Thou Are Not That

Fireplace Records Case #53

 

Thou Are Not That

"You are That."
i am not That,
but part of That am i
and i a bit of That,
for the time-being

for awhile, for a lifetime,
while That changes.
"That Thou Art."
Thou are not That,
except "That" as understood

as idea, as assumed, as imagined;
          as i
think i am, believe i am, wish i was;
while That changes what i am,
or will be

"That" is elusive, expanding to
the edge of the Big Everything,
at either end of the inside of infinity...
that is the way that That is.
Not like this piece of popcorn on the tip of my tongue.

Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo

Zen Koan Collections Studies

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Reading Wittgenstein

Buddhism

Taoism

Philosophy

Quintain Poetry

Pulling Onions

 

Living in America - James Brown

 

James Brown (1933-2006)

I Live in America: San Fran, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, WA!

'Somewhere along the Way, You must find out who you are!'

Watch and listen to James Brown, "Living in America"

Flag Up for Fourth of July!

Sozan's "Flowers or Seeds?"

 

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 18

Sozan's "Flowers or Seeds?"

Sozan was trying to decide between doing a painting of a branch of chrysanthemum blossoms or a display of various seeds.  He was drawn to the different sizes and colors of the seeds.  Seeds had a special meaning for him: Beginnings and Endings.  

Then, he recalled many old discussions about how differences and distinctions and preferences are rooted in how we think; and, how statements can be true or false at different times. He was a Zen man and a dedicated painter.  

While painting the seeds, his thoughts rambled:

Flowers and seeds both here and now, for the time being.
Flowers blooming then seeding.
Blooms beautiful, blooms not beautiful.
Seeds not beautiful, sees beautiful.
Flower seeds growing into plants with flowers blooming.
Flowers before seeds, seeds before flowers.
Flowers after seeds, seeds after flowers.
You must have seeds before you can get flowers.
You must have flowers before you can get seeds.
Fruit often comes in to cover the difference.
Wishes are like seeds, few growing.
  
And, on and on, for a few moments more,
then stopping thoughts, not thinking, just doing,
just painting.

A Student's Considerations:

What came first: the flowers or the seeds?
Some questions are poorly or incorrectly asked.
Understand the question before formulating an answer.
How does temporal specificity for statements effect truth?
Our very lives, our existence, our being-time,
depends on these flowers, fruits, and seeds.
Endless interconnections carrying on, carrying on.
Get to work, don't think and fret so much.  

mums flowering, 

zinnias seeding--
   just wondering

“Plucking chrysanthemums along the West fence. 
Gazing in silence at the East Cascade foothills. 
The Canada geese flying in formation overhead, 
Through the soft valley air of morning―
In these things there is a deep meaning, 
But when we are about to express it, 
We suddenly forget the words.”  

- My rephrasing of lines from an unknown Chinese poet
from verses found in 'The Wisdom of Insecurity,’ by Alan Watts, 1951

Related Links, Resources, References

Koans: 

Ito Sozan Painter (1884-1944) 

Just Observing in Chrysanthem Time

Dogen says, " Mind Here and Now is Buddha" [Soku Shin Ze Butsu #6 Book 1]

Time Movement Change Transformation Mortality

Process Philosophy

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Dialogues.

The Daodejing by Laozi    Best? 

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Taoism

Buddhism

Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood

Chinese Art

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong

Meditation Methods

Zen Koan Books I Use

Koan Database Project

Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes

Time in Dogen's Thoughts:

Each Moment is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time. By Dainin Katagiri. Shambhala, 2008, 256 pages. VSCL, Paperback.

Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji. By Shinshu Roberts. Wisdom 2018, 321 pages. VSCL, Kindle E-Book.

Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo. Translated, edited, comments, notes by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Shambhala, 2013, 1280 pages, Hardcover.

Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories
Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo

A Gardener's Pictorial Memories

The Spirit of Gardening 

Can You Explain Your Reasoning?

