jump to navigation

The Pot On The Table May 19, 2008

Posted by Kedar in alan watts, atheism, atheist, buddha\, buddhism, conflict, east, eastern, enlightenment, hindu, hinduism, karma, mahayana, oriental, philosophy, relativity, religion, spiritual, spirituality, story, tao, zen.
add a comment

This one is a well known Zen story.

One day one teacher decided to throw a puzzle at his students. When everyone assembled in the lunch room, he took a clay pot and kept in on the table in front of everyone.

“Without using any of the attribute such as color, material, shape, describe to me what is that on the table.” He challenged.

Nobody spoke for a while.

One student demanded more clarification.

“Simply tell me what it is without using any of it’s name.” Said the teacher.

At that point the cook came forward. He pushed the pot from the table. The pot fell on the ground and broke into pieces.

“It was what it is not any more.” Said the cook.

It is so true for so many things in our life. We recognize their existence, their importance only when they are gone. Because human mind is very good in grasping sensation, but not so good in noticing harmony. We can understand things only relative to the change they undergo. We fail to understand those things that are always with us.

When I dig deeper into this, I can see why Alan Watts , in his book “The way of Zen”, says Not only ear makes sound, but sound makes ear too.” Because we have ear, we know that there is something called sound. So ear makes sound. But if there was no sound, we would never know we have an organ called ear that is capable of hearing something called sound. So in a way, collectively, the sounds make ear.

The Color Of The Wildflower May 6, 2008

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddhism, desire, east, eastern, enlightenment, hindu, hinduism, india, karma, mahayana, maya, oriental, philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality, story, subjective, subjectivity, tao, theory, zen.
4 comments

Two people were waiting on the bank of a river. They were waiting for the ferry to take them to the other side of the river. To kill the time, they started talking.

“I am a lifelong student. I have spent all my life searching for the truth.” The first one said.

“I feel I am about to find it.” He continued. ” I have been told that there is a teacher on the other side of the river who is very knowledgeable and insightful. If I get to meet him, he will help me get enlightened.”

“Very nice.” The second one said. “But are you sure you want to get enlightened? Are you sure that it will end all your problems?”

“Seems to me that you know nothing about enlightenment. It is eternal bliss. It is death of deaths. It is escape from the cycles of life. It is attained by only the most knowledgeable.” The first one replied.

“Indeed. I don’t know enough about enlightenment.” Said the second person. “But let me ask you a simple question. “

“Look at that.” Pointing to a wildflower at some distance , he said ” What color is that flower?”.

“That is a blue wildflower.” Said the first one.

“I wonder what color it will look to you when you are enlightened.” Remarked the second one.

That was the moment of enlightenment for the first person.

—

Substitute “enlightenment” with any other accomplishment you have in your mind, graduation, job, finding love or winning lottery, and you will realize that no matter what you achieve, a blue wildflower will always look blue.

No matter how big accomplishment you achieve or no matter how badly you fail, a big part of your life will remain the same. The color of the sky, taste of water, sensation of hot and cold will be the same. Mountains and rivers will look the same, breeze and sunlight will always feel the same.

So put every accomplishment, every pursuit in right perspective. Do not hold your entire life hostage to your pursuits.

Even the small part that changes as a result of culmination of pursuits is most of the times in our mind. Say you get a million dollars right now. All that changes is how you look at the world. Not the world. A million dollars will save you from some dangers, not all. It will not save you from earthquake.

This disillusionment is the beginning of spiritual journey.

The Truth At The Mountaintop April 7, 2008

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddha\, buddhism, desire, east, eastern, enlightenment, hindu, hinduism, india, mahayana, oriental, philosophy, spiritual, spirituality, truth, yang, yin, zen.
Tags: , , ,
add a comment

A monk was walking up a mountain when he met a peasant who was also on the same path. To kill the time, they started talking. The monk told the peasant that purpose of his trip was to find truth. The teacher of the monk had told that he would find the truth at the mountain top. The peasant said it was his daily routine to go up that trail and gather firewood.

As they were talking, the monk started teaching the peasant about the philosophy. The peasant was listening. But every once in a while he would pick up a dried wood stick and add it to the bundle on his shoulder. The monk was slightly irritated that peasant was not paying 100% attention to the valuable knowledge he was sharing. But he kept quiet.

