Self Cultivation and Associated Waffle

Looking back I see a lot of talk of "emptiness" and "no-self" in this blog. I'm not sure if this is a problem or not. From my own interest in what is often referred to as "eastern thought" I have come to see that such words are easily misunderstood. Criticism even drifts into caricatures of the "east" in contrast to the "west". Possibly each, east and west, have their caricatures. Anyway, this is to be a rambling blog, even a "stream of consciousness" ramble (Although I did read recently that our thoughts actually come in quantum leaps........and not so much a flowing stream)

Is this a representation of a Quantum Leap?

To begin with, something adapted from a recent Facebook post I made. The war in Syria continues (amongst others) with the latest headlines telling us that 16 children and four women have been killed in shelling in Eastern Ghouta. Eastern Ghouta? Its called home by some. Looking things up I found the following on just who are implicated in supplying arms to both sides of the conflict. A quick google reveals:- Russia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qater, UAE, US, UK, the EU, some Swedish guy, Libya, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon. This gives a whole new meaning to the term "our Global Village". It seems that most of us want a piece of the action.

A child in Syria

I often remember when the UK acrobatic air display team the Red Arrows were performing nearby, of how the roar of the jet engines made me just a little uneasy when approaching and overhead. I wondered then just how "uneasy" a child would feel in other circumstances, when the planes were not friendly. Just a thought, (stream or quantum) 

Where does "emptiness" and "no-self" come into all this? 

Such words are not often associated with what could be termed self cultivation, yet in the historical unfolding of the Pure Land way there is a rich tradition of that sort of thing - and not being associated with seeking "enlightenment" or of making oneself worthy in the eyes of Amida, any "cultivation" is purely for the sake of itself. 

Self cultivations

In my own rambling and stumbling path poetry has played some part, particularly of William Blake. Popping into my mind now are some lines from "Songs of Innocence and Experience", from "The Lamb", one of the songs of innocence. 

Little Lamb who made thee 

Dost thou know who made thee

....Blake asks, and answers that the One who made him is "meek and mild" and "became a little child".......and ends with:-

Little Lamb God bless thee.

Certainly a Song of Innocence, and each has their counterpart in any world of dualism. The counterpart, the song of experience, is "The Tyger" (forgive Blake's spelling!), where Blake asks much the same question as before, i.e. just "who" could have made such a creature? 

When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Did he who made the lamb..........

Quite a question, and perhaps not for the fainthearted; especially if we are comfortable only with the "one" who made the Lamb! Attempts are made by theologians to unite the two "creators", this by such ideas as "the fall" where, apparently, nature fell with "man" and I assume the tiger, before such fall, was herbivorous and did not seek other living creatures for breakfast. Then again, if the "other animals" do not have souls, why should we really care? Nature red in tooth and claw? Food for thought, if you are that way inclined. This makes me think of the opening lines of two texts (holy or not).

Of the Bible, where:- 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

As opposed to the opening of the Buddhist Dhammapada:-

All things are led by mind, created by mind. 

Just where is the beginning?. Just ahead?  Perhaps not.

The Theravada Elder Nyanponika Thera said of these two openings that while one led up, up and away into an imaginary beyond, the other led straight into the heart of man. Can these two ways ever meet, be reconciled, or is east east and west west and never the twain shall meet? Well, maybe so or maybe not. 

For my part, I have found that most criticisms involving the "idle torpid east" are total misunderstandings of its actual heart, a heart that as I have found it protects the "self" from ever departing for an imaginary beyond; that in fact returns it to this world after all its explorations and with the journey as home. 

Forget the "world to come", or at least, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Well, I could keep rambling all day. Just a mention of another favorite poet of mine, Philip Larkin. 

Philip Larkin, who once said that his popularity was in part because he often wrote of unhappiness, "and most people are unhappy"

One of his poems is "Faith Healing" where he speaks, with obvious scepticism, of the "works" of a faith healer , a healer who asks of each "Now, dear child, what's wrong?" A good question. Larkin ends by saying that at the culmination of the service "all is wrong" and continues:- 

In everyone there sleeps

A sense of life lived according to love.

To some it means the difference they could make

By loving others, but across most it sweeps

As all they might have done had they been loved.

This nothing cures.....

And he speaks of "the voice above" that says "Dear Child"........and all time has disproved.

Which makes me think of Syrian children.