Thursday 27 January 2022

Thích Nhất Hạnh on Universal Brother/Sisterhood

Thích Nhất Hạnh (11 October 1926 – 22 January 2022) was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, recognized as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism and prominent proponent of mindfulness who made Buddhism accessible and practical to a modern Westernized world, in a current of modern liberal Buddhism pioneered by Theosophists Anagārika Dharmapāla and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki . He also emphasized environmental concerns. MartinLuther King Jr. wrote: Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.

Thomas Merton wrote: I have said Nhat Hanh is my brother, and it is true. We are both monks, and we have lived the monastic life about the same number of years. We are both poets, existentialists. I have far more in common with Nhat Hanh than I have with many Americans, and I do not hesitate to say it. It is vitally important that such bonds be admitted. They are the bonds of a new solidarity and a new brotherhood which is beginning to be evident on all the five continents and which cut across all political, religious and cultural lines.

The notion of universal brotherhood, or as he termed it, brotherhood and sisterhood, was an important concern of his, expressed through the concepts of ‘inter-being’, our fundamental inter-connectedness with the universe, the ‘loving community’ and it was one of his five essential Mindfulness practices.

We have to have another dream: the dream of brotherhood and sisterhood, of loving-kindness and compassion and that dream is possible right here and now. We have the dharma; we have the means; we have enough wisdom to be able to live this dream. Mindfulness is at the heart of awakening, of enlightenment. We practice breathing to be able to be there in the present moment, so that we can recognize what is happening in us and around us. If what’s happening inside us is despair, we have to recognize that and act right away. We may not want to confront that mental formation, but it is a reality and we have to recognize it in order to transform it.

The Buddha of our time can use a telephone, even a cell phone, but he is free from that cell phone. The Buddha of our time knows how to help prevent ecological damage and global warming; he will not destroy the beauty of the planet or make us waste all our time competing with each other. The Buddha of our time wants to offer the world a global ethic, so that everyone can agree on a good path to follow. He wants to restore harmony, cultivate brotherhood and sisterhood, protect all of the species of the planet, prevent deforestation, and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

Harmony, however, is impossible if we do not have a global ethic, and the global ethic that the Buddha devised is the Five Mindfulness Trainings. The Five Mindfulness Trainings are the path we should follow in this era of global crisis because they are the practice of sisterhood and brotherhood, understanding and love, the practice of protecting ourselves and protecting the planet. The mindfulness trainings are concrete realizations of mindfulness. They are non-sectarian. They do not bear the mark of any religion, particular race, or ideology; their nature is universal.

When you practice the Five Mindfulness Trainings, you become a bodhisattva helping to create harmony, protect the environment, safeguard peace, and cultivate brotherhood and sisterhood. Not only do you safeguard the beauties of your own culture, but those of other cultures as well, and all the beauties on Earth. With the Five Mindfulness Trainings in your heart, you are already on the path of transformation and healing. (The World We have) https://www.lionsroar.com/the-world-we-have/

I have spent much of my time building communities and I have learned a lot from it. In Plum Village we try to live like an organism. No one has a private car, no one has a private bank account, no one has a private telephone – everything belongs to the community. And yet, happiness is possible. Our basic practice is seeing each one as a cell in the body, and that is why fraternity, brotherhood, sisterhood become possible. When you are nourished by brotherhood, happiness is possible, and that is why we are able to do a lot of things to help other people to suffer less.

This can be seen, it can be felt. It’s not something you just talk about. It is a practice, it is a training, and every breath and every step that you take aims at realizing that togetherness. It’s wonderful to live in a community like that, because the well-being of the other person is also our well-being. By bringing joy and happiness to one person, we bring joy and happiness to every one of us. That is why I think that community-building, sangha-building, is the most important, most noble work that we can do. (Quote 06/06/2021) https://thichnhathanhquotecollective.com/2021/06/06/6898/

Doblmeier: When you looked out on the crowds that came for your public talks, what did you see?

Nhat Hanh: During my absence, about 35 million people were born in Vietnam, and most of the people of my generation have died. So when I sat in front of an audience of 3,000 or 5,000 people, I saw only children of my generation. I look deeply and I see they are the continuation of the people of my generation, and I was speaking to them like I speak to the people of my generation. Their environment has watered the seed of anger, grieving, and discrimination. The purpose of speaking to them is to water the seed of brotherhood, sisterhood, joy, and hope in them. That is the most noble thing to do. (The Secret to Creating Peace and Harmony, for Yourself and the World… Martin Doblmeier / 03.05.2017) https://brewminate.com/the-power-of-compassion-with-thich-nhat-hanh/

If we think about the earth as just the environment around us, we experience ourselves and the earth as separate entities. We may see the planet only in terms of what it can do for us.