When they reached the mountaintop, the monk asked the peasant “So do you understand what I taught you so far?”

The peasant nodded.

“What did you understand?”

The peasant lifted the bundle of firewood on his shoulder and threw it down. The string tying the bundle broke loose and the firewood scattered everywhere.

At that moment,the monk found his truth and he was enlightened.

–

Explaining a Zen story is like explaining a joke Best is one thinks about it himself/herself. But still let me give it a shot.

Basically what the peasant says is “Let go (of your desires, plans, actions, strategies).”

This is one of the Jataka story and the peasant is Bodhisattva in his previous reincarnation.

We all accoustomed to material world find this perplexing. If you fulfill your desires, then you get pleasure. So why should one let go of them? The point is fulfilling a desire conditions our mind to desire more.

Another way to look at it is like this. If you are unhappy because you don’t have something, then according to Zen, you are unhappy not because you don’t have something, but because you have something. Unhappiness is not because of lack of that thing, but it is because of existence of desire of that thing.

When you “externalize” desire like this, and see that it is like an extra tumor developed on your otherwise perfect mind, it is easier to understand how letting go helps.

“But letting go means accepting you are not capable of it. It’s like behaving a loser.”

Is Zen the way of a loser? No. It is the way of those who know that they have already won.

You Proved Me Wrong ! April 2, 2008

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddha\, buddhism, east, eastern, hindu, hinduism, mahayana, objective, objectivity, oriental, philosophy, relativity, spiritual, spirituality, story, subjective, subjectivity, yang, yin, zen.
Tags:
3 comments

One day a Zen master gave a lecture on philosophy. Hundreds of people listened to him for more than an hour. In the course of his lecture , somewhere he proposed a hypothesis saying something like A is same as B.

One of the listeners was listening intently. After the lecture, he hurried to the master and stopped him. The listener had brought lecture notes and diagrams with him. With much elaboration, he proved to the Zen master that the proposed hypothesis was wrong, and A was not same as B.

The Zen master smilingly nodded. Without a word of argument, he said “Very good. A is not same as B. Very true.” and turned to leave.

“Wait a minute.” The confused listener said. “You have studied all this for a lot longer time than me. I challenged you and disproved what you said and you have nothing to say?”

“My friend, you did not disprove what I said.” Replied the Zen master “You disproved what you heard.”

–

This is one of my favorite Zen stories. We always believe in purely objective interpretation of a information communicated. But almost always there is a difference between what I mean and what you understand. When I say the word “Computer”, the neural reaction that happens in your mind is different than that happens in my mind. That neural reaction is based on our individual experiences, moods, level of knowledge and many many things. Seems we can never escape the layer of subjectivity called individual mind.

Thus what you hear could be different from what I said.

A Tale Of Radha, Krishna and Uddhava – III March 18, 2008

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddhism, east, eastern, hindu, hinduism, india, krishna, mahayana, oriental, philosophy, radha, religion, spiritual, spirituality, yang, yin, zen.
Tags:
1 comment so far

“Do you mind if I ask you one thing?” Uddhava asked Hesitatingly.

“What?” Said Radha.

“I trust Krishna. But everybody in Bharat wonders one thing. If Krishna had so much knowledge and so much power, why didn’t he stop the Mahabharata war?”

“And how would that be better?”

“Well, obviously there would be no destruction, no death. All the people who died would be still with us. Things would be much more happy than gloomy.”

“Uddhava, had Mahabharata war been avoided, by today may be there were less deaths. But there would be a lot more desire to kill. May be today less destruction, but there would be still violent minds.”

“Krishna did exactly what he should have done. “Radha continued. “He separated people who wanted war from people who wanted peace. So warriors could express themselves, and so could Rishis and peasants. Had it not been this way, everybody would be miserable today. “

“No matter how great leader, king or sage you are, you can’t change what people want. You can’t change who they are. Your best bet is let each one take his/her own course of destiny. Best leaders , may they be leading a government, an ashram or an army, keep interference to minimum. They let people be themselves. They reduce the conflicts between their followers. They will not preach, but those who observe them would be left with nothing but clear understanding.”

