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#// following the tradition of Forde naming creatures after food
kraysenford · 4 years
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——  [ kraysen ford, cis male, thirty seven. ] hailing from prada verde, this farmer was at his wedding when the sudden departure happened and lost his fiance, sister, mother, father & best friend. People tend to associate him with an Old Farm House, Old Worn Down Books & Blind Willie Johnson Records. He is at risk of being followed by the guilty remnant and will recite different paragraphs of scripture and or monolouges when they encounter them.
Penned by Angie.
BIOGRAPHY
TRIGGERS: Death, Cheating & Single Parenting
May my mercy prevail over my wrath.
Men with good hearts were always hard to come by in this day and age, those who portrayed themselves to be usually just hid their agenda’s better than others. But there was no man like Kraysen Ford, the boy next door, the man with intergrity and respect.
Brought up on a farm in Prada Verde; he was a country boy through and through. Growing up in the house with his Mother, Father, Younger Sister, Older brother and Grandma; a close family who were always found laughing around the dinner table at night, cards lay out and jokes being told. They were a genorous bunch, always thinking of others; whether his mother was running a charity food drive for those less fortunate in the community or his father was out helping his older neighbours with the chores they’d grown too weary to do in their old age.
Kraysen spent his years growing up seeing all these acts of kindess, in and outside of the home. The way his grandmother talked about the long marriage she had to his grandfather before he passed, when they decided she should live with them so she wasn’t alone. The way his mother and father were together, so effortless, yet still so compassionate and tender all these years on. Each and every moment, Kray took from it, he learnt how to be a real man. Not the kind of man that women loved in the movies, a bad boy. Sure, he had his traits — but he was far from it.
In High school he met his best friend, the person who he knew got him. Although he was kind and sweeter than the usual popular lads in high school, Kraysen made his way to the top by being one of the most liked people due to his nature. He was a favorite of not only the students, but the teachers and was academic, although not that interested in it. His favorite class was music, always taking the time to sing, play the piano or guitar which he showed a natural ability with.
But knew he’d never be able to persue it, his job was to take over the farm from his dad. And while some people would say that it was unfair to put that burden on a child, Kraysen knew it was not only the right thing to do but also the smart thing. It was a steady job, music never would be and Kray saw a wife and children in his future; he saw them on that very farm where he’d grown up, playing in the fields while Harp and his wife would sip cold punch in the summer time.
Throughout school Kraysen dated an array of girls, he wasn’t a heartbreaker, in fact, they ended up breaking his. Whether it was cheating, saying he was too nice or it just wasn’t the right time — he found himself always wondering if there was something wrong with him, or maybe it was only the bad guys that ended up with the girls in the end.
It was only in his last year of high school, as a Senior, that he began to sneak out to parties; he was sure if he asked his parents they’d be fine with it, but it was more fun that way. His Grandma caught him a few times, saying it was their secret — their bond only grew. But those nights he realised that he struggled to find the one, no one ever stood out to him anymore, he was a man that still appreciated the woman’s form, and the woman he wanted he couldn’t have. That was his problem, and he knew it all too well.
After high school he began working at the farm immediately, as a graduation gift he was given a red truck; like the one he’d always dreamed of, which Kraysen and his father worked every day to restore; it was their thing, something he cherished. But he knew he wanted to do something more, he wanted to be more — Help people, but just in a different way to his parents.
With the grades and the right attitude, Kraysen attended Savannah State University where he studied Psychology, so he could become a therapy and eventually, after completing all the courses — he graduated and after speaking with his father, they set up Ranch Therpay; Kray was aware that most people found it daunting to go into someones office and talk to them, so he decided to use the farm as a tool. Each patient would walk with him through the farm, ride the horses, feed the animals and that’s when therapy would commence. He believed it was better to get a lot of his patients out of a room and into the open, a lot of people didn’t get to do that. Depression kept them couped up, or they were too afraid to go out alone, only two reasons among thousands.
And it worked, a sucess that was reported on the news, the papers all around Prada Verde. They were known as the family of givers, those who were happy to help others and wanted to keep helping as much as they could.
He his older brother, Bash, also named Bazen. But he was older, married and had a family of his own.  He’d decided the family business wasn’t for him at a young age and ventured into property sales, he was amazing at it and was grateful for what he had. They saw each other most Sundays at church or when they had family meals, in honour of their family traditions. But the questions were always asked as to when Harp would settle down; when he’d finally meet the girl of his dreams.
So he started actively looking until he met her, like a whirl wind she came into his life and ripped him apart like a tornado set on a path of destruction. She was everything he never usually went for, a seductive, maipulative and soul sucking creature who he’d end up falling in love with. 
And then she was pregnant.
While Kray was happy, he could tell she wasn’t. It was like being punched in the stomach, each day became painstakingly long as he wished for their child to arrive, in hopes it may fix the clear void that had become present, but instead she flew deeper into a void of anger and annoyance. And the day their beautiful daughter, Dotty Andrews arrived, she was gone. Left without another word, and from that day on he vowed he’d do anything and everything for his daughter.
However, he did what he had to, to win her back. But it was short lived, the day they were marrying on his farm, they all just dissapeared.
Like a light went out. And then there was no one.
Just Kray and his daughter, his entire family had almost been wiped out, and left a man completely torn apart. What would he do? Where would he go? How would he live? A man who was amazing dad, but had always had the love of his parents to help him when needed. But that had been ripped away from him, and he had no answers as to why. 
Now he’s a solitary man, who lives on his farm, still loving and happy, but keeps himself distances as to not get hurt again. He just prays nothing comes to take his daughter away, for that would be the worst thing that could ever happen to him.
PERSONALITY
POSITIVE: Disciplined, Kind hearted, Reliable & Romantic. NEGATIVE: Jealous, Over Sensitive, Stubborn & Over Thinker.
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picsofsannyas · 4 years
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And Buddha wanted his disciples to be integrated individuals
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BELOVED OSHO,
BUT THE BATHHOUSE SUTRA SAYS, "BY CONTRIBUTING TO THE BATHING OF MONKS, PEOPLE RECEIVE LIMITLESS BLESSINGS." THIS WOULD APPEAR TO BE AN INSTANCE OF EXTERNAL PRACTICE ACHIEVING MERIT. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BEHOLDING THE MIND? HERE, THE BATHING OF MONKS DOESN'T REFER TO THE WASHING OF ANYTHING TANGIBLE. WHEN THE LORD PREACHED THE BATHHOUSE SUTRA, HE WANTED HIS DISCIPLES TO REMEMBER THE DHARMA OF WASHING. SO HE USED AN EVERYDAY CONCERN TO CONVEY HIS REAL MEANING.      ...THE BATHHOUSE IS THE BODY. WHEN YOU LIGHT THE FIRE OF WISDOM, YOU WARM THE PURE WATER OF THE PRECEPTS AND BATHE THE TRUE BUDDHA-NATURE WITHIN YOU. BY UPHOLDING THESE SEVEN PRACTICES, YOU ADD TO YOUR VIRTUE. THE MONKS OF THAT AGE WERE PERCEPTIVE. THEY UNDERSTOOD THE BUDDHA'S MEANING. THEY FOLLOWED HIS TEACHING, PERFECTED THEIR VIRTUE AND TASTED THE FRUIT OF BUDDHAHOOD. BUT PEOPLE NOWADAYS CAN'T FATHOM THESE THINGS.      ...OUR TRUE BUDDHA-NATURE HAS NO SHAPE. AND THE DUST OF AFFLICTION HAS NO FORM. HOW CAN PEOPLE USE ORDINARY WATER TO WASH AN INTANGIBLE BODY? IT WON'T WORK. WHEN WILL THEY WAKE UP? TO CLEAN SUCH A BODY, YOU HAVE TO BEHOLD IT. ONCE IMPURITIES AND FILTH ARISE FROM DESIRE, THEY MULTIPLY UNTIL THEY COVER YOU INSIDE AND OUT. BUT IF YOU TRY TO WASH THIS BODY OF YOURS, YOU'LL HAVE TO SCRUB UNTIL IT'S NEARLY GONE BEFORE IT'S CLEAN. FROM THIS YOU SHOULD REALIZE THAT WASHING SOMETHING EXTERNAL ISN'T WHAT THE BUDDHA MEANT.
