My Life

read 10,000 books.
sit 10,000 days.
walk 10,000 miles.

This and That, Here and There

by creating and naming a ‘thing’,
—an object over there
we imply a ‘subjectivity’ over here.
by creating a symbol of the ‘thing’
—a sense impression, a photo
we assume acquisition of it.
by creating a ‘mine’ over there
—we reinforce the fabrication of an ‘I’ over here.
every conflict creates a place,
a location ‘out there’ in space
—where something other than ‘in here’ is happening.
we are all territorial.
projecting, tagging our names
—on the dull concrete walls of life.
every eddy of content versus context
creates another little whirlpool of meaning
—in the river of what we call life.

but wait a minute: what is this thing we call life?
is it not just a river of names?
this life as actually lived
is nothing at all.

As I was Walking…

…up and down beneath a tree,
whistling twittery birdsongs
that i heard for free,
a little bird done said to me:

“every bird sits in its own tree,
with its own song and its own tune.
the squrrels and insects chime in too,
each with its own song and its own tune.

“only you humans do not sing
with your own song and your own tune.
you copy each others tunes
and never sing your own.”

i said, “the no-tune is the best,
the one that holds all the others.”

he said, “bright, bright is the bobwhite
melancholy is the whipporwhil.
each bird sits in its own tree,
with its own song and its own tune.”

The Arahant: Parent and Child

Q: You often say that Buddhism is not a religion. What do you mean by that?

A: Don’t misquote me! ‘Buddhism’ [makes finger quotes] is certainly a religion; the problem is, it has little to do with the Buddha’s original teaching. I make a sharp distinction between the original teaching and the various derivative religious teachings. They can’t be compared at all.

From Suffering to Contentment

All it Takes is Integrity.

Suffering isn’t static; when we are in the crucible of suffering we writhe and wiggle, struggling to end our pain. In terms of Dependent Origination, we fabricate many different ‘I’s trying to end the suffering. But as long as the false identities we fabricate are based on ignorance—desire or aversion—we cannot end our suffering. Indeed, we simply perpetuate it. 

The Arahant: Paradox of Teaching

Q: “Those who know don’t teach,” and the corollary: “Those who teach don’t know.” This comes from Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu; what do you think?

A: It’s true, and this is the essential paradox of teaching. When you know, when you come to realization, you can clearly see that Nibbāna is impossible to express in words or any other way. So how to teach it? It cannot be taught; it can only be learned and experienced for oneself. Therefore if a person wants to teach or be taught enlightenment, it means they are already a failure because it cannot be taught. So if I am realized and I know this, then why would I agree to be a teacher and accept students?

The Answer

The most interesting questions are ones that have no answer. Or rather, the answer is inexpressible in words and symbols, but a process of becoming. You become the answer.

The Trap of Fabrication

You Can’t Make this Stuff Up

Ignorance gives rise to fabrication as discussed above. The Buddha calls the process of Dependent Origination ‘this/that causality’:

“When this is, that is… When this isn’t, that isn’t.”
— Vera Sutta [SN 10.92]

So the root cause of all of our suffering is ignorance. And what is that ignorance?

The Importance of Nothing

Among the cognoscenti of ontology, the saying is often heard, “Context determines meaning.” And indeed, the context in which something is held often determines how well we understand something—or even whether we can understand it at all. So it behooves us to realize that the ultimate context of everything is nothing.

The Arahant: Confirmation

Q: Reader David asks, “What gave confirmation that this monk is indeed an Arahant?”

A: By nature this is a deep matter that is not accessible to everyone. Even knowing the criteria, anyone who is not himself an Arahant can easily make a mistake. Therefore the best confirmation is from another Arahant. But of course, that may lead to a regression, ‘How do you know that person is an Arahant?’ and so on.