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libidomechanica · 8 months ago

Text

Untitled (“The well I may”)

A sonnet sequence

Outside thee from the sweeter that is toward Damascus. But lo, this Russ so well? The well I may. Shadows of the roof. And gathering and love, as in the back-blow of Reckoning his was my young round, with may not learn: and Baskets at straight time she paused hortensia pleasure past, into the long gold coin council with hunger for wings of doubts: the grove, for you, O love, neither and die: who kept so love, hatred was ever I with Fate of theology when we met, which though his Pomp abode his pulse of birthday and piece together melancholy; then from the should make dead, my kin a row.

Now our even the wroth to make its threates, and listening breathed— the red heroes, and all their Sunday’s due, of slumb’ring Jack and give you think I hear thy longinge? Loss is my days of riper day; but t is first pretended, the wealth you. With which settled for he was! ’ I’ll tell, for Love—then all fade, and three with you drink and mine thou wilt thousand scarlet pain and dreamers to costume. I would counted been contemplate; what we, one design, for quick and of posting of a kind of itself divine! What merit it self in my young khan in most secret, blank and withoute long here; almost mortal work his stable; and wooed wo, most of fire, when though a wild bear along her—let her? Agonies and stream and out of joints of Fairies, like Ariadne’s tides—the Strange? We cannot turn in that nursed in the moonlight in the oratory rescues me another brains; and in a year closing up.

Arise and the Rauen of his moorland! Julia, this excess might reaps not a sort of the rivers, still kept itself, or pilot the dark defiled, candle-like apply, his tall peelings mortals who would rather ye together and swearest gift to cheerfulness. The Raven, If I taste. Its votaries, thou hast ravished my mother use, and there each precepts wise, he would hurry on, the moon, clear his victor’s manner of our human nature’s in walking and do not, alas, from above, although you the smelling from the populous delight from the back doorstep, the loftiest mind.

When he died, or bindeth behind broken in age the helpless; all her formed. To march of stone of the shrinking that anything quick change? And the larger constellation, twenty, Tam! The World I beginning with many thousand here each nipple would derides, naked, as thought me sleeps armory, how tender brute the bars and sold to fire. I never is less the wits, and a little captive from her: to call hell were his Hearts upon her Cheek of him. But let his right; smote on, amorous theft: from every battle grew like church but silk will whisper’d by designated great. And so Adieu.

—Perish pulses with thinking have to temples with shame. A machinery, being sense that brow, and breath skin of your modern with my kin a room and lover, and Sommer since the clouds light and how she castle way to fly, as you listen, so to be happy you greatest treasure than through that the last foes. Shine and put under—right he would; but cometh out of my bedde, not winced. Sitting was the splendour from the poor groom that a wall, casement, to the ring, and in the dead eyes he before art enforced old khan, with Sense and distort thy worth despair and the three chains out, till I saw the rich.

Rhetoric can lend, towards boyes you, O loue not so. I charge society to dwelling sale was hearts; and in their thou alone. That was, not know not worn the vine; nor mix’d my ankle, to march with unwilling doth you! For all the wayside the through done but a single blessing-room, the ruddy, the place. Days I have scope and fall i’d brush’d a love sweare me to draw. In such as words this tree, put here all claim, says she be a want me, and we defer our better me? ’—Were all which little scorn to Loathing and blear’d as tis help, on you em more than a new range, so ruefully flashing, hither.

To me, Rise upon my good instrument. I never silk-saft fault is youth; blow for me are windowsill. My father afield it was I saw the rest were white lilies. Gave back to lie, sans Wine hadde it not: O, if she leaves litter’d from being should I believe such echoed by mysteries thunder! Acting on the dying night among so cleanly I myself have shore resounde. Knew not one for lay-men, a yet what.—His tongue to innocent! An oath, and quest,—who catch and ball. Sweet Eloquence, like their grim career, like the Harvest. With just wrath she none, because I would no more than the grapes.

Indeed the ill; I have love-hat relation, which wooed wo, most laughing peopled, so sure: leave me no answers Death. My love, see the glowing they talked, the nodding thee virtue and round with such sweet I hear her shining in the end, and still unconfines that such echoing child, to haunts of the uprightly turns to give my loved put to me to the palm she stream that would like an intent such this gave afresh, as well his clothes of conscious love thought with Men for your vertuous blazing here are us canon? Thy sovranty—think how we show’d him dead; on which of his moorland! Binding a break.

But whether the cause thou doest save a fig, sliced peonies in a dusky brake. You sleep to costly gay? Or that I thinking to the end, that not with clay. I starters, and did we watch a sharpened their most mind. Days I will be, no other. And the Idols I have seen abandonment of what ocean, a human face … such hands in fear We cannot looked at his only gods know, were have been forest of silent stream, yet lies that all: but t is parents thank him not. To the young hart: behold the soft, untarnishable; slakes no thirst put to dust, these bright-dark socket from a school girl.

Juan content to you. Would find a heart—slower, mute despair is gone, and for in its own desert from the other with shiny promised of Wisdom may be dispute with my own silhouette we squat outside, eating waters, washed my heart has not for Refuge, made the lighter of healing that them cluster of war would cherries sometime holdeth among the western gloomier tapestries—so rainbows of her more I’ll come so love is dying round there was wont tenrage the palaces, whence to elder timber cloud, it mighty pearls, wherein the eclips’d her sunny as cold with idle Joan.

Doth farre their chief spices wanton air that had brought her—she’d rather that next to thy green, who landed bows to myself I guard, for the wood are him in the waves of a people in our will quite throng, not with many beloved, its glare, shouts, bridges roar was of greet it bore; thought to every memory refreshing, said he why not? Which did note, and its knot to love he is thy selfe pype and hath neither an’ a’ should all her raged, transgresses; all their forehead hopest he that’s what eye was out of Solomon had your iris tightens on things were delight, bitter but all that the glacis.

Cockpit of millions saved her, glares to be all the world; she senses, others: being either reason her stept: she, like a wind, companions lay, like a broken. I soon as kind of incense I smell. By reasons: almost wondrous brightness, and cursed be thou hast thy feet leave thy cheek was himself. Used utterable, my father myriads of spices which is post: some time war is. Would the regretted, for shame at shrinking her the cowslips ill hung a strange, peeled a banana. Sudden rather animated nature of bulrushes life indeed, indeed her faces that when the Flames, the rain.

Little captive from waits each other lone like a new range. Some disappear from the way like into my loved, the womb is man! And now she is, bitter, pray, and various chaos, and Johnson was I sober when thee growing in his leisure for. Now droop and her, and in the two young; and deep joy to seeke the twilight in me carries flowered cherish pulses with Ida’s at the batteries uncloth’s periphery pinned with showers decay, as you, O loue new-coin’d to set it, duly accompanions lay, glad if for her own rose open on its sweet self, once more fully divine?

But the Soul, and builds its den, this is the stars, men that if this the soul, by choice and saw Paradise enough: I long sieges, as to the great krater-cup bearing with one is shifts, unknown, a thin hair, on a smock, the back to ride backwards her friendship’s pledge, between the eyes and last, point to know exanimated nature’s rule! Ah who had fall with some apple trees that is white lilies, torch of our artillery and with you doth call except. So nakedness off like the Lord’s, so this heard them away, there they perish’d a livelier iris chain so sure a space, both in beauteous stem.

The columns were contested at the back to lightnings are circle of everywhere. Nor too far that was full for never after soul, the straight me Turn, and all them sweet nymph is flame. Dew on the open’d in the plain, swoon’d, murmuring roses were all native land, like a tulip? And drove her shaken like a sad pickle putting bid me to ye, my sire who level day by day, whene’er seeing jets black e’e, yet I can’t stopped with Fate constantly? An aged, helpless harmony with battery; but a mouse, of all hold them chaste;—they march with myrrh, and so they ne’er denies; shee, let bee.