We need to recognize that the planet and the people on it are ultimately one and the same. When we look deeply at the earth, we see that she is a formation made up of non-earth elements: the sun, the stars, and the whole universe. Certain elements, such as carbon, silicon, and iron, formed long ago in the heat of far-off supernovas. Distant stars contributed to their light.

When we look into a flower, we can see that it’s made of many different elements, so we also call it a formation. A flower is made of many non-flower elements. The entire universe can be seen in a flower. If we look deeply into the flower, we can see the sun, the soil, the rain, and the gardener. Similarly, when we look deeply into the earth, we can see the presence of the whole cosmos. (Thich Nhat Hanh’s Love Letter to the Earth) https://www.lionsroar.com/thich-nhat-hanhs-love-letter-to-the-earth/

So the question is whether we are practicing loving ourselves? Because loving ourselves means loving our community. When we are capable of loving ourselves, nourishing ourselves properly, not intoxicating ourselves, we are already protecting and nourishing society. Because in the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change. We may not have done anything but when we are relaxed, when we are peaceful, when we are able to smile and not to be violent in the way we look at the system, at that moment there is a change already in the world.

So the second help, the second insight, is that between self or no-self there is no real separation. Anything you do for yourself you do for the society at the same time. And anything you do for society you do for yourself also. That insight is very powerfully made in the practice of no-self. (Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh) https://www.lionsroar.com/bell-hooks-and-thich-nhat-hanh-on-building-a-community-of-love/

“There is no religion, no doctrine higher than brotherhood and sisterhood.” (Thich Nhat Hanh Returns Home) https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/blog/2018/11/3/thich-nhat-hanh-returns-home

Thursday 20 January 2022

Chogyam Trungpa on Spiritual Materialism 1/2

Adopting traditional spiritual practices in the context of a modern western capitalistic materialistic society can be challenging. The modern spiritual marketplace can often provide many distractions that impede the business of overcoming the ego, the personality, or the lower self. One of the most insightful explanations of this problem was written by Chogyam Trungpa, which he called ‘spiritual materialism’. As an example of just how difficult this problem can be, his book dealing with the problem became a trendy product that was absorbed into the spiritual marketplace, and Trungpa himself was sadly caught up in some of the more hedonistic whirlwinds and riptides of the counter-culture movement.

These two articles give ample listings of the various pitfalls that have emerged as alternative spirituality has gained popularity since the 1960s :

11 Warning Signs You’re Practicing Spiritual Materialism

Top 10 Traps of Spiritual Materialism

It now seems that publishing these talks may be helpful to those who have become interested in spiritual disciplines. Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively. there are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as spiritual materialism.

According to the Buddhist tradition, the spiritual path is the process of cutting through our confusion, of uncovering the awakened state of mind. When the awakened state of mind is crowded in by ego and its attendant paranoia, it takes on the character of an underlying instinct. So it is not a matter of building up the awakened state of mind, but rather of burning out the confusions which obstruct it. In the process of burning out these confusions, we discover enlightenment. If the process were otherwise, the awakened state of mind would be a product, dependent upon cause and effect and therefore liable to dissolution. Anything which is created must, sooner or later, die. If enlightenment were created in such a way, there would always be the possibility of ego reasserting itself, causing a return to the confused state. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it. In the Buddhist tradition the analogy of the sun appearing from behind the clouds is often used to explain the discovery of enlightenment. In the meditation practice we clear away the confusion of ego in order to glimpse the awakened state. The absence of ignorance, of being crowded in, of paranoia, opens up a tremendous view of life. One discovers a different way of being.

An interesting metaphor used in Tibetan Buddhism to describe the functioning of ego is that of the "Three Lords of Materialism": the "Lord of Form," the "Lord of Speech," and the "Lord of Mind." In the discussion of the Three Lords which follows, the words "materialism" and "neurotic" refer to the action of ego.

The Lord of Form refers to the neurotic pursuit of physical comfort, security and pleasure. Our highly organized and technological society reflects our preoccupation with manipulating physical surroundings so as to shield ourselves from the irritations of the raw, rugged, unpredictable aspects of life. Push-button elevators, pre-packaged meat, air conditioning, flush toilets, private funerals, retirement plans, mass, production, weather satellites, bulldozers, fluorescent lighting, nine-to-five jobs, television - all are attempts to create a manageable, safe, predictable, pleasurable world.

