddhism approve of sex? "This is an age in which sexual matters are discussed with great openness. There are many who are puzzled to know what the Buddhist attitude towards sex is. It is therefore to be hoped that the following guidelines may be found helpful towards an understanding. It is, of course, true to say that Buddhism, in keeping with the principle of the Middle Way, would advocate neither extreme puritanism nor extreme permissiveness. But this, as a guiding principle without further specification, may not seem sufficiently helpful for most people. In the first place, we must distinguish between the rules undertaken by Buddhist monks [and nuns] for their own conduct and any guiding principles for lay people.

• Ego (Buddhism podcast), Dec. 3, 2024 [with appropriated text uncredited to Maurice O'Connell Walshe from Buddhism and Sex, 2006 (Wheel 225, BPS.lk), as this channel often does with Ven. Thanissaro texts]; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Let go, OK. But let go of SEX?

What do you mean don't think about sex? Mara wants us to. What's mind to do? (Teal Roberts)

Why does the Buddha say letting go of sex is the most skillful thing to do with sex?

Ego (Buddhism Podcast) April 13, 2025: Buddhism Explained. Ever wonder why the Buddha considered letting go of sex the most skillful action we can take [in the Sensual Sphere]?

Ugly faces of pretty girls (ebaumsworld.com)

In this poorly worded and mildly insightful talk by American (Thai Theravada Forest Tradition monk) Ven. Thanissaro, let's explore the Buddha's teachings on sensual desire, attachment (clinging), and the profound freedom gained through a sense of urgency (samvega) non-complacency and mindfulness.

Discover how the mind creates reality through constant choices and learn practical techniques to transform commonplace attachment into extraordinary liberation. Explore how mindfulness and concentration can help us understand and skillfully handle sexual desires and other sensual attachments.

• (Of course, the strongest attachment is to views, which is what insight and wisdom are for, helping us break free of ignorance manifesting as delusions, illusions, and wrong views).
• I'm not ugly if you think I'm pretty: 45 unbelievable before and after pics that show the same girls (DeMilked)

Find out why heedlessness can become our worst enemy, and how the Buddha’s path to freedom leads to a state of genuine liberation, peace, and happiness.

Let's take an enlightening journey towards mastering the minds and emotions we habitually identify with and fixate on until we're completely trapped in webs of delusion with no easy way out.

• More idiosyncratic wording: Meditations 3: Dhamma Talks

📍 #Buddhism #Mindfulness #LettingGo #Meditation #BuddhaTeaching #Spirituality #MindMastery

• Ven. Thanissaro via Ego (Buddhism Podcast), April 13, 2025; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), 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

"Greed" is bad? Yes, very bad (cartoon)

Do you approve of greed? - No, not at all.
"The love of money is the root of all evil."

"Greed is good," we read Wisdom Quarterly say. How could this publication possibly defend "greed" of all things?

• "Greed is good"? Yes

That's what the lengthy explanation was for. Is greed good or bad? Actually, it depends how one defines "greed/" Sure, in English it's bad. That's why early British translators of Buddhist sutras into English chose it.

The Buddhist term lobha is meant to connote the bad parts of craving, grasping, greediness, selfishness, possessiveness, clinginess, avarice, stinginess, the unwillingness to share, to help, to care for others. Of course, that's bad.

The enlightened self-interest to plant seeds of good that will only serve us later (unless the mental karma bears its results much sooner, that feeling of contentment, health, generosity, and the Four Divine Abidings or Brahmaviharas).

That is to say, giving, sharing, and sacrificing for others is SO good that, later, one will regret not doing it when one had a chance. Give. Help. Comfort others. We certainly will wish for comfort and kindness. Will we have set out the causes and conditions to receive it? This world is ruled by karma, the ability of deeds to give rise to a later result on a moral plane.

It is wholly wrong to think that someone is going to thank us, that a hungry dog is not going to bite the hand that attempts to feed it. "No good deed goes unpunished." But that is NOT karma. Karma is the fruiting, the ripening of a deed. That act has not yet ripened. So it may be that we have a dog bite, but it is not at all true that we have exhausted our well-intentioned act to provide a canine with sustenance when it was hungry.

King, let go as I let go. It's good.

If we learn nothing else about giving and power of giving, we should know a famous quote the Buddha uttered concerning nongreed (alobha).

“If one knew what I know about the power of giving, one would not let a single meal pass without sharing” – the Buddha (Iti. 1.26)

• Family Dharma: The Joy of Generosity (Tricycle: The Buddhist Review)

So greed (a self-centered unwillingness to give) is bad.

What? Why? "You just said greed was good."

To be exact, Gordon Gekko said it was good. We just found a way in which that statement is self-evidently true. It's semantics. Is greed good? Well, it's good in a common way of speaking, using the meaning of the word "good" in the sense of meaning "what will work." 

