𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲

 

"Who am I?" That ultimate question is one for which there can be no answer. The question dissolves the questioner; the false sense of self. 

You know what passes for "identity"? ... Your history. What you do for a living. Where you live. Your relationships. Your family associations. What you own. How much you got in the bank. Like that. All those add-ons you were given and have chosen since the day you were born. Maybe even the traits that you came in with from your generational genetic lineage.

Then there's the shaping of the popular culture. It is full of images for us to choose our personae. Be like this! Look like this! Have this! Think like this! It's the broth of our social consciousness. That is, so saturated in the messaging and the themselves saturated messengers — "influencers" — that it's quite literally almost impossible to see outside that box, much less think outside the box. Even so, that we don't know we're in a box in the first place. Oy!

But, when you realize that it's just a box, then you're out. 

Then what?

Our Great Friend Nisargadatta Maharaj sums it up in his usual direct and elegantly spare teaching: "Discover all that you are not — body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that — nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being."

Even so, the voices to the contrary are loud, many, and ubiquitous. You won't be hearing about that you're the "limitless being" on the TV. Or TikTok. In school. Or, from a pol. Purely out of the hubris to maintain their own self-image, the voices of influence in the world broadcast daily the products of their own self-delusion. 

In fact, is that even a question you're asking? Well, see what I just did there? Now you know that's it's a question you could be asking. Your choice. 

Please. I'm for you being you. What you want to wear. Where you want to go. What you want to do when you get there. Even, how you want to "identify". If as a horny teenager I had known that I could have identified as a female and entered the girls changing room at the beach many of my frustrations would have been resolved. 

My peeve is that the popular culture seems to cap the matter of "who am I" at the level of consumer competence, social acceptance, and sexual preference. Go ahead, be a good consumer; be a good boy or girl; do what you want with what you got down there. But, fuck sake, just wake up to that stuff, and all the other stuff you can ornament yourself with; it's just camouflage. Dressing. Ornamentation.

Because, if that's the limit of your understanding, then the real you won't have a chance to show up. And, worst of all, you will go around not knowing who you are, and fucking shit up all around you by fronting with the phony pretensions you've accumulated like badges on a proud soldier's chest.

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐈 𝐃𝐎 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓?!

WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT THOUGHT?!

"Whatever kind of thought arises,

Have the same reaction:

... 'Not me, not my business'.

It can be a good thought - or a bad thought.

... Treat them the same way:

'To whom are these thoughts arising?'

... 'To You'.

That means; 'You' are Not the thought;

... 'You' ARE 'The Self'!

Remain as The Self,

And don't latch onto anything,

that is not The Self."

~ Annamalai Swami ~

*Final Talks, page 84*

Solving the Political Divide ...the End of the Road

So from where I sit the political scene in the US of A currently in this election year 2024 is essentially an end point on the pairs of opposites thing. Not new for 24, just maybe more so.

"Pairs of opposites." It's the mental landscape where there are the good guys and the bad guys. It is the broth of our Western civilization. Right and wrong. Black and white. Like and dislike. Grasping and aversion. Past and future. Praise and blame.

That should be obvious on its face. Just a plain fact. If you dispute that, then please offer a comment. I'm attempting to understand the situation even as I try to lift the conversation away from the infinite circularity of arguing both sides of a worthless coin without any possibility of resolution. Oh, you say, there is resolution. One side wins, the other loses. That's the resolution. As if.

Politically we appear to be in a stalemate situation where each side of the aisle is firmly and unalterably convinced that the other side is wrong; so wrong, in fact, that whichever side in power it would be the end of Democracy, and maybe the world from the point of view of the losing side. Just now we have half the folks choosing one side; the half, the other. No one seemingly willing to budge. And, one side apparently so right about it's position and the direness of the other one winning that it is willing to break norms of decency and even legality to make sure they prevail.

Are we so wrapped up in the argument, like two guys in a street fight, that we don't see what's down the road if we continue to keep raising the stakes to a do-or-die end game? And, by the way, who's calling the game? And, why? Are the propaganda spinners so ignorant themselves that they don't see beyond the game? Or, are they smart enough to spin the game? What's the difference. What game? The difference is that you and me are being gamed.

The game is this: "Taking Sides". Fine for sports. Even fine for politics, when politics is about issues. Now, it's just for power. When you're right, there's really no use discussing. Just need to get your way.

Am I right?

On Forgiveness ...

"Forgiveness." It's one of those words we use rather too casually. We're assuming everyone has the same take. Assuming also we ourselves understand what it is. What it entails. 

