Some Random Thoughts of J.S.

Bad or cruel people are almost never aesthetic.

Japanese Court Music skips the brain and goes right to the heart. “Write the Music of the Formless Self” said the Zen Master to me. How did he know I wrote music?

“What goes round comes round”. Circularity is the basis of Energy. Yet people think of time as being linear, having a beginning and an end. Some philosophers in India think of Shiva, Brahma, Sakya (King of the Gods) as being positions to which one can rise, not being permanent identities, and, therefore cyclical. “We learn from History that we do not learn from History”.

Indian writers often speak of “the Good” and “the Pleasant”, once again reducing religious matters to a moral level. However, there are several sects in India that believe sex is a Divine Act and live accordingly. This creates a problem for those who think: which is correct, or can you separate them? Many know the story of the monk who was traveling with another monk and came to a river swollen by rain. A young lady standing on the bank of the river was bemoaning her fate: she had to cross, but how? At that the first monk, a sturdy man, picked her up and placed her on his shoulder, then waded thru the water carrying her to the other side. After that the two monks continued for a few miles before the second, pietistic monk remarked: “You know, we are not supposed to touch women!”

To which the first monk replied: “Are you still carrying that woman? I put her down several miles back.” Generally Zen adepts approve of his act, forbidden by restrictions in the Buddhist Order.

Desire and non-attachment are two sides of the same coin. Desire leads to attachment thru developing the Vashana for satisfying that desire, and the growth of that habit brings attachment. Partial attachment seems a misnomer, an apparent impossibility like being half-pregnant. Either have the growing necessity to smoke or give it up entirely—T’ai Chi Chih practice being an excellent way to do away with the habit-energy and thus reach non-attachment. Vairagya (non-attachment) is the single best means to realize enlightenment, and is not for the weak. Sad to say, attachment to family (which does not persist in animals) is a great hindrance to non-attachment, though mention of such—except in works such as the “Bhagavad Gita”— is usually resented.

When the Buddha was asked about fasting, he replied: “True fasting is doing without Greed, Anger, and Delusion.”