• Will greed work? Will it make someone rich? It could in the short run. What the Buddha was talking about, what we are talking about, is the long run, the full course of the karma (action) playing out. Steal out of greed. What that act of stealing comes to fruition, will it be looked back on as having been a good deed? No way. The act of stealing is incapable of yielding (karmically resulting in) a welcome, pleasing, pleasant, wished for result. But what happens immediately (like being in possession of what was stolen) may indeed feel pleasant and may alleviate the painful desire when one did not have it. That good feeling is NOT the karmic result (vipaka or  phala) of stealing. What is? Deprivation, neediness, wanting, poverty, and so on -- the very things one did not want, was trying to avoid, wished to be rid of. IF one knew the results of bad karma, one would not do it. The results are too painful, too exponential (one single deed bearing many unwelcome results). One would do good deeds because of the pleasant results, which are also exponential. One act of giving leads to receiving many times over. It's a kind of thing of which one might say, "It's not fair. It's not right. It's not just." We know neither what we did in the past (in countless past lives) nor what others did in the past, so how could we begin to judge either ourselves or others or what's fair and what's not? We judge in utter ignorance, full of wrong view (miccha ditthi), and we become confused and confuse others. A Buddha emerges from the world, explains things, and we fail to learn that Teaching that would guide us to the good and be of such benefit. We needn't give up our favorite religion or cultural attachment to learn or practice the Dharma. But, indeed, this Dharma, this Teaching, this Path runs against the stream, counter to our customs. If we were already living in the right way to eventually make us happy and fulfilled, what need would there have been for a Buddha to teach anything? It would be superfluous. But exactly because we have been living for a long time in the wrong way, in a way that yields suffering after suffering (disappointment after disappointment, dukkha in all its forms), the Buddha had something to say, something vital, something of use to the many blind beings with no idea what reality is.

How is greed good? Let's say you're going out tonight because you want to meet someone, and you ask me, "Is this cologne good?" (It stinks! And you smell like a horny skunk!) So, yeah, it's good -- inasmuch as it will get you the attention you seek in the Meat Market you'll be visiting, where everyone's drinking and carousing, being deafened and blinded by drums and lights from a disco ball.

Greed is bad (avarice leads to ruin), which should be obvious but obviously isn't because we need an enlightened world teacher to tell us, "Hey, watch out for this motivation." Greed, in English, means going too far. "How much is enough?" Charlie Sheen asks the Gordon Gekko character. Gordon came up from the streets, so it's not a matter of enough. It's a matter of winning, of taking it all.

And that's the thing with money and sensuality and worldly things, "One thing is too much, and all of it is not enough." Alcohol, for example. One drink is too much, yet all the drinks is still not enough. Stealing one dollar is too much, yet stealing all the dollars would not be enough." That wouldn't fill the void, fulfill us, satisfy us, satiate us, bring us contentment. The same with coke, heroin, sex partners, cars, real estate, gold bars, flesh, fame, glory, and on and on.

What could possibly fill the void?

 

Sir, no cash is allowed in the safe deposit boxes.

But, wait, that's not all. That's not what's wrong with greed. There's something much worse. Not only will it never lead to satisfaction or contentment (whereas internal letting go would), it is going to lead to a lot of troubles.

The Sigala Sutta lists some of them, but karma (what goes around comes around, justice, getting back from the world what we give to others, crime and punishment, cause and effects, law of attraction, calling into our experience what we put other through, and so on) can be thought of as the results of our deed or deeds. Even one deed has many results. Many deeds have an exponential number of results.

Out of greed, I screw over my business partner. Not satisfied with my portion of the profits, I take that person's portion, too. That's greed, right? That's what the English term means. So so far we've been talking about the result of just going after and getting our portion, but now we see what greed is really like. Greed is bad because I can't get enough, and I start to steal more. Does stealing more get me what I want? No. Not good. Now, instead of a fat pension, a golden parachute, a mansion, and a gorgeous arm charm, I'm facing charges, fines, lawyer's bills, and ignominy. Greed has ruined everything. Far from getting me what I wanted, it got me exactly what I didn't want, what I tried so hard to avoid. How could it be? I thought Greed was my friend! Some friend. The Sigala Sutta could have taught us about bad friends and good ones.

Greed leads to ruin, to constant dissatisfaction, to a feeling of poverty and want even when we have plenty. American capitalism is like that.

