Hints of Consciousness





  If you plunge a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if you put the frog into room temperature water, and then slowly heat the water to boiling, the frog will not realise what's happening and will get cooked.


The Heart Sutra
Prajna Paramita (Perfection of Wisdom)

Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisatta mahasatta, said to venerable Shariputra:

Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form.
Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness.
In the same way, feeling, perception and consciousness are emptiness.
Thus, Shariputra, all teachings are emptiness.
There are no characteristics.
There is no birth and no cessation.
There is no impurity and no purity.
There is no decrease and no increase.
Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception,
no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no space, no time;
no ignorance, no end of ignorance,
no old age and death, no end of old age and death;
no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom,
no attainment and no non-attainment.


"Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha."
Gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone beyond, praise to awakening.


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How we control our destiny

When you have walked through the valley of death, with your open eyes daring to see and your torn out heart bearing the pain as all things small and large one by one are ripped away from you, as all your hopes and all your dreams are taken away, as all of your loved ones are taken from you, as all of the world is taken from you, as all of what you have and all of what you are is taken from you, as your thoughts and your mind are taken from you and when your crushed and mangled soul finally releases its desperate grip on life, reaching what seems like nothing and sounds like silence then...
Satori Retreat, Byron Bay, May 2004.



One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
but by making the darkness conscious.
( C.G. Jung)


Despair, the loss of all is the price of freedom.
( Omj)

For the liberation we seek is revealed not in victory,
not when we prevail, but when we find ourselves defeated.
( Omj)

Wisdom is to lose the lot. To lose it all is to find it all.
( Mg)

I had nowhere to hide, so I stopped being afraid.
(Genghis Khan)


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In the end what will hurt the most
is not the words or our enemies
but the silence of our friends.
( Martin Luther King)


There comes a time when silence becomes dishonesty.
(Frantz Fanon)


If you spend long enough in a smelly room
you will not notice the odour.
( Omj)

I am scared, yet not that scared that I will deny it.
( Omj)

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The Zen master Huike was meditating by a river when a young man called Bimo interrupted him.

"Master, I wish to become your disciple," said Bimo.

"Why?" asked Huike.

"Because I want to find Freedom."

Huike slowly got to his feet, and told Bimo to come with him into the water. They both entered the river. The master asked Bimo to put his head under the water. He then grabbed and held his head down! After a few seconds Bimo tried to come up for air, but the master held his head firmly under the water. After a little while Bimo started to splutter and struggle to get up but Huike still held him down.

Just before he drowned, Huike released him and said: "Come back and see me when you want to reach freedom as much as you wanted air just now."


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The joy of little children feeding hungry ducks.
( Marshall Rosenberg)

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