Buddha on Diet

Dieting: A system of starving yourself to death so you can live a little longer.
Jan Murray

A diet is when you watch what you eat and wish you could eat what you watch.
Hermione Gingold

A diet is the penalty we pay for exceeding the feed limit.

I have a great diet. You're allowed to eat anything you want, but you must eat it with naked fat people.

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.
Garfield

I'm on a seafood diet. I see food and I eat it.

The cardiologist's diet: If it tastes good, spit it out.

I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren’t in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets.
Dolly Parton

Never eat more than you can lift.
Miss Piggy

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand

If hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution.

I have gained and lost the same ten pounds so many times over and over again my cellulite must have déjà vu.
Jane Wagner

Inside every fat person, trying to get out, there is a beautiful thin one - or even two or three.

Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in
Kingsley Amis

I don't diet. I just don't eat as much as I'd like to.
Linda Evangelista

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four.
Unless there are three other people.
Orson Welles

There are no fat people, just people too short for their weight.

Praise is the best diet for us, after all
Sydney Smith

Probably nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the first four hours of a diet.
Dan Bennett

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.
Irv Kupcinet

The second day of a diet is always easier than the first. By the second day you're off it.
Jackie Gleason

I told my doctor I get very tired when I go on a diet, so he gave me pep pills.
Know what happened? I ate faster.
Joe E Lewis

Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy fat women

I found there was only one way to look thin, hang out with fat people
Rodney Dangerfield

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends

It's strange but true. Fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing

I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in 14 days I lost two weeks.
Joe E. Lewis

I've been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I've lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.
Erma Bombeck

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat.
Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.
Covert Bailey

The Fascination of Time

There is a common thread in all ancient cultures, the very unusual fascination of the old civilizations for astronomy and time.

From the primitive paleolithic cultures like Stonehenge to the Greek antiquity, from the Mayan civilization to The Egyptian pharaonic empire, we have found very concrete and powerful evidence of their preoccupation and fascination with astronomy and time.
There is no doubt about it the only question is "Why?"

There are some attempts to explain it like "They need it to keep time because they needed to know when to plant their crops and when the rainy season will come" and stuff like that.
But that is a very weak argument not false but incomplete.

If you are familiar with the Vedic scriptures you have probably heard of the "Yugas" or cycles of time.
Yuga in Hinduism is an epoch or era within a four-age cycle.
A complete Yuga starts with the Satya Yuga, via Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga into a Kali Yuga.
Our present time is a Kali Yuga, which started at 3102 BCE with the end of the Kurukshetra War (or Mahabharata war)

Not coincidentally the Greeks divided the time into a similar 4 ages structure: The Golden age, the Silver age, the Bronze age and the Iron age.
According to the ancient wisdom, we are now living in the Kali Yuga or the Iron age which is the last of the periods - the end of time.

Two things.
One: the Yugas are based on the Galactic precession, the Sun circular movement around the galaxy.
How the hell that they know there is a galaxy and the galaxy is rotating. How did they measure it when we, the modern civilization, thought the Earth was the center of the universe till  Giordano Bruno and Galileo? 
What does the galaxy moving have to do with planting the crops or tending the cows, or anything else?
Why did they do it? There has to be an explanation for it.

Second: All ancient civilizations saw time as a cyclical occurrence not a linear one.
It is funny that even now at this moment 2018 AD we believe in a linear time. We believe that progress and growth just keep on happening forever.

That view is obviously false. Nothing keeps on growing forever sooner or later we will run out of natural resources and space to expand and a collapse of the of the human society is inevitable. ( I know; if we learn to live in harmony with mother Gaya we can attain a sustainable symbiotic existence. The humankind will destroy itself in a global war before we learn to live in harmony with anything.)

But the old wisdom tells us that time is cyclical and all are warning us of the inevitable decay of the human civilization.
According to the Sanscrit texts, we are now living in the Kali Yuga the age of the Kali goddess of destruction.

Kali Yuga: The final age. It is the age of darkness and ignorance.
People become sinners and lack virtue. They become slaves to their passions and are barely as powerful as their earliest ancestors in the Satya Yuga.
Society falls into disuse and people become liars and hypocrites.

Knowledge is lost and scriptures are diminished. Humans eat forbidden and dirty food.
The environment is polluted, water and food become scarce.
Wealth is heavily diminished. Families become non-existent. By the end of Kali Yuga, the average lifespan of humans will be as low as 70 years.

I know what you are thinking "this is the same BS as the Mayan end of time calendar" You are right in the sense that time cannot physically end but "the end of time" is a metaphorical expression, it is a warning that time is running out and we have to wake up before our civilisation will colaps due to our ignorance and greed.

The Acorn Universe

“Believe those who are seeking the truth.

Doubt those who find it.”

Andre Gide

I was watching this time-lapse photography on YouTube.

It was a vine climbing up a wall, and this young sprout acted like an arm or tentacle probing and searching the wall.

When it found a nail on the wall, something amazing happened.

The vine sprouted a curly ending and grabbed the nail!

That time lapse camera showed not only that the vine was moving but that it was doing something intelligent too!

I had a moment of epiphany.

I realized that instance how narrow and prejudiced we see the reality around us.