“Their touch is subtle, yet lasts for ages. Their vision reaches far. They guide their followers not only away from the danger, but even away from the smell of danger. So the people will never know what they were saved from.”

“This way, the real achievements of the great leader will never be noticed.”

“Indeed it makes sense. ” Said Uddhava. “But it is so ironic. If the real achievements are never noticed, then what’s the point in being a great leader?”

“If getting noticed is your goal, then you are not ready to be great in anything.”

“I need to think and digest this.” Said Uddhava.

—

Uddhava’s bed in verandah offered him a great view of night sky. He was still thinking about the conversation in the day.

“I guess that’s why Krishna never tries to make a maha-rishi out of Uddhava. He just sets Uddhava on the path to become Maha-rishi and keeps him free. Evantually all Uddhavas find their own way to the title. ” He thought.

As his body relaxed, his thoughts slowed down. He aimlessly stared at the sky.
Thousands of stars gleaned in the darkness. Clouds drifted along, hiding one star, showing another.

As the night progressed, Saptarshi constellation arose, their tail pointed to Pole star.

Pole star!!

Silently guiding lost sailors to the land, desert travelers to water. Demanding no cost.

Always there. Always present. Always reliable. Always giving.

Kind of like Radha, he thought.

Then the silence carried him gently to sleep.

The Archer and The Shaking Bridge January 30, 2008

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddhism, east, eastern, hindu, hinduism, india, mahayana, philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality, yang, yin, zen.
Tags:
2 comments

One day a young archer went to a village. He started showing off his skill. First he pierced a fruit into exactly two pieces from a long distance. Then he cut the burning tip of the candle with his arrow, without even touching the candle. He could shoot targets at far off distance with excellent accuracy.

The real intention of the archer was to challenge the master teacher of the ashram in the village. The teacher was famous archer when he was young. By defeating the teacher, the new archer would have sealed the title as the absolute best archer in the country.

The teacher knew this, but he didn’t pay any attention. But the archer kept on inciting more and more. Finally one day he stood in front of the ashram and posed an open challenge to the teacher saying “I can do anything you can do, only better.”

The teacher accepted the challenge. He started walking towards the jungle. The archer started following him. They walked and walked till they were in remote jungle. They crossed several mountains and valleys.

At last they came to a river between two mountains. There was no bridge on the river except an old rotten tree that had fallen down across the river. The wood was old and soggy and did not look strong. The river was more than hundred feet below and the current was ferocious.

The master teacher borrowed the bow and arrow from the archer. He slowly climbed on the tree bridge. The wood cracked and pieces fell into the river. But the teacher was steady. He almost walked to the middle. Then he stood there and shot an arrow in the sky.

He walked back and gave the bow to the archer, signaling him to perform the same feet. “Stand there and shoot an arrow anywhere.” he challenged.

The archer started walking on the tree. But his feet were shaking. He could not summon enough courage to look in the river below. And if he tried to look elsewhere, he could not stand steady. As the wood cracked more, he lost his cool and ran back. He accepted the defeat.

“You have good control on the hand that directs the arrow. But you don’t have control over the mind that directs the hand. ” said the master teacher “Till you work on that, you won’t be the best archer.”

The Unspoken Beliefs July 24, 2007

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddha\, buddhism, conflict, conservation, desire, east, eastern, hindu, hinduism, karma, mahayana, micro, objective, oriental, spiritual, spirituality, tao, theory, uncertainty, world.
2 comments

Remember the last time you were disappointed and frustrated? You thought “I am unhappy because I do not have that job/car/house”.