THE SUTRAS SAY THAT SOMEONE WHO WHOLEHEARTEDLY INVOKES THE BUDDHA IS SURE TO BE REBORN IN THE WESTERN PARADISE. SINCE THIS DOOR LEADS TO BUDDHAHOOD, WHY SEEK LIBERATION IN BEHOLDING THE MIND?      ...BUDDHA MEANS AWARENESS, THE AWARENESS OF BODY AND MIND THAT PREVENTS EVIL FROM ARISING IN EITHER. AND TO INVOKE MEANS TO CALL TO MIND, TO CALL CONSTANTLY TO MIND THE RULES OF DISCIPLINE AND TO FOLLOW THEM WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT.      ...TO INVOKE THE BUDDHA'S NAME, YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE DHARMA OF INVOKING. IF IT'S NOT PRESENT IN YOUR MIND, YOUR MOUTH CHANTS AN EMPTY NAME. AS LONG AS YOU'RE TROUBLED BY THE THREE POISONS OR BY THOUGHTS OF YOURSELF, YOUR DELUDED MIND WILL KEEP YOU FROM SEEING THE BUDDHA .... IF YOU CLING TO APPEARANCES WHILE SEARCHING FOR MEANING, YOU WON'T FIND A THING. THUS, SAGES OF THE PAST CULTIVATED INTROSPECTION AND NOT SPEECH. THIS MIND IS THE SOURCE OF ALL VIRTUES. AND THIS MIND IS THE CHIEF OF ALL POWERS. THE ETERNAL BLISS OF NIRVANA COMES FROM THE MIND AT REST. REBIRTH IN THE THREE REALMS ALSO COMES FROM THE MIND. THE MIND IS THE DOOR TO EVERY WORLD. AND THE MIND IS THE FORD TO THE OTHER SHORE. THOSE WHO KNOW WHERE THE DOOR IS DON'T WORRY ABOUT REACHING IT. THOSE WHO KNOW WHERE THE FORD IS DON'T WORRY ABOUT CROSSING IT. THE PEOPLE I MEET NOWADAYS ARE SUPERFICIAL. THEY THINK OF MERIT AS SOMETHING THAT HAS FORM. THEY SQUANDER THEIR WEALTH AND BUTCHER CREATURES OF LAND AND SEA .... THEY SEE SOMETHING TANGIBLE AND INSTANTLY BECOME ATTACHED. IF YOU TALK TO THEM ABOUT FORMLESSNESS, THEY SIT THERE DUMB AND CONFUSED. GREEDY FOR THE SMALL MERCIES OF THIS WORLD, THEY REMAIN BLIND TO THE GREAT SUFFERING TO COME. SUCH DISCIPLES WEAR THEMSELVES OUT IN VAIN. TURNING FROM THE TRUE TO THE FALSE, THEY TALK ABOUT NOTHING BUT FUTURE BLESSINGS. IF YOU CAN SIMPLY CONCENTRATE YOU MIND'S INNER LIGHT AND BEHOLD ITS OUTER ILLUMINATION, YOU'LL DISPEL THE THREE POISONS AND DRIVE AWAY THE SIX THIEVES ONCE AND FOR ALL. AND WITHOUT EFFORT YOU'LL GAIN POSSESSION OF AN INFINITE NUMBER OF VIRTUES, PERFECTIONS AND DOORS TO THE TRUTH. SEEING THROUGH THE MUNDANE AND WITNESSING THE SUBLIME IS LESS THAN AN EYE-BLINK AWAY. REALIZATION IS NOW. WHY WORRY ABOUT GRAY HAIR? BUT THE TRUE DOOR IS HIDDEN AND CAN'T BE REVEALED. I HAVE ONLY TOUCHED UPON BEHOLDING THE MIND.
Thank God that this is the last Bodhidharma sutra. I was worried about where he is going after the bathhouse! It has been a tremendous journey to the mountaintop and back to your home. Bodhidharma has been taking you on the whole merry-go-round.
I started with Bodhidharma -- the name Bodhidharma means "the self-nature of awareness" -- but unfortunately I have to end the journey with Buddhudharma. Buddhudharma means "the nature of unawareness, of stupidity."
He got himself into this mess, but it has been of tremendous insight to us. Watching him you can avoid the same mess. Whatever he said earlier showed his insight into the deepest potential of man, but what he is saying now is just absolutely irrelevant. Once in a while he remembers who he is but it seems he goes on forgetting; or perhaps he is too much attached to his special doctrine of Mahayana and much worried about disturbing the newly initiated Buddhists. In this situation, he must have suffered a lot. I can see -- perhaps nobody may have noted it -- but I can see his suffering. His suffering is that he is saying things very unwillingly and this is the problem with all those who accept any doctrine, any scripture, any church. They are in constant trouble. If they listen to their own inner voice, it says something; if they listen to the tradition, it says something else.
There have been very few people in the world who are ready to antagonize everybody. If Bodhidharma had said whatever his experience was, perhaps he would have lost all his prestige, respectability and his great name in the annals of Buddhism. But to me, it would not have been a loss. To me, he would have risen higher than anyone else, just because his single commitment was concentratedly and consistently one ...and that is his own experienced truth. Nothing else can change it. You laughed listening to the very name of the sutra, THE BATHHOUSE SUTRA, because you don't know that there have been two rebellious religions against Hinduism in India -- Jainism and Buddhism. The Jaina monk never takes a bath; he does not even brush his teeth. He stinks and it is thought to be a great discipline that you are not at all concerned with your body which is ephemeral, which is going to die anyway. Why go on cleaning it and wasting your time? It will become unclean again tomorrow.
Buddhism is almost a parallel religion to Jainism. They agree on all the essential points, but Buddha seems to be more sensible than Mahavira. He wanted his monks to take a bath every day so that they would remain clean, so that their bodies would not be condemned but respected as a temple of their divine nature. But there were so many monks: to feed them, to give them use of your bathhouses, to give them clothes, to give them medicines when they were sick, was becoming more and more of a burden to the society.
Just a few years ago in Thailand, the situation became so bad that almost one-fourth of the population of the country were monks. The government had to pass a law saying unless you had the permission of the government, you could not become a monk.
This is the first time in history that any government had taken such a step but it was absolutely necessary in a poor country. If out of four persons, one person does not work, does not create and yet needs all kinds of things which are absolutely necessary, he is going to become a burden.
It is an ugly situation where half the population is starving, where half of the country sleeps only with one daily meal, where people not only eat fruits but dig out the roots of trees, boil them and eat them, hoping that they must have nourishing power. Because they are nourishing the whole tree -- they are nourishing the flowers and the fruits -- naturally the roots must have great nourishment.
Gautam Buddha has to talk about such trivia because if it is not talked about, then people start taking decisions on their own. And Buddha wanted his disciples to be integrated individuals -- clean, pure, alert in every possible way both outwardly and inwardly. His concern and compassion were so great that there are thirty-three thousand rules for a Buddhist monk. It is mind-boggling; thirty-three thousand rules! Even to remember them is difficult. But Buddha has taken care of every detail: when to wake up, when to go to beg for your food, not to take all your food from one house but from five houses so nobody is burdened. Five houses can give you small bits and that will be enough for you. On one house, you might be a little heavy ...and not to stay in one city more than three days so you don't create any kind of burden for anybody. Eat only one time a day because millions of people eat only once a day. You should not ask for two meals. Don't have more than three pieces of clothing; two to use, one for emergency situations. For example: you suddenly find yourself coming back to the place where all the other monks are staying and it starts raining. Both your pieces of clothing, upper and lower, are wet. At least you still have one cloth to cover yourself -- this third is for an emergency. Two are for your essential needs but you should not have more than three.
These details were essential though they look like trivia. You think, "What nonsense is this? A Gautam Buddha should talk about spirituality, about growth and awareness and freedom and he is talking about these small matters." But he had to for the simple reason because he accepted the idea of renouncing the world. Once people renounce the world they are bound to become burdens ...and on poor societies.
So when Buddha says that one who gives his bathhouse to be used by a monk earns great virtue, he is simply trying to persuade people that they should not think of it as a burden, but as a blessing. When a monk accepts the food you offer he is not obliged to you, Buddha says. You are obliged to him. Just his receiving your food, on your part gives great virtue. Perhaps you have given your own food, perhaps you have given your children's food, but you have sacrificed something and you have respected a man who has no possessions, no money.
Buddha has said that the mother is blessed who gives birth to a child who is going to renounce the world. The father is blessed who has a child who is going to renounce the world. They are renouncing the world just to develop their potential to its ultimate. Help them. If you cannot raise your consciousness, at least you can help in some small way those who are making the tremendous effort of raising their consciousness to its ultimate illumination.
