I was wandering the web looking through green sites, peak oil sites and other things and I came across a couple of quotes which I like:

“Of all the qualities in your being, that which is most god-like is creativity” - Pir Ilayat Vilayat Khan

I too think that our creativity is our greatest asset, it’s what makes us both the most brilliant and the most dangerous of animals.

I’ve talked about my views on the finger pointing at the moon before, but this was a nice surprise.  I’ve been reading “The Religion of The Samurai”, a treatise on Zen written in 1913 by by Kaiten Nukariya.
There is a section on why scripture is no more than waste paper, which echoes my sentiments, though I personally feel that this sentiment extends far beyond the Buddhist scriptures to all religious scriptures regardless of creed or canon:  They’re a nice place to start, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

This quote is from the beginning of Chapter 3:

“Zen is based on the highest spiritual plane attained by Shakya Muni himself. It can only be realized by one who has attained the same plane. To describe it in full by means of words is beyond the power even of Gotama himself. It is for this reason that the author of Lankavatara-sutra insists that Shakya Muni spoke no word through his long career of forty-nine years as a religious teacher, and that of Mahaprajñaparamita-sutra also express the same opinion. The Scripture is no more nor less than the finger pointing to the moon of Buddhahood. When we recognize the moon and enjoy its benign beauty, the finger is of no use. As the finger has no brightness whatever, so the Scripture has no holiness whatever. The Scripture is religious currency representing spiritual wealth. It does not matter whether money be gold, or sea-shells, or cows. It is a mere substitute. What it stands for is of paramount importance. Away with your stone-knife! Do not watch the stake against which a running hare once struck its head and died. Do not wait for another hare. Another may not come for ever. Do not cut the side of the boat out of which you dropped your sword to mark where it sunk. The boat is ever moving on. The Canon is the window through which we observe the grand scenery of spiritual nature. To hold communion directly with it we must get out of the window. It is a mere stray fly that is always buzzing within it, struggling to get out. Those who spend most of their lives in the study of the Scriptures, arguing and explaining with hair-splitting reasonings, and attain no higher plane in spirituality, are religious flies good for nothing but their buzzing about the nonsensical technicalities. It is on this account that Rin-zai declared:  ‘The twelve divisions of the Buddhist Canon are nothing better than waste paper.’”

This sentiment is why I have little time for religious debates or the technicalities of scripture, stop arguing over trifles in books of dubious authorship, we know we need to progress spiritually … so get on with it!

The Religion of The Samurai is available for download here.

I was reading about the new legislation in the Queen’s speech today. It seems that we need to have a new law passed for everything, further invasions of our privacy and our rights eroded.

It’s amazing what they can push through, mention the word Terrorist since 9/11 and you can wave through almost any measure you want, consider the new National DNA database, there are people on there who haven’t been convicted of a crime!

It’s almost as if we’re considered suspect simply by default, though Lao Tzu does have advice for us on this one:

“The highest rulers, people do not know they have them
The next level, people love them and praise them
The next level, people fear them
The next level, people despise them
If the rulers’ trust is insufficient
Have no trust in them

Proceeding calmly, valuing their words
Task accomplished, matter settled
The people all say, “We did it naturally”“

This is illuminating as it suggests a position far removed from the one we currently see in public figures. Lao Tzu suggests a more humble approach, indeed I’ve recently read comments by people saying that our leaders need to take a moment and remember who they really work for. The lack of trust they have in us is unsettling, the need to remember that somewhere in all the rules and cameras and the surveillance the spirit of the society that they’re trying to protect will get lost.

They are so attached to the idea of defending Britain and it’s people from every imagined aggressor that the country will be stifled by the grip they’ll have on it; the people will eventually be injured both in spirit and prospects, maybe even physically by the very measures and officers supposed to protect them.

I personally think they’re taken the exact wrong approach, the threat of terror needs to be tackled on a community level, it’s not a matter of arresting people it’s preventing them becoming extremists in the first place. I remember a point made by Robert M. Pirsig that when someone is deemed insane they’ve possibly subscribed to a view of the world that has higher quality for them than everyone else’s. I think the best view to take with those who would destroy our society is to reach out to them and show them the higher quality in our society.

Imagine a way forward that doesn’t involve more expenditure for the military industrial complex and security services. I wish it would catch on, I can’t see much of a future in mistrust and fear.

It’s interesting to watch the approach of some folk to technology. There seems to me to be a view that technology is the enemy, there is a negative view of tech. Speaking as an IT guy, I couldn’t disagree more. When dealing with recalcitrant, misbehaving tech, the key is to remember that it’s nothing personal. Getting all wound up won’t help, sometimes it can be like opening a stubborn lock, you have to know how to jiggle it, I’ve started to think that it might be an ego issue on the operator’s part. I include myself in that, of course.

I always try to bear in mind that computers and technology are as much a part of Tao as everything else.

To misquote Pirsig, “Tao rests as easily at the heart of cyberspace as it does in the heart of a forest. To think otherwise is to demean Tao”

I’ve suffered from a bit of writers block for the last few days.  I finally remembered a quote from Bono in the book “Bono on Bono”; “Why don’t you write about that?”, good question, I thought.  Here we go….

It’s interesting to actually look at writers block, it’s not the first time I’ve suffered it, but it’s the first time I’ve looked at it like this.  It’s a pain in the neck for sure, but I think it’s also a wake up call to go and take a break for a while and recharge, so it’s nature can change a lot depending on how you look at it.

So many things are like this, the veneer we drop on the world according to our tastes and cultural background can blind us to the possibilities and in some cases make things a lot more difficult than they need to be.  If we’re not very careful we can do ourselves in.  The fun starts when you realise it’s optional, and you are the final arbiter and authority of how the world looks, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Whaddya know?  It worked, kudos to you Bono……

I came across this quote on the subject of violence and non-violence, I’d never thought of it like this before being focussed more on the physical side, I thought I’d share this quote as I found it very insightful.

“What is violence and what is non-violence? We can’t make a clear
demarcation between violence and non-violence on a superficial basis, since
it is related with motivation. Out of sincere motivation, certain
verbal actions, as well as physical actions, may look more wrathful, more
violent, harsher, but in essence, because these activities come out of a
sincere motivation of compassion, or sense of caring, they are
essentially non-violent. On the other hand, with negative motivation, try to
cheat, trying to exploit, trying to deceive, and using nice
words-although with a big artificial smile and with a gift- might look like a
friendly gesture, but because of the motivation, it is the worst kind of
violence. So I feel that in certain cases violence can be said to be a
manifestation or expression of compassion. Nevertheless, non-violence is
the basic expression of compassion, therefore, the concepts of
non-violence and compassion are very, very close.”
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama