tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post7099002002086483206..comments2024-02-06T22:19:13.028-08:00Comments on Mining Aśvaghoṣa's Gold: MINDFULNESS AS ARMOURMike Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-53894898017690999502008-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:002008-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:00Hello Raymond -- good to hear from you.I get angry...Hello Raymond -- good to hear from you.<BR/><BR/>I get angry because..... <BR/><BR/>Why do I get angry? <BR/><BR/>If Ashvaghosha is telling the truth, and I am increasingly deeply convinced by all his magnificent metaphors, military and otherwise, I get angry simply because I forget to bind on the armour of mindfulness. <BR/><BR/>I blunder on, end-gaining, from one situation to the next, from one webpage to the next, from one sentence to the next, from one barrowful of earth to the next, driven forward by my end-gaining, paying no heed to the many-tentacled monster of misuse that is suffocating me, holding me in its clammy grip, sickening my senses with its poisoned spines smeared with self-importance!! <BR/><BR/>In Saundarananda, Ashvaghosha uses the term PRAVRRTI, which the dictionary defines as "advance, activity, moving forward." Linda Covill translates it as "active life."<BR/><BR/>For example:<BR/><BR/>"Therefore accept that life is suffering, and understand faults as being related to active life; recognize cessation of suffering to be the ceasing of active life, and know the path as being related to cessation." [Saundarananda 16.40] <BR/><BR/>To re-cast this sentence in terms that are readily understandable to devotees of Alexander work:<BR/><BR/>"Therefore accept that life is suffering, and understand misuse as being related to end-gaining; recognize cessation of suffering to be the inhibition of the idea of gaining an end, and know the path as being related to inhibition." <BR/><BR/><BR/>To try to clarify what Alexander meant by inhibiting the idea of gaining an end, I wrote an account of the teaching of Marjory Barlow which you can find on my webpage www.the-middle-way.org, in the Articles section. <BR/><BR/>What I can honestly report from my own experience is that when I am able to devote sufficient time to working as Marjory taught me -- as described in the article titled The Marjory Barlow I Knew -- then I do sometimes become as if protected by a force-field of mindfulness in which annoying stimuli (e.g. small planes buzzing over this house) temporarily cease to anger me. So the means are available to me, but in general I am too stupid and lazy to apply the means.Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-79944784460934441522008-11-07T11:34:00.000-08:002008-11-07T11:34:00.000-08:00I have a question. Sometimes you seem angry at peo...I have a question. <BR/><BR/>Sometimes you seem angry at people and I think in some ways I identify with your anger. I get angry with people because I believe their will-to-truth is so weak and I resent them for it. I am also jealous that they can believe illusions that I think might be pragmatic but that ultimately I cannot believe in. <BR/><BR/>When I move my head after sitting zazen, the feeling I feel is utter helplnessness. I want to believe in God, or in something that will rush to fill in the feeling of helplessness that sitting awakens in me. The feeling of not knowing what to do, or how to be in the world. It is a difficult feeling. <BR/><BR/>What do you think about this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-48445422804714345902008-11-03T04:20:00.000-08:002008-11-03T04:20:00.000-08:00On second thoughts, it might be better to suggest ...On second thoughts, it might be better to suggest the feminine aspect of MAITRI with something like "grandmotherly goodwill," in order to distinguish it from the kind of lwomanly love which Ashvaghosha suggests so evocatively with his images of flashing eyes, and jewelled earrings hanging down, and pearl necklaces dangling over breasts like golden pots -- in order to distinguish MAITRI from the kind of love, in other words, that does not lead to extinction of the flame but which rather fuels the engine of samsara. <BR/><BR/>When my old Alexander teacher Marjory Barlow, then in her 80s, used to call me "love," I am fairly sure she was using the word in the former sense.Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-15148990765660254972008-11-03T01:21:00.000-08:002008-11-03T01:21:00.000-08:00Thank you, Molly. If you can show me the true mean...Thank you, Molly. <BR/><BR/>If you can show me the true meaning of VIRYA, or manly endeavor, I will endeavor to show you the true meaning of MAITRI, or womanly love...<BR/><BR/><BR/>“Whoever finds love beneath hurt and grief disappears into emptiness with a thousand new disguises.”Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-276555537918145862008-11-02T17:01:00.000-08:002008-11-02T17:01:00.000-08:00I'd never thought of mindfulness as armor. I like ...I'd never thought of mindfulness as armor. I like it. Thanks for sharing these pearls.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-8197645632291172412008-11-01T04:28:00.000-07:002008-11-01T04:28:00.000-07:00Thanks Jordan. VIRYA -- manly endeavour, or grit, ...Thanks Jordan. VIRYA -- manly endeavour, or grit, is another word, along with SMRTI, that Ashvaghosha dwells on a lot. <BR/><BR/>I feel that Ashvaghosha is shouting in my ear, down through the centuries: STOP BEING SUCH A PUSSY!Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-72163586309463796972008-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:002008-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:00Keep going!Keep going!SlowZenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589294912054724123noreply@blogger.com