 "Rationality is not just a matter of having some reasons for what one does, but of aligning one's beliefs, actions, and evaluations effectively with the best or strongest available reasons.  It pivots on doing that which, everything considered, one is "well advised" to do.  The matter of giving or following the course of intelligent and responsible advice is the crux of rationality.  There is nothing complex or arcane about the sorts of considerations that determine good and cogent reasons in this regard.  It is a matter of the sort of things that conduce to one's real advantage, to one's best interests.  This is a matter of furthering the full and rewarding life, preeminently involving the sort of things that make us happier and/or better persons in what relates to our benefit and the benefit of those who do and should matter for us (our family, community, and fellows at large, and the advancement of our individual and communal values.)  Practical rationality thus calls for appropriate resolutions intelligently arrived at and sensibly implemented.  It is geared to the sensible pursuit of appropriate ends.  The idea of optimization, of seeking for the best among visibly available alternatives, lies at the very core of rationality."
-  Nicholas Rescher, A System of Pragmatic Idealism, Volume I  1992, p.9

The Thinker's Way to Solve Problems

Have I accepted the problem?
What do I know about the problem?
How can I define the problem?
What are the alternatives?
What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of each alternative?
What is the solution?
How well is the solution working?

-  John Chaffee, The Thinker's Way: 8 Steps to a Richer Life,  1998

How to Live a Good Life: Advice From Wise Persons

We All Are One

"Oh-oh, we all are one, we are the same person
I'll be you (Oh, yeah), you'll be me
We all are one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

No matter where we are born, we are human beings
The same chemistry
With emotions and feelings, all corresponding in love
Compatible

You can't get around it, no matter how hard you try
You better believe it
And if you should find out that you are no different than I
Reply

We all are one (We are)
We are the (Same) same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are (We are) one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

The only difference I can see
Is in the conscience, and the shade of our skin
Doesn't matter, we laugh, we chatter
Don't we smile, we all live for

And the feelings that make all those faces, always renew
So true, so true
And would you believe that I have all those same feelings, too
The same as you

We all are one
We are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are (We are) one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

We all are one (We are)
We are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are are (We are), same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

Look at the children, they're having fun
With no regards to why
They all look different, but deep inside
Their feelings of love they don't hide, they don't hide

They don't hide
They don't hide

We all are one, we are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (Oh, yeah)
We all are one, same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me

We all are (We are) one
We are the same person
I'll be you, you'll be me (No matter where you go)
We all are one (We are), same universal (Same person)
I'll be you, you'll be me (Oh, yeah)

We all are one (You know, I know, we all know)
We are the same person (Oh, yeah)
I'll be you, you'll be me (Oh, yeah)
We all are one (Emotions and feelings)
Same universal (All corresponding to love)
I'll be you, you'll be me."  

-  Jimmy Cliff, 2010

On Becoming Who You Are

 

"As it turns out, to "become who you are: is not about finding a "who" you have always been looking for.  It is not about separating "you" off from everybody else.  And it not about existing as you truly "are" for all time.  The self does not lie passively in wait for us to discover it.  Selfhood is made in the active, ongoing process, in the German verb werden, "to become."  The enduring nature of being human is to turn into something else.  This may come as a great disappointment to one who goes in search of the self.  What one is, essentially, is this active transformation, nothing more, nothing less.  This is not a grand wisdom quest or hero's journey and it doesn't require one to escape to the mountains.  No mountain is high enough.  Just a bit of cheese and any fast moving river will suffice." 
-  By John Kaag, Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are, 2018, p.220

“Research has shown that it takes 31 days of conscious effort to make or break a habit.  That means, if one practices something consistently for 31 days, on the 32nd day it does become a habit.  Information has been internalized into behavioral change, which is called transformation.”
 –  Shiv Khera

"Really changing might make you dissatisfied with yourself and many others also dissatisfied with you.  Changing can be risky, can be dangerous, can be disastrous; not changing might be the same.  Transformation tests the mettle of free will."
-   Mike Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Transformation: Quotes, Sayings

Searching for Chimeras

"We really can be happier if we think about our lives, if we work on ourselves, if we learn to make more sensible decisions, or indeed if we alter our thoughts, our beliefs, or the way we imagine ourselves in the world.  The great paradox of happiness is that it can be tamed while still remaining essentially beyond our control.  Happiness is a matter of fate and chance; but it can also stem from a rational, deliberate approach."
-  Frederic Lenoir, Happiness 

Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide.  By Frederic Lenoir.  Melville House, 2015.  208 pages.

