pluralism = monism

1058

Can you really run mental health like a business? Is that really the best we can do? 

“You are your life, nothing more.” (Sartre)

Temet nosce. Know thyself.

Deluded by ignorance, we assume ourselves to be in control (or impotent). Following our conditioning, we develop likes and dislikes, and we experience pleasure and pain.

Society has no control center. 

“Inspiration is God making contact with itself.” (Ram Dass)

“Arrive at the magical formula we seek: PLURALISM = MONISM—via all the dualisms that are the enemy, an entirely necessary enemy, the furniture we are forever rearranging.” (Deleuze & Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, p. 21)

Neti, neti. Not this, not this. Most good ideas are simple to understand, difficult to explain. Samsara is moksha. No birth, no death. Without doubt, there is no understanding.

Whatever happens at the level of appearance does not affect pure consciousness; fantasy does not dictate the Real, actual reality. 

1059

Begin again. A new plot of land. One moment at a time.

“It is only when we have renounced our preoccupation with ‘I,’ ‘me,’ and ‘mine’ that we can truly possess the world we live in. Everything is ours, provided that we regard nothing as our property. And not only is everything ours; it is also everybody elses.” (Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, p. 108)

In every moment of an encounter, there are three choices: move toward, move away, or stay the same.

There is often a ‘secret’ third option that has not yet been discovered. 

1060

“Everything is everything else.” “Far out, dude.”

Be here now. Our here-and-now presence is the most precious gift we can give to another living being.

“As a teacher you should teach by how you act in daily life.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, The Bodhisattva Path, p. 45-6)

Rely on the teaching, not the person.
Rely on the meaning, not the words.
Rely on the absolute, not the relative.
Rely on the wisdom, not the perception.

“Wisdom is direct intuition, it does not need to go through the intermediary of reasoning and notions, and it is not impeded by craving, anger, and ignorance.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, ibid., p. 52)

When in doubt, pay attention.

Take your teachings wherever you can get them.

Memento vivere. Remember to live. Memento mori. Remember you will die.

If by chance we find each other, wonderful. If not, why suffer?