Yellow leaf

Until 10 years ago, I used to train martial arts. Quite seriously. I was quite good actually...Then my knees started giving me problems...Anyway...I still do it a bit today. For a laugh...And health... 🙂 As part of that training I studied Taoist and Buddhist philosophy and meditation...I was of course searching for enlightenment, the mind of no mind, the empty place where we become one with the divine...Immortality? I think that was mentioned few times too... I fully expected an earth-shuttering experience, after which nothing will ever be the same...Something like matrix falling off and me (or more like "not me" 🙂 ) standing there and realising "I was god"...Or some shit like that...

Then one day I was watching a documentary about some old Buddhist Kung Fu master who was considered to be enlightened... And so after showing off his fighting skills, which were amazing, the interviewer asked him: So you have attained enlightenment. What does that look like? And the old man giggled and said: (He he he) Before enlightenment - eat, shit, sleep. After enlightenment - eat, shit, sleep. But in an enlightened way. (He he he)... I was staring at the screen feeling almost offended 🙂 Here I was, doing my Kung Fu (which by the way means Hard Work), reaching for the ultimate human experience, and this old fool was making a mockery out of it...

Anyway, time passed. One January, my wife gave birth to our son. More time passed... 10 months later, one autumn afternoon, I took him to the local park for a walk in one of those prams where babies are sitting facing you, so you can keep an eye on them and they can keep an eye on you. And you can talk...Which we weren't, as we still couldn't understand each other... And then, without warning, a giant, golden yellow maple leaf fell from the tree into my 10 months old son's laps...His eyes widened as he stared at the leaf with complete amazement, as this was the first yellow leaf he has ever seen. And then he said: "wow"... And I got enlightened... I finally understood what "To become childlike", which was often mentioned in the ancient texts, actually meant. It meant "To be able to see the world as if you are seeing it for the first time. In all its glory. Huge. Mysterious. Magical." My little Buddha (The Awaken one), who by the way never slept as a baby because being awake was sooooo interesting, said one "wow" and that was enough to open my eyes and wake me up, after 40 years of being asleep and 15 years of studying martial arts and meditation... My baby son made me see how amazing not just that yellow leaf was, but how amazing my son was, my wife was, the park was, the world was, "now" was, I was... Since then I have been trying to stay awake here and now. Which wasn't always easy, as my brain was constantly trying to drag me into very important "future" and "past" that I had to think about instead of being in the present... But, I have to say, that for the most time, I have been eating, shitting and sleeping "in an enlightened way"... 🙂

Two equilibriums

Many years ago, my kung fu teacher tried to explain to me the difference between Yang (Fire) and Yin (Water) method in Taoism. 

Taoism teaches the way to achieve balance, equilibrium. There are two ways to achieve this balance, equilibrium: the fire method and the water method. 

People who practice the fire method, arrive to the point of balance, equilibrium, by pushing upwards and burning their ego. This way of achieving balance is fast, hard, dangerous, and the balance achieved is short lived.

People who practice the water way, arrive to the point of balance, equilibrium, by letting go of, dissolving their ego. This way of achieving balance is slow, soft, not dangerous, and the balance achieved is long lived. 

Interestingly, physics also teaches us that there are two types of equilibrium points. 

One is the point on top of the curve, the top of the hill. To reach this equilibrium point, we have to push upwards, work hard against gravity. Once we reach this point, even the smallest knock will push us off the equilibrium point, and we will tumble down into the state of unbalance. From there we have to push upwards again and work hard to reach the equilibrium point. 

The other is the point at the bottom of the curve, the bottom of the valley. To reach this equilibrium point, we have to make the initial small push "in the right direction" towards the edge of the curve. From there on we just have to let go and let the gravity do its work. We will roll down the curve and after a series of oscillations we will eventually settle in the equilibrium point at the bottom. Once  we reach this point, a knock, even a strong knock will push us off the equilibrium point, but only for a short period of time. After a series of smaller and smaller oscillations, we will naturally settle back into the equilibrium point.

I think this is quite interesting...

Budi

I give you this as my Christmas present. Read it and think about it. I hope it will make your life better and happier. 

These are stećak standing stones from The Balkans. They are found in Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia. 

And this is an an "alleged" inscription from one of stećak standing stones from Hercegovina. I have found it on the Wikipedia web page about medieval standing stones epitaphs. The reason why I said "alleged" is because I have no way of verifying whether it really is or isn't genuine medieval tombstone inscription. So all I can do is trust the source (for now) and then go and check it later.  

But the reason why I am writing this post is actually the content of the message. Here it is:

"Here I lie on my own noble land. My name is Vlk (Wolf) the son of Hum. Take what I am going to tell you, but don't trust me.  You are you and I am I so our truths don't have to be the same. When you are like me, take stock of your life just like I did. 

Don't hope that what is yet to come is going to last for ever, but also don't feel regret for what has passed. Most people have small knowledge and big expectations. They will therefore always accuse yesterday for what is going to happen to them tomorrow. You should love the moment you are in and the lips that kiss you. 

Later on your bones will, like mine now, peacefully sleep under a heavy stone. Don't knock down my tombstone, let it stand as it stands now. If you don't understand what I am telling you now, maybe some son of your son will understand me one day. 

I lied here on an accursed day in the year 1209."

Talking about Buddhist mindfulness...Be in now. That is all there is... 

The man lying under the stone was not a Buddhist. He was just "budan". In Serbian the word "budi" is an imperative of "to be". It is a command or a suggestion to live in now, to exist in the present. And the word "budan" means "awaken", the one who "is" here and now....