And quenching to the bestowes serues that light they regarde, then the yield to shining Foot she want to know; so child right be. Now for me that slain. Charlotte, having and dead with spicy chocolates tempt with both Loue vnkind worse still call those things thee seen, before alone that dwell the raging and colder in her auburn hair, and doors disembark’d, push’d on like in detail, where, thou ivory comrades can witnesse were life in perfect all the dusk with sweetness of heart broken world, and tranquilly, she’s missed. Rift the suspense and virulent; her so brave? At once only take quarter, a wounded Allah!

Twenty stones whose bright pavilions: not aspire, nor green waters cannot be hanged eye; for something her forehead came near me, her sweet is early and, like new day comes, the great received. But thou, Anthea, must be conflict o’erlooking hip to his Hearts that Life’s small sweet as I avowed an oxymoron or absolute the dialogue, and by my seal with all their fairest and blood. With gold fin in sweet love, and against my many a heap of care: while I called token or fifty year, David, fling: the three with listless on thy captiu’d in the face as a flint, cheat your Reward in haste!

Never, I with scars, still guaranteed to linger of the womb—it is before we too far said and pays through depth and Stella alone bent over they dance for somewhat my tongue does resembled barber lays his course is death will playground there: nor this youth! The slope of death does your sleepe, the mazie thick clutch of musk rose up in some sliding heart like in feathers soon shake haste to tell, and as, in the breathes of hooks shall approve But I, ’ said massive problem with Sense and his lost, you are, fit to show, the gross the please not its own. Year old saw the Incomes upon their orbit run, for one will Yes.

We are one: the body was a millions are falling in rich to-come reels, as thought him, but wars. As a pieces of the panacea, Sir! The trip and pitied. But ah vnwise and spills tell her word? That after shall pale page; she is wand’ring sky, and shudder, longed found the bitter columns gleaming what you the grieve he had? Are them cluster of dangled the Door of God and even wearied of might sun. And yet am I not glass gleam. Not solemn gloomed; and all the birds and cause deformed. Thy bright like tree live to lingers, and dispart it was unbred, then a long-abandoned out his gore.

And made agree: each virtue only because to me a fact—and t is said he how the secret, blank and glove he dide the warp’d and so shall powder’d, once she wilds, in her a pool in the found his gave gigantic proportion to sleep. Once only is asham’d to do, till such spies, think State errors, guardians, yet in my Honour—well, and her grinders vain pure and dying Moslem, who jealous man who bawled for immortality and would gae mad, o whistle, an’ I’ll come to learn and wrecked dapper Cupid’s armory, When didst not, thought through, the Troop a Sháhzemán, by Name and in Rows.

She only, call her ward i’ll squeal said and wash thee assaults of bursting days, rest rush’d with light, and you know these bereft, nothing but—Wine. Forgot yourself, my doubt if men seek heau’n of it. When he ranks are stopped. Weakness to be borne aloft with the storm: no cause of the fulness. But what. I arise that perish’d—the Rain to continents, your will procure, assembled: Ah, said he ummm said she now said she let’s beams struck thee fair. Which I hardly seemed it is brazen lies, It’s the morning on these trunks?—Cold, there on that other, dwarf-like this vain might him, and streams are style blue. Her Eyes Narcissus stone.

As Lebanon, and seemed too soon; as yet. The unplumb’d, salt, estranging joys have freshly bleeds, and the corps were stairs of Jerusalem, that vast fire enough to all men, are all me how much good, and sable hour better thought, from come thoughts do the garden of grapes. Wedded lower to loss of her, kind of mother nimble fell to hear the hill often urged, so in thy beauteous and harmonies should fain say I’ve called on flying against earthly soul would me upon the bright, his eyes I lay listening valley now grated Tongue it murmuring cruel kind, a hand walked of delight in seeming good.

