Ra Chair Again!
Thursday 22:39 p.m.
When I was jogging this evening, I remembered that the chair (from the last post) used to be a chariot.
You open your eyes and there's a chariot. Try putting your hand on it. No, that's the wheel. No, that's the reins. No, that's the spokes. I think this is supposed to make you think that the chariot is made up of things. It is compounded. It is a mental construct. Yeah? Wait till it runs over you!
You open your eyes and there's a chair again. What makes a chair? Say, you take away the legs. If it's got no legs, is it still a chair? Say, you lose it's back. Is it still a chair?
All this is supposed to make you realise emptiness. It didn't work for me.
So what else about the lying perceptions? At least, they are perceptions. Dead folk don't have them.
Here comes the chair again! Have a good look. The thing that bothers me about the way the chair looks is that it always looks the same. Intellectually, I realise this isn't true. But you don't see the chair changing. If nobody sat on it, in a hundred years the chair would look quite different. It might have disappeared.
A kalpa is the time is takes for a silk scarf to wear away a metre of granite block.
So you don't see the chair changing. You see the clouds changing. You see the water changing. You see the fire changing stuff. You do not see the chair in the process of change. Your perceptions are not telling you the truth. You do not see the chair in flow. Though intellectually you know it must be so.
How much of the chair is a thought? Or thoughts? Or the result of thinking you know stuff about the chair?
We embrace ignorance
We do not believe in any things
Especially thoughts.
The chair is there alright because you can bump into it. How much of it is from your side and how much of it is from the side of the chair? Percentages of actuality.
I think what did it for me was reading that they said that your wee individual consciousness was bobbing about in a great big sea of consciousness. Then I got a look at that. This is somewhere described in the Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf, about chapter five, I think. Perceptions of emptiness means you have disappeared into something much bigger. Unfortunately, you revert. Still, one of these days you know the chariot will come round and pick you up again.
I've had three pints of home brew and a good day, better than last Thursday. I started meditating at nine thirty and finished at twelve thirty. (headstands, tai chi set in between). Lunch then allotment. Another two hours. Digging. The end of the digging! Dinner and then meditating and writing for an hour and a half. Then I went for a wee jog. I did a wee jog a fortnight ago and my knee reacted. Second wee jog in two months! No wonder I'm a fat basturn! Then I barrelled some beer and came through here.
I found an email from the sensei and reverend asking me if I wanted to read his new book. He's almost finished it. When you've finished a book, you have to get someone to read it. I used to do this to people. Like, I've just spend two years writing this. Is it crap? Yes. Oh well, I thought as much. I might have been one of the first people to read The Book Of Man, which the sensei probably finished about 1992 or 1993. I remember it well. I lined up some bottles of home brew and read it in a oner. Excellent evening. The sensei has got something. There is something outstandingly solitary about the main character in that book. I should really read all his books again before I read the next one. Anyway, I'll get him to sit there with his Bulldog 44 and tell him it's crap, blow your brains out. That's the best way to get rid of the opposition. But he's not the opposition. He is my comrade in arms. The book will be great. At last, some fiction I really want to read!
I should say something about ra bliss. People who don't meditate would like me not to talk about ra bliss because it makes them seem inadequate somehow. But I had to try today. Sometimes it isn't easy. It took an effort. But don't worry. Just be like everyone else. See how happy they all are!
When I was jogging this evening, I remembered that the chair (from the last post) used to be a chariot.
You open your eyes and there's a chariot. Try putting your hand on it. No, that's the wheel. No, that's the reins. No, that's the spokes. I think this is supposed to make you think that the chariot is made up of things. It is compounded. It is a mental construct. Yeah? Wait till it runs over you!
You open your eyes and there's a chair again. What makes a chair? Say, you take away the legs. If it's got no legs, is it still a chair? Say, you lose it's back. Is it still a chair?
All this is supposed to make you realise emptiness. It didn't work for me.