Hence, whether it is trivia or not, it would have been perfectly good if Bodhidharma had accepted the sutra as it was. And what I have said, he should have said. But he himself is feeling embarrassed, so he starts trying again, saying it is a metaphor for something invisible, and that makes his whole approach fallacious. I will read the sutra and then I will read his fictitious explanations. The sutra is absolutely clear; it needs no clarification. BUT THE BATHHOUSE SUTRA SAYS, "BY CONTRIBUTING TO THE BATHING OF MONKS, PEOPLE RECEIVE LIMITLESS BLESSINGS." THIS WOULD APPEAR TO BE AN INSTANCE OF EXTERNAL PRACTICE ACHIEVING MERIT. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BEHOLDING THE MIND?
The disciple is asking Bodhidharma: You say beholding the mind is enough, but Buddha is talking about such small things. In your beholding the mind is there any place for such things?
The simple answer would have been: I am talking about the essential and Buddha is talking about both the essential and the nonessential. He is taking care not only of what the monk has to do. The monk has to behold his mind; that is his only essential practice -- awareness, vipassana, watching, witnessing. But also, the poor monk needs food; he needs some shelter in rain, he needs some clothes.
Buddha has a very comprehensive view. It was not just a question of a single monk but when millions of people were becoming monks, then certain rules had to be made; otherwise it would have created chaos in the whole society.
A monk is not supposed to say what he wants to eat. Whatever is made by the family for itself, he should take only that. He should not say to which family he is going to beg tomorrow, because his information may make the family feel that then they have to make some delicious food, some costly food because the monk is coming to their home. This may be an unnecessary burden and the monk may become a parasite.
To avoid all this, Buddha had to talk about such small things that people ordinarily don't like, and in those days very few people had their own bathhouses. Even today after twenty-five centuries, except in a few big cities, ninety percent of the Indian population has no bathroom in their house. They go outside the village, either to the bank of a river, or to the bank of a lake. That is their bathroom, that is their toilet.
It is thought to be a great luxury to have a bathroom attached to your bedroom; only a very few people in India can afford it, the country is so poor. And not only poverty has prevented it; even people who had enough money in the days of Buddha had no idea of having a bathroom attached to their bedroom.
You will be surprised to know that just a hundred years ago there was a case in the Supreme Court of America, because a man attached a bathroom to his bedroom. It was thought to be against Christianity; it was thought to be such a dirty thing. The man had learned about it from Europe and he thought he was bringing a gift to America. It certainly is a gift!
But the Christian associations filed a case against him in the Supreme Court saying that he was trying to corrupt people's minds. "This is an idea implanted in his mind by the devil," they said. "Who has ever heard of a bathroom attached to your bedroom?" And you will be surprised that the Supreme Court ordered the man to move the bathroom to the back of the house where it belonged. They were called outhouses. They were not attached to the main house -- just in the backyard, far away. Dirty places!
But in Buddha's time, there were rich people who had attached bathrooms and the most surprising, almost unbelievable thing is that in Harappa and Mohanjodaro, two most ancient cities discovered in Pakistan .... They are seven thousand years old. Some natural calamity, or perhaps some man-made calamity, destroyed those beautiful cities not only once, but seven times, because seven times those cities were built. People have been excavating for almost half a century. They could not believe what kind of calamity had continuously happened: one layer of the city is covered with mud, then another layer of the city is again covered with mud.
As they went on digging, first they thought the first layer, the superficial layer was the city, but somebody tried to dig a little deeper to see what is underneath that. They were surprised to find that after a few feet of layers of mud, there was another city. Then they tried again and again and finally they have found seven layers of great cities -- cities which had streets as broad as San Francisco or New York. And certainly cities don't have those broad streets if they don't have big vehicles to move on them. Varanasi is thought to be the ancientmost city in India. Not even the smallest car can enter in the old part of Varanasi. What to say of a car? -- even sunlight never reaches there because on both sides are huge buildings. Just when the sun comes exactly in the middle of the sky, for a few minutes there is sunlight; otherwise the whole day there is no sun. A great civilization must have been there.
I remembered them because all the houses in Mohanjodaro and Harappa -- both the cities -- had bathrooms attached to their bedrooms, had swimming pools as big as we have them now. And they had a system, a very strange system which they had invented, for hot and cold running water in every house. It is simply amazing! It seems they had reached to the same height of civilization, perhaps better, because even in the beginning part of the twentieth century the Supreme Court of America refused to let that man have a bathroom in his own house. The future is going to be different because there are architects .... I have seen a few designs sent to me from a friend who is thinking about a very strange thing which will be fought in courts by every religion all over the world. The idea is not to have an attached bathroom but to have the room inside the bathroom. They have made such beautiful designs that the bathroom does not look out of place; it enhances the beauty of the room.
But certainly it is going to be contested by every religion ...that this is going too far. Somehow we have accepted bathrooms attached to the rooms. Now these insane architects are trying to enforce an idea ...and I think that idea is going to work out. Their designs are just superb. Why have an attached bathroom? The bathroom can be made so beautiful that you can attach your room to the bathroom. And in fact both can be in the same place -- there is no need for any partition. It is YOUR bathroom, it is YOUR bedroom. And things can be made so beautiful and so clean, there is no question of ....
But it was a problem. Very few rich families had bathrooms and the problem was bigger because the Buddhist monks could not take a bath in the river. They didn't have enough clothes, they didn't have any underwear. They had only three pieces of clothing, one to wrap around underneath, another to wrap around on top -- just plain pieces of cloth.
To avoid tailoring -- because that is a luxury -- they were just using plain pieces of cloth; one they wrap around their waist, another they wrap around their chest, and that's all. It was difficult for them. Either they had to be naked -- which was not allowed by Gautam Buddha -- or they had to enter the river with their clothes on and then their clothes would get wet.
So you have to see the whole situation ...why Gautam Buddha has to talk about such trivia. It is giving an incentive to the people who have their own bathrooms to allow the monks to have a bath and then people would receive limitless blessings. There is no metaphor in it. It means exactly what it says. The disciple is absolutely right to ask: "This would appear to be an instance of external practice achieving merit, because the man who is allowing you use of his bathroom is achieving merit. He is not doing anything -- just allowing you to use his bathroom."
And Bodhidharma says, "There is nothing and no need and no possibility either, of attaining any merit from any outside practice. The only meritorious thing is beholding the mind."
He could have simply said, "This is only an incentive for people; otherwise why should they allow anybody?" In fact, nobody likes his bathroom to be used by anybody else, and particularly not by strangers. It is not a public place. Everybody wants his bathroom to be private, his own, and the richer people are .... They certainly would not like the idea of strange monks wandering with dirty clothes, dirty feet because they have no shoes, perspiring in hot summer, collecting dust on the roads which were not coal tar, asphalt, or cement -- they were just dusty roads for bullock carts. Rich men would not like this.
And you don't have any idea of the rich men of those days. They used to have in their bathtubs, not ordinary water, but rosewater. It is a strange story of a strange humanity: one part is dying for food and another part of the same race of human beings takes such a costly bath -- thousands of roseflowers have to be used for one bath. These people would not like vagabonds, monks, beggars -- they were all beggars in their eyes -- unless they had some incentive that they would get great blessings in the other world. Buddha is simply talking in business terms and he is perfectly right.
But the problem with Bodhidharma is that he cannot accept things simply as they are. He says:
HERE, THE BATHING OF MONKS DOESN'T REFER TO THE WASHING OF ANYTHING TANGIBLE.
How do you wash anything intangible? A thing that is not tangible is not visible either. Only tangible things have to be washed. Your body can be given a shower but not your soul. Your clothes can be cleaned but not your being. But that does not mean that you have to use dirty clothes, that you have to remain dirty in your body.
Buddha was very aesthetic in comparison to Mahavira, his contemporary, and that's why he has more grace than Mahavira. Mahavira has a very strong personality but he's not graceful ...a personality of a wrestler, but not the individuality of a lotus flower.
It is not accidental that Gautam Buddha has become synonymous with the lotus flower. It is so fragile and so beautiful and so graceful that no other flower on the earth even comes close to it. He wanted his monks to be sensitive, aesthetic, clean, and naturally the only way was to tell the people that if you help these poor monks with food, with a bath, with medicine, with clothes you will be getting great merit in the other world. This was simply a pragmatic affair.
