On Jan 26, 11:20 am, 無心 <mu_s
...@rocketmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 26, 6:30 am, "TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher"
> <comandante.ban...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > On Jan 26, 7:27 am, 無心 <mu_s...@rocketmail.com> wrote:
> > > Are you unaware that the first Tibetan monkey had to compromise his
> > > principles in order to save the land from disaster?
> > No, tell me about it.
> According to myth, the Tibetan people attribute their existence to the
> union of an ogress and a monkey. One day a monkey came into a cave in
> Yarlung River valley and began to cultivate himself to attain
> immortality. Later, an ogress came to him and tried to tempt him with
> tricks. She said to the monkey: “Will you marry me?” “No, I am a
> disciple of Mother Buddha. I am instructed to come here to cultivate
> myself. If I marry with you, it will violate the religious
> discipline,” replied the monkey. The ogress proceeded: “If you don’t
> marry me, I will have to commit suicide because I am destined in my
> previous incarnation to be degraded into a devil. Then you and I
> cannot become affectionate couple. Days later, I will become the wife
> of a devil and give birth to countless sons and grandsons. At that
> time, the plateau will be plunged into a world filled with devils and
> thousands of people will be killed. So please do as I told you.” Stuck
> in the dilemma and puzzled, the monkey had to return to Putuo Hill to
> seek instruction from Mother Buddha. She said: “This is destiny and
> this is an auspicious sign. It is a deed of great kindness to marry
> her and reproduce offspring for the plateau. As a Buddha, you should
> not hesitate to conduct kind deeds. Hurry back to marry the ogress.”
> They got married and brought six baby monkeys into the world. They had
> different hobbies and different dispositions. They looked for food in
> the forest by themselves. Three years later, their father went to the
> forest and found out that the number of monkey had expanded to 500 by
> the way of reproduction. And they had eaten up the fruits in the
> forest and suffered from food shortage. Again the old monkey went to
> Mother Buddha for help. Mother Buddha took the seeds of five types of
> grains from Xumi Mountain and distributed them across the land. Crops
> sprung up in the vast land without being cultivated. Hence monkeys got
> sufficient food. After some time, their tails became shortened and
> they could speak language. Gradually they became humans, the ancestors
> of the Tibetan people.
It sounds like a pretty story centered around evolution. Who wants a
tail when it became redundant? Isn't that why we lost the tail?
> > I learned yesterday that Buddhism talks about the "monkey mind" being
> > constantly distracted, "jumping all over the place," and that the
> > purpose of meditation is to calm it, all common sense.
> You are gradually becoming enlightened.
> Enlightenment doesn't take place all at once, it occurs one lesson at
> a time, and sometimes the results of those lesson are won at great
> personal cost or one learns the lesson accidentally, through
> serendipity.
> Master Gautama's teaching examples were aimed at the intellectual
> capacity of his disciples. Some were smarter than others and were on a
> "fast track" to enlightenment.
> Others were duller and he used examples from life which they might be
> expected to understand.
> For instance, Master Gautama spoke of seeing "the moon" during
> meditation.
> No actual moon is seen, but the counter-image of the round visual
> meditation object is seen within seconds after the meditator closes
> his eyes.
> Then he progresses through *seeing* various images which are *actually
> transmitted by the optic nerve to the brain*.
> Back to the *manas*, the so-called "monkey mind," referred to by the
> teachers of yoga.
> One of its primary functions is to perceive the subjective position of
> the store consciousness and erroneously regard it as one's own ego,
> thereby creating ego attachment.
> Some yogis speak of eight levels of conciousness, other speak of four
> levels, which are easier to understand.
> They are consciouness, unconciousness, sleep, and a fourth state which
> is neither consciousness nor sleep.
> The fourth state is lucid dream, in which you know that you are
> dreaming, but you are directing the dream. You can program your mind
> to lucidly dream about what you want to ponder in your *wisdom
> meditation."
> One of the teaching models that Buddhists and Hindus use is that of a
> calm, crystal clear pond in the forest.
> The undisturbed mind is the crystal clear pond, and the undisturbed
> mind sees clearly, not worrying about the past or the future.
> The monkey mind causes waves on the surface of the pond by grasping at
> ideas.
> These thoughts stir up the pond, raising settled debris from the
> bottom.