Out of the infinite spectrum of electromagnetic radiations we see an extremely narrow band.

Out of the sound spectrum, again we can only hear a tiny portion.

Our senses of smell and taste are even worse, we are nothing compared to dogs or sharks.

Not to mention that we lack some senses totally – like the shark’s ability to sense electrical fields, the snake's ability to see infrared or the bats to see sound.

But the biggest problem is our prejudiced way in which we look at reality.

We look at reality according to our frame reference of time, size, form or function.

For example, we only see things moving at close to human speed, therefore we do not see plants moving.

We see the things the way we are not the way they truly are.

Imagine that you could see 50 years of evolution of an oak tree in a second.

It would look like the oak acorn explodes into an oak tree!

…Imagine that you could look at the universe without the human subjectivity.

Would the universe still look like exploding or would it look like an acorn growing up, evolving not expanding, budding into galaxies and solar systems in an organic way rather than a random blast?

I always had an ambivalent feeling about the big bang theory.

You see, if you would take a can of paint and a stick of dynamite and exploded the paint into an empty white room, you would expect to get just a random splash of paint on the walls. You wouldn’t expect to get anything like repeated shapes or organized patterns.

So to me, this explanation that the universe exploded into being the way it is just by accident sounds totally bogus.

I am not a scientist and I can’t prove my theory, but for me, the idea of an “Acorn Universe” growing and evolving, sounds more sensible than the "Big Bang" theory.

What do you think?

The Ultimate Illusion

"Life is like a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue. . .” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Look very carefully at the two triangles in the picture
Are they equal or is the triangle on the bottom bigger by the one white square?

What is the ultimate illusion?
No, it is not the damn triangles – although they are not bad either.
The ultimate illusion is “EGO”

Let’s start with a simple question “Who are you”
And the usual answer would be something like; John or Marry.
But let’s take the question a little deeper than that.

Let’s start when a dad’s DNA and a mom’s DNA first got together.
Obviously, that DNA union cannot be called a child; the best I can think of would be to call it a gate, an open door through which the universe would come into being.

But there is no “John” or “Marry” in a woman’s womb.
There are carrots and peas, beef and potatoes and all that is recycled into a new fetus.
But the fetus is not made of “John” or “Marry” it is simply hand me down matter, it is the universe restructured into a new experience.

That, that once was the experience of carrot, potatoes, and beef is now the experience of a finger or a nose.
Well, I am simplifying all that process but you get the idea.

The notion we have, that we were made by our mothers is completely false.
Our mothers’ wombs were no more than a gathering place for the universe to express itself as a newborn.
Once the gate is open the mother has no control over the process of creation.
The universe acts on its own.

Then after nine-month, the baby is delivered, not borne as the common knowledge falsely tells us. 
All that the parents do is to give it a name “John” or “Marry”

We spend the rest of the childhood being thought that we were made, not that we are self-expression.
We spend the whole childhood into being brainwashed that we are not a part of the universe but that we are indeed “John” and “Marry”

We grow up to see ourselves as individuals separate from nature and to see nature as an enemy that has to be conquered and held in submission.
We grow up to see ourselves separate from all the other human beings and spend our entire life competing, fighting, to win the success race

But we are not “John” or “Marry” we are the universe experiencing a human form.
The “Johns” and “Marries” are parasites growing on this experience.
The “Johns” and “Marries” have no control over this experience.
We grow, mature, get old and die. We have no control over that.
Nobody ever had, not even Buddha in his whole glory; he died just like everybody else, an old man.

But look at it from the universe’s point of view.
Birth and death do not exist.
The experience of the universe is a continuous transformation.
What is eternal remains eternal through all the transformations and metamorphoses. 
Only the “EGO” the “Johns” and “Marries” is created and therefore destroyed when the illusion is over.


And that is the fear that we all live with; that when “John” and “Mary” are gone, the experience will stop and there will be nothing left but a big black hole.
Nothingness forever! Aaaaah!!! The horror.
But when the illusion is over and our Ego ends, the universe doesn’t end, it just goes on and on, creating new “Johns” and “Marries”

BTW the bottom triangle is bigger because it is not actually a triangle It is a quadrilateral

The Simplicity of Problem Solutions

Initially, I wanted to name this post “The Simplicity of Problem Solutions and the Complexity of Systems” But that seemed a little bit too long. I just want to let you know that latter on the post we will talk about System and how they relate to problems.

More likely if you are alive you have some problems to deal in your life right now and (I know you don‘t want to hear this) your future is full of problems you don’t even dream about.

Also, I know that dealing with your problems is not always easy or pleasant.

I would even go as far to say that dealing with problems is one of life tasks people hate most.

Actually, this is a totally wrong sentiment, a myth passed down from generation to generation.

This is similar to the false rumor spread in the school system, that math is hard.

Math is actually very easy, so easy even computers do it if you know what you are doing.

So it is solving life’s problems super easy if you know what you are doing.

How can solving problems be simple?

Here it is:

You are hungry, you eat. You are tired you rest. Your job sucks, you get another job.

Your relationship sucks, you get a new boyfriend/girlfriend.

See how simple it is?

