the body is a candle

image credit: see note below

life is a vibrant flame
that shines where it may

the body is a candle
meant to be consumed


2024-11-20T17−08*
*a link – an asterisk may link to anything (!*) – hover over these and other links for details* / items below relate to the above

image credit: John Smith – full moon from Hornby Island, 2024-11-15T22:08−08, used with permission

the body is a candle meant to be consumed (!? !*)

TK* / to come (!?)*
Posted

updated credo: evolution and extinction



2024-10-31T15−07*
*a link – an asterisk may link to anything (!*) – hover over these and other links for details* / items below relate to the above

to print the document, go to the original here

any note below is further to the endnotes in the document above

notice that to build our own theology together – at VanU (!?) or wherever – isn’t BYOT, it’s CTT*

Mary Oliver’s instructions for living a life (!*) inspired this credo update, as did seeing the current mass extinction (!?) less as a problem for us to solve, more as a predicament for us to survive – if we evolve in time

it’s not hope, it’s love … for everyone making mouth noises about their mind noises (!?)*

nothing isn’t dukkha … so, awake and respond: be awake, responsive, and free (!*)

nothing isn’t dukkha: nothing is perfect, ideal, complete, beyond change or dependence / footnote from page 1

TK* / to come (!?)*
Posted

do no harm – the zeroth precept

whenever possible, avoid
harming any being – avoid
killing, stealing, cheating,
lying, and otherwise denying
being awareness of being

may all be well*


2024-08-13T07−07*
*a link – an asterisk may link to anything (!*) – hover over these and other links for details* / items below relate to the above

zeroth: before the first (!?)

precept: a principle intended especially as a general rule of action (!?)
/ the precept to avoid harming any being leads into the five precepts

the five precepts (!?) / recast above in light of the ten theses of secular dharma*

the five precepts: an aid to enlightened being / “Strictly speaking, …” —Shunryu Suzuki (!g !* !*)*

denying being awareness … / read this also with being as a mass noun (!?) and awareness denied it

TK* / to come (!?)*

Posted

on any and all being

for a note on this video, see the notes following the post below

the whole – all that is – is what is

nothing is other than what is

nothing is other than the whole

nothing doesn’t change

nothing is perfect

nothing depends on nothing

only in the mind or by convention
is anything or anyone an entity

nothing is other than the whole

no one is

20221208T0158Z*
*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

/ the video above is of the Sunday service on November 6 at a small Unitarian church in Fall River, Massachusetts, and is set to start at the point when Rev. Richard Trudeau begins to speak on the topic of the day – with breaks during the next twelve minutes for other aspects of the service

nothing doesn’t change … nothing depends on nothing / anicca, dukkha, anatta (!?)

nothing is perfect / apart from the whole … dukkha/nirvana (!?)

/ nirvana: wanting nothing; being at one with what is – the whole – as seen in this moment by the whole

/ dukkha: wanting something; being at odds with what is – the whole – as seen by an entity not the whole

no one is / the self – an entity not the whole – is an illusion, a mental construct reinforced by convention

/practice self-inquiry (!?) …
as a thought – or anything – arises, silently ask to whom it arises, and then ask: Who am I? (!*)
Posted

absolute truth

relative truth and absolute truth are two sides of the same coin*

any thinking being is amphibian,
existing at any moment in one or both of two worlds:
the world of what is and the world of what is thought to be

the truth of anything thought to be is relative:
it depends on what else is thought to be

as for what is,
nothing doesn’t change
nothing is perfect
nothing depends on nothing
☛ what is depends on what is

the truth of what is depends on nothing else;
it is absolute, beyond words, beyond the mind,
open here and now – even so – to any and all being
as nothing other than the direct experience of being

nothing thought or said is the absolute truth

the thought of being – I am – is the first thought,
the origin of relative truth, of the world of what is thought to be:
the origin of separation into me and not-me, this and not-this, …

may all be well, letting that thought of being invite the question: Who am I?*


20221102T2313Z*
*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

date and time of last edit: 2023-07-17T10−07*

“Man is an amphibian …” / from the foreword by Aldous Huxley to Krishnamurti’s The First and Last Freedom (!?)