"Love" is another one of those. "I love you!" "I love Sushi!" And then ... recently reading how scientists are looking into "consciousness" in the animal kingdom; using the term, but not in my reading explicating on what is the understood common definition of "consciousness'. 

So "Forgiveness". It's been on my plate of life learning for a long time. Not just looking for a complete and accurate definition, a convincing set of words; but for understanding what it is, and how to exercise the choice to forgive. 

Forgiveness is a practice. An act of courage.

Nisargadatta Maharaj makes the point crystal clear: 

"There is only one meditation — the rigorous refusal to harbor thoughts." Jiddu Krishnamurti put it another way when he said his biggest secret is that he doesn't "mind what happens". Not that he doesn't necessarily give a shit, but that he doesn't harbor thoughts. 

My take, when you don't harbor thoughts, the mind is open to get the right thought for the right moment. Otherwise, you're just spinning in your own juice. Shadow boxing with images on an imaginary mirror of memories of the past. Living with, and into, your own preconceived notions. 

Knowing stuff, that's good. Not bad when it comes to functional reality. Heck, we all know which way the faucet turns. What a red light on the road means. That you don't wear your shoes on your hands. And, we don't have to relearn which goes on what when we put on our shoes. Somethings, solid everyday things, are consistent moment to moment. Living things, Life, living Human beings are only as what we think they are. The world is as you see it. Take away the looking glass and see it for what it is. 

Forgiveness is also a letting go. Just what is it do we let go when we forgive? Mostly it seems when we talk about forgiveness we're referring to something bad that we experienced. Most often perceived as being from the hand of another. Too often we throw out the baby with the bathwater. That is, we "move on" from the issue and from the evil-doer. Out of sight, out of mind.

But forgiveness is not just over the bad stuff, but the good stuff too. The world seems to live in a constant flux between grasping for the "good" and pushing away the "bad". It's the ideas we hold on to about just what is "good" and what is "bad" that need to be let go. Why? So you can be present in the moment and look at what's so with a clear eye. Like I already said.

Nisargadatta: "Discover all that you are not — body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that — nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being."

A Course in Miracles is also a good reference. It's really all about forgiveness. As in, letting go of the past opens the present moment for creative options ... miracles.

ACIM puts it right there from the beginning: "What's Real can't be threatened. What's unreal doesn't exist. Herein lies the Peace of God."

Of course, if you don't believe in God, then fuck all that. Be like that. On your own. How's that going for you, Pilgrim?

Pulling the Plug

Pulling the Plug

I remember following the various commentaries during the Clinton era health care debate. What was so then, is still true. 

The conversation is all about financing. Paying for covering everybody, cutting costs in an industry in which technological and pharmaceutical costs just keep growing. On its face, those are great objectives. Just, notice no conversation about what is fairly well documented to be a mediocre to poor performance in terms of the actual delivery itself.

A medical doctor writing in the New York Times Op-Ed section back then wrote, "The American health care system is very good at keeping sick people alive." That statement stuck with me and I hear it from time to time from other sources. Please, when something is broken, there is nothing better than modern medicine and technology. But, in the main, we are the most medicated and technologically advanced society with, arguably, the least to show for it.

Which brings me to the point. If the general culture is one in which profits come first, and it's every man for himself, then doesn't it seem possible that a system that keeps sick people alive might decide to not want to do that any more? In other words, why spend so much money to keep a dying person alive. Dr. Kevorkian sounded the opening bell. "My dear patient, there's nothing medically that I can do for you. Why don't you kill yourself and save everyone the trouble."

When you add in a generation of adults schooled since childhood to avoid strangers, the ethos could evolve where so called "death panels" could become a reality. Factor in the growing eugenics industry where you can in-utero do a genetic profile on the fetus. If we see something nasty, abort.

So, when grandma's medical condition and costs to keep her alive get nasty, let's pull the plug.

After all, it makes perfect fiscal sense. And, grandma isn't any longer a viable contributor to the economy anyway. Nothing personal, just business.

It could happen.

Here is a scene from Critical Care, a movie that puts a great satirical spin on the subject. And, another ...