Solving problems is simply because at the basis of every problem there is a fundamental law of nature. It is the law of causality AKA the law of cause and effect.

This law tells us that for every effect there is a cause therefore for every problem there is a solution.

You get a splinter in your finger, that causes pain.

You remove the cause of the pain – pull out the splinter – the pain goes away.

And that’s the law. If you remove the cause the problem disappears.

Solving problems is very simple. Recognizing the cause-effect relationship is more problematic.

Let me give you some examples:

Poverty, war, drug addiction, Donald Trump, prostitution, terrorism and much, much, more of our social problems are actually no problems at all. They are symptoms. Hence they cannot be fixed because we are violating the law we just explained in the previous paragraph.

You can’t fix a problem by treating the symptoms. You have to remove the cause.

Donald Trump, to pick a hot and controversial issue, is not a problem like most people believe. He is a symptom.

By fighting DT we are not addressing the “cause” that propelled him in the White House.

We are fighting the symptom and the effect of that is actually exactly the opposite of what we want. The result is we are making Trump’s position even stronger.

In the 2020 elections, unless the economy goes into a recession, DT will be reelected possible by a landslide. And I am willing to bet on that.

We have declared war on alcohol and drugs, on prostitution and poverty on inequality and terrorism, just to mention a few. We have not won a single one of those wars and we are never going to win any of them because they are not problems and because we are not looking at what causes them, which is where the real problems are.

And here is where the complexity of systems comes into play.

A simple cause and effect problem is easy to see and easy to solve.

You broke your glasses; you buy a new pair of glasses.

When it comes to complex systems like relationships or social and economic problems there is no simple cause and effect interaction but a series of causes all acting and interacting at the same time.

If you have a bad relationship in your life, you try to analyze all possible causes and eliminate them hoping to fix the relationship.

By trial and error, we can logically eliminate all the problems and make the relationship work.

This approach works for any complex system.

But even then you may not fix the problems and the relationship will fail

So you will try a new relationship and another and another.

If these relationship failures turn into a repeating pattern you have to stop and ask:

What is the one constant one feature all these bad relationships have in common?

Yup, that would be you. So fixing the problem would be replacing you with a better you.

Very simple. Yes I know it is very hard to change but I never said I’ll give you an easy way to fix your problems just a simple one.

And last but not list. Problems do not fix themselves and contrary to popular belief problems do not disappear in time if we ignore them, they just get even worse.

So catching a problem when it first starts is easier to fix than after it gets complicate.

Fixing your problem ASAP is the best way to deal with your problems.

Wolves

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.

This makes it hard to plan the day."

— E.B. White

There is this old Cherokee story:

One evening beside the fire an old man is telling his grandson a story

“Inside every one of us, there are two wolves in a battle of life and death.

One white, pure and good, full of love, hope, joy, kindness, generosity, compassion, and faith.

The other one black as the night, evil, full of anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment and hate.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied,

"The one you feed the most."

I couldn’t agree more but things have changed a little bit since the Cherokee Indian times.

We now live in a society of "entanglement" where personal boundaries are more and more violated.

I wake up in the morning full of energy and enthusiasm

I take a shower, brush my teeth, do a quick meditation, eat breakfast and then proceed to the daily chores.

As long as I stay inside my house, I can control my life with no problems.

The moment I open the door – the physical one or the informational one– the outside world rushes in bringing with it the inevitable negativity.

It could be some well-intentioned friend emailing me about a swine flu pandemic in Europe or Asia, news of war, death, and destruction or economic and political disasters.

It could be some guy cutting me off on the freeway or my boss in a bad mood.

Some colleague with some petty office quarrel or a million other irritating, useless garbage.

You try to stay positive.

You try to be the loving and understanding “good” guy.

You turn the other chick, you make amends, you forgive and forget.

In the end, you end up tired and polluted.

You go home, take a shower, do your meditation and go to bed hoping the next day will be a better one.

I have walked some distance on the path of spiritual enlightenment and by now I know very well I shouldn’t feed the bad wolf inside me.

The problem is all the other people in my life that are feeding it.

It is impossible to go through the day without being bombarded with bad news and negativity. The whole society is built that way.

We are constantly manipulated by the media to live in fear and uncertainty because people in that mind state are easy to control and manipulate.

I know it sounds like one of these far-fetched conspiracy theories but I lived long enough in fear and worry and I heard one too many times that the sky is falling.

And after all these years here I am still kicking and screaming.

So what was all the fear and the worries I had for all these years? Absolutely nothing.

I spent precious energy and time on illusory dangers and disasters just to lose focus on what was important in my life.

Do you know, or can you imagine what your life would be like if every day you would hear only the good news, positivity and optimism?

Can you imagine how that would feel?

Unfortunately, we can only imagine because we will never live that reality.

So, how do we stop our negativity from growing, our dark wolf from being fed in a world where we have no power or control?

Very simple – you just don’t give a shit about all the bullshit.

I used to try to avoid people and places just to protect myself from the bombardment of negativity and I have failed. So I did the only other option I had, stand up and fight.

Whenever somebody approached me with “have you heard of…?” I pulled out my guns and fire “I don’t give a shit!” and pretty soon none of my friends was feeding my wolf anymore.

