Waking up!
Skeeterkb
Explorer
Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion -- are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.
Last year on Spanish television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his son's door. "Jaime," he says, "wake up!" Jaime answers, "I don't want to get up, Papa." The father shouts, "Get up, you have to go to school." Jaime says, "I don't want to go to school." "Why not?" asks the father. "Three reasons," says Jaime. "First, because it's so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school." And the father says, "Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the headmaster." Wake up, wake up! You've grown up. You're too big to be asleep. Wake up! Stop playing with your toys.
Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don't believe them. Don't believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. "Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success." This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That's all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don't really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.
Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It's irritating to be woken up. That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I'm going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, "Wake up!" My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it, fine; if you don't, too bad! As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."
By Anthony DeMello
Comments
I love the teaching of DeMello, who was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest in India of Indian descent. His works were condemned by the Vatican. For me DeMello helped me to journey towards truths and become more drawn to Buddhism in spite of my heritage as a Christian.
I agree. His teachings resonates more with Buddhism than Christianity imo.
Venerable Nyanatiloka Maha Thera explains papanca in his Buddhist Dictionary as:
“papanca: (Sanskrit prapanca): In doctrinal usage, it signifies the expansion, differentiation, 'diffuseness' or 'manifoldness' of the world; and it may also refer to the 'phenomenal world' in general, and to the mental attitude of 'worldliness'. In A. IV, 173, it is said: "As far as the field of sixfold sense-impression extends, so far reaches the world of diffuseness (or the phenomenal world; papancassa gati); as far as the world of diffuseness extends, so far extends the field of sixfold sense-impression. Through the complete fading away and cessation of the field of sixfold sense-impression, there comes about the cessation and the coming-to-rest of the world of diffuseness (papanca-nirodho papanca-vupasamo)." The opposite term nippapanca is a name for Nibbana (S. LIII), in the sense of 'freedom from samsaric diffuseness'. - Dhammapada. 254: "Mankind delights in the diffuseness of the world, the Perfect Ones are free from such diffuseness" (papancabhirata paja, nippapanca tathagata). - The 8th of the 'thoughts of a great man' (maha-purisa-vitakka; A. VIII, 30) has: "This Dhamma is for one who delights in non-diffuseness (the unworldly, Nibbana); it is not for him who delights in worldliness (papanca)." - For the psychological sense of 'differentiation', see M. 18 (Madhupindika Sutta): "Whatever man conceives (vitakketi) that he differentiates (papanceti); and what he differentiates, by reason thereof ideas and considerations of differentiation (Papanca-sanna-sankha) arise in him."
Indeed.
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If the Vatican condemns, there is probably merit in it
Too wikid?
Official dharma, orthodox and compulsion based lore, leads to spiritual constipation. There is a dervish saying that no one attains the highest truth before a thousand honest men have declared them an apostate
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam
Being brought up a Christian but being able to study other systems enabled me to understand the difference between dogma, social control and that great heresy of Christianity, Gnosis. The mystical and hence gnostic systems do exist in Christianity. From the Philokalia
http://www.holybooks.com/philokalia/
to the works of Meister Ekhart, St John of the Cross, Cloud of Unknowing etc . . .
Waking up is not dependent on form, which is empty but recognizing that the dream is Nothing . . .
I think Mr Cushion is off to Church . . .
I enjoyed reading that, and it made me think of a recurrent dream I've had over the last several months. In the dream, I am graduating from high school. FINALLY. Of course in the dream it is completely 'normal' that I'd be graduating 'now' . . . but there is always this sense of graduating being this BIG DEAL, where I wonder what I am going to do with myself now that I'm no longer in high school, that life after high school is this big, looked-forward-to mystery and I am finally there.
I guess that's an improvement over graduating kindergarten.
I always remember these dreams and the feeling tone is very strong, enough to follow me around for days afterward.
Hmm. Maybe better get my will in order . . .
To the extent that anything is an improvement and is sold as such, to what extent could it be an improvement? I'm not saying, "don't try." Try anything you like. Just be wary of salesmanship.
Hmm. I wouldn't say that my "waking up" was, or is, unpleasant. Maybe since my spiritual slate was rather a tabula rasa when I began reading and thinking about Buddhism. Though raised rather casually as a Christian, I didn't have any spiritual sureties to get over.
Was I "nice and comfortable" before venturing into a Buddhist way of living? No. Am I now? Maybe a little bit more. Overall, DeMello's story isn't resonating with me.
As someone with some attachments I know I need to let go of, I can understand what he's saying.
Let me sleep or just another 5 minutes, I know I need to get up.
@skeeterkb
I disagree
we are all awake, we just don't know it yet!
No so.
We're all awake but we choose to either ignore it or not open our eyes.
Difference.
Can we blame it on the vow of the Bodhisattva? I mean if we choose this path, it is wise to strive for complete awakening?
Look at me trying to find loopholes... My self must be grasping at straw and whatever awareness is left finds it amusing but tedious.
Plus I have a fiancé and 7 month old daughter... I can't just go wandering off to wake up and leave them alone in this nightmare.
There is a great distinction here between compassion and wisdom. Assuming that the snoozing want to awake is not the case. Most just want a comfortable bed. However let us assume Buddhists on a Buddhist forum wish to dance the dance. First we might attune with the nature of their dream state. Some will be light sleepers, some involved in dreams of awakening, some in the nightmare of dreaming they are awake, some dancing . . .
It is this companionship that has the potential to allow the rain to do its job . . . . :wave: .
and now back to dreaming of butterflies . . .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28217580
Kia Ora,
My alarm goes off "NOW" and again, but I'll often pop in during the day to see if I'm still awake ...
Metta Shoshin .
..
It's painful to be asleep again after you've woken up, but like at the end of every day, it's easy to fall asleep again.
“Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!”
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/54195.Anthony_de_Mello?page=1
Here is the core of the story. In dharma or for any practicing mystic, the first point of examination is the identity affiliation.
I iz Jesuit, Seeker, Awake, asleep, Father, Mother, childish, Childlike, Mature, Disciple, fat, Dying, alive, opinionated, Pope, crazy, Wise, Sane, Fearless, anxious, useless, Useful, poor, rich, confused, Clear, Buddhist, unique, suffering, etc etc.
Here is a humble pie. Self administered often. Yum.
Dont know about that. Funny thing is children know how to cry when they are born. Smiling and laughing comes much later...
Personally, I would not go so far as to say that. If you are averse to unpleasantness or pain, that just means you haven't woken up yet!
My stance is rather, how can you choose to go on sleeping when life is pulling the rug from under our feet unrelentlessly all the time?
Who can possibly go on sleeping through all that mayhem?
I don ' t use alarm clock ,but I wake up every morning around same time. It so amazing how human body works.
But we are all awake none-the-less @federica ...
...
I believe that's what I sed.....
Fascinating and true. Infants only smile and laugh when they experience connection with another human. Even blind infants smile, right on time.
It's the first reason we smile. There's bliss at the breast when hunger is relieved, but that six week old baby smiling secures him to a caregiver, for he can be very, very annoying, exhausting, frighteningly vulnerable and will continue to be so for the next twenty years . . .