So what else about the lying perceptions? At least, they are perceptions. Dead folk don't have them.
Here comes the chair again! Have a good look. The thing that bothers me about the way the chair looks is that it always looks the same. Intellectually, I realise this isn't true. But you don't see the chair changing. If nobody sat on it, in a hundred years the chair would look quite different. It might have disappeared.
A kalpa is the time is takes for a silk scarf to wear away a metre of granite block.
So you don't see the chair changing. You see the clouds changing. You see the water changing. You see the fire changing stuff. You do not see the chair in the process of change. Your perceptions are not telling you the truth. You do not see the chair in flow. Though intellectually you know it must be so.
How much of the chair is a thought? Or thoughts? Or the result of thinking you know stuff about the chair?
We embrace ignorance
We do not believe in any things
Especially thoughts.
The chair is there alright because you can bump into it. How much of it is from your side and how much of it is from the side of the chair? Percentages of actuality.
I think what did it for me was reading that they said that your wee individual consciousness was bobbing about in a great big sea of consciousness. Then I got a look at that. This is somewhere described in the Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf, about chapter five, I think. Perceptions of emptiness means you have disappeared into something much bigger. Unfortunately, you revert. Still, one of these days you know the chariot will come round and pick you up again.
I've had three pints of home brew and a good day, better than last Thursday. I started meditating at nine thirty and finished at twelve thirty. (headstands, tai chi set in between). Lunch then allotment. Another two hours. Digging. The end of the digging! Dinner and then meditating and writing for an hour and a half. Then I went for a wee jog. I did a wee jog a fortnight ago and my knee reacted. Second wee jog in two months! No wonder I'm a fat basturn! Then I barrelled some beer and came through here.
I found an email from the sensei and reverend asking me if I wanted to read his new book. He's almost finished it. When you've finished a book, you have to get someone to read it. I used to do this to people. Like, I've just spend two years writing this. Is it crap? Yes. Oh well, I thought as much. I might have been one of the first people to read The Book Of Man, which the sensei probably finished about 1992 or 1993. I remember it well. I lined up some bottles of home brew and read it in a oner. Excellent evening. The sensei has got something. There is something outstandingly solitary about the main character in that book. I should really read all his books again before I read the next one. Anyway, I'll get him to sit there with his Bulldog 44 and tell him it's crap, blow your brains out. That's the best way to get rid of the opposition. But he's not the opposition. He is my comrade in arms. The book will be great. At last, some fiction I really want to read!
I should say something about ra bliss. People who don't meditate would like me not to talk about ra bliss because it makes them seem inadequate somehow. But I had to try today. Sometimes it isn't easy. It took an effort. But don't worry. Just be like everyone else. See how happy they all are!
posted by Hotboy at 10:43 PM
4 Comments:
You have a beautiful place to run over there.
Oh, if you take the legs and the back off of a chair...it is no longer a chair. In my opinion! :)
Lee Ann: That's the kind of chair I have in the hut. It's a pile of old newspapers with a chair base on top. A seat! You don't have to have a chair to have a seat! Hotboy
Beesucker: What a fabulous comment! Had to think. Then I realised I couldn't do that anymore. I used to be able to think, but that was a while ago. I just want thoughts to happen. Lazy. Realisations. If you're young, remember how useless old people are. If you're old, can you do ra bliss or can't you? If you're old and you can't do ra bliss, just blow your brains out. Could there be anything else to be here for except ra bliss? Ra bliss, ra bliss, ra bliss. I'll guess your age. I'm fifty five. The great number. Hotboy p.s Why don't you become my literary agent?
As you may or may not recall, the best chair I ever had was one I had cut all the legs off. Very comfortable. Of course, if I had gone all the way and cut the backrest off too, I would have had to sit upright and keep my back muscles in shape, and I wouldn't have a dodgy back. That would help.
Can you explain - what do dead folk have?
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