mindfulness

"When Heart is Open" is sometimes referred to a "Celtic soul", a wonderful fusion of two art streams. Before writing this song Morrison for sure had read some Buddhist literature. He was and is a searcher. Maybe,  he wrote the song as he had a (mild) underlying depression  - and this dysthymia  made him write the most beautiful songs..... ( see his song "underlying depression"). Anyway it's possible to turn the difficulties to something good, as the lotus needs the mud to grow... The words, "no coming - no going" is possibly from the Buddha himself and can be interpreted in different ways. Tich Nhath Hanh who wants to  make a modern kind of Buddhism, often refers to the view that nothing is born, nothing dies. As we never has been born, we never can die.... Before were "born" (conventional truth) we were in our forefathers and foremothers and even in the animals that wandered on the earth before us as they are our rela...

Van Morrison must have been in a young and very inspirational phase. The title of the song and album, Astral weeks, announces  that. Maybe many of us have felt this. We don't belong  here, it's too hard. Too much struggle. We have moments when we feel free. Then again comes long tides of boredom and satisfaction. Freud meant  that to be able to"lieben und arbeiten" is a sign for health (Though we cannot be hundred percent sure that he really said it). But I'm sure that can lead to health too. "Love" can mean a lot, though. It doesn't have to mean love just in a family. That is actually a quite egoistic kind of love. We are so tightly connected to out family's. And that is of course right.... Bu we we send love or help other beings it's love on another frequency. Maybe we won't will have it return. But we may be satisfied in a deeper way. I thin work can be lightened up by love too. We all now it, and it's...

Even if we are manifestations, we have a choice to follow our intentions or not. When I biked to work this morning it can be seen as if I chose to go up in the morning, drink my coffee and go away instead of just stay in bed. But I think it was more as if I followed my motivation to live. I didn't stop the intention my brain gave to me. It even pushed me and let my voice say to my self; come on, Tomas (as I use to say when I play, for instance, table tennis). But of course it's a long chain of events that led to this. For instance evolution took a long time to shape this body, my father learned me how to bike, he and my mother gave me some genes that gave me some kind of will. The training on sport have trained my will to and pushed me a bit. My was to intention to go to my job, but where did that intention  come from? A knowledge of pleasure in the long run? And in that case, where does that urge for pleasure come from? Maybe it's a will to live, to get go...

As I see it, all of us, including other animals, plants etc are children of the universe. That means we are different manifestations of the universe. Lets play with the idea that the universe is a living entity. Maybe some kind of very big organism. Maybe in the middle age. What does that mean? What consequences does it give? Maybe that we are small parts of that organism. And maybe  important ones... Anyway we are curious as most animals are. So curious that we know a lot about about our own solar system and some about the whole cosmos. We have a lot of information that we probably will have nor practical use of. Why? Maybe because we are the eyes of the universe. The universe sees and learns through us. So the universe wants to discover itself As we want to discover ourselves through mindfulness. An we will discover that we cannot control things like the beard growing on us men. And we cannot control even our thoughts. And it seems the universe...

I have some Vietnamese notes with me from Vietnam. On each of them the face of Ho Chi Minh looks at me. Who was Ho? It's not easy to say. He changed identity, name and look at lot of times. But he had just one goal. He was born Nguyen Sinh Cung, but he was also known as Nguyen Tat Thanh and Nguyen Ai Cuoc. When he worked as a kitchen helper on a steamer going to France he used the alias Van Ba. When he left France for Moscow he used a passport with he name Chen Vang, a Chinese name. It was not until 1940, when he was fifty years old, he started to use the name Ho Chi Minh, which means "he who has been enlightened". I guess it was then he started to grow the long beard. After he had the chance to be he official leader of Vietnam, he let many Vietnamese enemies be killed., even former friends as Trotsky patriots. When his Communist party, with Ho as the president, started to be in charge on North Vietnam, about one million people fled to the south...

There are dangers with everything. At least if you do it to the extreme. Even to drink too much water is dangerous. As a mindfulness practitioner, I think it's foolish to exclude Buddhist philosophy from the practice. For me its not just enough to just meditate and let things like ethics aside. You can practice mindfulness to be a good sniper. So the intention with mindfulness is very important. As, right view and so on. But what about the first of the noble truth about Dukkha? That means, all conditional phenomena and experiences are unsatisfying. Interpreters use to say that this is not a pessimistic view, as Buddha suggests a path to liberation from rebirth, and therefore suffering. But what about if we don't believe in rebirth? Well, I guess we can have the secular view, that mindfulness helps even in this life, though it's no miracle cure. Anyway It helps you to not drown in all the suffering in life, it helps you to not be stuck in your own thought...

Jiddhu Krishnamurti wanted to take away all dogmas, so that you for yourself could judge freely. He was for sure influenced by Buddhism but disliked the notion of for instance rebirth. (as I do). Here he speaks about that with a Buddhist and other people. He seldom wanted to give own ideas, but here he uses the metaphor for our human condition; we are all swimming in a river of desires, anxiety, anger and so on, paused with small moments of pleasure and happiness. As we all share this, we are more of that common river, than individuals. We are children of that river and it will still flow when we "die". The river will just manifest itself in new bodies with new names. Pessimistic? Maybe, since he gives no method to free ourselves from the river. All he says is that we should empty our minds. But I think mindfulness can be a method. We wan't be free of the river, but we can can get some distance from it and maybe for some time step out of it... ...