Killing Osage Indians for cash

There's a better way English writers call "enlightened self-interest." That means creating win-win situations wherever we go. I take from a business, but I make sure that business keeps going, keeps producing, keeps making everyone rich. I keep them healthy to keep myself healthy. I make them healthy to make myself healthy. I, rather than only thinking of myself in a selfish and self-absorbed way, think of others as a means of preserving myself. That means that wherever I go, everyone is happy to see me, happy with me, praising my actions, and profiting me over the long term. Doesn't that sound much better than being greedy, being selfish, being all about Number One? Of course. It's probably harder to do, so people do the easy and come to ruin. Not all greedy people succeed, so greed is not good. Greed is bad. Greed is bad because even when it works (in getting us what we wanted), it screws us in also getting us exactly what we didn't want.

The Buddha pointed this out in terms of karma (actions that have the ability to produce their results much later), saying that because of stinginess one will fail to give, and by failing to give, one will not receive. One wants to receive. That's what we want. But it will not happen because we didn't give. We didn't have enlightened self-interest to think of the future beyond what we could see.

The very person who failed to protect others will not be protected, who deprived others will be deprived...will get what comes around. Is that what you wanted? Is that what you called "good"? No, no way. It's the exact opposite of what we wanted. It's unenlightened. It's ignorant. It's hateful and based on fear. Why? Because it's greedy, and greed is that way. Greed, ultimately, is bad. It gets us what we want at the moment, sure, but it gets us a bunch of trouble we never wanted.

Montaigne's French philosophy

The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne (via Wiki) had something to say about it. Of greed he thought that

• "It is not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice."
• "All moneyed men I conclude to be covetous," and that:
• 'Tis the greatest folly imaginable to expect that Fortune [Fortuna or Lady Luck] should ever sufficiently arm us against herself;
• 'Tis with our own arms that we are to fight her;
• Accidental ones will betray us in the pinch of the business.
• If I lay up, 'tis for some near and contemplated purpose; not to purchase lands, of which I have no need, but to purchase pleasure:
• "Non esse cupidum, pecunia est; non esse emacem, vertigal est."
• [That is, "Not to be covetous is money; not to be acquisitive is revenue." — Cicero, Paradox, vi. 3.]
• "I neither am in any great apprehension of wanting, nor in desire of any more:
• "Divinarum fructus est in copia; copiam declarat satietas."
• [That is, "The fruit of riches is in abundance; satiety declares abundance." — Idem, ibid., vi. 2.]
• "And I am very well pleased that this reformation in me has fallen out in an age naturally inclined to avarice, and that I see myself cleared of a folly so common to old men, and the most ridiculous of all human follies" [40].
• Seth MacFarlane. American Dad, "Saga of the Golden Turd"; Pink Floyd; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Is it good to have a great meditation?

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

It was so unexpected. I didn't do anything.

Is it good to have a great meditation? No, it is great to have one.

A good session makes it all worthwhile as things are not only progressing, but they seem like they're progressing, too. Progress may always be being made, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

O, I see, attention: Just breathe while noticing.

Of course, there is potentially one bad thing about it, and it's not to do with the meditation itself.

If meditation is about letting go, completely letting go, let it be. But we know we have neither let go nor let it be if we ATTACH (cling) to the pleasant experience of:

• bliss (piti and sukha),
• light (aloka),
• sense of progress,
• calm (samatha),
• connection,
• effortlessness,
• freedom (vimutti),
• contentment (santutthitā),
• oneness/nonduality (advaita),
• unbroken mindfulness (sati), or
• stillness (samadhi).

Relax. Let go. We have been swimming upstream for a long time. "Abraham" (through channel Esther Hicks) assures us that everything we want is downstream. Let go. Go with the flow, which will go the way of the Tao (Taoist word for the Way, the path of least resistance).

So a great meditation can't be bad. But craving (tanha), grasping and clinging (upadana) can't be good; it will lead to tremendous suffering. And by setting up expectations about what it "should" be is likely to derail our practice altogether. If we have gotten up and are no longer returning to the mat, to the practice, that is defeat. Why have we stopped. Experience was not meeting our expectations.

Drop, abandon, release expectations and just be. Sit. Breathe. Let go. Let it be.

Just when we thought we were saying something new, suddenly we remember the startling advice of Western Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho (formerly Robert Karr Jackman). Craving is unskillful (leads to suffering).

Let go of what? Three things

Zen Master Doggone thinks he's
going to muscle it to enlightenment.

But people neglect to realize there are THREE KINDS OF CRAVING.

• First, there's commonplace sensual craving (five sense strand pleasure).
• Second, there's the desire to become something (arhat, saint, enlightened, free, mindful, knowledgeable, a seer, etc.)
• Third, there's the craving to get rid of something (suffering, sadness, absentmindedness, craving, ignorance, spiritual blindness, bad habits, etc.) It's all a manifestation of misery-making greed (lobha), cupidity, affection, subtle clinging.

To "let go" is to let it be. Whatever it is, we just observe it dispassionately. There's little sense in establishing a goal, objective, marker. Doing so only sets us up for frustration. The way there is to let go. It does not come from wanting and squirming.