There is another way to look at it. The reason for your unhappiness was not that ‘you did not have something’. Instead the reason you are unhappy is ‘you had something (else)’. What you had was the belief that ‘you need that something to be happy’. Get rid of this belief and you will be happy even without that thing. Once we imagine ourselves as the master of the belief and not the slave, we realize that it is our choice not to let go this belief and agonize ourselves.
We all have these unseen, unspoken beliefs that we are not aware we carry. We fail to grasp their existence, because do not know the world without them. After grasping this as a belief, we can change the way we define self.
Old definition:
Imperfect myself + good job = perfect myself
New definition:
Perfect myself + belief of (incompleteness without job) = imperfect myself.
Almost never we abstract ourselves away and look at our beliefs as our extensions. If I ever got handle of all my believes and I defined them all as an extension of my true nature, I will end up abstracting a truly natureless nature.
When all the Zen books are talking about not associating yourself with your mind and body and thoughts, and identifying your true nature, it is that “Perfect myself” nature they are talking about. As perfect myself, I am indeed free of all insecurities, desires and fears. Yet we never grasp it, because we have never seen the world without it.
There is a small story Catherine Ingram, the Dharma teacher, tells. One day a small fish goes to his grandpa fish and asks him “What is it they call water, everybody is making so much fuss about? I searched everywhere but I did not find it”. The grandpa fish says “Son, not only the water is all around you, but good amount of you yourself are water”

Our mind is full of such ungrasped believes and ideas. In fact that’s what makes our mind. Our aware self is floating in sea of such beliefs that we will never notice till we peek out.
How did these believes come in there? We ourselves picked them on the way. And we have forgotten how and when.

If we create many of these believes, then our will bounces from belief to belief and then we call it double mind, anxiety, fear and many other things.

If we ever peek inside this maze, we find interesting things. The very moment we identify a belief, we empower ourselves to make choice about existence of that belief.

When I am writing this, I have tones of beliefs in me. I believe somehow someday somebody will read this.
I also believe that I am great and very important person. I believe that my country and my religion are great. I believe that my friends and family are great. I believe that everything I am part of deserves special attention from this universe because it is related to me. I believe that by making choices, I can make tomorrow better than today. I believe that if something happened two times, it will happen third time. I believe that ten times of anything is ten time better than one time of that thing. I believe that I have a right to expect the better things in this world. I believe that I have right to expect better behavior from people and I believe that I know the best about this world.

Sometimes the world does not support my believes and sometimes it does. I am insulted by my boss. I feel the insult because the reality clashes with my belief.
Have you ever felt “I need more money so that I will feel free to do things I want” ?. What money brings is the sense of freedom without having to bring a change within you, your belief system. The very feeling mentioned above stands on a set of believes we never bother to put in words. I want to become millionaire because then I can only do what I want. Thus I will spend more time in doing things I like and spend less time reacting to the insecurities and fears I feel. Thus I will spend more time acting and spend less time reacting. This is core of our idea of freedom, which we rarely bother to put in words.

A Tale Of Radha , Krishna and Uddhava April 5, 2007

Posted by Kedar in brahma, buddha\, buddhism, desire, east, eastern, hindu, hinduism, india, karma, oriental, philosophy, spiritual, spirituality, story, zen.
Tags: ,
19 comments

Uddhava, the apprentice of Krishna, one day expressed his dis-satisfaction to Krishna that in-spite of studying all Vedas ,Upnishadas and Sutras, he still was not recipient of the title “Maha-Rishi”, meaning the great sage. He indirectly suggested that Krishna should use his weight in the council of wise men to honor him with the title.

Krishna sensed the ego and pride of Uddhava. He smiled and asked Uddhava if he thought his study was complete. Uddhava answered a confident yes. Krishna did not say anything. He just told Uddhava to come and see him the next day.

The next day Krishna asked him a for a favor. He asked Uddhava to visit Vrindavan, where Krishna’s soul mate Radha resided, and to give her a message. Uddhava gladly agreed. After all, getting to do a special assignment for no one else but Krishna, the divine one, was an honor. When he was ready to leave, Krishna smiled and waved him goodbye. Uddhava asked about the message and Krishna said he had none.

Uddhava was surprised. He sat in chariot and started on his way, but he could not help wonder what would be Radha’s reaction. He was sure Radha would be very angry at this. He did not want to see a problem in Radha and Krishna’s relationship. So just before he entered Vrindavan, he got a parch-paper and wrote a hi-hello message to Radha and forged to look like it came from Krishna.

On reaching Vrindavan, he did not have problem finding Radha’s house. She gave him a warm welcome. After he settled, he handed over the message, hoping she would not examine the message in too much detail.

For a moment Radha stared at the parch-paper and then she started laughing hysterically. Uddhava was confused. He asked Radha what was the matter. She said the message Krishna wrote was funny. Uddhava pretended surprise and asked what was the message.