Masquerade

Masquerade

From Talking to the Wild 

by Becky Hemsley

She buttoned up her jacket

And she headed to the ball

And hoped her masquerade

Would be enough to fool them all

But as she reached the party,

She found herself alone

For the masks had stopped her seeing

Who she did and did not know

Then amidst a trumpet fanfare

A VIP arrived

She’d heard about this special guest

The Master of Disguise

His outfit was astounding

And he moved with sleight of hand,

And he spoke in lots of riddles

That no one could understand

He had an air of mystery

That everybody craved

But when they got too close to him

He moved himself away

And as they tried to follow him

She came to realise,

That they’d never see beyond his mask,

His trickery and lies

And she knew it was the same for her

And everybody there

So she took the mask from off her face

And left it on a chair

And as she did, she noticed

That some others did it too

And she smiled at all the faces

That belonged to those she knew

And now no longer limited

By mystery and masks

They danced upon the tables,

They shared stories and they laughed

And we all do the same

We try disguising what’s within

We hide behind a role we’ve built

In hopes we’ll fit right in

And then we work the whole time -

We undo and readjust

We take off our disguises

For the people that we trust

See, we join the masquerade

But then stand wishing all the time

To be recognised for who we are

Behind our masked disguise

******

Masquerade is from What the Wild Replied

𝐍𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚 𝐨𝐧 "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐢𝐬𝐝𝐨𝐦"

 

𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 ... 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐰 —

 

Flirting ... then and now —

Jules Duvelleroy's Language of the Fan ...

From Of Human Bondage 1934 ...

40 Year Old Virgin ...

From the Internet 2024 ...

𝐒𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐁𝐞 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 ...

Sure, you’re creative. 

You wanna be an artist.

Answer me this?

 

How much of an artist you gonna be. 

Pretty pictures? 

Nice arrangements?

 Le mot juste? 

Innovative images and shapes? 

That kind of artist?

That's nice, but it's just "artistic".

Why settle. 

Go all the way!

Be a real artist! 

Be creative enough to love with all your heart. 

Even if it's been broken.

[Who's hasn't been ... join the club.]

After all, isn't it true you only give to yourself? 

So, why be less that you are. 

Stop looking at all those paint-by-numbers masterpieces you put together as a kid.

Stop decorating a prison cell of your own delusions. 

Start your day with a fresh canvas. 

In fact, start the next moment that way.

How?

There's a wellspring of creativity within you. 

Simply go there and draw from it. 

But, you won't get any water from a well unless you drop a bucket into it. 

Bucket? Drop?

Drop down within yourself. 

At first there might be some cobwebs and stuff.

Even broken bits.*

Keep going. Keep going.

You'll see ...

*[There's a simple fix for those.] 

But, please ...

Don't wait until the house is on fire to dig a well.

Be courageous!

****

Another clear-eyed perspective of great authority ...

"Our mind can be compared to a hand temporarily tied as much to the conceptual representation of an ego —  ego or self — as to the concepts and fixations derived from this idea. Little by little, with practice, egoistic fixations and concepts are eliminated, and just as a hand when it is untied can finally open, the mind opens, acquiring all kinds of operational possibilities. She then discovers that she has numerous qualities and skills, just as happens to the hand once she is freed from what binded her."

H.E. the Very Venerable Kalu Kyabje Rinpoche

 

" "𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠" "

In this wramble we're using the term "framing" as in the sense of how we see things and events; people. And, how things are presented to us. Context. With mixed in random amounts of present understanding, historical references, judgement, prejudice, triggers, assumptions, preferences, and tendencies. Even the way we see things according to how our mind is structured. Oh, you thought that all minds work the same way. As if. You think? Just look at the political landscape. Two sides, each firmly 'til-do-or-die certain of their rectitude. Mind seems to operate in a dualistic frame. But, Buddha Be Praised!, not inevitably. Or, necessarily. Let's hope so, because if the news of the day is accurate in telling on what's going on ... oh, boy!

But that's another topic. Never mind. And, FYI, I don't mind even if you do mind. According to those who know, when you look for the mind, guess what? There's nothing there. Empty. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

But, that another topic too.

Having said that about other topics, chew on this:

Something from the Real frame of Nisargadatta Maharaj: "The mind is the wife of the heart and the world their home —to be kept bright and happy. Truth and love are man's real nature and mind and heart are the means of its expression"

The frame surrounds the view. Eliminate the frame — can you even do that? — and you're looking with naked awareness. Unfiltered. "Naked Eye." Plain. As it is. Not how you think it is. Or, your reaction(s). And, framing isn't just for the eyes. The ears too. How we hear things. Can you look, listen ... without adding anything? The added part, that's the frame.

The TV screen is a frame. No brainer on that point. Literally, huh? And, the contents we view on that device, and our other viewing devices; also frames. 

And, basically, what we're watching is something how somebody who we may or may not even know, how they see it. What is given us to watch. We give credence easily when what is being presented matches our real world experience. Or, are amused, when the presentation is off kilter, or screwballed comedically. And — Alert! Alert! — when biased presentations match our own biases. "Bias Confirmation" is what it's called. 

Then there's the more basic framing which has to do with what is made available for viewing. In the Internet Age, this may seem moot since we can just about call up whatever we want at the push of a button. But we do look a lot at content which is based on some other one providing that content. News, for one. SNL even.