If you feel overwhelmed like I used to feel, you should try it

I don’t give a shit! It is totally liberating and empowering.

Demolition Zen

Zen will tear you apart, deconstruct and shred you to pieces, demolish every belief and piece of knowledge to the depths of your mental foundation, obliterate you and reduce you to NOTHING.

So now you know where that Zen obsession with nothing and emptiness stems from.

It is a Zen necessity a  primordial directive a must without Zen will not make any sense.

If that is not your Zen experience then you are doing it the wrong way or you are not  doing Zen but some sort of Westernized version of some Buddist  and Vedic superstitions wrapped up by the New Age gurus as Zen and marketed to the hyp crowd, cause you may say anything about Zen but one thing will all agree: Zen is cool and fashionable.

Of course, the process is maddeningly painful and only a half-crazed men will choose to go the whole way thru with his own mental suicide.

So the Zen experience, like any other suicide missions is strictly on a voluntary basis. 

Not only that but you will, have to beg for it and a true Zen master very rarely accepts a student and usually only after he has subjected the student to a lot of humiliating tasks.

But if self inflicted pain is not your thing, like I mention before, there are a lot of pseudo-spiritual practices out there from organized religion that for a small donation of your money will give you permission to any sin you may desire to commit from adultery to rape and murder and after that give you a free pass to heaven.

 Or you can go with the New Age crowd which is a lovely colorful spiritual circus under which tent the most bizarre freaks have gathered.

You can play with crystals, groovy music and sound frequencies collared lights and even some mushrooms and LSD trips cause the New Age motto is “Anything Goes” the more bizarre and irrational the better.

And of course, there is the “serious” scientific side of spirituality. The MD crowd.

Here we have the Ph.D. professors in psychology, the shrinks, a whole spectrum of therapists, family counselors and anything else that could squeeze under the cover of “scientific” authority.

Also, they have some really good drugs and as one that has been a patient I have to tell you that’s the only good thing about psychiatrists, they can hook you up with some really powerful shit.

So all these non-Zen paths can be summarised by the defining philosophy “we want to make you feel good”

This philosophy comes from the totally erroneous conclusion that pain is a problem and therefore getting rid of pain is the good mental and spiritual practice.

Here is the bummer. Pain is not a problem. It has never and will never be a problem. 

Pain and suffering are the symptom and as such not treatable, because treating a symptom will only make the problem worse.

I don’t want to brag about this but Buddha the original 100% genuine one lord Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni  Buddha, was the first modern psychiatrist and the one and only that understood that pain and suffering are the symptoms of internal inheriting human problem the “dukkha”  the noble truth of suffering AKA desire, craving, addiction, clinging etc

And the first one to develop a cognitive therapy based system to deal with this problem: “The eightfold path”

Have you ever had to rebuild your house? Maybe smaller like remodeling your kitchen?

OK even if you have not personally done it you are familiar with the process.

A bunch of men come in your kitchen and basically destroy your kitchen, tear everything down and the haul out all the old cabinets, appliances an all the debris generated during the demolition process.

Then when everything is cleared to the bare bone they go in and build the kitchen of your dreams.

So this process, this cycle of destruction and construction is very well understood in the construction business and no contractor no matter how stupid will tell you that you can remodel your kitchen while still keeping your old appliances and furniture. It is just common sense.

But not for the people involved in spiritual and mental growth

The cycle of destruction and rebirth was known to mankind since ancient times. Why do you think we celebrate Christmas. Yeah, I know the Jesy story but that is just plain BS. The Catholic church ripped off the pagan celebration of death – winter equinox – and rebirth – spring equinox and made it into their own ritual, hence the existence of  Christmas trees, the Easter bunnies and eggs, pagan symbols of life perpetuity and fertility still remaining in the rituals to our days.

It is interesting that in India the cult of  Kali and Lord Shiva the destructive and respective constructive were at one tie on equal footing although today the followers of Kali are dismal and dimming down under the overwhelming propaganda of  love peace and happiness BS

Mother Kali the destructive principle given birth to the lord of creation, Lord Shiva, what a profound mind-blowing understanding of the universe. 

Too bad we discard it because it didn’t sound “nice” and it irritates our sense of morality.

So going back where we began:

Zen will tear you apart, deconstruct and shred you to pieces, demolish every belief and piece of knowledge to the depths of your mental foundation, obliterate you and reduce you to NOTHING.

And in the place of your retched Ego will erect a structure of light, harmony, and beauty.

But then again enlightenment like house remodeling is a very expensive business proposition and not everybody is willing to pay the price.

The Tao of Internet

"Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth."
Ludwig Börne

If the internet would have a counterpart in the physical world it would be undoubtedly Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is sold to the public at large on the idea of winning money and adult entertainment.
If you want to win or sin (or both) you ought to go to Las Vegas. - Right?
He, he, he!

Well, the next time you go to Las Vegas take a good look at the luxurious casinos and all that glitter around you.
Then say out loud to yourself:
- All this has been built with the money of the people that have come to Las Vegas to win!