Ego is able to convert everything to its own use, even spirituality. For example, if you have learned of a particularly beneficial meditation technique of spiritual practice, then ego's attitude is, first to regard it as an object of fascination and, second to examine it. Finally, since ego is seeming solid and cannot really absorb anything, it can only mimic. Thus ego tries to examine and imitate the practice of meditation and the meditative way of life. When we have learned all the tricks and answers of the spiritual game, we automatically try to imitate spirituality, since real involvement would require the complete elimination of ego, and actually the last thing we want to do is to give up the ego completely. However, we cannot experience that which we are trying to imitate; we can only find some area within the bounds of ego that seems to be the same thing. Ego translates everything in terms of its own state of health, its own inherent qualities. It feels a sense of great accomplishment and excitement at have been able to create such a pattern. At last it has created a tangible accomplishment, a confirmation of its own individuality.

If we become successful at maintaining our self-consciousness through spiritual techniques, then genuine spiritual development is highly unlikely. Our mental habits become so strong as to be hard to penetrate. We may even go so far as to achieve the totally demonic state of complete "Egohood."

We have come here to learn about spirituality. I trust the genuine quality of this search but we must question its nature. The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality. Ego is constantly attempting to acquire and apply the teachings of spirituality for its own benefit. The teachings are treated as an external thing, external to "me," a philosophy which we try to imitate. We do not actually want to identify with or become the teachings. So if our teacher speaks of renunciation of ego, we attempt to mimic renunciation of ego. We go through the motions, make the appropriate gestures, but we really do not want to sacrifice any part of our way of life. We become skillful actors, and while playing deaf and dumb to the real meaning of the teachings, we find some comfort in pretending to follow the path.

This rationalization of the spiritual path and one's actions must be cut through if true spirituality is to be realized. However, such rationalizing is not easy to deal with because everything is seen through the filter of ego's philosophy and logic, making all appear neat, precise and very logical. We attempt to find a self-justifying answer for every question. In order to reassure ourselves, we work to fit into our intellectual scheme every aspect of our lives which might be confusing. And our effort is so serious and solemn, so straight-forward and sincere, that it is very difficult to be suspicious of it. We always trust the "integrity" of our spiritual advisor.

(Trungpa, Chogyam; Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Introduction; Shambhala Publications, Inc.; Boston, Massachusetts; 1973)

Part 2

Friday 14 January 2022

Astrology – The Year in Review (2021)

Jupiter square Uranus, January 17, 2021

Mars (in Taurus) square Saturn (in Aquarius), Jan. 13, 2021

Mars square Jupiter, Jan. 23, 2021

After the major social upheavals that the Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto conjunctions of 2020 brought with the Covid-19 epidemic, this intensity spilled over into the first quarter of 2021, marked in the United States on January 6^th with violent public demonstrations at the senate buildings in the nation’s capital and in Myanmar where the army overturned the government, resulting in major public protests. One of the year's major aspects, Jupiter square Uranus, went exact not long after, on January 17. According to the Valerie Mesa:

‘’Jupiter in Aquarius is encouraging the collective to cultivate social awareness, and aspire towards change. The concept of humanitarianism and progress are of crucial importance during this time. Its square to disruptive Uranus, however, could trigger everything from an overarching enthusiasm around the thought of revolution to global anarchy. There could also be an excessive impulse and/or sense of idealism surrounding rebellion, but it isn’t necessarily realistic either.’’

1^st Saturn square Uranus, February 17, 2021

A month later, on February 17, the other major aspect of the year, Saturn square Uranus occurred (the first of three exact stations, the others on June 14 and December 24). According to Narayana Montufar:

"While traditional Saturn likes to build and preserve, Uranus likes to change and destroy. This aspect is basically the old versus the new, a clash between rebellion and tradition. When Saturn (which is in Aquarius right now) and Uranus (in Taurus) form a square, we often see cracks appear in the foundations of society. The problems with our political, financial, and social institutions become exposed, and then they crumble… so we can rebuild them based on the concepts of freedom, inclusivity, and individuality"

One facet of this aspect can be seen in the rise of tensions with autocratic governments, according to Kenneth Roth:

The conventional wisdom these days is that autocracy is ascendent, democracy on the decline. That view gains currency from the intensifying crackdown on opposition voices in China, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. It finds support in military takeovers in Myanmar, Sudan, Mali, and Guinea, and undemocratic transfers of power in Tunisia and Chad. And it gains sustenance from the emergence of leaders with autocratic tendencies in once- or still-established democracies such as Hungary, Poland, Brazil, El Salvador, India, the Philippines, and, until a year ago, the United States. (Can Democrats Rise to the Occasion? Human Rights Watch World Report 2022)

2^nd exact Saturn-Uranus square, June 14, 2021

The first quarter of the year witnessed dramatic convulsions in the aftermath of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, notably with turbulence in American politics and the emergene of a second wave of the Covid pandemic. The second semester continued to witness social conflicts as the world struggled to proceed with the vaccination roll-out as efforts were made to control the re-merging pandemic.

Leading up to the summer solstice, there was a lunar eclipse (May 26), a Mars-Pluto opposition (June 5), a solar eclipse (June 10), the 2^nd exact Saturn-Uranus square , 2021The solstice was a very intense one, with two powerful aspects, the challengeing Grand Cross and the beneficial Grand Trine, both involving the Moon, which can be quite powerful in a transit chart, even though it doesn’t last long. Some of the major news events from the Jun 9-15 period include:

More than 350,000 people in Ethiopia experiencing dire hunger, with millions more facing "high levels of acute food insecurity," Ethiopians head to the polls for the country's first multiparty election in 16 years. Anti-government protesters flooded the streets of Lebanese cities as the country's currency tanked, adding to a string of economic woes. Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Israel's new prime minister, ending former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12 years in office.

In the United States, president Biden attended the NATO G7 summit in the UK. and the US-EU summit in Brussels, recommitting to global concerns like cybersecurity, global health, and climate change. A severe drought occurred, and the Delta variant appeared as responsible for a six-fold increase in hospitalizations in one Missouri city. The Keystone XL Pipeline deal was officially cancelled.

Around the Summer Solstice, also in the United States, ten mass shootings happened across the nation leaving at least seven people dead and more than 40 injured. It was the latest in a streak of violent weekends in America. The weekend before this, there were also 10 mass shootings that left 12 people dead across seven states. On June 25 A Minnesota judge sentenced Derek Chauvin to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. The sentence "is one of the longest a former police officer has ever received for an unlawful use of deadly force," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said, calling it a "moment of real accountability."

The Summer Solstice marked the beginning of a Mars/Saturn/Uranus T-Square, one of the most intense aspects of the year, which was at its most intense around July 4. Around this time, there occurred the assassination of the Haitian president, as well as a string of bad floods, forest fires, hurricanes, building collapses, vehicle accidents, and freak accidents.

An example of these tensions can be seen with the Covid pandemic, (which seems to recede in concert with the Pluto and Saturn retrogrades; although this occurs as the weather gets warmer in many places, with less people indoors, so it is harder to track the correlation). The problem has been admirably addressed at a medical level, as great progress was made with the vaccine roll-out process, but it has proven unable to curb the fourth wave and delta variant due to failures at the political level. Despite sophisticated communication technology, governments are having difficulty educating the public of the need for safety measures. When restrictions are lifted, the case numbers tend to rise dramatically. Relatively small, but vocal groups are radically opposed to vaccinations, but end up getting the virus and overloading the medical services. This strong distrust in government is probably not helped by their seeming inability to prevent a majority of vaccines going to the rich, while the poor continue to suffer the worst, although there has been some concerted manifestation of generosity in vaccine distribution such as COVAX. Another related example was the need to apply widespread restrictions on social media platforms in order to curb Covid and vaccine misinformation, as well as conspiracy theories.

Another interesting event that illustrates this tension and also coincides closely with the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle has been the end of United States military occupation of Afghanistan with the ensuing return of Taliban rule around August 14. The September 11, 2000 destruction of the World Trade Center occurred six months after an exact Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, the latest Taliban takeover, eight months after the most recent conjunction. Possibly, it can be seen to signal the end of end era in a certain style of oil-interested military interventions and a steady decline of international US military involvement, previous to the decline of Russia and the rise of China as an international military enforcer. At any rate, an interesting bookend to the previous Jupiter-Saturn cycle, which was marked by the 9/11 disaster.

Lunar Eclipse, November 19, 2021

Heading towards the Winter Solstice, we had the Lunar Eclipse of November 19. Some events at that time included:

China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims has been a point of great concern for the international community, and talks of a diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games in China emerged.

