In one half an old monk – the other half a cloud.
Category: Philosophy
August Weismann and Immortality
How can ‘dying’ have a beneficial effect for the human species? It appears that the immortal sex cells use the mortal physical body as a vehicle for propagation from one generation to the next, and that in so doing, it is important that these vehicles fall away so that ‘new’ combinations of sex cells are achieved through reproduction.
Seeing Beyond Bourgeois Nationalism
Instead of acknowledging that distinct human populations are the product of diverse manifestations of adaptability within different climatic and geographical conditions, the myth is perpetuated that the ‘differences’ are in fact directly related to skin-colour. Human groupings are then encouraged by an exploitative socio-economic system to perpetually conflict with one another to see which racial grouping is ‘superior’.
Cultivating Dao and Developing Mind is True Self-Cultivation
Genuine self-cultivation can only be achieved after the mind has been developed through discipline. The mind is developed in two ways – by cultivating the permanent states of virtue and selflessness. Cause and effect is entirely dependent upon our own physical actions which produce either blessings or misfortune – but only the realised state of wuwei (non-action) in the mind and body is considered real. Even spirits and ghosts have their method – but their cycle of endless transformation is difficult to discern.
Thomas Parr (1483-1635 CE) – Oldest Man in England! (16.8.2015)
‘At Great Wollaston, just off the road from Shrewsbury to Wales, stands a small thatched cottage, birthplace and home of the oldest Englishman who ever lived. Thomas Parr was born in 1483. He lived to see ten monarchs on the throne, from the Plantagenet Edward IV, through all the Tudors to the Stuart Charles I. He joined the army at 17, returning when he was 35 to run the family farm. He married for the first time when he was 80, had an affair and an illegitimate child when he was 100 and married again at 122. When he was 152, the Earl of Arundel took him up to London to meet Charles I, who asked for the secret of his long life. ‘Moral temperance and a vegetarian diet,’ he replied. Unfortunately, the foul stench of London polluted his lungs, which had thrived on Shropshire air, and he died in November 1635. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.’
Mount Ji Zu Cliff Exhibits Face of Master Xu Yun (1840-1959)
The Venerable Old Master Xu Yun existed in the time of modern Buddhism and was an outstanding teacher. He was a Buddhist monk who strictly adhered to the Vinaya Discipline for over a hundred years, and cultivated the Dao in at least fifteen different temples, which included the temple of the Sixth Patriarch (Hui Neng). When the time was right, he inherited the lineages of all Five Ch’an Schools. He was a very highly respected Ch’an monk, and had tens of thousands of disciples (both ordained and lay), to whom he transmitted the genuine Ch’an Dharma.