Las Vegas might be trumpeted as the win and sin capital of the world but, there is very little wining and sinning going on in Las Vegas (unless you own a casino) – trust me on that, been there done that :)
Las Vegas was built on the mechanics of losing.
Actually, it exists only because losing is guaranteed – it is built into the system.
BTW – They do not keep it a secret and publicly admit to it – they are crooks but they are honest :)

So what about the Internet and the Las Vegas parallel?
Well, the internet is sold to the public at large on the idea of connecting people. - Right?
But if any of you are on the internet looking for human connection, true love or just old fashion sex, you might as well go to Las Vegas to win some money!

The internet is sold as a connecting device but every time you connect to the internet you are disconnecting from reality
Behind every slot machine, there is a person looking for winning money
Behind every computer screen, there is a lonely human being looking for human contact.
You are completely mistaken. The system doesn't work for you, you are working for the system.

There is very little human connection on the internet :(
If you are on the internet right now (Well, you ought to be – you are reading my blog. Duh!)
Take a good look at the empty room and say out loud to yourself:
- There is nobody here except me!
No, I am not here at this moment – unless by a remote chance and even then I am here with me not with you.

Surfing the internet is one of the loneliest human activities, probably second only to masturbation – but not as lonely as surfing and masturbating at the same time – trust me on that, ahem… so I heard :)
The internet was built on the principle of people being apart. If you are with another person or group of people the internet becomes useless.
The internet is booming because the people don't get together like they used to do in the old days.

Every day we rush home or to the office to get in “touch” with the other people rushing to their computers.
But are the facebooks and the blogs, the myspaces, and tweeters actually increasing your human contact in the physical world?
Has the internet helped you getting together with more people or just to create an illusion of that gain?
Do you have more “real” friends since the internet revolution or less?

Is there no better way to disconnect from life than sitting in front of a computer
There is no better way to be alone in public as looking into your smartphone
Are the internet and the new technologies the bridge to human contact, or the wall that keeps us apart?
Are we building a new society a new human consciousness?
Are we evolving into cybernetic organisms or devolving in a source and servants for a higher nonhuman civilization to come?

I don't know - you be the judge!

Zen Rants IV

I see myself as a two-part entity.

One the material self, the product of social programming. The "I think therefore I am" a.k.a the Ego.
The second part the immaterial, spiritual, immortal soul, The "I am therefore I think" a.k.a the "I"

Without that distinction all my arguments are nonsense. 

Without that duality the search for one true self or true nature is futile.

If you are that you are, then there is nothing else to it.

There is nothing else to figure out.

But the question still remains "What was “you” before you were born?"
Because nothing comes out of nothing and nothing turns into nothing.
Birth and death are transformations not sudden appearances from nothing.
What were you before you became “I”?

There is something more than meets the “I”

And your purpose in life is to find out who you really are.

I know the path is tough and convoluted.
I know sometimes it feels like you are being punished by an unfair God.

I know you sometimes just want to give up.

But pain and suffering are necessary.

How can you climb to the top if there is no mountain?

How could you overcome pain and suffering if you didn’t know what pain and suffering are?

You have to step out of your experience and look at it with a nonjudgmental mind.

What would your pain and suffering mean a hundred years from now?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Then you can look at pain and realize that pain is just an experience like anything else.

You may not like it but the way you react to it is up to you.

Pain is inevitable but suffering is a choice.

What good is suffering? It doesn’t change anything, it doesn’t solve anything.

It is just the Ego bitching and moaning, “why me, poor me!”

But you mustn’t let the Ego control your life.

It is the Ego that mostly gets you into trouble.

Enlightenment is a state of non-duality when a consciousness rises above good and evil above the duality.

An enlightened person sees pain and pleasure, suffering and joy as the two sides of a coin. As defining each other.
A buddha or a christ are consciousness returned to the source.
They are above gods and demons they are the ultimate realization of the universe

It is my life purpose to attain that state before another death.

These are my vows:

“There are innumerable sentient beings in the universe.

I vow to help them all to awaken

My imperfections are inexhaustible.

I vow to overcome them all.

The Dharma is unknowable.

I vow to know it.

The way of the Awakening is unattainable.

I vow to attain it.”

Zen Rants III

The idea of creation is based on the premises that the material world exists.

It is a common illusion like the illusion of solidity.

There are no solid objects.

They appear solid but under a microscope, you can see the empty space.

The material world is both existence and nonexistence blended together.

We have a bias in perceiving the "existence” part of it.
Our mind automatically discards the non-existence out of our perception.

We hear the sound but not the silence; we see the light but not the darkness.

But silence and darkness are nonexistence yet we don't count them as such.

We only see the YANG and not the YIN, We see the mountains but not the valleys.

For every + there is a - They could not exist without the other;

Pleasure cannot exist without pain, hot without cold, high without low, good without evil God without Satan.

The ONE that defines everything but cannot be defined is nonduality,

It is above and beyond existence and nonexistence.

Let’s have a little experiment

Please take a blank piece of paper and look at it.

What do you see?

Do you see a blank piece a paper?

I hope so, otherwise, we are in deep trouble with our little experiment.

But do you also see the “nonexistence” the hole?

No?

Then, take a pair of scissors and cut a hole in the middle of the paper.

Look at the paper again.

Do you now see the nonexistence the hole?

