"REALITY"

AN UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY
AN UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY
AN UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY

I will have to paraphrase Pontius Pilate here:

WHAT IS REALITY?

Why do I sense a little bit of conceit and self-righteousness in this expression?

Reality!

Truth!

Wisdom!

Call it what you will but it is all a very SUBJECTIVE concept 

if it exists at all.

Buddha's "reality" and Jesus's "Truth" are 2 different things
and everyone's understanding of either is altogether a different and unique thing
for each individual: 

billions and billions or "realities" and "truths"

People boasting of truth and wisdom and an understanding of reality should probably be avoided like the pest.

You shall know the truth and HERE COMES TROUBLE.

Unfortunately my fav monk does not allow commentary on his YouTube channel lol.

Mind you I do admire the "young" man.  

Exactly my son's age, born in Canada in  May 79 and with a history one could qualify as different I guess and certainly COMMITTED for sure:  

A determination rare in these days.

But STILL I cringe at concepts like Karma and Reincarnation and accepting those ancient myths a "REALITY". 

I am also in my iconoclast habit inclined to doubt and question everything and especially when big names try to promote it.

I have said previously that it annoys me to no end that some many so-called sceptics, rationalists, and atheists seem so inclined to separate Buddhism from all the other thousands of myths out there.

How many times must I say it?

A MYTH IS A MYTH IS A MYTH.

Sure I don't mind trying a bit of meditation for peace of mind
but I will not take the robe, beg for my food
and least of all having people BOW DOWN to me. 

That is outrageous in my book.

And we haven't talked about sex, drugs and rock and roll and coffee YET. :P

Anyway my knee jerk reaction again to my fav monk on the block so far.

FIIK

 'Less restrictive future lockdowns' rely on more people getting vaccinated for COVID-19, experts say.

Of course MY COGNITIVE BIAS AGREES WITH THAT :)

Other things my COGNITIVE BIASES think:

Vaccines are good.

There is no god. The is no devil.

There is no heaven, no hell, no karma, no reincarnation,
and many other current myths
created only for greed and control by people with no power at all.

I am beginning to think that hell there is not even "TRUTH" 

and that us complex apes have just rendered thinking and consciousness FUBAR.

No one is right, no one is wrong 

or even better ALL are wrong 

including yours truly which does not reverse the previous statements.

Looking at the misery and complexity of the world and its now exponential growth it is clear to me that life is just a

Merciless Random Number Generation (RNG)

and it is futile to seek a meaning into it all.

IT IS WHAT IT IS 

as my wise dying daughter used to say.

It is getting quite clear that with nearly 8 billion people on earth soon the demand for new souls for reincarnation
and the very basic maths of reincarnation itself don't compute.

Anyway it is just ONE form of delusional mythical thinking 

among a plethora of myth after myth after myth in history: 

each local group having its own insular favourite myth to cling to with a vengeance,

 ready to kill anyone else who is not the CHOSEN.

Add to this today on top of the gazillion myths all over the world the exponential growth of conspiracy myths growing pandemically.

Dunning Kruger Syndrome being also an epidemic exponential growth of certainty among the ignorant coupled with arrogance and there you go: TNT / Dynamite / C4 or some other explosive mix.

So wherewithal shall an old man find his way?

My usual answer to all is:

FUCKED IF I KNOW  

Let's start a new acronym now  FIIK 

not new apparently

Office Girl : Oi, there you are. So what does this F.I.I.K you keep putting in the delivery time column actually stand for?

Truck Driver: Fucked if I know.

Office Girl: No need to be rude about it ya prick.

Qualms with Buddhism

 

venerable?  prostration?

Colossians Chapter 2

why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.  KJ

21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. NIV

I should refrain from attachment to my cat / rabbit / pet so I don't suffer when my cat / rabbit / pet  shows its impermanence and carks it?????

Eat and Drink and Be Merry?  Buddhists: Fuck Forbid!

It has a STENCH to it that I cannot identify. 

Yet it attracts the greatest minds and some scientists: 

Sam Harris, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Marsha Linehan etc.

Speaking of Harris and Kabat-Zinn 

There is a high form of idolatry attached to it which should be stinking to atheists or any rationalist and even Christians and Muslims: all these images of Gurus and Buddhas everywhere and all this prostration and offerings etc

It sure IS a GOOD SHOW of wisdom and what not and I have been attracted to it for a long long time beginning with my worshipping of Lobsang Rampa in my teens:
a well known scam artist and fraud
but hell Astral Projection sounded like pure heaven and a pure haven for this battered kid who was looking for an escape from a cruel reality.

But I do have to admire the commitment of some though. 

This amazing Canadian monk is fascinating to watch: his determination and his zeal are unreal. Monk in early 20's, learning Pali and what not.  I have always admired one who studies languages in order to understand as so many things are lost in translation.

I think I might have said earlier that I admire people who study ancient languages like

Dr. Miles Smith was a student of classic authors from his youth, was well acquainted with the Rabbinical learning, and well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic. He was often called a "walking library." Born about 1568, died 1624.

John Boyse, or Bois, at six years of age could write Hebrew elegantly. He was for twelve years chief lecturer in Greek at St. John's College, Cambridge. Bishop Andrewes, of Ely, made him a prebend in his church in 1615. He was one of the most laborious of all the revisers. Born 1560, died 1643.

Rowan Williams speaks or reads eleven languages: English, Welsh, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Biblical Hebrew, Syriac, Latin, and both Ancient (koine) and Modern Greek.[25][26] He learnt Russian in order to be able to read the works of Dostoevsky in the original.[27] He has since described his spoken German as a "disaster area" and said that he is "a very clumsy reader and writer of Russian"

But still sure the Laplace's Demon in me wished he knew
ALL the languages and had read
ALL the classics and
ALL the so-called sacred texts

but to what purpose I know not.  

Even Buddha himself would say that wisdom and "reality" are not in reading or 'knowing" but in DOING.

I am glad I have watched  the report of Solange / Ina in French on her visit to the VIPASSANA  Centre, we have one near here also and I was always curious but obviously it will never happen me getting old and all.

Anyway Debussy is not helping much to clear my mind in order to better explain my love / hate relationship with Buddhism.  

I have expressed before that A MYTH IS A MYTH IS A MYTH and Buddha after all is just that: another myth.

Sure I liked my moderate meditation week this week
but as Solange said so well all these things that depend on will are bound to fail in time.

The idea of overcoming pain with practice is also interesting
but then again nothing a good dose of oxycodone wouldn't do  

so the Middle way may not be reality / dhamma after all.

One thing also that bugs me a lot is that it is almost impossible to learn about Buddhism in your own language.

They all use these mystical phoney words and air and one has to totally learn another language before one begins to understand.

So all this talk to myself now I wish I had a bouncing wall somewhere to trigger some more thinking in this tired head.

So this is it then and there it is, it is what it is :P

Wherever you go there you are.

P.S. this Linehan guru looks quite fishy to me according to her Wiki profile. 

But the science world is chock full of these big egos and super professors flying high on pride and respect but low on facts and reality.

Voila for now