Happiness: Quotes, Sayings, Bibliography by Mike Garofalo

Aspects of Good Mental Health

Traits and Behaviors of Mental Heath

"Although no group of authorities fully agree on a definition of the term mental health, it seems seems to include several traits and behaviors that are frequently endorsed by leading theorists and therapists (e.g., Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Rudolf Dreikurs, Fritz Perls, Abraham Maslow, Marie Jahoda, Carol Rodgers, Rollo May, Albert Ellis, etc.).  These include such traits as self-interest, self-direction, social interest, tolerance, acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty, flexibility, acceptance of social reality, commitment, risk taking, self-acceptance, rationality and scientific thinking.  Not all mentally healthy individuals possess the highest degree of these traits at all times, but when people seriously lack them or when they have extreme opposing behaviors, we often consider them to be at least somewhat emotionally disturbed. 
Self Interest:  Emotionally healthy people are primarily true to themselves and do not subjugate themselves or unduly sacrifice themselves for others.  Realizing that if they do not primarily take care of themselves no one else will, they tend to put themselves first, a few selected others a close second, and the rest of the world not too far behind.
Self-Direction:  Mentally healthy people largely assume responsibility for their own lives, enjoy the independence of mainly working out their own problems, and, while at times wanting or preferring the help of others, do not think that they absolutely must have such support for their effectiveness and well-being. 
Social Interest:  Emotionally and mentally healthy people are normally gregarious and decide to try to live happily in a social group.  Because they want to live successfully with others, and usually to relate intimately to a few of these selected others, they work at feeling and displaying a considerable degree of social interest and interpersonal competence. 
Tolerance:  Emotionally healthy people tend to give other humans the right to be wrong.  While disliking or abhorring other's behavior, they refuse to condemn them as total persons for performing poor behavior.  They fully accept the fact that all humans seem to be remarkably fallible; they refrain from unrealistically demanding and commanding that any of them be perfect; and they desist from damning people in toto when they err. 
Acceptance of Ambiguity and Uncertainty:  Emotionally mature individuals accept the fact that, as far as has yet been discovered, we live in a world of probability and chance, where there are not, and probably ever will be, absolute necessities or complete certainties.  Living in such a world is not only tolerable but, in terms of adventure, learning and striving, can even be very exciting and pleasurable. 
Flexibility:  Emotionally sound people are intellectually flexible, tend to be open to change at all times, and are prone to take an unbigoted (or at least less bigoted) view of the infinitely varied people, ideas, and things in the world around them.  They can be firm and passionate in their thoughts and feelings, and they comfortably look at new evidence and often revise their notions of "reality" to conform with this evidence. 
Acceptance of Social Reality:  Emotionally healthy people, it almost goes without saying, accept was is going on in the world.  This means several important things: (1) they have a reasonably good perception of social reality and do not see things that do not exist and do not refuse to see things that do; (2) they find various aspects of life, in accordance with their own goals and inclination, "good" and certain aspects "bad" ─ but they accept both these aspects, without exaggerating the "good" ones and without denying or whining about the "bad" ones; (3) they do their best to work at changing those aspects of life they view as "bad," to accept those they cannot change, and to acknowledge the difference between the two.
Commitment:  Emotionally healthy and happy people are usually absorbed in something outside of themselves, whether this be people, things, or ideas.  They seem to live better lives when they have at least one major creative interest, as well as some outstanding human involvement, which they make very important to themselves and around which the structure a good part of their lives.
Risk Taking:  Emotionally sound people are able to take risks.  They ask themselves what they would really like to do in life, and then try to do it, even though they have to risk defeat or failure.  They are reasonably adventurous (though not foolhardy); are will to try almost anything once, if only to see how they like it; and look forward to different or unusual breaks in their usual routines. 
Self-Acceptance:  People who are emotionally healthy are usually glad to be alive and to accept themselves as "deserving" of continued life and happiness just because they exist and because they have some present or future potential to enjoy themselves.  They fully or unconditionally accept themselves.  They try to perform competently in their affairs and win the approval and love of others; but they do so for enjoyment and not for ego gratification or self-deification. 
Rationality and Scientific Thinking:  Emotionally stable people are reasonably objective, rational, and scientific.  They not only construct reasonable and empirically substantiated theories relating to what goes on in the surrounding world (and with their fellow creatures who inhabit this world), but they are also able to supply the rules of logic and of the scientific method to their own lives and their interpersonal relationships. "

-  Albert Ellis, Ph.D.  The Albert Ellis Reader: A Guide to Well-Being Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, 1998, pp. 235-252.  Based on the 1962 essay titled "The Case Against Religion: A Psychotherapist's View."  