Yes?

What about the other non-existence, can you see that too?

(hint; the one outside the paper)

Nope you don’t, because your mind, our mind is programmed to see only what exist and not what it doesn’t exist.

Our brain cannot comprehend the nonexistence and that is reflected in our language.

We say: “There “is” a hole in the paper”

How can something that doesn’t exist “be”?

And if you still think the hole exists, try to pick it up from the paper and move it.

We see light but not darkness we hear sound but not the silence.

We see around us solid objects which in fact are mostly empty space.

We see the reality as existing when in fact the reality is both existence and non-existence blended together.

Try to imagine non-existence, an absolute nothingness, an infinite hole.

You can’t

Your brain tells you that a hole exists only if defined by something.

Nonexistence and existence are two sides of the coin. They define each other.

The funny part is that an infinite existence, an infinite universe is an accepted concept.

Although you have to realize that an infinite universe is as absurd as an infinite hole.

Just think about it: Millions of galaxies, made by zillions of stars and planets made bazillions of atoms made of god knows how many particles.

Do you have any idea what kind of energy it takes to make that machine tick, to move all that around at cosmic speeds?

How about this: Zero, nothing, nada.

The universe is effortless.

Have you ever seen “running” Chrisman’s lights?

You know, the bulbs do not actually move, right?

They just turn on and off. The movement is just an illusion.

Just think the universe as an ocean of quanta popping in and out of existence.

I don’t know about you but to me, that feels like a more plausible reality than the huge moving clockwork model we’ve been indoctrinated to.

You may not understand it but you know that to be the truth, because you are experience it, here and now.

Zen Rants II

Truth is a word, like apple. 

Apple is not an apple is a word. 

How do you define an apple?
"the round fruit of a tree of the rose family, which typically has thin red or green skin and crisp flesh"
But that isn't an apple either, that is just the definition of an apple"
Only an apple is an apple.

If I say "I've eaten an apple this morning" you know what an apple is because you have eaten apples too.
Try to define "apple" to a being from another planet with no fruits and trees.

How do you define truth?

The definition of truth” is the definition of truth.

Any other definition of “truth” would be not true.

The One is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Lies do not exist. A lie is just the absence of the truth.

When the truth is present lies disappear like the darkness when the light is present.

Confusion and ignorance are the qualities of the Ego.

The “I” doesn’t lack anything. You already know everything you need to know, you already have everything you need to have.

Poverty is a quality of the Ego

Scientifically speaking you don't exist, and neither anybody else for that matter.
When you look in the mirror you see a highly structured bag of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and a whole bunch of other different atoms.

Technically you are nothing but talking solar dust and so am I.

Technically speaking we are the universe talking to itself.

So who is "I"? What is this “I” everybody is taking for granted?
Has anybody seen it?
Has anybody seen a picture of their mind?
What proof do you have that what you call "I" exists?
Is God a dream of your mind or is your mind a dream of God?

The body is the domain of the Ego.

Like the body, the Ego is limited, imperfect, fragile and temporary.

The “I” is not limited by the body. The “I” is perfect, indestructible and immortal.

Science is the creation of the Ego.

The wisdom of the “I” is Spirituality.

The “I” believes in God because it knows God.

The Ego doesn’t believe in God because it cannot understand it.

You cannot teach and learn faith.

When the teachings of our Ego fail to deliver the promised success we return to faith.

Spirituality is the path to happiness.

The material path is the path to living hell

You may not understand it but you know that to be the truth, because you are experience it, here and now.

Zen Rants I

If you are not the Creator you are the Creation.

How many religions there are? Hundreds!

How many gods there are? One: The Creator.

You cannot choose your God.

If you go to an ice-cream parlor that serves only one flavor ice-cream “vanilla” you can only have vanilla.

Since there is only one God “The Creator” you don’t have a choice.

How you worship God is irrelevant.

When you will meet your God what you think about him is irrelevant.

The only thing that matter is what HE thinks about you.

Separation is an illusion of the Ego. There is no separation. 

All consciousness rise from the One like waves from the ocean.
Distinct but not disconnected. With specific qualities but with the same nature.
We are God but we can’t remember it until we return to the One.

The One is non-duality. The One is unbound, therefore amoral. (not to be confused with immoral)

When we are born (which is a transformation, not a separation) we have the quality of the source.
Newborn are unbound.
We experience lies, deceit, and betrayal in order to learn what truth, sincerity, and loyalty are.

We are exposed to sickness, violence, war, prejudice, racism, injustice, pain and suffering, not as some form of punishment for some imaginary sin but in order to see and learn the difference between good and evil. Our purpose is to elevate above good and evil, to evolve into a superior consciousness.

Siddhartha the buddha and latter Jesus the christ have become self-realized beings and taught us the path of enlightenment. Unfortunately, the Gnostic teachings of Jesus have been suppressed by the church and replaced with the dogma “you pay us will give you a heavenly pass” The Buddhist teachings have fared a little bit better. We still have the Buddhist Sutras and the 8 fold path but even those have been contaminated by endless interpretations and turned into religious dogma.

Ephemeral and illusory is the material world.

All humans die. Animals die, plants die, the planets and the stars in the sky; we all die.