> The pond becomes turgid and the meditator has so many thoughts
> swirling in his mind he might as well give up and make a booty call or
> order a pizza or go online and post to a newsgroup of total strangers.
> The meditator must learn to recognize thoughts as they arise and
> reject the thoughts in order to go into more rarified levels of
> consciousness.
> > But the monkey
> > mind better be focused by riding a bicycle or motorcycle because
> > movement is natural.
> Read Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
> Pirsig was upset over his failure, years before, to get a PhD. His
> philosophy thesis was rejected at the University of Montana by a
> professor who disagreed with the proposition that abstract quality pre-
> existed the object to which it was attached by the viewer's
> perception.
> Pirsig was headed back to Bozeman on a Honda motorcycle with his
> alienated son and the way he avoided thinking about his youthful
> failure was to concentrate on motorcycle maintenance in the Zen style.
I do with my bicycles. I've become an "expert" at remodeling bicycles.
An "ape-hanger" makes the monkey happy. Same idea for motorcycles.
Isn't that something?
> He would have thought, "Now I'm going to adjust the valves, that's all
> I'm going to do is concentrate on adjusting the valves. Now I'm
> picking up the spanner, that's what I'm doing, I'm picking up the
> spanner."
You gotta know your machine. The motorcycle is too complex for my
monkey brain though. The beach cruiser is the simplest machine ever
invented that saves energy.
> You know perfectly well that you cannot concentrate totally on riding
> your motorcycle, there are too many lions in the jungle, and they are
> just waiting to make a meal of a monkey.
They go, "Look, the monkey is having fun!" And they come and attack! :
(
> > Tell you what, all
> > I need to be in Nirvana now is to ride a motorcycle to the Florida
> > Keys.
> Again, nirvana is NOT utopia, it's not a place, it's a state of mind.
I went through a sad city last night and still I was happy to be
riding my bicycle. It gets to you if you lived in it though.
> You don't have to go anywhere to experience nirvana.
> All you have to do is sit somewhere quiet and clear you mind of all
> the thoughts that are stirring up debris from the bottom.
> You need to ignore the past and avoid speculating about the future and
> *enter the moment fully*, without emotion and having no internal
> discourse rattling around in your monkey mind.
Oh no, I'm having fun but also being involved in the fate of the
planet. Should I not worry about Climate Change or nuclear war when
they can be prevented?
> > For the time being though I'm happy with my bicycle. It's not
> > having space that bothers me. You could argue the advantages and
> > disadvantages of each vehicle, but the bicycle is more democratic,
> > healthy and practical. Hey, somewhere in between is the scooter. The
> > big thing about my way though is that THE MONKEY GOT TO HAVE FUN!
> The monkey mind seeks sensual pleasure. The yogi who seeks nirvana,
> and takes a manifold vow to avoid sensuality.
How about the Tantric approach? Is there something wrong with
pleasure? I bet the banana is a good draw for the monkeys who want to
enjoy simple pleasures in the jungle. Did anyone say banana? Or did
they say jungle? THEY ARE MADE FOR EACH OTHER!
> > Is this a recipe for the world? Yes, of course!
> You imagine yourself to be a teacher, but you are not a teacher, you
> are engaged in self-serving egotism.
> > You may want to listen to 'Man Seeks God'...
> Takes too long to download and I doubt if there's anything new under
> the sun spoken of in there.
Well, the purpose is not that you learn but that you buy the book! ;)
> > (they talk about the monkey mind at minute 18)
> > You know what, I'll make it a goal to lie in my hammock after my
> > bicycle ride. Nothing like it. That's Nirvana today.
> No, that's still not nirvana, it's sensuality.
"Nirvana with banana"... it sounds so catchy! ;)
> > Hey, you may choose to ignore me, in which case you may want to buy
> > the book and shop around.
> Everything I need to know is freely available on line.
> However, if you accept what nirvana actually is, as I've told you
> several times, the first thing you need to do is stop typing and start
> listening (or reading the readily available texts on the subject).
> You need to do what the wise woman of the Na'vi told Jake Scully in
> "Avatar."
> You need to empty your mind so you can learn to *see*.
I'm listening and learning. Now, what do you think of riding a beach
cruiser along beach --no traffic, no dog or cat poop-- as opposed to
planting ideas into the Internet that go around and germinate?
How about if my
...
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