Alcohol & drugs as poison or medicine: comments by Chögyam Trungpa

Posted on May 17, 2012 by BoT Student
alcohol

"It seems that alcohol is a weak poison which is capable of being transmuted into medicine." - Chögyam Trungpa. Image is (cc) Andreas Levers.

I just found out that an old friend of mine went insane.  I hope it’s temporary.  I knew he was leaning in that direction (is it okay to say that?) but I’m told one day he finally went nuts, the police came, and he was placed in a mental hospital for a few days.  Our mutual friend hasn’t seen him since.

He was someone who liked to use mind-altering drugs – especially after a traumatic experience he had 10 years ago – and presumably he felt these drugs were beneficial, necessary, and relatively harmless.

Elsewhere, another friend just sent me an article about the mind-altering benefits of Psilocybin and LSD, and suggested it could inspire a post on this blog.

Well.  All this got me thinking about whether something is beneficial or harmful, and how I could tell the difference.  And it reminded me of a very non-moralistic consideration Chögyam Trungpa once had about alcohol:

There seems to be something wrong with an approach to alcohol that is based entirely on morality or social propriety. The scruples implied have solely to do with the external effects of one’s drinking. The real effect of alcohol is not considered, Continue reading →

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How mind (control) works: perception is shaped by assumption

Posted on May 13, 2012 by BoT Student
human eye

"When the world matches our assumptions, we see the world as it is." (cc) evinella"

When I was a child, there was a period where I got very interested in magic tricks – making a quarter disappear and reappear and so on. The climax of this period was when I staged a show for the neighbors.

And that was the end of my interest in magic. Not that the show was a failure, mind you. Rather, it was too successful – I found I could distract the audience and get them to make assumptions which allowed me do all sorts of things right in front of them without them “seeing” what I was doing. Which was cool but also unsettling.

In any case, how DOES perception work? And why does it matter?

Vision may not work all the time, but we should marvel that it works at all. Continue reading →

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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – a beautiful interpretation by Emmet Fox

Posted on May 9, 2012 by BoT Student
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Artwork (cc) Rich Man (not a real stamp, btw). "Apocalypse" is an ancient Greek word for "revelation" or "unveiling", and is the name usually given to the last book in the New Testament. The key is to take hold of the White Horse, Fox says.

The White Horse is the Spiritual Nature, and the man or woman who rides the White Horse gets freedom and joy…

These days there are all sorts of horrible predictions and terrifying movies put out by Hollywood, talking about biblical “end times” and so forth.

But all of that is, in a sense, COMPLETELY missing the point, according to Emmet Fox, in his inspiring interpretation of the Four Horsemen from the Book of Revelation. (What follows is a longish quote, but it’s an easy & enjoyable read.)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are among the most important of the great Bible symbols because they give the key to the nature of man as we know him…

The Bible is not written in the style of a modern book. It has a method all its own of conveying knowledge through picturesque symbols, Continue reading →

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Love of the Two-Armed Form – brilliant wisdom about intimate love from Adi Da Samraj

Posted on May 6, 2012 by BoT Student
two swans (lovers)

Swans. (cc) Steven Beger

Love.

We all want love. We all need love.

All human problems come down to a problem about love, in my opinion.

So why do so many of us seem to have sooooooo many problems about it in our intimate lives – divorce, infidelity, unhappiness, the never-ending search for Mr. or Ms. Right, the constant scheming, the one-night stands that leave us feeling more empty than before, strange fetishes, running from one disappointment to the next, coping with a loveless marriage, coping with being alone, keeping up false appearances of marital bliss, and on and on and on and on?

“Why does this keep happening to me?” we might ask.

Read on.

Betty & Don Draper

Mad Men's Betty & Don Draper - good-looking, prosperous, holding similar values, desired and envied by others - but their marriage was characterized by cheating, lying, spying, constant pretending, and very little love or sex.

Self-doubting, weak-willed, promiscuous sex partners (real or potential) are erotic, attractive and fascinating. One tends secretly to desire and even to become sexually associated with such partners. If one is married to a man or woman who is essentially strong, loving, and giving, then one tends to doubt, and manipulate, and test that one – in order to prove he or she is really tending to leave you and not to love you.

This is because of one’s own Continue reading →

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Ecstatic speech of Pseudo-Dionysius, 5th century Christian mystic

Posted on May 4, 2012 by BoT Student
sun & clouds

"In our reverent awe of what is divine, let us be drawn together toward the divine splendor." (Photo by Mike Webkist; some rights reserved.)

One of my friends ranted this week about how dreadful Christianity, Islam and Judaism are, because of the war and intolerance they seem to inspire.

Elsewhere, a different friend was using his youtube account to defend Christianity from its detractors, and was lamenting the modern world’s descent into immorality, darkness, confusion, collapse of the family & community, fixation on self, and utter destructiveness.

Elsewhere still, some of my Buddhist friends were exchanging wry smiles about what they felt is the simple-mindedness and ignorance of Christians.

But let us go, you and I, and read what a 5th century Christian mystic had to say, one who was a significant influence on Saint John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart:

Since the unknowing of what is beyond being is something above and beyond speech, mind, or being itself, one should ascribe to it an understanding beyond being.

Let us therefore look as far upward as the light Continue reading →

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President Harry S. Truman warns about witch-hunts, fears, and political deceptions

Posted on May 4, 2012 by BoT Student
Harry Truman

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) was the 33rd president of the United States. It's often AFTER they left office that these old presidents said the most interesting things.

At a news conference earlier this week, a prominent U.S. politician accused one of his opponents of not being enthusiastic enough about hunting down and killing another human being without a trial (even though polls indicate many Americans – perhaps 2/3 or more – have questions about the crime this person allegedly committed).

This is unsettling. I know we’re not supposed to talk about these things – we tend to have such strong feelings about politics, polarized into “us versus them” camps, trying to defend our “side” against the other side no matter what.  It’s awkward to bring the subject up.

But as brave BOT students we’re going to bring it up anyway, try to step outside our “us versus them” mindset, and just listen. What follows is from a speech President Harry S. Truman gave in 1960:

I want to bring home to you what can happen when some demagogue starts playing on the fears of the people and stirring them up for his own welfare and aggrandizement.  It’s the most terrible thing in the world.  And it’s not just a matter of the distant past.  We’ve had it very recently…. Continue reading →

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