Rich men die, poor men die. How rich is a dead man?

Sick men die, healthy men die too. How healthy is a dead man?

Powerful men die, weak men, die. How powerful is a dead man?

We seek money, power, and fame. Fascinated by the glitter of the material world we rush to our demise like moths into the fire.

Escape the grip of desire, shed your Ego, free yourself from the prison of reason and you will see the truth.

All teachings are false. Words cannot encompass the truth.

A dog cannot understand the mind of man. A man cannot understand the mind of God.

You cannot cram the universe into the hollow of your skull.

You cannot know the truth, you cannot know God.

You can only experience it.

Love is the bond of the universe.

Love is the thread between dog, man and God. Love is the universal language.

Only what can be expressed in love is true.  Everything else is false.

You may not understand it but you know that to be the truth, because you experience it, here and now.

Where is the love?

Rose was hefty 250 lb + of voluptuous blubber flowing out of every piece of her clothing. Her spandex pants clad so tight to reveal every detail of her anatomy.

Don’t get me wrong. I am an Eastern European and skinny is not my idea of a beautiful woman, but Rose was more than Rubenesque. She was obese.

That did not stop Carlos, our security guard, - who also happened to be over 250 lb – to follow her around like a love-stricken puppy.

I have no idea what he was telling her, but she was laughing and flirting and purring like a kitten.

I watched them and try to imagine how in the world they would have sex – being their round shapes - but I digress with my sexual fantasies.

It was not long before Carlos proposed to her and they got married and pretty soon after that Carlos was walking around passing cigars letting everybody know he's gonna be a father.

There are over 6 billion people on this planet.

Some fat, some not, some toll, some small and some midgets and giants.

We have white folks, black folks, yellow, red and green – they visit us from time to time. We have educated, uneducated, rich, poor, smart, genius, stupid and George Bush.

We have beautiful, handsome, plain or butt ugly people and they all have one thing in common.

They all have a mate and they all have sex – otherwise, we wouldn’t be 6 billion.

Would we?

Yes, folks, even the toothless woman you sometimes see shopping at Wall Mart has a guy who believes, and tells her, that she is the most beautiful woman in the world and given the chance will knock her up in a heartbeat.

Love knows no boundaries. Love works in mysterious ways and somehow it pairs us two by two so the species would survive and flourish.

Or if you prefer the other explanation: Love is blind, deaf and dumb.

So in this world that came out of love, and exists for love, how come we have so many lonely people, so many people that seem unable to find their right soul mate?

In this day and age of the internet, cell phones, jet planes and global connections why do we have so many lonely hearts, so many broken hearts, and so many sad love songs?

Where is the love?

The NFL quagmire has begun

There are no more controversial and explosive subjects than religion, politics, and sports.

Nothing else makes people lose their common sense, reason, and temper like the three.

So what do you think will happen when you mix politics and sports?

Nothing good for sure. People will lose their minds and the whole debate will be just accusations, insults and irrational screaming tirades in a raging storm of emotions.

Well, brace yourself because the NFL quagmire has just begun.

I’m not a sports fan and I try as much as possible to stay away from politics but with today’s media intruding in every corner of our lives it would be impossible to miss the big news:

NFL has declared war to Donald Tump.

If you missed it, this is what’s going on:

A large majority of NFL players are upset with Mr. Trump whom they consider being a racist and have decided to protest by refusing to stand or show up during the National Anthem.

I just want to know who is the genius that came up with this idea?

I’m not saying that the NFL players don’t have the right to protest or that they should not protest but before protesting before starting a war did anybody thought about how to win the fight?

This is very much like what happened after 9/11 when everybody was really upset and decided to go to war just because it “felt” better but without thinking about the consequences.

You know what happened; we are still mired in the quagmire of war.

So this NFL political fight is a very, very bad idea and it will end in a very, very bad outcome.

This impulsive emotional outburst will backfire and will do un-repairable damage for NFL.

Once again just to make things clear; I’m not debating the validity of the NFL players complains, I’m debating the method and strategy of their offense.

And here are two very good reasons why:

One:  No one will become a new NFL fan just because the NFL players are protesting Mr. Trump.

 A lot or at least some of the NFL fans will be driven away to other sports because a lot of people think that disrespecting the National Anthem and the American flag is insulting and unpatriotic.

Two: The NFL has started a war they cannot win. They have no exit strategy; they have no way to win.

How long are they going to sit or kneel? One month? One season? Two. three, four?

Sooner or later they will have to quit and that by definition is a defeat.

You see my point? How are they going to win? Nobody knows, nobody has thought about it.

Just like Afghanistan and Iraq, the war was lost before it started.

Don’t start a war before you have figured out how to win it, and that applies not only to NFL but to all the wars and battles in the world.

So congratulation NFL players for handing Mr. Trump another unwarranted victory.

I think I figured out the Trump strategy; he doesn’t have to be good just better than the opposition.

Just like the guy running from the bear; he doesn’t have to run faster than the bear just faster than the fat guy.

The Interruption

In time some things become habits, like my morning routine.

Wake up, take a shower, brush my teeth, get dressed and eat my breakfast.

Then the routine varies a bit each day but if there is nothing special scheduled for the day it usually involves starting up my laptop.

