Daily writing prompt
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
A Buddha / Bodhisattva (if there’s one about these days.) Why? To feel how his (or her) subjective experience compares to my own.
PROMPT: For a Day
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Tag Archives: enlightenment
“I’m Happy to Be a Free Yogi” by Drukpa Kunley [w/ Audio]
I'm happy to be a free Yogi,
growing evermore into inner happiness.
I can have sex with many women
as it helps them find the path of liberation.
Outwardly I'm a fool
and inwardly I live a clear spiritual path.
Outwardly I enjoy wine and women
and inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.
Outwardly I live for my pleasure
and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.
Outwardly I'm a ragged beggar
and inwardly a blissful Buddha.
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BOOK: “Toleration and Other Essays” by Voltaire
A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays by VoltaireMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Project Gutenberg — Free Access
This collection gathers together eight essays and a poem. The theme that interconnects these works is a petition to avoid petty tribalism and irrationality / superstition in the practice of one’s religion. The titular essay, “On Toleration,” sets the collection’s tone, beginning with its detailing of the murder of Jean Calas on religious grounds and its exploration of many more acts of savagery attributable to sectarian forces in alliance with authoritarian governments. The poem, “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster,” echoes the central idea of “Candide” — i.e. the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds is patently false.
As one would expect of Voltaire, there is plenty of humor and satire throughout these pieces. The arguments are also generally well supported by facts. It is clear that Voltaire possessed a great deal of the knowledge of his day. That said, the reader may well find some factual errors. Most notably, Voltaire tends to attribute a kind of enlightened utopian vision to cultures with which he was likely largely unfamiliar as he builds a case against many within the culture with which he is familiar. This isn’t to say that there isn’t some truth to Eastern traditions being historically more tolerant of other sects than the Abrahamic religions, but the degree to which he extends these idyllic views of those outside of Europe (and the details, thereof) don’t always seem to comport with the historic record.
While some may be inclined to dismiss this book as a collection of anti-religion writings, it is really not anti-belief at all. (Though he does poke holes in many a Biblical myth, so too does he actually provide a deist argument in favor of the existence of a god or gods in the book’s final essay.) Instead, the collection is anti-intolerance, anti-superstition, and anti-authoritarianism. I’d highly recommend this book for all readers. Whatever flaws it may contain are outweighed by the great importance of its message and the cleverness with which Voltaire conveys said message.
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“Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau” by William Blake [w/ Audio]
Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, Mock on, 'tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a Gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.
The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.
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Bodhi Tree [Free Verse]
How to pick a tree
that one can be resigned
to sit under until
Enlightenment?
If the choice is hard,
you are not ready.
If the choice is easy,
you are not ready.
If there is no choice,
perhaps, you're ready.
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Crow Sound [Tanka]
the sharp caw of a crow triggers a monk's enlightenment. a second crow responds. a sailor doesn't look up.
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Voltaire Clerihew
The Enlightenment thinker called Voltaire
beat the lottery to become a millionaire.
To the man, he did stick it,
by buying every ticket.
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Leaf Enlightened [Common Meter]
I stared, and stared, into a leaf
until my vision changed.
And I could see the whole, wide world
so artfully arranged.
The leaf, it mapped my universe
from atom to the sprawl.
Compressed, layer-on-layer, there
was one and, at once, all.
But before I could grasp all that
this vision truly meant,
a gust of wind did catch that leaf,
and fluttering it went.
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BOOK REVIEW: The Pocket Chögyam Trungpa by Chögyam Trungpa
The Pocket Chogyam Trungpa by Chögyam TrungpaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
This pocket-sized guide consists of 108 excerpts drawn from the writings of Chögyam Trungpa, a prolific — if controversial — teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. Chögyam Trungpa may have been most famous in the West for coining the English term “Crazy Wisdom,” and for founding Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. [Note: while he coined the term “Crazy Wisdom,” he didn’t originate the concept, which existed already – arguably in multiple forms — in Vajrayana Buddhism from olden times.] Beyond basic Buddhist philosophy, he wrote extensively on Buddhist Psychology, Tantric Buddhism, and the Buddhist conception of warriorship.
The book is designed to be picked up at any point. There isn’t a formal grouping of concepts, but rather the book meanders around, revisiting ideas such as Enlightenment, Emptiness, emotional intelligence in multiple locations throughout the book. The entries are between a paragraph and a page long in most cases.
I found a great deal of food-for-thought in this book and would highly recommend it for those wishing to dip a toe into the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa.
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Satori [Free Verse]
It was a moment of silent spaciousness. In the midst of a fight, there was no enemy -- just the effortless dance of the thing. That moment expanded to the infinite, & snapped back to one tick after the tock. Since then, no catastrophe has felt too great for a smile.