So the man whose epitaph "allegedly" this is, understood the big secret of now. But when did he get this understanding? On his death bed? Or was he lucky to gain this understanding earlier? Maybe this is a message, genuine or not, that is intended to wake us up before we reach that moment of no return and help us live the rest of our lives "awake", which is the only way to truly live...

If you don't understand what I mean, maybe you should read this book: "The power of now" by Eckhart Tolle. It is the best explanation of what mindfulness is I have ever come across. Maybe then you will understand. But if you don't, don't throw the book away. Give it to your children and maybe some child of your child will understand it one day...

And take what I just wrote in this post, but don't trust. See for yourself...


Here is the original in Serbian:

"A se lezim rad na svojini plemenitoj. Ime mi Vlk ot Humske zemje sin. Ono tsto tcu ti rejti ti privati al nejmoj mi vjerovati. Tij si ti, ja sam ja pa nam ni istine ne moraju biti iste. Kad budnes ko ja svedi svoj ratcun tko tsto svedoh ja svoj.

Ne najdaj se da tce biti vjetcno ono tsto tce tek dojti, al ni ne zali za onijem tsto je projslo. Vetcina ljudi ima malo znanje a velka otcekivanja. Oni tce zato uvijek optuzivati jutce za ono tsto tce im se dejsiti sijutra. Ti voli trenutak u tkome jesi i usne koje te jube.

Kasnje tce ti kostji ko sada moje mirno snivati ispod terzka kamena. Ne prevali mi biljega mojega, pusti ga da stoji kako stoji. Ako me ne razumijes sada ti mozda me razumjedne tvojega sina neki sin.

V proklet dan legoh v godini 1209."

Mountain

People who live below high mountains, see only their side of the mountain. Most people are content with that view and believe that they know the mountain, that their view of the mountain is the mountain...When two people who live on opposite sides of the same mountain meet, they sometimes talk about "their" mountain not knowing that they are talking about the same mountain. And sometimes they even get into a fight over whose mountain is taller, bigger, more beautiful... 

People should hike more...Only through hiking, you can get to understand that even though there are many views of the mountain, and even though they are all different, they are all views of the same mountain...

Tree of life

I have been thinking about something today. 

Is a father's sperm part of the father when it is inside of his body? What about when the sperm leaves his body? Does it stop being part of the father? Is mother's egg part of the mother when it is inside of the mother's body? What about the baby that develops from the father's sperm and the mother's egg? Is it part of the father and the mother? After all it is just an outgrowth of their cells. Is this baby part of the mother when it is inside of the mother's body? What about when it leaves the mother's body? Does it stop being part of the mother?

Our own body cells change completely every 7 years or so. Yet we are still calling ourselves ourselves. Why? Well one of the reasons is that the genetic material in the new cells is the same as in our old cells. And that we have a continuation of the awareness of ourselves, the continuous experience of ourselves.

The genes of our children are the same as our genes, a combination of the mother's and father's genes. They are the continuation of the development of our genes. Basically our children are the physical, genetic continuation of us. Also, our children, through life with us, through the fact that they are being molded by the life with us, become through their awareness of us a continuation of our own awareness of ourselves. We pass onto our children our own experience, our memories, our knowledge, in the same way our parents passed their experience, their memories, their knowledge onto us. So where do we stop and our children start? Every new generation is just a next branch of the same family, clan, tribe, race, species tree. Our children are like new buds of the same ancient family tree. And as long as new children are being born this family tree continues to live.

But if we go even further back in time we realize that we are just part of an even older tree of life whose root is buried somewhere even deeper in the past and whose branches we all, all living beings, are.

Our ancestors actually knew all this, or at least had some kind of awareness of this.

This is where ancestor worship in general comes from. And this is where the worship of the mother earth and the father sky, the ultimate expression of this ancestor worship, comes from.

This is where our inbuilt need to procreate, to insure the continuation of ourselves, but ultimately to insure the continuous growth of the tree of life comes from.

This is where our belief in karma comes from too. Every new generation is a new incarnation of the same family tree. Every new generation gets a chance to develop into something new and beautiful. But every generation is constricted by the fact that it is growing on the branches, which grow on the trunk, whose roots reach deep deep into the past. And the energy used for the growth of the new buds is drawn through these roots. Every new generation is in effect a new manifestation of the accumulation of the experiences of all the previous generations. And each new generation or incarnation,  adds new experiences to the ever growing collection of the experiences of the living family tree. Experiences which are then passed onto the next generation or incarnation... 

The latest genetic and epigenetic research has shown that this cumulative experience, the things we do or are done to us, thing we feel, we think. actually affect our genes and all this experience is recorded in our genes. These changes are passed on to our children and will greatly affect their lives. The more bad epigenetic changes we accumulate, the sicker our family tree will get. Our children will suffer, but this is basically our own suffering. Equally the more good epigenetic changes we accumulate, the healthier our family tree will get. Our children will prosper, but this is basically our own prosperity.  Because our children are just our next incarnation, the next incarnation of the family tree which is part of the great tree of life...

Finally this is also where the belief that we are all one comes from too. Because ultimately we are all part of one tree of life, on huge growing, ever changing ancient living organism. 

Doing good to yourself, your fellow human beings and the world in general makes a lot more sense now, don't you think?

A present

This is a photo of a  sunrise over the cemetery west of Spiddal in Galway, Ireland. 

This picture made me think of one of my favorite quotes:

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” 

Cartoonist Bill Keane quoted by the Taoist Master Shifu character from the kids film Kung Fu Panda. 

This picture and this quote pretty much sum it all up guys. So happy today everyone, go and enjoy your present.