“The message says Uddhava’s study is still not complete.” replied Radha.

On listening this, Uddava was stunned.

‘How could she have known this?’ he wondered.

Radha calmed him down.

“I love Krishna and trust Krishna in ways beyond you can imagine.” She said “We are two bodies but same soul. There is nothing to be said in between us. We have walked the path of trust, love, devotion and sacrifices for so long that there are no boundaries in my being and his. He does not need to send me messages. He is my message. He is my love letter from the universe.”

“But Uddhava, you have not learned to trust Krishna. You have not learned to give up your self, your ego, and stop your manipulating mind. You ego stands between you and the truth. Between you and the supreme awakening.”

“Erasing the sense of duality and being one with the universe, being one with the one who beholds universe, is this not the jist of the sacred ancient texts, Uddhava?”

Uddhava was speechless. Within a minute, Radha had explained the the deepest mysteries of life. He just wanted to stand there and listen.

He spent the whole day at her house. She talked about life in layman’s terms of love and truth. But Uddhava found answers to his most profound questions in philosophies he learned all this life.

“How did you get so much knowledge staying in this village and living life doing chores?” He asked.

“Each moment makes you take sides. If you always take side of truth and love, you will gain insights. Each insight awakens you from the illusion and takes you a step closer to the supreme awakening.”

“How can you be in Love with Krishna and still remain free from bonds of life ?”

“There is distinction between the love that results from insecurity and the love that results from faith. The former results in bonds. The later results in freedom. The former gets lost, the later transcends. The former leads to fear of death and abandonment. The later leads to Nirvana, to enlightenment that is death of death, to realization that Radha and Krishna are just ripples and love is like the water, eternal and infinite.”

“How can you get awakened without leaving the society and becoming a monk?”

“Where a man reaches by renouncing the world, a woman reaches by embracing the world in its wholeness.” Said Radha.

“Is there no point in pursuit of knowledge? Then what is the meaning of life?”

“Your ability to give it any meaning, is the meaning of life. ” Ansewred Radha. “And about the pursuits, pursuit of currency is not the same as pursuit of wealth, pursuit of sensation is not pursuit of happiness, pursuit of titles is not pursuit of knowledge. These pursuits are in synergy for some time, and they are at conflict later. You must wake up, and open your eyes.”

Radha’s answers turned all of Uddhavas learning upside down and inside out and presented to him as a paradox, a paradox his doubting mind could never grasp. Uddhava’s ego surrendered. The constant chatter of thoughts at the back of his mind stopped and he saw a totally new world at the same place. An eternal, peaceful world where everything seemed OK.

On his way back to Dwaraka, Uddhava sensed a big change within him. He sang to himself. He offered lift to a sick man. He appreciated the sunset in the Western sky. He did not feel rush to get home and work on getting his title.

Next day he met Krishna. Krishna sensed the change too.

Krishna smiled and said “So let’s talk about your title Maha-rishi.”

“I am not that interested in the title anymore. ” replied Uddhava and bent to touch Krishna’s feet.

Krishna rose from his throne. He hold on to Uddhava’s shoulders and smiled at him.

” Your journey is complete. You have arrived. Uddhava, I bestow you the responsibility of writing down my teaching in simple language for all those who do not have luxury of spending their life trying to be Maha-rishi. You will share the gems of knowledge that do not belong to any title such as Maha-rishi. “

“And for this great contribution to humanity, hereafter you shall be known as Maha-rishi.”

[This post is being moved to http://kedarsoman.wordpress.com/2007/04/05/a-tale-of-radha-krishna-and-uddhava/

This blog overall is being moved to kedarsoman.wordpress.com/zen

Thanks to all, see you there.]

Flower Blooms – A Zen Poem February 19, 2007

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddha\, buddhism, cycle, east, eastern, hindu, hinduism, india, karma, mahayana, oriental, philosophy, tao, zen.
add a comment

Flower blooms for it wants to bloom,
Spring comes for it wants to come,
Play of mind sees cause and effect,
Mind plays for it wants to play.