For me growing up before the computer revolution is still funny how much we have become tied to our electronic devices. My phone has become almost a part of my body. Wherever I go the phone is almost always with me. I love it and hate it at the same time.

A few minutes later the computer screen lights up and on my desktop among a couple dozen icons a bunch of colored sticky notes pop up.

The sticky notes are the first line of defense in my organizational strategy. They are easy to write, easy to read a very convenient way to remind me of the tasks at hand.

Of course, I have a more elaborate “to do list” that encompasses long-term goals but for the day to day business I find the little sticky notes to be most suitable.

It also gives me a good feeling of accomplishment whenever I complete a chore and trash the little sticky note.

Not the case with my “to do list” which is growing permanently and it looks it is here to stay forever.

First sticky notes informs me I have to write another blog article for tomorrow, fix the cabinet door in the kitchen and clean the garage. The cabinet door is an easy one since I fixed the door already and I just have to put it back in the kitchen. So I go to do that first.

Back to my computer. Time to write my article.

I want to be something inspirational, something profound or at least something useful.

Nothing comes to mind. I’ll go check my emails and social media instead.

Nothing there as usual. It is just a waste of time but you have to do it just in case there is an important email or vital piece of information you cannot afford to miss.  But I think I got an idea for my article.

I will write an article about Donald Trump, on how he is actually a product of our society, a symptom of our social moral decay just like Germany between the two world wars.

Time to check the Google for some historical references.

The phone rings. Some insurance guy wants to “save me money”. I told him if he is so concerned about my wellbeing just to write me a check. The discussion goes nowhere. He doesn’t listen to me and I’m not interested in buying his insurance. Back to my computer.

I’m in the middle of my creative storm when my dogs rush in the room and start making begging noises and wildly waving their tails. What the heck I fed them already!

I look at the clock is 10am already.  Time flies when you are on the net.

Reluctantly I get up and take the dogs for their morning walk.

Back to my computer.

I have done nothing all day, well, except that productive 5 min when I screwed the cabinet door back in its place,

I’m trying to write but I keep being interrupted.

Between my wife, kids, pets, friends and all sorts of people that want to help me with things I did not need help with I managed to pile up a bunch of cut and paste fragments of articles that don’t look anything like a blog.

On top of that is noon and my stomach is making “feed me now!” noises.

Alright I’ll stop and I’m going out for lunch, and I’m not going to take my phone with me!

Guess what. I did take the phone with me but at least I left it in my car during the lunch and just enjoyed other people having lunch with their phones.

Waiting for my food to come I realized a couple of things.

One: My life is been disrupted from its normal flow by a series of unwanted interruptions.

Two: The number of interruptions in my life has grown and continues to grow exponentially.

Three: Some of the interruptions, like Mr. Trump, are easy to avoid. You just turn off the TV.

Four: some interruptions are hard to avoid, like spending time on the X Box or binging for hours on Netflix.

Five: If I want my productivity to go up and have more control of my life I need to find an effective way to deal with my interruptions.

No problem! I’m really good at solving problems.

First step: Awareness, defining the problem.

I’ll start by making a list of all the incidents in my life when I get interrupted.

The Law of Attraction

What is the law of attraction?

According to Wiki the law of attraction is defined as:

“The belief that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.”

Furthermore:

“The belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are both made from "pure energy", and that through the process of "like energy attracting like energy" a person can improve their own health, wealth and personal relationships.”

Pretty simple, right?

Not quite, because in order to apply the law you need to know what a “positive or negative thought” is.

So, I want to be healthy, I want to be wealthy or I want to be loved. Are these positive thoughts?

If I focus on them will I become healthy, wealthy and loved?

Or my meddling with things I don’t understand will get me into trouble?

See, as a Buddhist, I don’t believe that the I is separate from the universe and “asking” the universe for something doesn’t make any sense.

Is like having 1000$ in my pocket and asking for 100$ but never realizing and acknowledging that I have already much more than I need and continue living as a penniless person.

I think this “law of attraction” is totally misinterpreted as a method of controlling the universe, which trust me, is a recipe for disaster.

It is our “Ego” with all its insecurities that feels poor and wants to get more, not our higher self that is infinitely rich and wants to give more.

According to Buddhist teaching (See the Four Noble Truths) Desire is the cause our suffering.

How then, focusing on the things we want will better our lives?

So, it goes back to the first problem. What is positive thinking?

The answer to the question can be also found in the Buddhist teachings (see The Eight-Fold Path)

But “The Eight-Fold Path” it is a little bit more than wishful thinking.

Walking the path is hard and slow, two things that most Americans have a hard time handling.

We want everything to be fast and easy and that is a problem.

Nobody takes the time anymore to learn, to research, to perfect a skill.

We fall for the “get rich quick” scams instead of focusing on developing our potentials.

Our creativity is the only real source of wealth, our generosity the only source of happiness our love the only healing power.

Yes, we are bundles of energy and we do attract the like energies around us.

But what kind of energy are you? What kind of beliefs do you have? What kind of actions do you take?

Those should be the questions you should strive to answer and the thoughts you should focus on.

Not what you want to have from the universe.