How to Live the Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Defining Myself to Myself

"The hand is the cutting edge of the mind."
-  Jacob Bronowski

"The mind has exactly the same power as the hands: not merely to grasp the world, but to change it."
-  Colin Wilson 

"By rubbing up against the world, I define myself to myself."
-  Deane Juhan

"The upper limb is the lightning rod to the soul."
-  Robert Markison

"A callused palm and dirty fingernails precede a Green Thumb."
-  Mike Garofalo

“We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.”
-  Lewis Thomas 

Hands On 
Fingers, Hands, Touching, Feeling, Somatics
Quotations, Bibliography, Links, Reflections

Searching for Chimeras

Mike,

"I have been meditating for a while. Trying to find truth and myself. I recently came to the point where no matter where I look I don't see myself and I can't find myself. I feel extremely empty and its kind of scary. Like being on the edge of a cliff and feeling like I could fall off or in at any moment. How does one learn to cope with this?"

- Ben

Ben,

I don't much favor this "searching" or "trying to find" yourself, or as they say in traditional Vedanta based yoga, "Searching for the True Self." I once wrote a poem on this topic:

"Who am I?"

Such a strange question,
uttered endlessly, by
weekend seekers of the Lost Psyche.
Feigning amnesia,
they blather on about their "True Self,"
their Grand Soul lost somewhere outside their petty lives,
hidden away and blocked by fleeting fleshy passions,
stolen away by the finite soma and mundane mind.


Their Real Self: pure, eternal, blissful, free, true, wonderful;
right around the
supernatural corner,
waiting for them like a blind date.

You know who you are!

You are a unique body - interdependent with the watery world;
a boxcar of moving memories - a rich history;
known from the fruits of your work;
meshed with some family, holding somebody dear;
Somebody - unique as the fingerprint of your DNA;
named, spoken for, listening, and ...
Your search for "yourself",
your anxious questioning,
makes no sense.

A stale mantra,
a face before you were born koan:
"Who am I?", sterile, silly,
Pointless.
Yet, following an
irrelevant spiritual advisor's advice,
You try to figure it out, for hours and weeks,
befuddled, awed by your confusion, thinking
It's your puny powers of meditation or belief or determination
that keep you from
discovering
The Holy Grail of the Genuine Self.

You know who you are!

You might want to change who you are,
or forget who you were,
or tell others about who you are,
or learn why you get tricked into asking yourself this foolish question ...
but those are quite
different issues.

- Mike Garofalo, "Who am I," he asked himself,June 11, 2006
Above the Fog

I don't think meditation is a good way for finding truth. Philosophy is better.

So, what is sitting or standing meditation good for? In my opinion: calming the mind, resting, doing nothing, just sitting, lowering your heartbeat and blood pressure, sitting up straight, cultivating an Inner Smile, enjoying your garden ...

If the meditation techniques you have been practicing for awhile are just producing stress, anxiety, fear, angst, bewilderment, dread ... then stop that style of meditating. I suggest, instead, for you to get up at dawn, face the sun and say a Navaho prayer, and then go for a long walk.

Some meditation techniques are intended so make you realize that you are or have no eternal self, no substantive Ego, no everlasting soul, no True Self. Did not the Guatama Siddhartha Buddha or David Hume think this way? There is just Everything That Is and you are part of the What Is Now, a complex series of interrelationships, a bundle of sensations, a contingency with consciousness, impermanent at best, empty at the core, a snapshot out of the Great Video of Becoming.

There is a sense of "being true to oneself," authentic living, and remaining true and steadfast to your chosen values and chosen character. Many people live by the rules, customs, beliefs and fashions established by others. They have few core values, practices and habits freely chosen by themselves. I still think this is different from "finding the true self" spoken about by mystics and spiritual adventurers.

Embrace the fullness of the world, its beauty, its complexity, its power ... forget about searching for something or finding something. Everything is right before you.

As for the Cliff, yes, it is there. Michael Jackson and thousands of others fell off the Cliff this past week. In a snap of your fingers - you could be dead. To cope with this: courage, forget about the fact, move on, follow the path of peace, work diligently, do good, hike up to a cliff, taste the wild berries, and kiss your sweetheart today.

Mike