WHEN THE LORD PREACHED THE BATHHOUSE SUTRA, HE WANTED HIS DISCIPLES TO REMEMBER THE DHARMA OF WASHING. SO HE USED AN EVERYDAY CONCERN TO CONVEY HIS REAL MEANING .... THE BATHHOUSE IS THE BODY.
Now this is nonsense and he himself in the beginning sutras has said Buddha never teaches nonsense. He is contradicting almost everything that he has said with tremendous clarity in the beginning sutras. But now he himself has got into trouble.
THE BATHHOUSE IS THE BODY. WHEN YOU LIGHT THE FIRE OF WISDOM, YOU WARM THE PURE WATER OF THE PRECEPTS AND BATHE THE TRUE BUDDHA-NATURE WITHIN YOU.
Could not Buddha have said something other than the BATHHOUSE SUTRA? He could have talked about the BUDDHA-NATURE SUTRA. Do you think Buddha was less intelligent than Bodhidharma ...that he did not know that it is better to say exactly what he means? And there is no difficulty in saying it. A Bodhidharma can say it -- why can't Buddha say it?
BY UPHOLDING THESE SEVEN PRACTICES, YOU ADD TO YOUR VIRTUE. THE MONKS OF THAT AGE WERE PERCEPTIVE.
If this is true, that the monks of that age -- that means Gautam Buddha's time -- were perceptive, then certainly the BATHHOUSE SUTRA does not need to be called BATHHOUSE SUTRA at all. It should be called the BUDDHA-NATURE SUTRA, or any other beautiful word. Why bring bathhouse into it? And if Bodhidharma can make it clear to less perceptive people -- and Buddha's disciples were more perceptive -- it is strange that he had to use such strange metaphors. Bodhidharma is making the whole thing up.
THEY UNDERSTOOD THE BUDDHA'S MEANING. If they understood the Buddha's meaning then why was he hiding it behind the bathhouse? THEY FOLLOWED HIS TEACHING, PERFECTED THEIR VIRTUE AND TASTED THE FRUIT OF BUDDHAHOOD.
If these disciples of Buddha had even experienced buddhahood, what was the need to speak to them in metaphors? Buddha could have been direct -- metaphors are needed for children. So what he is saying is right, but it goes against him, not in favor of him.
BUT PEOPLE NOWADAYS CAN'T FATHOM THESE THINGS .... But the BATHHOUSE SUTRA is not written for Bodhidharma's time. Bodhidharma came eleven hundred years after the BATHHOUSE SUTRA was spoken by Buddha. Do you think Buddha was talking to the people of Bodhidharma's time? This is something to be understood because it is a constantly repeated thing: that people of older times were more perceptive, more sensitive, more intelligent than the people of today. Even today it is being said. In Babylon a brick has been excavated and on the brick there is an inscription which says, "People of the old days were very intelligent" -- and the brick is six thousand years old. Gautam Buddha and Mahavira both repeat many times that people of the old days were very intelligent, but I don't know when those old days were.
In the Hindu VEDAS, which are supposed to be the oldest scriptures in the world, one man from this very city, Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak has proved, and proved with great argument and evidence -- and such evidence that it has not been refuted by anybody for almost half a century -- that the first Veda out of the four, RIG VEDA, is ninety thousand years old. But even in RIG VEDA, it is the same: that in the old days, people were very perceptive, very intelligent. I don't know when these old days were. It simply seems to condemn the people of the present day. This idea has been continuously used.
Is man's consciousness evolving or not? According to all these people, it seems that it is going downwards, not upwards. In fact the further back in history you go, the more primitive people you will find with more primitive practices. Cannibalism was a prevalent practice. The few cannibals that are left are in the thick forests of Africa, but they are the ancientmost people.
If you want to see the ancientmost people, you can go to Africa, but be careful! I have heard that when the first Christian missionary went there to convert the cannibals and to tell them, "God loves you all and Jesus will come to save you," they enjoyed his sermon very much. They took him on their shoulders and he thought that this was a great reception. When they started putting him into a boiling pot, he said, "What are you doing?" They said, "In just a few minutes you will see."
When the water started getting too hot, the fat missionary with just his head showing out from the big pot, started trying some way to persuade these people: "I have come here to give you a taste of Christianity and you are killing me." They said, "Don't be worried. Once we have made a soup of you, we will have the first taste of Christianity. That's why we are boiling you -- to have a taste of Christianity."
I think there is no other way of having a taste of Christianity! These are the most primitive people: they were three thousand at the beginning of this century, but because it is very rare to find anybody passing in their area -- they look all around but nobody goes even close -- then finally they have to eat their own people. In the beginning of this century there were three thousand; now there are only three hundred. They have eaten twenty-seven hundred of their own people. Every day food is needed. If they can get somebody from outside, good -- just a little taste of some Chinese, some Japanese, some German, some Indian. Just as you go once in a while to the Chinese restaurant, they also want some taste -- some change once in a while.
But it is very difficult because people remain miles away from them. Everybody knows that that area is dangerous; people have gone there but they have never returned. Whoever has gone there, has gone forever. Once they catch hold of you, you are finished ...soon you will be cooked -- maybe stuffed with grapes, spices. You may enjoy it! I am not saying that you will NOT enjoy it, you MAY enjoy it! The whole thing will be such an adventure.
But as you go backwards you will find more and more unintelligent, more and more retarded, more and more barbarous people. So this idea that is being used by all religions -- that people in the beginning were great and now everybody has fallen -- this is not true. This is absolutely wrong. There is no historical basis to it and no logical support. And I want to say to you that you are the highest pinnacle of consciousness up to now -- although your highest pinnacle is not much. You have immense potential undeveloped. But those primitive people were even more undeveloped than you are. You have at least some consciousness, they had no consciousness at all. They were just close to the animals.
OUR TRUE BUDDHA-NATURE HAS NO SHAPE. AND THE DUST OF AFFLICTION HAS NO FORM. HOW CAN PEOPLE USE ORDINARY WATER TO WASH AN INTANGIBLE BODY?
He goes on repeating the same stupid things. Yesterday he was saying how can Buddha drink ordinary milk -- now, how can people use ordinary water? -- as if there is some extraordinary water available somewhere!
TO WASH AN INTANGIBLE BODY ... That which is intangible need not be washed. Only the tangible gets dirty. The invisible, space, never gets dirty; the sky never gets dirty. The silence beyond mind never gets dirty. And even if it gets dirty -- which is impossible but just for argument's sake, even if it gets dirty -- then we will find some invisible soap, some invisible shampoo which you cannot see. You will just see the empty bottle but inside there is invisible shampoo.
I have heard in a New York shop they were selling a certain commodity, so much of it that all the women of New York were immensely excited and wanted to purchase it. It was invisible hair pins. I think no woman can remain without temptation if invisible hairpins are available. There were queues before the shop and women were taking the packages, giving money and going away. One woman opened the box and could not see anything there. How can you see invisible hairpins? So she said to the shopkeeper, "I don't see anything." He asked, "How can you see invisible hairpins?"
She said, "That's right. I want to come again tomorrow to purchase a few more for my daughters and my friends to send as presents, because this is something so new. Will you have enough stock for tomorrow also? because I see so many customers and I had to stand for almost one hour in the queue. He said, "Don't be worried. We have been out of stock for fifteen days but it is an invisible thing. It does not matter whether it is there or not. You can come anytime -- it will be always available."
Bodhidharma is saying something which is absolutely illogical, irrational. It is not even common sense.
IT WON'T WORK. WHEN WILL THEY WAKE UP? TO CLEAN SUCH A BODY, YOU HAVE TO BEHOLD IT. ONCE IMPURITIES AND FILTH ARISE FROM DESIRE, THEY MULTIPLY UNTIL THEY COVER YOU INSIDE AND OUT. BUT IF YOU TRY TO WASH THIS BODY OF YOURS, YOU WILL HAVE TO SCRUB UNTIL IT IS NEARLY GONE, BEFORE IT IS CLEAN. He is saying you cannot clean this body that is visible. If you try to clean it you will have to scrub it to the point when the whole body is gone. Then you will be clean. That means there is no need to clean this body. It is useless; it will mean committing suicide!
But you know that there is no need to scrub the body to the point that it disappears. You can scrub the body to the point that you don't have a body odor, that your perspiration is not creating a disgusting smell around you, that your mouth is washed clean, that your breathing is not disturbing anybody else. You can use soap, you can use shampoo, you can use deodorants. There is no need to scrub the body to the point that it is completely gone. Then what is the point of cleaning it? Nothing is left.
