Posts Tagged ‘spirituality’
2009
08.13
Tags: Books, Dan Brown, Eternal Recurrence, Filipinos, Foucault's Pendulum, Friedrich Nietzsche, Himala, Lila, Lullaby: 100 Years of Songs, Matter, Movies, Robert Pirsig, spirituality, The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix Trilogy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Umberto Eco, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Posted in Art, Books, Education, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Movies, Nietzsche, Philosophy, spirituality, Theater | No Comments »
Read “The Da Vinci Code” in 2005, after deliberately ignoring it for quite some time because of the hype. And then saw the movie later.
Well, the wealth of information (esp. regarding symbols) is generally sound. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the erudition of Umberto Eco’s “Foucalt’s Pendulum.” (I have yet to understand the elaborate explanation of how Foucault’s Pendulum works…)
One thing I liked in the novel is the rather sympathetic portrayal of the head of the Opus Dei, Bishop Aringarosa. (Not so in the movie.) I’ve heard a lot of negative publicity regarding the Opus Dei and their founder Jose Ma. Escriva. (From the late Larry Henares, in his TV show and Philippine Daily Inquirer column, as well as from a Filipino priest who studied in a university run by the Opus Dei…) Bishop Aringarosa may be ultra-conservative in his theology but in the end, when the time came for his faith to be tested, his heart proved to be ultimately in the right place.
Also, it had a more hopeful, happy ending than “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which was darker and more poignant. Eco’s novel bewails the lack of understanding that so-called believers/enlightened ones have. Parang si Elsa sa Himala: “Walang himala! Ang himala ay nasa puso ng tao!”
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2009
07.13
Tags: Add new tag, Buddhism, Desire, Meditation, Nietzsche, Nietzscheans, Nirvana, spirituality, Vipassana
Posted in Education, Filipinos, Life, Love, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Psychology, spirituality | No Comments »
“He remembered his sadness well, but he could no longer remember what had made him so sad. It was that way with everything: even sadness passed, even pain and despair, as well as the joys. Everything passed, faded, lost its depth, its value, and finally there came a time when one could no longer remember what had pained one so. Pains, too, wilted and faded… Yes, doubtless this pain, this bitter need would also grow old and tired. It too would be forgotten. Nothing had permanence, and he regretted that, too.”
- Herman Hesse, “Narcissus and Goldmund”
—
Am continuing my reflections on the possibility of a “Nietzschean Buddhism”…
Would like to sit again…
I’ve found something valuable in my practice. Hey, I may have not changed much but I detect a glimmer of hope… the possibility of overcoming deeply-ingrained bad habits of old. I’m no superman but like him, “I’m just out to find a better part of me.”
I came to Vipassana as a pantheist with Nietzschean leanings. I had strayed away from the Catholic Christian Church in the mid-1990′s. It was meeting Nietzsche (through his books, of course) that brought about my “conversion.” I found quite a number of my very deepest feelings and thoughts verbalized by this “madman.”
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2009
07.09
Tags: spirituality, Tantra
Posted in Books, spirituality | No Comments »
From “It’s Here Now: Are You?” by Bhagavan Das, pp.82-83:
The spiritual path gives you a choice to use your power for either good or evil. Many are tempted to use it for evil — that’s human nature. We must overcome this temptation. This is why the spiritual life is called the razor’s edge. The more realization you receive, the more power you’re given. But if you don’t remain humble and compassionate, you may find yourself slipping into some very deep, dark spaces. And kindness is essential.
The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Jesus wouldn’t have put that into the most famous prayer in the world if he hadn’t known that a hundred times a day we need to let go, we need to forgive. When we do, the next moment arises fresh and clean. There’s no victim; no one did anything to anyone. And most important of all, one must forgive oneself, too.
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2009
07.02
Tags: spirituality, Tantric Sex
Posted in Life, Philosophy, spirituality | No Comments »
Tantric Sex
Tantrayana… Vajrayana…
And all we ever notice is the sex! (Just look at how our Christian conditioning has warped our minds…)
What’s so special about tantric sex?
Nothing much.
It’s just that it becomes a sacred/holy activity. A prayer. A rite/ritual (not in its pejorative sense).
So, it’s pretty much how all sexual encounters should be. What’s the diff then?
It’s all in our minds.
Vajrayana/Tantrayana Buddhism is said to be the quickest path to Nirvana because it transforms (transfigures!) every activity into a sacred/holy path. Everything is holy! Everything is divine! Pan-theism!
If everything is holy, then even fucking is holy! Heck, even shitting is holy!
The Theravadin (sometimes pejoratively called “hinayana”) tradition of Buddhism presents a much more stern/disciplined, almost ascetic/atheistic/scientific face of Buddhism.
At least, that’s how it looks to me.
best regards,
ian
2009
06.19
Tags: Alcohol, Drugs, Drunkenness, Lucid Dreaming, Music, Pasig Market, Penguin Cafe, Pepe Smith, Psychedelia, Rock, Sobriety, spirituality
Posted in Filipinos, Life, Love, Music, spirituality | 2 Comments »
Drugs and alcohol can open up a spiritual experience. But, as Bhagavan Das pointed out, it’s a dark (tamasic) path and the danger is in being eaten up or swallowed by the substance, instead of the other way around.
I haven’t taken hallucinogens. (I’d like to, someday, with reformed drug addict Rudy as a “guide.” To make sure I don’t harm myself or another…)
I think my first experience of “psychedelia” was Sesame Street. (“1,2,3,4,5…6,7,8,9,10…11,12… doodoodoodoo…,” among others…) My parents were not hippies. They listened to Bread, middle-of-the-road stuff…
But I had a cool uncle and aunt. My Uncle Boyet brought me to an open-field rock concert when I was maybe 6… where I think I first heard Pepe Smith. This uncle would show me his psychedelic paintings and taught me my first cool words: “Hayuup!” “Haneeeep!”
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2009
06.05
Tags: Body, Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity, D.H. Lawrence, Filipinos, Kierkegaard, Love, Matter, Morality, Movies, Nietzsche, Philippines, Philosophy, Platonism, religion, Sex, Soteriology, spirituality
Posted in Books, Education, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Love, Movies, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Psychology, spirituality | No Comments »
Some people say that Christianity has been misunderstood. It looks to me more like it is Christianity which has misunderstood! The world, perhaps even Christ!
I’m not associating Christ with Christianity. When Nietzsche wrote “Der Anti-Christ” (usually translated as “The Anti-Christ”), his polemics was directed more to Paul and Christendom/Christianity, (a note in the translation says that it is probably more fitting to translate it as “The Anti-Christian.”) The same with Kierkegaard, his beef was with Christendom (the bureaucracy of Christianity). Christianity, as we know it today, is according to biblical scholarship, largely the work of Paul the Apostle.
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2009
05.27
Tags: Body, Matter, Philosophy, Sex, Spirit, spirituality, Vipassana
Posted in Filipinos, Life, Philosophy, spirituality | No Comments »
Part of the reason why I strayed away from “mother church” is my perception (whether right or wrong) that spirituality is inimical to the body.
You want to be holy/spiritual? Then, deny the body. The body, with its desires (sexual, biological, etc.) needs to be tamed, nay, caged. The body is a burden. If only we can become like angels. Pure, without the body which (unruly and with all these icky secretions, mucus, urine, etc.) always presents itself as a problem, a hindrance, an obstacle.
I’ve no problems with ascetic practices. I see their value. But when these practices get tied up with the denigration of the body, I react.
Didn’t God create the world and saw that it was good? Why then look at the body with an evil eye?
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2009
04.09
Tags: Compassion, spirituality, Vegetarianism, Vipassana
Posted in Education, Filipinos, Life, Love, spirituality | No Comments »
The Heart of the Vegetarian Matter
(In Honor of the Flesh We Eat)
by Michael Ian Lomongo
On the 10th day of our Vipassana course in 2003, some of my meditation friends were discussing the idea of non-killing (even of insects), whether we’d continue the practice after the course. I said I’d probably do, but I’d try to keep in mind to always say to the insect/s “I’m sorry but I have to kill you.” (And then, someone pointed out that some American Indian tribes used to have this practice of “talking” to the animal they’re killing for food.)
Circa 1997, I used to regularly attend these monthly Full-Moon celebrations with SUFI-ISIS at either Samat Rd. or Biak-na-Bato (basta somewhere near Quezon Blvd.). They’d have someone who’d give a talk/lecture (on spirituality, various paths and techniques), afterwards there’d be meditation, and then meals!!! Woohoo! (They’ve got it all covered… food for the mind, soul, body!)
And one of the things that really struck me during one of the talks was this anecdote that the speaker shared. A group of monks was billeted in a hotel and they made sure that everything was taken care of (their accomodation, their special needs, like the purely vegetarian meal that they must have, etc.). Came mealtime, and imagine the monks’ chagrin when they found themselves being served meat! Agitated, they called for the hotel-manager and started really scolding and berating the incompetence of the hotel staff.
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2009
02.22
Tags: Buddhism, Desire, Friedrich Nietzsche, Life, Pessimism, spirituality
Posted in Life, Love, Nietzsche, Philosophy, spirituality | No Comments »
novermber 22, 2003
—-
To continue with Nietzsche’s criticism of Buddhism:
Nietzsche preferred Judaism over Christianity. He saw Christianity as the full flowering of Jewish resentment (as exemplified by St. Paul, who because he couldn’t observe the Law, turned against the Law…). Likewise, he preferred Hinduism over Buddhism, which he saw as the product of an old, world-and-life-wearied culture/civilization.
Nietzsche looks at Buddhism as a pessimism.
Life is full of suffering. How to end suffering?
End the very source of suffering, life itself. Since suicide was believed to produce more suffering (through karma/reincarnation), this particular option is out of the question.
How is life manifested? Through desire.
You want to end suffering, then desire no more.
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2009
01.17
Tags: Art, Buddha, Buddhism, Hume, Love, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Power, religion, spirituality, Writing
Posted in Art, Filipinos, Life, Love, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Psychology, spirituality, Writing | No Comments »
reposting… november, 2003.
best regards,
ian
—
Nietzsche, Hume and the Buddha
When I first heard of Nietzsche, it was in association with Hitler and the Nazis. I simply dismissed him as a rabid, power-hungry maniac who probably had an unhappy childhood. A classmate in college wrote a paper on this Nietzsche guy and I was silently chuckling on the thought that a comic book idea (“superman”) can be the subject of a scholarly paper.
But when I did get to read him (years later), I was simply won over by this crazy guy! He says provocative things that, when thought about, actually make sense. He’s probably among the few philosophers who doesn’t come across as an insipid intellectual. He’s got style, lots of it. He doesn’t say things just for effect (although sometimes it feels like that). He’s an artist, an artist-philosopher. He’s very passionate and his sincerity comes across. He also has a weird sense of humor. Indeed, he writes with his blood. Indeed, he’s a dynamite.
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