I discovered yet another social networking site, this one is called ning. The rad thing about this one though is that it allows you to make your own network based on whatever the hell you want...I decided to make one for Buddhists both in my homeland of America and all around the world. As a part of the esangha i invite you all to contribute if you wish
Li 理
理 Li | division | cohesion | value
Many Western scholars have sought a Chinese equivalent to Platonic Forms or natural laws in Li 理, translating it as "principle" or "order" or "reason." Western thought's insistent split between appearance and reality has fueled its quest for the transcendent, the eternal, the absolute. Today, science measures and records statistical regularities, searching for the universally valid rules which determine each particular event.
Since ancient Greece, Indo-European thinkers have used mathematics and logic as their prototype for explaining the world. Mathematics is pure quantity, and starts with the "countable particular"––nouns with plural forms that can be directly modified by numbers. These mutually exclusive objects, each occupying its own corner of space, are added together to form aggregates and classes, which are often visualized as hierarchies of ever-larger and more-inclusive containers.
Physics provides the model for describing interactions between these mathematical entities, as the billiard-ball causation of discrete objects exerting force to move and change each other. The idea of abstract force is clearly evident in the Christian conception of God as the maker of the world, an eternal consciousness severed from time, the legislator who acts upon the universe from the outside:
Since ancient Greece, Indo-European thinkers have used mathematics and logic as their prototype for explaining the world. Mathematics is pure quantity, and starts with the "countable particular"––nouns with plural forms that can be directly modified by numbers. These mutually exclusive objects, each occupying its own corner of space, are added together to form aggregates and classes, which are often visualized as hierarchies of ever-larger and more-inclusive containers.
Physics provides the model for describing interactions between these mathematical entities, as the billiard-ball causation of discrete objects exerting force to move and change each other. The idea of abstract force is clearly evident in the Christian conception of God as the maker of the world, an eternal consciousness severed from time, the legislator who acts upon the universe from the outside:
Whereas the West has traditionally used mathematics as its prototype, Chinese culture took ethics as its basic model. Classical Chinese philosophy seemed relatively unconcerned with the problems of metaphysics and cosmology, of what the world is and were it came from. Its focus was axiology, the problem of enacting social values.
The West deploys math and physics to understand human agency and social networks, as objects pushing and pulling each other from without. Chinese thinkers started from the opposite perspective, modeling the interaction of natural objects on the relationships between human beings. Spontaneous motion and mutual response describe the natural realm, not the linear cause-and-effect of forced movement.
The Shuowenjiezi, China's oldest known dictionary, defines Li 理 as "to treat jade." In dynastic China, jade was the stone of Heaven––both a valuable commodity and a symbol of virtue. Skilled, jade-cutting artisans competed in the marketplace, while the virtuosos crafted ornaments and ritual implements for the Imperial court.
It takes a trained eye to discern jade's nuances of color, lustre, and texture. The jade-cutter removes the unwanted streaks and spots, carves out the creamy white or emerald green. If he is sensitive enough to the natural makeup of the raw material––to its veins, flaws, and fissures––the block appears before him already cut up. The master traces the lines which invite human action. He works with and within the given patterns of the raw material to create new patterns of cultural and economic value.
The West deploys math and physics to understand human agency and social networks, as objects pushing and pulling each other from without. Chinese thinkers started from the opposite perspective, modeling the interaction of natural objects on the relationships between human beings. Spontaneous motion and mutual response describe the natural realm, not the linear cause-and-effect of forced movement.
The Shuowenjiezi, China's oldest known dictionary, defines Li 理 as "to treat jade." In dynastic China, jade was the stone of Heaven––both a valuable commodity and a symbol of virtue. Skilled, jade-cutting artisans competed in the marketplace, while the virtuosos crafted ornaments and ritual implements for the Imperial court.
It takes a trained eye to discern jade's nuances of color, lustre, and texture. The jade-cutter removes the unwanted streaks and spots, carves out the creamy white or emerald green. If he is sensitive enough to the natural makeup of the raw material––to its veins, flaws, and fissures––the block appears before him already cut up. The master traces the lines which invite human action. He works with and within the given patterns of the raw material to create new patterns of cultural and economic value.
Li is often translated as "pattern." But both the patterns in jade and the patterns of human intention which shape it are secondary to the activity. Li is a verb, a process, a skill: "to cut something away from a background of raw material (division) and shape it into an object (cohesion) which meets some desire or demand (value)." Human value permeates and unifies the entire process, determining what is removed, what is kept, and how the object is shaped. Li is neither an objective pattern waiting to be discovered, nor a subjective pattern of human interest scrawled across a blank canvas. Li is the dynamic interface between nature and mind.
my oh my
I have just returned from a 2 week stint in the psych ward of my hospital. Very interesting bardo. I'm diagnosed bi polar and was off my meds for about a year...i was function decently as a result of spiritual practice but the fine line of sanity became a lot smaller. Long story short I started to not sleep and basically started falling a part. I went into the hospital to take a 2 week nap basically and have returned to suffer some more! Maitreya is my main dude right now and thats what occupies my "mind" when i need it. Raymo is the next best thing to Maitreya so i gotta give mad props to him yo. He let the rest of the redundicants know what was up.
in love and light!
-Dyer, Andrew
in love and light!
-Dyer, Andrew
bald spot zen
A few months ago I was checking out my new haircut in the bathroom, using two mirrors. "Wait, what...?" I said to myself as I noticed a bald spot on the top-rear of my head. "Wow, that no-good barber made a mistake and didn't even tell me!", I thought to myself.
But it wasn't the barber's fault. Over the next few months the spot, and the rest of the top of my head, kept getting more and more sparse of hair. I can see what's in store for me. Welcome to Baldsville... say hello to Mayor George from Seinfeld.
But it wasn't the barber's fault. Over the next few months the spot, and the rest of the top of my head, kept getting more and more sparse of hair. I can see what's in store for me. Welcome to Baldsville... say hello to Mayor George from Seinfeld.
your mind is not broken
One of the lessons you learn in meditation practice is that there is no way to control the mind. It's impossible. This is called the Noble Failure, the realization that the monkey mind, the puppy at the end of the chain, or whatever metaphor you want to use, cannot be controlled. You can practice responding to it differently, but stopping our minds from jumping from past to present, from fantasy to fear to memories... is impossible. It's just how our minds work.
the golden child
I re-watched the 1986 movie "The Golden Child" today. Yeah, it's classic 80's cheesiness, but it's actually pretty funny. It's heavy on the Tibetan Buddhist mysticism and magic, which makes for a good popcorn feel-good flick.
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