Bodhidharma thinks he is giving you an argument that shows Buddha does not mean the ordinary bath for your body, he means cleaning your soul.
But Bodhidharma has forgotten completely that in his own sutras he said that the soul is always clean -- it has never been unclean -- that your buddha-nature is always pure, it has never been impure. Can you remember his sutras? He says that you are already enlightened, just you are asleep. There is no question of cleaning or doing any worship, or any ritual. All that you need is to behold your mind, and slowly, slowly that beholding of the mind will wake you up. To be awake is to be enlightened.
But now he has completely forgotten all those sutras. He has made such a tremendous mistake he should have stopped the moment the ultimate question about ignorance was asked. He did not stop. One has to know where to stop, otherwise one gets into a trap. Now he is going on and on and he does not know where to stop and how to stop.
FROM THIS YOU SHOULD REALIZE THAT WASHING SOMETHING EXTERNAL IS NOT WHAT THE BUDDHA MEANT.
Only the external needs washing; the internal needs no washing. And if Buddha meant what he is saying, then Bodhidharma is also driving Buddha to the same point of stupidity at which he is. Only the external gets dirty and needs washing. The internal never gets dirty and hence needs no washing.
The disciple asked: THE SUTRAS SAY THAT SOMEONE WHO WHOLEHEARTEDLY INVOKES THE BUDDHA IS SURE TO BE REBORN IN THE WESTERN PARADISE. SINCE THIS DOOR LEADS TO BUDDHAHOOD, WHY SEEK LIBERATION IN BEHOLDING THE MIND?
The disciple's continuous insistence is because if Bodhidharma's emphasis on beholding the mind is enough, then why does Buddha talk about other things? And Bodhidharma does not have the courage to speak against his own master. He could have said, "It is not my business to sort out his things. My understanding and my realization is that just beholding the mind is enough. Perhaps Buddha wanted to create an outer discipline also, side by side with an internal discipline. That is his business. That is none of my concern." Just a simple statement like this would have saved him from falling down from the sunlit peak where he was, into small things which he cannot solve.
His answer is again the same kind of foolishness. BUDDHA MEANS AWARENESS ...which he has said so many times.
BUDDHA MEANS AWARENESS, THE AWARENESS OF BODY AND MIND, THAT PREVENTS EVIL FROM ARISING IN EITHER. AND TO INVOKE MEANS TO CALL TO MIND.
If invoke means to call to mind, then why should Buddha not say, "Call to mind?"; why say, "Invoke Buddha?" Why make things unnecessarily complicated when they can be made simple? And Buddha is not a man to make things complicated; he is not a philosopher. He is a realized sage. He speaks only in the simplest way and the clearest way, not using any jargon that can create disturbances in people's minds. His whole effort is to pacify the mind so that you can go beyond it more easily.
AND TO INVOKE MEANS TO CALL TO MIND, TO CALL CONSTANTLY TO MIND THE RULES OF DISCIPLINE AND TO FOLLOW THEM WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT.
And this same Bodhidharma has said again and again that no discipline can lead you to buddhahood, that no rules are needed. The only thing that can help you is simply awareness of your thought process, of your mind. TO INVOKE THE BUDDHA'S NAME, YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE DHARMA OF INVOKING. IF IT IS NOT PRESENT IN YOUR MIND, YOUR MOUTH CHANTS AN EMPTY NAME. AS LONG AS YOU ARE TROUBLED BY THE THREE POISONS, OR BY THOUGHTS OF YOURSELF, YOUR DELUDED MIND WILL KEEP YOU FROM SEEING THE BUDDHA .... IF YOU CLING TO APPEARANCES WHILE SEARCHING FOR MEANING, YOU WON'T FIND A THING. THUS, SAGES OF THE PAST CULTIVATED INTROSPECTION AND NOT SPEECH.
That is absolutely incorrect, because what is introspection except internal thinking? And what is speech but bringing your internal thinking to an expression? They are not different. One is the inside. First you introspect, you think, and then you bring it out: you can think the word RAMA without saying it and then you can say "Rama." What is the difference? The difference is only that first you were saying it to yourself. Talking to yourself is introspection and talking to others is speech. Introspection is a silent monologue. Everybody goes on doing it all the time -- it has nothing to do with sages. Even sinners have to do it! What are you doing all the time except introspecting? Sitting, walking, you are continuously thinking of a thousand and one things, but only a few things you bring to expression. Saying that sages of the past cultivated introspection and not speech is not true because if sages were not speaking, then from where have your scriptures come, from where your VEDAS, from where your UPANISHADS? And there are one hundred and eight UPANISHADS. From where does your holy KORAN, and from where does your HOLY BIBLE come? From where your holy TALMUD, from where Gautam Buddha's DHAMMAPADA? And from where do the words of Bodhidharma himself come? He is speaking and talking about sages who cultivated introspection only, and not speech.
That means all your holy scriptures are written by sinners and not by sages. A sage is one who knows himself and he speaks only that which is in tune with his inner experience. If he cannot find a word to express it, he remains silent. He is not against speech, he is not in favor of silence. He has come to a space which is beyond language, so it is very difficult to speak; but it is difficult to introspect also, because whatever can be introspected, can be spoken. Just watch: introspection is speaking within yourself -- you are using words. If you can use words without speaking, why can't you use the same words in speaking? That which cannot be spoken cannot be introspected either because they are two sides of the same coin.
THIS MIND IS THE SOURCE OF ALL VIRTUES.
Now I am helpless but to say that this is pure nonsense! And it is nonsense according to Bodhidharma. In his own sutras he has said that this mind has to be transcended, that this mind is your bondage, that this mind has to be completely silenced, emptied. In other words you have to attain to no-mind. No-mind can be the source of all virtues, but not the mind. If the mind is the source of all virtues, then what is the purpose of no-mind? All virtues include all virtues. Only sins remain. Is the no-mind the source of all sin? Is meditation the source of all that is criminal in you, immoral in you, unvirtuous in you? Bodhidharma is not in his right senses. Once he trembled, once he lied, he has not been able to regain his balance.
THIS MIND IS THE SOURCE OF ALL VIRTUES. AND THIS MIND IS THE CHIEF OF ALL POWERS.
Then what about the buddha-nature and its power?
THE ETERNAL BLISS OF NIRVANA COMES FROM THE MIND AT REST. Here he comes a little bit closer to the truth but not exactly to the truth. The mind at rest is still mind. Nirvana happens on the death of the mind, not just at the resting of the mind, because the mind that is at rest can any moment become restless. The mind simply has to go. Then only can you be certain of your absolute peace. The troublemaker is completely gone. The troublemaker at rest does not mean you are free of trouble. The troublemaker may be simply resting to gain a little energy to create more trouble again. He may be tired -- everybody gets tired.
I used to live in a house with a friend and his child was a continuous nuisance. His father was tired, his mother was tired but he was an only child so they loved him very much. Only I was not tired of him. They asked me, "What is the matter? He never harasses you."
I said, "I harass him. I call him and he never comes close to me." He said, "How do you harass him? Because he is such a constant worry, never at rest, always doing something, dropping something, breaking something, jumping from the sofa onto the table. He cannot sit silently."
I said, "I will show you how he can sit silently."
As I went in he said, "I will sit silently."
His father said, "What is the matter? You have not said anything -- just your coming and he is saying, `I will sit silently.'"
I used to live in half of the house and they used to live in the other half -- but both were connected from inside. The child used to come once in a while to my side and I used to tell him, "If you want to come in you have to pay for it." He said, "What?" I said, "Money is not the issue. I will tell you what you have to do: first you have to go and run around the house seven times" -- it was a big house, four acres of land -- "seven times exactly, no cheating, no deceiving. Then you can come in."
After seven rounds he was so tired, he would come in and just flop on the sofa. I would say, "How are you feeling?"
He said, "I am still alive." And then I would continue my work and he would just rest.
So his father said, "This is strange ... you never told me -- and he has been torturing us."
I said, "I have found my way with him. Whenever he wants to see me or come to me, he has first to pay. And seven rounds of the house are enough. Then he does not ask for anything, then he is not in a position to ask. He is so tired he just sits on the sofa and most often falls asleep, and I continue my work." Mind at rest is not reliable. Mind has to go completely to the point that it cannot come back ...to the point of no return.
REBIRTH IN THE THREE REALMS ALSO COMES FROM THE MIND. THE MIND IS THE DOOR TO EVERY WORLD. AND THE MIND IS THE FORD TO THE OTHER SHORE.