And, by the way, the future is soon to arrive where with the proper chip you'll just be able to think it and it'll show up on the screen. Future, future ... think it, and it'll show up in a virtual field right in front of your eyes. And, a word of caution on that wonderful Brave New Word possibility: that chip ... it's a two way street. For the convenience of translating thinking to image making, such tech could ever so easily also reverse the connection and literally put thoughts into your own head. Think about that. 

See, right there. That's my frame. A frame that casts things in the light of conspiracy theories. But, consider it. There are machers working as we speak to finagle such chips like that. You heard of Elon Musk? Musk is too ... much. First iterations are for to have the blessings of medical science. What could go wrong. Extend the idea further and imagine where it can go. 

Then there's AI.

Artificial Intelligence will give the "thought leaders" the tools to jigger the algorithm to get just the right thoughts into the right brains. Sit back and relax, we know what's good for you. What is that, Big Brother? It's what's good for me! You can see it well enough for yourself. Just go and search something to buy. Darned if some ever so helpful, anonymous techie hasn't jiggered into your frame of view all sorts of ads for just what we know you're looking for. And, you are welcome. Just trying to be helpful. But also let's make a buck whilst we're saving the planet.

The news is a perfect example of unnoticed, subconscious framing. Somebody has to decide what is news, and what of all the news is going to go into the time slots. The NY Times motto: "All the news that's fit to print" says it in plain English. Just who is deciding what's "fit". And, who the fuck are they anyway? And, by what lights are they living their lives, and attempting to influence mine? And, who frames the frame they frame? Who's you Daddy!? By the way, the word "kosher", it means "fit"? If you're a reader of the newspaper of record you might refigure their motto as, "All the news that fits". 

Argh! It can give you a fit.

But wait, not only is it a decision on what to present as news, but the biases that editors and their minions process into their presentations are also present. If you don't know what that is, just watch the news. Pick your channel. Quite obviously, there are differences. Politically. And, you can bet also based on unabashed self-interest. That earnest and assertive overly made-up and coiffed with the tight fitting dress isn't just a patriot delivering the news of the day, there's a career on the line don't you know. Compounded by they're quite possibly a bunch of doodoo heads in front of and behind the camera.

So what do we make of all that? Well, I acknowledge that I just did some framing. But, the framing is about framing. 

The frame I'm attempting to hold up for your viewing is to suggest up-leveling our awareness to become aware of the framing being presenting in the media. Not to denigrate it. Or, to go on endlessly arguing over what frame is the right own. Choose the frame that suits you. But ... just acknowledge that you're looking with a frame. See it for what it is. That it's there, coloring things. When you do that then you can step out of the frame and be responsible yourself for shaping the frame. 

The warring in the world should be enough to suggest that a new frame is necessary. Unless, of course, you like to fight as a way of living. Because, if you do, the guys that make a living from you living with war as the ordained state of things all to happy to oblige.

If the world is as you see it ... and you want to do something about it ... change the frame. Change the prescription on those "glasses". Also, spend some time quietly and unplugged. Not just from the medium and its messages, but from the chatter in you keppe. You know, that little voice going on in your head that we so easily take to be who we are. You say, "There's no voice in my head!" Oh, really. Says who?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 ~ 𝐊𝐚𝐥𝐮 𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐞

The Four Levels of Obscurations ~ Kalu Rinpoche

The failure of the mind to recognize its own nature is what is meant by the term "ma-rik-pa," or ignorance, the first level of obscuration or defilement in the mind. As a result of this ignorance, there arises in the mind the imputation of an "I" and an "other," something that is other than the mind. 

This dualistic clinging, something that we have had throughout beginningless time, and that never stops, is the second level of obscuration, the obscuration of habits. 

Based upon this dualistic clinging arise the three root mental afflictions: mental darkness, desire, and aggression. Based upon those three afflictions are the 84,000 various mental afflictions, the third level of obscurations, called the obscuration of mental affliction. 

Under the influence of this, we perform actions that are obscured in their nature — the fourth level, called the obscuration of actions or karma. 

These four levels or types of obscurations are the cause for all sentient beings to wander in samsara. If these are removed or cleaned, then the inherent qualities of mind's nature, which we refer to as wisdom or "yeshe," will naturally manifest and spread like the rays of the sun. 

The word in Tibetan for the removal of these obscurations, "sang," means "cleansing," and the word for the spreading of the inherent qualities of the mind that occurs as a result of that is "gye," or "increasing." "Sang-gye". These two words together, is the Tibetan word for a Buddha. Therefore what is meant by Buddhahood is the recognition and realization of the complete purity of the mind.