A brief metaphysical musing on the nature of enlightenment, being and reality There are indeed many paths up the mountain. Sectarianism is juvenile and problematic at best; and dogmatism is confirmed blindness, confirmed delusion. Being is non-dual, all-pervasive, infinite, stainless, primordially awake; yet, there remain many viable paths to realizing
Continue readingTag: buddhism
Scripturient: Musings on Haiku
I can’t recall just when I first encountered haiku, that subtle, concise and often baffling Japanese poetry, but I suspect it was sometime in the late 1960s, not long after I was first introduced to Buddhism. I recall having the four-volume set of seasonal haiku by Blyth back in those
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Buddhist Perspective on Addiction: Nothing is Vital.
Now that the hangover from New Year’s Eve is abating for many, and we might be freshly open to some self-improvement, consider a Buddhist view of using meditation to tackle addictions. I don’t just mean for substance abuse, but also for that incessant drive to check social media just once
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: SARS #1 and Collective Amnesia
SARS #1 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was a deadly coronavirus that hit Canada in February of 2003. It started in China in November 2002 then entered Toronto in a traveller flying in from Hong Kong. SARS #1 differs significantly from SARS-CoV-2 because the OG killed people faster, so it was easier
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On not Grasping for the Good
I’m taking a university course on Asian Wisdom, which I’m really enjoying. My prof told a story about Buddha that concludes that we should only tell others of a better way to live if we’re asked for advice; otherwise, we should never impose our morals on others because our moral purpose
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Buddhism: Surface & Depth; Or, Big Mind & Baby Minds
Buddhist meditation and mindfulness are very popular now, and have become mainstream. Hospitals, churches and secular classes are now offering meditation and mindfulness training and practice. That is a good thing, and it need not go with any kind of religious conversion; and in Western popular Buddhism, generally it does
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Yuval Harari: Bleak Is Back!
Yuval Harari is a shallow thinking dogmatic materialist who swallows whole and uncritically the dominant pseudo-scientific paradigm of mechanistic materialist dualism, which of course is an extremely bleak view of the world, and he is also steeped in an equally uncritical post-modernist nihilism; and he tries to wed that sordid
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Question Everything: Metaphysics, Science, Philosophy & Common Sense
Here are thoughts on a short video linked below, but I would frankly assert that the thoughts presented here in this reflection or meditation are more interesting and more useful than the talk that they are commenting on. This seems to me an unnecessarily obscure talk (linked below), even though
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Enlightenment: Raising Consciousness & The Cloud of Unknowing
Ideology is neither salvation nor liberation. As important as a paradigm shift, a shift in world view, or a shift in consciousness and perspective, clearly is, we must understand this. It is not ideas or ideology that will save
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What is Enlightenment?
Further Notes On The Dualistic Illusion (This ought to raise the hackles of the fundamentalists – both secular and religious. But I don’t write for the narrow of mind anyway, so I am not concerned about that.) Now here is someone who knows what he is talking about: Rabbi David
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What Is Buddhism, and What Is Non-Dualism?
And What Are They Not? Open letter to Russell Brand, regarding a video (linked below) titled, Dualism vs Monism EXPLAINED! Russell, who the hell are you interviewing?! The guy is clearly talking out of his ass. (Sorry for my directness and occasional bluntness. I was heavily influenced by Chomsky, Trungpa
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Philosophy, Being and Reality
Some reading on the subject of philosophy, ontology, epistemology, metaphysics and the nature of reality that I’d recommend: Choosing Reality, by Allan Wallace, Dreamtime and Inner Space, by Holgar Kalweit, The Holographic Universe, and Mysticism and the New Physics, by Michael Talbot, and an excellent first major book, as an
Continue readingcartoon life: McGilchrist documentary on The Divided Brain
cbcgem.app/6HfDjTTeYbeDgnMF6 Words I can’t think of right now.
Continue readingScripturient: Thoreau and Buddhism
In his introduction to Thoreau: Walden and Other Writings (Bantam Books, 1962-1981), Joseph Wood Krutch described Henry David Thoreau’s writings as having four “distinct subjects”, which I paraphrase somewhat as: The life of quiet desperation most men live; The economic fallacy that is responsible for their condition The delights yielded
Continue readingScripturient: The Ten Bulls
A series of ten Buddhist drawings make up what are known collectively as the Ten Oxherding Pictures or sometimes just as the Ten Bulls. Each one graphically illustrates a stage along the path to enlightenment or self-realization, but they can also be seen as a metaphor for a wider range
Continue readingcartoon life: 100 cats are free!
What!??? Are you insane? I have set free 100 cats worldwide. Not on sale, but free! My ebook 100 cats on iTunes Bookstore is free worldwide. Except in America, Land of the Free where the .99 tariff continues, because the country is insane. 100 cats an animal art eBook with more
Continue readingScripturient: Some of the Dharma
I first started reading Jack Kerouac in 1968, a battered paperback copy of On the Road, reprinted a decade after its original publication and kept in a pocket of a pack sack for easy reference as I hitchhiked around the country one summer. The book e…
Continue readingScripturient: The Blackened Nose
There’s a famous Zen tale that I was reminded of as I was reading the media release about the Collingwood Airport this week. It somehow seemed remarkably fitting. It’s about the folly of selfishness, of thinking yours is the only way forwar…
Continue readingScripturient: The Slow Path to Happiness
If 15 minutes of stillness change the 23 hours and 45 minutes left in your day, including your sleep and your human relations, it seems to be worthwhile. So said Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk who has spent the last 45 years in the Himalayas pursuing the goal of mindfulness.
Continue readingScripturient: How Many Virtues?
The Greeks had but four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and courage (or fortitude). To this, many centuries later, the Catholic church (notably Aquinas) added three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity (or love). These are the seven basic virtues of Western culture. But they’re not the only ones. In
Continue reading