This is not right because if mind is also the ford to the other shore, then what is the use of meditation? All powers belong to the mind, all words belong to the mind, all eternal bliss of nirvana comes from the resting of the mind. The ford going to the other shore is of the mind -- then what is the use of meditation? In fact, mind is not the ford to the other shore: meditation is. And meditation always means no-mind. When the mind is extinguished, the same energy that was involved in the mind becomes your meditation.
THOSE WHO KNOW WHERE THE DOOR IS DON'T WORRY ABOUT REACHING IT. THOSE WHO KNOW WHERE THE FORD IS DON'T WORRY ABOUT CROSSING IT.
THE PEOPLE I MEET NOWADAYS ARE SUPERFICIAL. THEY THINK OF MERIT AS SOMETHING THAT HAS FORM. THEY SQUANDER THEIR WEALTH AND BUTCHER CREATURES OF LAND AND SEA .... THEY SEE SOMETHING TANGIBLE AND INSTANTLY BECOME ATTACHED. IF YOU TALK TO THEM ABOUT FORMLESSNESS, THEY SIT THERE DUMB AND CONFUSED. GREEDY FOR THE SMALL MERCIES OF THIS WORLD, THEY REMAIN BLIND TO THE GREAT SUFFERING TO COME. SUCH DISCIPLES WEAR THEMSELVES OUT IN VAIN. TURNING FROM THE TRUE TO THE FALSE, THEY TALK ABOUT NOTHING BUT FUTURE BLESSINGS. IF YOU CAN SIMPLY CONCENTRATE YOUR MIND'S INNER LIGHT, AND BEHOLD ITS OUTER ILLUMINATION, YOU WILL DISPEL THE THREE POISONS AND DRIVE AWAY THE SIX THIEVES ONCE AND FOR ALL.
I have told you that in English there is no one word which can translate DHYAN. There are three words: the first is concentration, which is the lowest. It means focusing your mind on one thing or one thought. It is useful in science; in fact without concentration there would be no science at all. Science is the by-product of concentration.
The second word in English is contemplation, which is higher than concentration. Contemplation means thinking about a certain subject matter -- not a single thought, but a stream of thoughts confined to the same subject matter. For example, somebody is thinking about light. Then he goes on thinking about light, its speed, its division into seven colors and all its possibilities -- the whole physics of light. Philosophy arises out of contemplation, just as science arises out of concentration.
And the third word in English is meditation, which is the highest. But still it is not an equivalent to DHYAN, or the Chinese CH'AN, or the Japanese ZEN which are different pronunciations of the Sanskrit word DHYAN.
DHYAN means no-mind. In concentration, mind concentrates. In contemplation, mind contemplates. In meditation, mind meditates. But in dhyan, mind simply disappears. Dhyan is a silence beyond the mind. The man who has translated these sutras has used the lowest word in English -- concentrate -- for dhyan. This is a problem with linguistic people -- those who know the language. They translate books from one language into another, but particularly when it comes to translating poetry it becomes more difficult. And if it is a question of translating the statements of somebody who has attained to enlightenment, then it becomes even more difficult.
But the problem is that people who have attained to enlightenment are no longer interested in translating anybody's book. They are not even interested in writing their own book, they are enjoying their silence and their ecstasy so much. If they want to convey anything at all, they use the spoken word, because the spoken word has the warmth and the liveliness. And the spoken word has something of the person who is speaking it. It comes from his heart. It carries some flavor of his being. It also carries some light, some profundity which is lost in the written word. Hence, no enlightened person has ever written a single word.
IF YOU CAN SIMPLY CONCENTRATE YOUR MIND'S INNER LIGHT AND BEHOLD ITS OUTER ILLUMINATION, YOU WILL DISPEL THE THREE POISONS AND DRIVE AWAY THE SIX THIEVES ONCE AND FOR ALL. Just change the word concentrate. If you can meditate -- and the meditation has to be understood in the sense of DHYAN -- if you can bring your no-mind to function, then all is light, then all is delight.
AND WITHOUT EFFORT YOU WILL GAIN POSSESSION OF AN INFINITE NUMBER OF VIRTUES, PERFECTIONS AND DOORS TO THE TRUTH. SEEING THROUGH THE MUNDANE, AND WITNESSING THE SUBLIME, IS LESS THAN AN EYE-BLINK AWAY.
Finally at the end he comes back again to his original status. In this sentence he is again the Bodhidharma we started with.
SEEING THROUGH THE MUNDANE, AND WITNESSING THE SUBLIME, IS LESS THAN AN EYE-BLINK AWAY. REALIZATION IS NOW. WHY WORRY ABOUT GRAY HAIR?
Why worry about tomorrow and old age?
BUT THE TRUE DOOR IS HIDDEN, AND CAN'T BE REVEALED.
This is all that he needed to say at the time he was asked from where ignorance arises. Going round and round and round, at the end he manages to come to the point. The door, the true door, is hidden and can't be revealed.
I HAVE ONLY TOUCHED UPON BEHOLDING THE MIND.
If he had only said these two sentences at that moment -- and whatever he has said in between would have been dropped -- Bodhidharma's sutras would have remained absolutely pure, impeccably pure. But I have made it clear to you, so you can choose what is right and what is just so much prose.
That which is going to help you in meditation is right, and that which is just unnecessarily metaphysical, philosophizing, has no validity and is of no use to your meditation.
In a way I feel happy that by coincidence this sutra came to be discussed and you have seen both sides. It will help you to remain aware -- aware that even at the highest peak of your enlightenment you can still commit mistakes, you can still go astray, you can still say things which are stupid. The problem is that I cannot tolerate anything which is not the best. I want you to know only the best, to experience the best, only twenty-four carat gold, no pollution, no mixture, just utter purity.
It was good to talk about these sutras, because I could go on telling you what is not right and what is right. You may be reading many books, you may be hearing many people. Just watch clearly. Every day I receive letters from sannyasins saying, "I have been to see some saint, some guru" ...and I know those people are just idiots. They write to me, "We are very impressed," and I simply say, "My God!"
I have been working with these people so hard to make every small point completely clear, and any idiot can impress them! They don't seem to have the awareness and the clarity and the capacity for discrimination.
One of the greatest Indian scriptures is Badarayana's BRAHMASUTRA. He prescribes a clear-cut capacity for discrimination as the first thing needed by the disciple. I can see why Badarayana has made discrimination his first point -- to see what is false and to see what is true, to feel what is real and to feel what is just hypocrisy. Have you seen the Catholic pope? Perhaps many of you have seen him or met him and most of you must have seen his photographs. Do you see anything that gives you an indication that this man is the representative of God? He can be a salesman of any shoe company ...but a representative of God! He should look at least once in a mirror and he himself will realize, "My God, why have you chosen me? Can't you find some other idiot? In this big world, why have you chosen poor me?"
I have heard about an old Jew dying. He was muttering something, so people of his family came close to hear what he is muttering at the time of his death. He was saying to God, "God, just only one request. We have been your chosen people for four thousand years. It is enough. Can't you choose somebody else now? If you had not chosen us we would not have suffered so much. Now be merciful; listen to a dying old man's last words. It is time that you choose somebody else as your chosen people and relieve us of that great burden. We are being continuously crushed."
Look at your popes, look at your shankaracharyas, look at your Ayatollah Khomeini, look at your Jaina monks, Buddhist monks, and you will be surprised that these people don't have the presence of the awakened person. Neither do they have the words that come from an experienced source of authority, but you become impressed by any kind of nonsense.
And this has been going on for centuries. It is time it should stop. At least everybody should be meditative enough that he can discriminate between the man who is an arrow towards the ultimate truth and its realization, and the man who is simply pretending.
These sutras were a good exercise for you to see how to discriminate. Be very alert. To be impressed easily is to be gullible. Don't be gullible, otherwise you will be exploited. Not to be gullible is what Badarayana means by being discriminative, alert, aware. There is no hurry to be impressed by anybody. Wait, watch, look at it from every aspect, and if your heart starts ringing bells, then it is a different matter altogether. But if it is just your mind saying, "I have found the right master," beware of your mind.
Your mind is your greatest enemy.
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
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recentanimenews · 6 years
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10 Western Media That Would Make Great Anime
When we anime fans tire of lamenting for the adaptation of manga after manga, or light novel after light novel, we tend to turn our imaginations away from Japan. After all, anime is no stranger to adapting western media. Many books, shows and movies have been adapted from western media into anime form, including Deltora Quest, Spider Riders, Witchblade, Howl’s Moving Castle, Highlander, and Supernatural just to name a few.
