Leaderboard

Her story reminded me of Chief Joseph, also the saying of: "do not become what you hate" or a new version of it. Chief Joseph (born c. 1840, Wallowa Valley, Oregon Territory—died September 21, 1904, Colville Reservation, Washington, U.S.) was a Nez Percé chief who, faced with settlement by whites of tribal lands in Oregon, led his followers in a dramatic effort to escape to Canada. The Nez Percé tribe was one of the most powerful in the Pacific Northwest and in the first half of the 19th century one of the most friendly to whites. Many Nez Percé, including Chief Joseph’s father, were converted to Christianity and Chief Joseph was educated in a mission school. The advance of white settlers into the Pacific Northwest after 1850 caused the United States to press the Native Americans of the region to surrender their lands and accept resettlement on small and often unattractive reservations. Some Nez Percé chiefs, including Chief Joseph’s father, questioned the validity of treaties pertaining to their lands negotiated in 1855 and 1863 on the ground that the chiefs who participated in the negotiations did not represent their tribe. When the United States attempted in 1877 to force the dissenting Nez Percé to move to a reservation in Idaho, Chief Joseph, who had succeeded his father in 1871, reluctantly agreed. While he was preparing for the removal, however, he learned that a trio of young men had massacred a band of white settlers and prospectors; fearing retaliation by the U.S. army, he decided instead to lead his small body of followers (some 200 to 300 warriors and their families) on a long trek to Canada. For more than three months (June 17–September 30, 1877), Chief Joseph led his followers on a retreat of about 1,600–1,700 miles (2,575–2,735 km) across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, outmaneuvering the pursuing troops, which outnumbered Joseph’s warriors by a ratio of at least ten to one, and several times defeating them in actual combat. During the long retreat, he won the admiration of many whites by his humane treatment of prisoners, his concern for women, children, and the aged, and also because he purchased supplies from ranchers and storekeepers rather than stealing them. The Nez Percé were finally surrounded in the Bear Paw mountains of Montana, within 40 miles (64 km) of the Canadian border. On October 5 Chief Joseph surrendered to Gen. Nelson A. Miles, delivering an eloquent speech that was long remembered: Chief Joseph and his band were sent at first to a barren reservation in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma); there many sickened and died. Not until 1885 were he and the remnants of his tribe allowed to go to a reservation in Washington—though still in exile from their valley. Meanwhile, Chief Joseph had made two trips to Washington, D.C., where, presented to Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, he pleaded for the return of his people to their ancestral home. See also Nez Percé. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ thus and at some point when faced with possible destruction one must make very hard decisions. Many of the native elders medicine people had to go underground so to speak so as to keep and be keepers their sacred ways, although more or less being hidden for an "X" amount of time until they could rise again to fight the good fight. download.webp

Ohhh ... your quotes gone ... anyway , it reminded me of the 'gateway' of Saturn - Binah on the Tree of Life , The Great Sea but also The Great Mother . The forces are collected * and joined together and birthed through the abyss ..... when the energy is coming 'down' , so she is the giver of life . Hence Saturn represents structure, order, systems and the discipline to keep it all together and functioning . But going up the Tree it is a dissolving , Saturn is seen as 'destructive ' pulling things apart, releasing and a death through the abyss and a rising beyond - death and 'liberation' from life . It's a perspective thing ; from 'down here ' we rejoice when the gate opens and life comes forth , but not when life departs and the gate closes over .

So true, that translation can make all the difference. I am fond of the Pali Text Society translations of the first four Nikayas, and of the Cleary brothers translations of so many Ch'an texts. I would not have been able to begin with these texts, without these translations. F. L. Woodward of the Pali Text Society translates the two feelings that are characteristic of the first concentration as "zest and ease". Others have translated these terms as "joy and bliss". I'd be lost, without Woodward. Sometimes, though, the off-beat translation speaks to me. I like Nishijima's translation of a line in Dogen's "Genjo Koan" about birds and fish: …each one realizes its limitations at every moment and each one somersaults (in complete freedom) at every place… ("Genjo Koan", Nishijima-Cross) Nobody else translates it that way.

If you get right down to it, it's the history of mathematics in the first half of the twentieth century. The mathematicians of the day were keen to put all of mathematics on an axiomatic basis. Sort of like, Euclid's Geometry, Redux--set up some axioms, and all of the known mathematical truths of the day would fall out as theorems. Along comes Kurt Godel, who demonstrates with logic and the properties of prime numbers that if your axioms are consistent, you cannot generate all that is known to be true in mathematics from them, and if you can generate all that is known in mathematics from a set of axioms, then you can also generate contradictory "truths" from those axioms. IMHO, the two-truths doctrine is just accepting a set of axioms about reality that yield contradictions, and regarding that as inevitable. Nah. There's a whole school of mathematics that rejects the law of the excluded middle (if it's not x, then it must be y). The reason most mathematicians are not eager to sign up as "intuitionists", as that school is called, is because it's not possible to generate all the beautiful results of modern mathematics from the logic the intuitionists are willing to accept. To me, the beauty of the teaching in the first four Nikayas is that there is an outline of a way of living, a way of living that Gautama said: … if cultivated and made much of, (the concentration) is something peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too. (SN 54.9, tr. Pali Text Society vol. V p 285) Gautama declared it to have been his way of living before his enlightenment, as well as after (same chapter, different sermons). He is intentionally taking the emphasis off enlightenment, probably because of the incident recorded in the same chapter where scores of monks a day "took the knife", or committed suicide. Seems Gautama had preached on the virtues of mindfulness of the ugly aspects of the body, just before he took a three week retreat, and the monks got hysterical. When Gautama returned, his attendant Ananda said, "it were well, Lord, if the Lord were to teach some other method of gnosis." The result was a lecture on the concentration that "is something peaceful and choice", which he called either "the concentration on inbreathing and outbreathing" as in the chapter above, or "the (mind-)development that is mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing", if you prefer MN 118 (Anapansati). Just finished a post titled "The Diamond Trap, the Thicket of Thorns"--all about that practice, if you're interested. Not about two truths. Not what it sounds like, the "intent concentration on inbreathing and outbreathing". Amounts to "just sitting", if you can swallow the thicket of thorns and see your way clear to leap out of the diamond trap: But usually in counting breathing or following breathing, you feel as if you are doing something, you know– you are following breathing, and you are counting breathing. This is, you know, why counting breathing or following breathing practice is, you know, for us it is some preparation– preparatory practice for shikantaza because for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit. (“The Background of Shikantaza”; Shunryu Suzuki, Sunday, February 22, 1970, San Francisco; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com)

Following the Buddhist Path, to reduce suffering.

Its running nicely now.

I would guess it mirrors identical reasons for the average person lacking the physical capabilities of an olympic athlete. The highest levels that can be attained require time and energy to develop. Although it should be mentioned there are many false paths of development. Even in bodybuilding there are things like steroids which can present an illusion of development on the outside. While being harmful and damaging on the inside. And so even someone like myself who is known for being reckless would exercise an extreme level of caution if ever attempting any form of cultivation or spiritualism.

Someone call me?