Macro Micro Conflict January 29, 2007

Posted by Kedar in atheism, atheist, buddhism, conflict, east, eastern, heisenberg, hinduism, karma, macro, micro, objective, objectivity, oriental, philosophy, quantum, relativity, spiritual, spirituality, subjective, subjectivity, theory, uncertainty, unified, world, zen.
add a comment

Long back when astronomers were looking at the stars and planets, and calculating ‘path of revolution of stars around the earth’, they ran into several discrepancies. So they came up with more complicated equations to explain those discrepancies. That gave rise to more discrepancies. So they came up with even more complex equations.

At last Copernicus stood up and said “Wait a minute guys. It doesn’t have to be this complex. The mistake might be in our assumptions, not theories. May be the earth is not the center of the universe.”

Thus began a revolution in modern astronomy. The revolution continued with Galileo, leapfrogged with Newton and exploded with Max Plank. Then came Einstein and said “Wait a minute, still something is weird. May be the world has no center, no absolute frame of reference at all. Everything is just relative to each other.”

To put relativity in simplest form, imagine you are hanging in deep black space everywhere around you, and your friend is also hanging in deep black space everywhere around her. Suddenly your friend starts moving towards you with great speed. You shout at her to watch out and not to move so fast. She shouts back at you the same thing. Nobody can decide who is moving and who is still. Only thing that can be said is that relative to one, the other is moving.

Is this the time for us to ditch the last assumption of science- that the knowledge is objective and no matter who is trying to know it (or knows it), it is same?

Today, one of the most interesting quests in Cosmology seems to be reconciliation of Quantum Theory and Theory of relativity. To quote the simplest explanation in Briane Greene’s book “The Elegant Universe”, Quantum Theory explains the phenomena at the micro level and Theory of Relativity explains the events and things at macro level. At some points there is a strong mismatch in results provided by Quantum Theory and Theory of Relativity.

On a totally different track, imagine the question “Wasting one minute in life is OK, but wasting one million minutes is not OK. Where is the line? Wasting exactly how many minutes is OK and wasting one more than that limit is not OK?”

The same question can be asked about wasting one dollar or wasting one million dollar, or almost anything at small level and large level. The answer is that there is no answer. There will always remain a conflict between answers when events are considered at micro level and at macro level. A macro-micro conflict. The same thing applying to cosmology, there will always remain a conflict that cannot be solved.

Or let me rephrase this. The macro-micro conflict cannot be solved at objective level. The conflict can be solved at subjective individual level. If we insist on solution, it can be solved, but answers would differ from individual to individual with no possibility of reconciliation.

Let me explain a bit more why I am saying the conflict can only be solved at subjective level.

So far science has treated consciousness or awareness or aliveness in general as mere neuro-chemical anomaly. But without acknowledging it as such, science has made room for the ‘knower’ in one of the very important theories. Heisenberg Uncertainty. If somebody tries to know the position of electron, it introduces uncertainty in the position of electron. So in inverse, we can say that if there is found an unsolvable uncertainty, it must be because of presence of some knower.

In this case, it’s us. The Quantum theory and Theory of Relativity cannot reconcile because of “Us”. Because we are present. The quantum theory predictions can only be verified for “observed electrons”, which have knower induced uncertainty in them. But the object dealt with by theory of relativity are big and human existence cannot induce any uncertainty in them. Thus the conflict.
If we insist on solving, the uncertainty induced by each person, or each knower will be different. So different people trying to solve this will come up with different answers.

Kind of the same thing happens when we tackle the one-minute million minute question. Depending on who is answering it, what does that person want, believe, etc. the answers will be different if forced to answer.

Reminds me of a story.

After a long speech by a zen master, a person walked up to him with lots of notes and books. He told the master that some statement made in the speech was wrong and went on to prove it using his notes and books. The master simply smiled and told him “Yes, you are right.” and walked away.

The person got confused. He again followed the master and said “So I just proved that all what you said was wrong?”

The master smiled and said ” No, you proved that what you heard was wrong.”

Between what I say and what you hear, what I write and what you read, there stands a giant layer of subjectivity of your and my interaction. More often than not we are in denial of this subjectivity.  However the fact remains. Your world and my world will never be 100% reconciled. There will exist a point where both of us will be right, yet we might be in conflict with each other.