This got me thinking of my own wishlist of western media that would make great anime. Here are 10 shows, books, and movies that would make awesome anime adaptations.
  Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve Book Series - Dream Studio: Production I.G. - Dream Format: TV Anime
If you’ve never heard of Mortal Engines, no sweat. It’ll be your new favorite thing in no time. This YA quartet from British author Philip Reeve follows Tom, an apprentice historian atop the city of London. When he’s thrown out of the city, he sides with Hester Shaw, an assassin with the resistance after the life of his master, Thaddeus Valentine, who she blames for the death of her mother.
Sounds pretty run of the mill YA right? My bad. I forgot to mention all of the cities run on tractor wheels. Oh, and the cities eat other cities for resources. Oh, and there’s this huge conspiracy surrounding the city-eating cities, and this huge plot to destroy them. It’s cool that Peter Jackson’s directing a film adaptation of the series, which is due out this December, but just imagine this as an anime...
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling Book Series - Dream Studio: A-1 Pictures - Dream Format: TV Anime
Does Harry Potter really need an introduction? I feel like we all know about the boy who lived and his battle with he-who-shall-not-be-named. The cliffnotes version of Harry Potter is that an abused orphan turns out to have an incredible magical gift required to stop some of the wizarding world’s most malevolent forces. In addition to his studies, he must juggle fighting the dark forces, and maintaining the friendships he makes at Hogwarts.
  Harry Potter is essentially fantasy shonen in book format. It has the magical boarding school. It has the perfect shonen protagonist and sidekicks. The duels would be incredible to see animated. Hagrid would be moe AF. The mythical creatures would be a sight for sore eyes. But most importantly? QUIDDITCH EPISODES!
Railsea by China Miéville Novel - Dream Studio: Madhouse - Dream Format: Movie
China Mieville’s Railsea is an interesting reimagining of Moby Dick. Except instead of a sea, it’s a giant desert covered in endless, winding train tracks – the titular railsea. And there’s no whales. Only giant moles. The story follows Sham Yes ap Soorap, a young assistant doctor on a train that hunts giant moles for meat (think whaling but with moles). Her journey among the pirates, monsters, and salvagers alike kicks off when she comes across a series of photographs aboard a trainwreck that hint at the impossible existing.
The history behind the now-derelict world of Railsea, coupled with the mixture of gripping drama and havoc reminiscent of kaiju films, would make for a solid animated feature, the visuals of which I’d only trust to Madhouse.
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin Book Series - Dream Studio: MAPPA - Dream Format: Movies
Okay, so it’s Game of Thrones, but all the characters are moe idols. That’s it. That’s the show.
More seriously though, A Song of Ice and Fire would make a downright wicked fantasy anime. This large-scale fantasy epic has such an incredible assortment of characters, rich history, and gratuitous violence that would be a treat to see in anime form. It’s tough to really pinpoint the plot, since so much is going on, but A Song of Ice and Fire centers on a number of noble families – such as the Starks or Lannisters – vying to claim the throne of Westeros.
If there’s one studio out there that could handle A Song of Ice and Fire, it would be MAPPA. MAPPA’s history with dark fantasy anime series such as Rage of Bahamut or Garo only strengthens my confidence in their ability to breathe some animated life into the franchise.
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick Novel - Dream Studio: SHAFT - Dream Format: TV Anime
You may know A Scanner Darkly from that weird rotoscoped movie where Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson play a rag-tag group of friendly drug addicts. The movie itself was based on the Philip K. Dick book of the same name. It follows Bob Arctor, who lives parallel lives as both a drug addict and undercover police agent. Undercover agents report to their superiors in scramble suits, which scramble their identities. The kicker here is that Bob Arctor’s undercover gig? Spy on Bob Arctor.
The drug-addled, paranoia-fueled philosophy behind the day-to-day of drug addicts living in a world where the war on drugs was lost makes for an interesting dynamic, especially with the sci-fi enhanced police work behind it. The only studio I’d trust visually with this would be Shaft, if only to see drug-addict head tilts.
  Peep Show British Comedy Series - Dream Studio: Kyoto Animation - Dream Format: TV Anime
I know this sounds like a weird one, but stick with me. Peep Show is a British sitcom that follows mismatched flatmates Mark and Jeremy – Mark being the uptight 9-5er and Jeremy being the easy-going partier. They don’t always see eye to eye, but sometimes friendships need that. Sometimes Mark needs to loosen up a little. Sometimes Jeremy needs to grow up a bit. As long as they have each other, nothing bad can really go wrong, right? Well, as human nature would have it, things tend to go wrong – quite often, rather quickly.
KyoAni’s bread and butter tends to be slow-paced slice-of-life shows, so if any anime studio would revel in adapting a sitcom, it’d be them. The gimmick of Peep Show is that the camera angles don’t tend to be traditional, and often are shot from the direct view of Mark or Jeremy. It would be interesting to see how that worked in anime form.
Kitchen Nightmares Reality TV Series - Dream Studio: David Production - Dream Format: TV Anime
If Kitchen Nightmares were adapted into an anime, I think it’d probably be a lot like Food Wars!, but Gordon Ramsay yells at Soma every 5 minutes. More realistically, it would follow a rather manly Gordon Ramsay on his trek across Japan in search of crestfallen restaurants in desperate need of an upgrade. Now throw in some Jojo-styled manliness – the likes of which only David Production could replicate – and we have ourselves a recipe for the perfect anime.
The translation of Ramsay’s infamous potty mouth would be a peculiar one, but seeing a muscle-clad Gordon Ramsay faffing about a kitchen screaming oi, teme at the sous chefs would be a treat we could all sink our teeth into.
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham Novel - Dream Studio: Wit Studio - Dream Format: Movie
There’s always room for more horror and suspense anime, ones about sentient walking plants doubly so. The book follows Bill Masen, a scientist who specializes in the care, study, and cultivation of triffids – towering venomous carnivores cultivated for their oils. After waking up from temporary blindness following a triffid strike, he finds everyone is now blind from green flashes brought on by comets the night prior. Now Bill must make his way through the streets of London in search of safety.
  While horticulture itself usually isn’t scary, there’s something eerily unsettling about the fact that poisonous man-eating plants walk the streets. Wit Studio would probably be the only studio which could replicate that suspense and terror, having done it perfectly in Attack on Titan and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.
  Star Wars Sci-Fi Media Franchise - Dream Studio: Ufotable - Dream Format: TV Anime
With Ufotable’s success at adapting large scale media franchises such as Fate, this sci-fi space opera could be in no better hands. Anime is no stranger to the world’s 2nd largest media franchise either. There are loads of references to the movies in various anime and manga, including Daicon IV, Berserk, Gintama, Doraemon, and Princess Jellyfish, just to name a few. Some fans have gone as far as to draw parallels between the Jedi of Star Wars and Newtypes of Gundam (whether that’s intentional or a coincidence being how close the two were to releasing).
  The coming-of-age rebellion story, coupled with the gratuitous tie-fighter dogfights and lightsaber battles, would make for one show you’d be on the edge of your seat for week after week. I think each trilogy could probably be adapted in one cour, but at this point, I’d even take seeing Clone Wars reanimated in its entirety as long as Ufotable got their hands on it.
  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Book Series - Dream Studio: Bones - Dream Format: Movies
From spaceship-stealing presidents to poetry-loving aliens, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a special charm that boys, girls, and little green people across the universe can love. It follows the incredibly British Arthur Dent, who in attempting to stop the demolition of his house, learns from his best friend Ford Prefect that the Earth is about to be demolished. After a few pints at the pub, the two hitch a ride on a ship and proceed on a journey through the stars in search of answers to life, the universe, and everything.
Anime has the unique marketability to sell just about anything. Look at Dr. Pepper sales after the first series of Steins;Gate aired back in 2011 after all. If the Japanese towel industry ever finds itself in a slump, anime studios know just what British science fiction series to adapt.
BONUS: King of the Hill Animated TV Series - Dream Studio: P.A. Works - Dream Format: TV Anime
You got that right: we’re doing a meme entry! King of the Hill has already claimed some notoriety in anime fandom as being one of the greatest anime of all time (if only second to Cory in the House).
King of the Hill follows the Hank Hill, his family, and their dysfunctional band of friends and neighbors as they navigate the challenges of daily life, propane, diminished glutes, lawnmowers, and more. Sometimes Hank’s modest sensibilities are challenged, but as a man of his word and a man of character, he never stands down.