nothing doesn’t change … / anicca, dukkha, anatta – the three marks of existence (!?)

nothing is perfect / ideal, complete, beyond change … from notes on a Substack post*

nothing depends on nothing (!*) / a site-specific search

the direct experience of being / aka choiceless awareness (!* !*)

a direct frontal attack on the question: Who am I? / see “The Answer” – link on his home page – by Thanu Padmanabhan (!?)

/ click on the search icon in the reader below, enter the word direct, and step through the six matches




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nothing and being

image credit: Samuel Regan-Asante*

nothing depends on nothing, and nothing is unchanging

nothing is other than what is or seems to be

what is – what seems to be – and nothing are not two:
neither exists without the other

nothing exists, and nothing is other than being

no one is


2022-01-25T21:10−08* / January 25, 2022
*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archive of miscellany or notrehta posts

nothing depends on nothing (!*)
Posted

want no more

Jacob Needleman, at +3:06:
Consciousness – meaning the totality of thought, feeling, perception, sensation, pleasure, and pain – is not a being . . . Individuality is motivated by and perpetuated by wanting; and the cause of all wanting is ignorance . . . The ignorance meant is of things as they really are, and the consequent attribution of substantiality to what is merely phenomenal; the seeing of self in what is not-self.
the above is from a transcript of Jacob Needleman’s afterword to his reading of the Dhammapada*

whatever you do is never enough until you see what is

do no more than need be done to be and let be:
pay attention to what is, to direct experience,
to the miracle of being aware of being

this is being – being well – and it’s enough

no one need do more, no one need want more

may all be well and want no more


2021-09-02T09:47−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: September 2, 2021
*a link – or not; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the archive*

to want is dukkha* / site search
may all be well and want no more* / ditto
direct experience* / Sam Harris on the topic, quoted by Oliver Burkeman:
“If one pays sufficient attention, one can notice that there’s no subject in the middle of experience – there is only experience.”
Posted

may all be well

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
be well – pay attention to what is, to direct experience,
to the miracle of being aware of being – and want no more

nothing less than our survival rests on wanting nothing more

may none want more than they need to be and let be, to live and let live,
and pay attention to what is, to direct experience, to being aware of being

may all be well and want no more


2021-06-14T19:31−07* 
*a link –  see a note on notes and links :: block quote is from Mary Oliver :: this is a stripped-down version of the previous post*

pay attention to what is, to direct experience* / click on the asterisk or here and then scroll down to notes and the PDF reader

may all be well and want no more / no longer seeing self in what is not-self (!? !*)*
Posted

may all be well and want no more

image credit: Google Books / Mary Oliver*

be well – pay attention to what is, to direct experience,
to the miracle of being aware of being – and want no more

nothing less than our survival depends on wanting nothing more

may none want more than they need to be and let be, to live and let live,
and pay attention to what is, to direct experience, to being aware of being

may all be well and want no more


2021-05-01T12:12−07* / at the about*  post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: May 1, 2021
*a link – or not; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the archive*

attention* / cached audio: from 23:18, Mary Oliver on attention; “Attention without feeling … is only a report.”
attention* / tweet quotes Sam Harris: “If one pays sufficient attention, one can notice that … there is only experience.”*
what is* / the ever-changing present
direct experience* / Thanu Padmanabhan (!*)
direct experience* / of the mystery and wonder (!?)
the miracle of being aware of being* / the observer is the observed  – Krishnamurti* (!?)
nothing less than our survival … / Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens*
to be and let be: “allow everything to be as it is” / Caitlin Johnstone (!?)

may all be well* / results of a site search for this term
be well and want no more* / ditto
nirvana is wanting nothing, not even this* / ditto

there is a stripped-down version of this post at tiny.cc/mayallbewell

Posted