Following One's Inclinations

Last night I dreamt I was walking in a foreign city at night. I became lost and I encountered many people on the streets. Some were good, some bad. When the bad ones appeared I found myself silently reciting Amitabha Buddha and this kept my mind calm and somewhat free from fear. In my younger years when I would be confronted with demons in dreams I would resist and fear them, and if they attacked me I would counterattack. When I learned new spiritual principles and tried to practice them the final exam always took place in dreams. If I could practice the rules of wisdom in a dream I knew I could practice in the physical realm, and in most cases practicing these rules is easier in the physical realm than in dreams, for in dreams is where the deepest roots of my psyche manifest. And so it is quite startling to be confronted with demons in a dream and in reply to them I continuously recite Amitabha Buddha. I began to practice this method of meditation only a week ago and to have it already manifest in a dream is a positive sign because most of my wisdom practices took years to manifest in the dreamworld. 

The dream manifestation of Amitabha Buddha encouraged me this morning to take up the meditation technique called "Following One's Inclinations", and so upon getting out of bed I bowed 48 times to Amitabha Buddha, and seven times each to the Bodhisatva Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisatva Mahasthamaprapta, and the Ocean-Wide Assembly.

The Gods Must Be Bored

This week I experienced an impression of my existence being trapped inside a construct similar to a video game. The controller of the game, which is consciousness, has its eyes on the character in the game, which is my ego, at all times, so much so that the consciousness absolutely forgets that it is playing a game and believes that the character is "real". When thinking of this my consciousness snaps out of the video game illusion and remembers that the ego only exists in the video game world and doesn't exist outside of it. This viewpoint allows my consciousness to perceive my self as nothing all that important, nothing to fret over, and to accept both negative and positive experiences lightly. It is a beautiful way to experience life, and yet, the habits of the mind concerning the ego are so thick and heavy that consciousness continually slips into believing the self to be real and worth protecting. 

A humorous side note about this game is that my character is an NPC, slave boy, cypher, and the description I prefer, just a piece of anonymous scenery which plays no role whatsoever in the plot of the game. The best that I can hope for in the game is to go unnoticed, and if I am noticed it will most likely be in a negative, hostile way. And then I think about the main characters in the game, who is controlling them? No matter how big their role, though, it is still just a game, and just about everyone, from the most important character to the cypher, forgets that it is a game, and so the drama which unfolds from day to day is perceived as a deadly serious affair. And then I think how funny it would be that the beings which we call Gods are the ones controlling the main characters, and that the Gods, due to being immortal and omnipotent, created the game due to the great boredom they must feel from time to time (no imminent death, no sense of time passing, no surprises, etc), and to make certain the game captivates them they enter into it with the same restrictions as humans, which is that even the Gods forget they are playing a game, and thus their boredom becomes assuaged. 

I have been fortunate this week due to my mind taking small steps towards one-pointed concentration on the breath. I experienced a super-concentrated one-point once in my life, in a single 24 hour period. I believe the year was 1988. After that day I lived in a semi-one-pointed concentration continuously for three years, and then, I can still recall the exact moment, this one-pointed concentration disappeared. When I realized it had gone I was horrified. Why did it leave, and where did it go? My mind was thus back to its old habits of treading external paths and thus being subject to the whims of external fate, one moment happy, the next sad, all dependent on external circumstances. This way of life is no life at all, it's the life of illusion, the life of the game of the Gods, and they are more adept because they can exit and enter whenever they see fit, but for humans it is much more difficult due to forgetting that it is a game with no inherent reality. One-pointed concentration allows one to break the game's illusion, and one walks from moment to moment with the mind still, calm, and very aware. So aware that the game becomes visible and one can laugh if one wants to or just continue to concentrate on the breath. And as I wrote above, this week my mind has somehow found its way back to the state of one-point. Not that I am there yet in a state of constant durability, but just to get glimpses of it is encouraging. I wonder if chanting the name Amitabha Buddha has helped guide me back to the wondrous state of one-point?  I am almost certain that it has. What I would like to do now is sit in meditation more often, to complement the walking/chanting meditation. This will give me the chance to perhaps enter into one-point more often, and is this what is meant by the phrase "stream enterer"?

Miracles

The past week has been a constant flow of unusual occurrences and many blessings. On Thursday I ran 7 miles, which is the longest run Francis has experienced, the second longest run being 4 miles earlier in the summer. My legs that night were sore and my right knee stiff. I was expecting to rest for the next few days, however, the next day, Friday, I woke early and decided to walk to the Jewel Tree at the Pier and after making the offering I experienced what could be called a physical miracle, my legs became un-sore and my knee un-stiff, so I decided to run and offer that experience to the Jewel Tree. I ran to the track, did the usual sprints and muscle exercises, and was thrilled to have done so. That night my legs became sore again and my knee stiff. I decided I needed to rest the next day, Saturday, but I woke early and once again walked to the Jewel Tree at the Pier. After making the offering my legs once again experienced a miracle and felt normal with no soreness or stiffness, so I ran to the track for sprints and muscle exercises. Yesterday, Sunday, was the same story, wake early, walk to Jewel Tree, make offering, experience physical miracle, run to track for sprints and muscle exercises. 

Today was the same again, with an added miracle, while walking along to the Jewel Tree I found fresh flowers at my feet three times, each time picking up the flowers and placing them into the offering bag. When I arrived at the tree and made the rice and flower offering I was startled to see that it resembled an offering from the Pink Angel, on a smaller scale, of course, and this cheered me because I have not crossed paths with an offering from the Pink Angel in over a week. I then ran to the track for the usual workout. 

Each day when I return home my legs become sore again, but each day the legs are less sore than the day before, so now as I sit at home my legs feel as if they are slowly recovering from the 7 mile run, all the while I am running everyday and this makes me joyful and calm.

I should mention that last week I began reading a new dharma book on Pure Land, and this book  inspired me to begin practicing chanting meditation, using the name Amitabha Buddha. In my younger years I shunned chanting because I felt it best to keep my mind clean of all language, so Zen meditation was a good fit for my young mind. Now that I am old my mind is no longer able to achieve deep calmness during silent meditation, so it seems the right time to begin chanting (silent) meditation. I find it quite easy and pleasant to do while walking and running, and since I started chanting the name Amitabha Buddha unusually positive things have occurred, both in the physical and mind realm. I mentioned some of the physical things above, but my mind has experienced something quite beautiful and liberating, the "sensation" that what I am experiencing is indeed there, and at the same time, not there. It is the old common story with such experiences, an ordinary human cannot find the words to accurately describe the situation, and thus, all I can say is that the psychic experience which has flooded my mind this week is an example of another miracle.

Prophet Dan

Today I woke from a dream as the sun was rising. In the dream I was playing a ball game with my friend David, and during the game a man who was standing nearby played an Asian style wooden flute, the melody clear and bright, and David picked up his guitar and accompanied the flute player. 

When the dream ended I lay in bed replaying the melody in my memory and I realized I must get up and walk to the Jewel Tree. When I arrived at the Tree the sun was just above the horizon and when I offered rice I saw a circle of pink and white flower petals, obviously an offering from the Pink Angel. I decided to walk to the track and when I arrived at the beach I crossed paths with Prophet Dan, a fine looking man with a gray beard and crystal blue eyes. He spoke with me a long time, sharing his knowledge and wisdom, and then  he departed as quickly as he had come.