While the closest we’ll probably ever get to a King of the Hill anime was the 1-hour episode where they went to Japan, we can only hope that one day, you’ll get a Crunchyroll notification that says “Release: King of the Hill - Episode 1”.
What about you folks? Got a favorite book, comic, TV series, or movie you want to see in anime form? Sound off in the comments below!
  ---
  Zach Godin writes about the manga he reads and collects over at his website, Rusted Culture. Feel free to say hi on Twitter: @zachjgodin
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mysteryshelf · 7 years
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SF & FANTASY WEEK - The Four Worlds
Welcome to
THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF SF and Fantasy Week!
DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Silver Dagger Book Tours. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.
Interview with the Author
What is something unique/quirky about you?
I’m a left-handed pescaterian and I love cooking and mixing drinks.
  Tell us something really interesting that’s happened to you!
When I was 15 I went on my first trip out of the country. I spent ten days in Panama City, Panama. I got to see historic sights like the Panama Canal, but the experience that stuck with me was visiting one of the native indian tribes. It took an hour long bus ride and from there a 45 minute canoe trip to the hill they lived on. The tribe welcomed the group with a traditional indian dance, they painted us with unique symbols and fed us. I’ve never had food so fresh and delicious in my life. The tribe didn’t wear clothes and in some cases the children ran around butt-naked, it took some getting used to, but no one was ashamed or embarrassed about it. They lived in tree houses, not the kind of tree houses we think of with walls and a roof, but basically a platform in a tree. Since they didn’t have lights, when it got dark outside we went to sleep and slept under the stars. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had and it made me feel close to the environment and nature.
  What are some of your pet peeves?
I don’t have too many, but one of them is when people make sweeping assumptions without doing research. I like to be open minded and understand there are differing perspectives and situations. Seeing things from different points of views helps me to become a better writer.
  What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
I’m an avid book lover and read about 50 book a year, if not more. Some of my top favorites are:
  The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
A Threat of Shadows by JA Andrews
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
When Tomorrow Calls Series by JT Lawrence
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron
The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
  These are all books that inspire my writing. As you can tell, I read a wide variety of genres.
  What inspired you to write this book?
I love telling stories. The Four World Series is was inspired by my love of storytelling and also inspired by the games I played in my childhood. I grew up with 4 sisters, we are all quite close and enjoyed using our wild imaginations. I’ve noticed in reviews, reviewers often talk about my imagination and it honestly came from my childhood.
  I started writing The Five Warriors because I had a dream about a warrior, standing on the edge of a battlefield. He’d been through a lot and he stared out with relief. When I dreamed about him, I knew I had to write his story. His name is Marklus. The Five Warriors opens with him in prison.
  What can we expect from you in the future?
Currently, I’m working on the final novel in the Four Worlds Series. From there I have a couple of additional series that happen within the Four Worlds and about 20 standalones. All in all I have about 50 novels and novella in my queue and will be releasing them over the next 25-50 years, depending on how long it takes me to write them out. While the main genre I write is fantasy, I’ll dive into sci-fi, romance, thrillers, and other genres along the way.
  Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
I do! I adore side stories and digging into some of the side characters to learn more about them, their histories and their motives. My first stand-alone with a side character is Myran. Myran tells the story about Eliesmore’s mother and why she behaves the way she does. It’s a dark fantasy novella, and I will release more like it in the upcoming years.
  What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I love seeing the characters come to life, it’s the best part of writing. They are good and bad, light and dark, they argue, have insane motives, stand up for each other and enjoy a good fight. They don’t always make the right choice, they make mistakes, but once you get to know them, you love them, despite how crazy and annoying they get. There will be characters you root for, and others you’ll want to choke out and remove from the book altogether. It’s a wild ride with these characters.
Tell us about your main characters- what makes them tick?
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
This might sound a bit odd but I’ve always considered myself a writer. I did not consider myself an author until my first book was published in 2015. Now, when I meet people and they ask me what I do, I tell them, I’m an author. It feels good.
  About the Books
The Five Warriors
The Four Worlds Series Book 1
by Angela J. Ford
Genre: Epic Dark Fantasy
“The characters were well-written and well-developed, the story was clear and enjoyable without being predictable, and there were a couple of evenings I stayed up later than I intended just so I could get to the end of a chapter. If you’re a fantasy fan, you’re going to LOVE this!” —Amazon review
What if…
your best friend started a rebellion in the middle of a war?
your lover awakened a deep evil and helped it grow?
your people were too cowardly to face a battle?
you stole an ancient power source?
you gambled with the fate of the world?
Join five powerful warriors each with a unique ability and magical weapons. Their quest is to discover where the transformed creatures are coming from and put a stop to it.
Along the way they run into treacherous immortals, sea monsters,
powerful beasts of the air and talking animals.
Each has their own reasoning for joining the quest, but one carries a deadly secret which just might be the destruction of them all.
“Angela’s imagination has brought these characters to life and the
worlds they live in.”
—Amazon review
Add to Goodreads
Amazon * Apple * B&N * Kobo
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The Blended Ones
The Four Worlds Series Book 2
Over 100 years after The Five Warriors saved the Western World, the Blended Ones have become a curse in the Eastern World. Beware the Blended Ones…
Phyllis and her 17 year old twin sister, Ilieus are Blended Ones. But Ilieus suffers from visions of darkness she is unable to discern. Forsaken by their parents the two cross the country in search of the Order of the Wise for help.
Cuthan the Charmer is mischievous enough to change anyone’s mind with a smile and a wink. Born into a family of treasure hunters, he s searching for the key to unlocking his dormant powers.
Pharengon the Horse Lord was born to be King. Young and inexperienced he
seeks a weapon to turn the tide of the war in his favor. But when his very own army betrays him, he will have to turn to the Lost Ones for assistance.
Caught in the fate of the Eastern World the youths destinies become twisted together in a frightful quest that will change the course of time. In the midst of their whirlwind adventure, they discover love, loss, and uncover the truth about who and what is behind the chaotic, spiraling events in the Eastern World.
This can be read as a stand alone novel
Add to Goodreads
Amazon * Apple * B&N * Google * Kobo
Eliesmore and the Green Stone
The Four Worlds Series Book 3
Changers have arisen, wreaking havoc as they harvest the world, searching
for the Green Stone. The South World sinks in despair, holding its breath, waiting for the One.
Eliesmore is a Blended One, growing up on the edge of the forest of the creatures of the wood. Young, headstrong, and inspired by magical rituals, he spends his time between his overprotective mother and sneaking out to dance with the wild things.
His courage is tested when Eliesmore discovers that he is the One who is meant to save the Four Worlds from the Changers. Unwilling to accept his fate, he turns his back on the prophecy and the futile quest to dissolve the Green Stone.
But Eliesmore will soon learn he cannot escape his destiny. Beset by creatures of the deep and hunted by servants of the Changers, Eliesmore finds his task will test the loyalty of his companions and help him answer the ultimate question:
Can he trust the immortals – or are they the reason the Changers
have come to power?
Add to Goodreads
Amazon * Apple * B&N * Google * Kobo
Myran
A Tale of the Four Worlds
Darkness has fallen in the South World, a land ruled by forces of evil and dark powers. Those who would resist live in hiding, hoping for the prophecy concerning the One to come true.
Born into a shadowed world Myran experiences her first loss when her parents are murdered before her eyes.
Adopted by the Green People she makes it her goal to hide from the woes of the world. As she grows older, she discovers her actions will birth the most significant change in all of the Four Worlds.
Recommended: Read this after reading “Eliesmore and the Green Stone”
Add to Goodreads
Amazon * Apple * B&N * Kobo
Brought up as a bookworm and musician, Angela J. Ford began writing The Four Worlds Series—a fantasy series—at the age of twelve. The storyline of those books was largely based off of the imaginative games she played with her sisters.
Angela originally finished the series when she was sixteen. After college, Angela began to rewrite The Four Worlds Series, bringing it from a child’s daydream to an adventure young and old can enjoy. Since it is inspired by fairy tales, high magic, and epic fantasy, Angela knows you’ll enjoy your adventures within the Four Worlds.
If you happen to be in Nashville, you’ll most likely find her at a local coffee shop, enjoying a white chocolate mocha and furiously working on her next book. Make sure you say hello!
Website * Facebook * Facebook Group * Twitter * Instagram
Google + * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads
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SF & FANTASY WEEK – The Four Worlds was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf with Shannon Muir
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