Mind Like Fly Paper 如同粘蝇纸之心

When you have a race of beings, utterly unenlightened to their true relationship with everything, taking their arrogance to force themselves upon another race of equally unenlightened beings, the only thing that will result is conflict. After the conflict arises, the aggressor of the two seeks to construct infrastructure to protect themselves against their now “foe”. The two sides engage with each other until both are destroyed. And so is the mindless existence of unenlightened bodies in nature. Activity, unlike that of the most simplest of organisms — bacteria, or a virus. Humans with the complexities of their neurological makeup, still have more in common with a one-celled organism than uncommon. Detect, engage, consume, move on. From the simplest of forms of life, to the most complex, there is no difference; only the scale.

And so, meet the meaning of the endless stream of thoughts that you have in your head. For if you do not have all these thoughts which you mindlessly follow, day in and day out, for your entire life, how will you consume all that you can and expand as far as your body will take you? Empires are born of pursued thoughts. Thoughts that are clung to like fly paper. Thoughts that lead people to destroy themselves under the guise of communal good. When thoughts come and go, if they are not followed, I am quite sure that your body will live on. The sun will continue to move across the sky.

To be enlightened, put down your thoughts.

恍恍惚惚去追利，
心态永不离生气,
恍恍惚惚去追欲，
宁静规避如条鱼。

如此终身追意念，
永远经过你终点。
临死时人才发现，
此刻才含有关键。

万物不离人之体，
由意念起所分离。
人之体不离万物，
自己心生所痛苦。

Laughing Zen – The Floor Board

Master: “Please go and fetch me the best piece of pine wood that you can find.”

Disciple: “Yes Master. I will get the best one.”

some time later…

Disciple: “Master I have found the best piece of pine. It’s very fresh and strong.”

Master: “Hmm. No, not good enough. Try again. Go a little deeper into the forest.”

The disciple sets out again. He returns after an hour…

Disciple: “Master, I’m sure that this is the best piece of pine that there is.”

Master: “Hmm… close, but try to find one that is even better. Use your outdoor skills.”

Once again, the disciple goes out on what seems to be a wild goose chase. And then he realizes something…

Disciple: “Ah, this is clearly another test. No matter what branch I bring back, he’s just going to tell me to go find another one, then when I’m feeling completely hopeless, he will tell me that none of the branches are perfect. I’ll just grab another one that’s similar to the one I brought back before.”

He returns to the temple, but as he steps into the master’s den, he trips on the floor board by the door…

Master: “Oh, careful…. Hmm, yes, this one is good. Great! Thanks.”

Disciple: “???… Is that all? Isn’t there some lesson that you wanted me to learn or something?”

Master: “No, I just wanted to replace that floor board. I keep tripping on it every time I walk in here.”

Raising a Buddha – Jeffery

Mom: “Jeffery, I need you to go clean your room.”

Jeffery: “Sure, in a minute.”

Mom: “No, now!”

Jeffery: “Ok, I just want to finish this game first.”

Mom: “Jesus Christ, why don’t you ever just do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it?”

Jeffery: “Because I am not your thoughts”

(two weeks later, after coming off of being grounded)

Mom: “Is this seriously what you’re going to do with yourself all day? Just sit around on your little cushion, chanting your little buddhist scripture things that you learned in your philosophy class and contribute nothing to this house? Seriously, Jeffery, what are you going to do with the rest of your life?”

Jeffery: “When I am tired, I will sleep; when I am hungry, I will eat; When I am happy, I will laugh; when I am sad, I will cry.”

(Jeffery was grounded for a month)

The Infinite Grand Symphony

It is the universe talking.
All is the universe talking.
A magnificent conversation of everything.
A symphony.
A symphony of billions and billions of notes and chords,
that both composes and plays itself.

Non-beginning, non-ending.
New life is not the beginning; death not the end.
Animation and dynamics were always present;
their individual cessations present as well.

If it is, then it was suppose to be,
If it is not, then it was not supposed to be.
When it comes it was right on time,
If it has not yet come, it is not late.

Look at the sky,
Do you recognize yourself?
Listen to the wind,
Do you hear yourself?

Listen to the symphony that you have written…

Listen to yourself

If You’re Not Here Now, What Good is the Future?

There will be no future for you to worry about, because chances are that you won’t even be there to savor the things that come about in it. Always looking for the next future, and dwelling over the past. Always “mine, mine, mine” and “you did ME wrong.” Death will be the only time in which there will be no more seeking; no more worrying; no more flopping around wildly like a lizard’s tale that has been chopped off, and left twitching on the ground. The running will never stop. Where are you right now when you are reading these words? The body is present, but the mind is most likely busy busy busy. It’s busy interpreting, processing and making connections. It’s busy thinking. Always thinking. The human brain; a blessing and a curse.
Still the mind.
Quench the fire by not acknowledging it anymore. Stop chopping wood to keep the fire alive. When it goes out, take the ashes and return them to the soil to fertilize it.

Billions of Thousands of Thoughts – What a Mess!

Always thoughts of the future, thoughts of sorrows of the heart, happy things, sad things. So much thinking, so many wants. Approximately 70,000 thoughts, actually, daily, and we try as hard as possible to chase every one of them. No wonder there is no balance. No wonder there is no harmony. Approximately 7 billion beings each with 70,000 thoughts, all chasing as many of them as possible, creating a world in the image of their own thoughts. It is a mess! Pure messiness!

Put them down!

What would happen if the next desire that popped into your head, you simply didn’t follow it? Instead it just came and went like a crowd of people passing by a street shop window; Their reflections showing when they are there, but gone when they are not. The glass does not follow the reflection, but reflects anything that is in front of it, nonetheless — and nothing when it’s not.

Talk to yourself – It is the way of Nature

If you have cut your lip before, you have tasted blood. It is metallic from all the iron. Pop a penny in your mouth, or suck on a piece of tin foil, and you will taste the same thing. Coincidence? I think not. Milk has en element which we have called calcium. Milk comes from cows. Cows eat grass, grass survives off the energy of the sun. The sun is ignited energy of the cosmos. There, proof of connectedness. Proof that the very elements of the body are the same as those in nature. With such an obvious connection to the rest of existence, it’s a wonder that people continue to believe they are separate; separate from the earth, and separate from each other. Try taking a breath with no air. Try living beyond a few days with no water. Because the body is so dependent on the things around us, the body is in fact everything, not something other than nature — not something viewing nature from a secluded vantage point. It is nature itself, just like talking about nature is nature itself talking about itself. So, in fact you talk to your self all the time. Ha ha ha!

When Are You?

Where Is Now? from Christina Ondrus on Vimeo.

The human world is an infinite sea of thoughts and attachments all trying to interact with each other. This is a recipe for disaster, when identity is dependent on these for it to even exist. This is the ultimate reason why there is an extreme lack of peace in our world. Billions of people all with their own identities, no one can agree on the way things should be, because everyone believes that their own thoughts are correct. In this way, identity breeds separateness. Separateness breeds disagreements. Disagreements breed turmoil. This is where the lack of peace is manifested. From an unflinching desire to hold on to any and everything, even if it does not exist — illusions. Past, future, good, bad. For whom is it that is good or bad? Where is your mind, in fact, when is it? If the things in your mind do not truly exist at all, than why does one torture themselves for an entire life, clinging clinging, running running. Always running. Always clinging. Always attaching. An idea pops into the mind, and immediately it must be realized. On with the running. Run run run. Running until the grave is dug. Finally, no more running.
The sun will rise again regardless of the fulfillment of thoughts. Pain is done to oneself. We must find out who we are. We must find out when we are.