Rioting broke out at The Hague over the Dutch government's new coronavirus measures. Elsewhere, an estimated 40,000 people on Saturday crowded the streets of Vienna in the country's biggest coronavirus-related protest to date.

Sudan's military chief reinstated Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister, almost a month after he was ousted in a military takeover. Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan appeared with Hamdok at a signing ceremony in the Presidential Palace. Hamdok and Al-Burhan also agreed on a power-sharing deal between civilian and military leadership.

Many high-profile court cases charged with social tensions in the US reached a conclusion: District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Jacob Chansley, the Jan. 6 Capitol rioter known as the "QAnon Shaman," to 41 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in the insurrection. Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, William (Roddie) Bryan were convicted of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. A jury acquitted teenager Kyle Rittenhouse on Friday of murder in the fatal shooting of two men during racial justice protests following the non-fatal shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer. Moreover, two men convicted of assassinating Malcolm X were exonerated after a renewed investigation uncovered evidence proving authorities had withheld evidence that they were not the ones who gunned down the civil rights activist.

The U.S. recorded 100,306 drug-overdose deaths in the 12 months that ran through April, the most ever, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. It was the first 12-month period in which overdoses surpassed 100,000. The record marked nearly a 29 percent rise compared to the same period a year earlier, indicating a sharp rise during the coronavirus pandemic. Five people were killed and more than 40 were injured when a vehicle drove into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Solar Eclipse, December 3, 2021

We then had the Solar Eclipse of December 3. Some events at that time included:

The US joined with international allies to impose new sanctions on Belarus in response to the migrant crisis on the border with Poland and the political repression and ongoing human rights violations committed by the regime of Belarus's longtime strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko.

It emerged that China recently tested a hypersonic weapon system, and is rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal, aiming to bring it to at least 1,000 warheads by 2030. Gen. David Thompson, vice chief of space operations for the US Space Force, says China is developing its space capabilities at "twice the rate" of the US, and could overtake the US by the end of the decade.

There is increasing concern over the potential for Russian aggression against Ukraine. Russia has rapidly escalated its military presence along the countries' shared border, amassing up to 175,000 troops there.

In Michigan , Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old is accused of fatally shooting four classmates and injuring several others at a Michigan high school.

The US is averaging more than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases a day, the first time the country has crossed that threshold in two months. Deaths are also on the rise, with an average of 1,651 people dying from Covid-19 each day over seven days. Scientists scramble to determine whether Omicron is more transmissible and more virulent than other strains.

3rd Saturn-Uranus square, December 24, 2021.

The Omicron variant erupted into a heavy wave of Covid cases over the holidays. An attack in Myanmar left more than 30 people dead. European governments condemned the arrival of "mercenary troops" in the west African nation of Mali. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an anti-apartheid leader and voice of justice in South Africa, died at 90. On January 5, protests erupted across Kazakhstan after liquefied gas prices used for cooking and heating doubled in the new year. Demonstrators broke into the mayor's office in Republic Square, Almaty, and police dispersed thousands of people, detaining some of them.

Thursday 27 January 2022

Thursday 20 January 2022

Friday 14 January 2022

Lunar Eclipse, November 19, 2021

Heading towards the Winter Solstice, we had the Lunar Eclipse of November 19. Some events at that time included:

The US joined with international allies to impose new sanctions on Belarus in response to the migrant crisis on the border with Poland and the political repression and ongoing human rights violations committed by the regime of Belarus's longtime strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko.

In Michigan , Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old is accused of fatally shooting four classmates and injuring several others at a Michigan high school.

Friday 7 January 2022

1- Jacob Boehme on the love of Sophia (Wisdom) 1

2- Back to Basics - FAQ

3- Isis Unveiled, Vol. 1 Table of Contents, Blavatsky

4- Henry Olcott - Asceticism

5- The Symbolic, Mystical, Esoteric Meaning of the Resurrection, Part 1/2

6- Isis Unveiled, Vol. 2 Table of Contents, Blavatsky

7- Blavatsky on esoteric aspects of the family

8- Logical Fallacies

9- The Dangers of Occultism 1 - Franz Hartmann

10- Psychology: 17 Defense Mechanisms

11- Isis Unveiled, Vol. 1 Overview, Blavatsky

12- Bhagavad Gita Summary - Book 3 - Karma Yoga

13- The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso on Universal Brother/Sisterhood 1

14- Franz Hartmann 1- To Know (Know, Dare, Will, Keep Silent - Occultist Motto, Kabalist Axiom)

15- Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, First Stanza

16- Astral Intoxication - William Q. Judge