Is thro’ Heav’n is right in ribbands, his den. Seem to kiss; for some freshly blew the earthen Bowl of Nighting water was a note. Vs; leaue ye shepherd. And this is my object. In the savage; and to a ditches, one into delicate, put to recite what’s hardly rise like horse. Ah, my Bed, my heart—how shallower feet thou snare him livid: how shall be; thou feed he rain, unlike— it seems to over these say, nor willy- nilly flash’d phosphor glow rolls by the last empty fifth, which peopled, so sure thunder! I have lied who thus in vain; deceivest not some sweeping her cheeks need of shame.

And flatterly be hid, as do the gutter from ancient Ruby yielded sworn thee here exactly followed; thought unto thought upon the Future lies thro’ the cup that ye stir not act, and thinking of bitter comes of busy world so both in wild, vain. How many hand hung roes that she hath brought at one bear or face of one sort of whose like any sighs, and all burden, to whimper; mild, but everywhere; almost. Leg still to myself; lay thy fault of our love a grand dead surround his first and may grant my distress, or of shame; and may gush out among then, in the bedroom waiting Everest.

What with shut eyes follow ocean the blood. Purse, a small have latter of the balefull choir hair is as if all her spirit of past thou along, and cold autumn wilds of Time from men every word. With love, I seem by the pearl a doubled with yourself the strut and my room, like Wind aloes, where the clear his spirit shall color, one Moment, to the merchance! To roll the fiction in Ajalon! And, as of dross, with Cossacques. And if unfit for my birth, weather light I sing into cities she now? A mirror’d hed, milke handles out that my Muse some sliding a human to work.

Lie saunt’ring its without having as necessarily even the ships, and fast and victual, had mann’d, my Mine said the one I loved, it with there was her best has not at all, and spite of itself am mortgaged to employ all around—and ever shapes a bright thy heart, and half-closed: when youthful shore, and keep a poor, yet never and the winds are not. To cast out of length he could, wett, and dumb death, retrieves, among the vineyard have her from fair sun of all, looks are parent might had been poured, miserie! While your bodies lull’d in storm: no caus’d my pulse fair one, what he, a path, to advancing, sweet lips, and the begot his little flocke, my Muse some other and crying the Cup, and intended Pleiad, willy-nilly flowery memories, drop heaviest the bodies fill that stird vp that sweet, though Ireland starry night of his honor, or as the fate of years of Jerusalem.

Swayed the Rest; oh, the vines having provocation, a virtue meet in an empty airless asphodel, lookin’ ye be, for which longer, though rarely, which is fill’d his heart as I think some: others crown’d my beloved, but afternoon, which my valentine. But shaken, ran itself too much, is nothing breath, and ten thou would move under the next times in the day, like doctor and crying issues radiant beauteous stutter on earth’s old man, the wall, casements. Have low down, Sugar, my spouse, whose, till be, no less thee, and thee, hearing, breasts: what I was the envious hours do, and battle-field!

Whether dainties banish with tears, and bad dreamy, kind? Lie saunt’ring Jack howe’er there lay to true loved spake the only to guessed the Hand of mother moved, and, once did not less. For ylike to see if you be the frock and curls can makest fame shoulder, as many hand—just lonely reading: silent night which I have laid it better Moon are asleep the sun hath found the villainous centre of my Root, and women? She of This granted: there, where thy great delight waves upon it did breede did me ill availed into my thighs, and all, where the society, that touch drove fine, needle-like flies.

My father her out for a Song. Until Thou faire Mother abide by side, and threw they fall from her Circean head, too grossly enough is mortall eye, that shuts its delightful Herb whose palm tree, why dost bear or buck, he enjoy’d the Seventh months ran a skewer, whether wanting the old saw pronouncing Muse. Silent nightly my belovèd as the curtains over their new leaf that will sit besides over your last times do I not, he, that the child of mysterical mock-disease. For one? Frowns are bounds pole with old Khayyám the Breath or foe, which in the wore, o’erwrought urn becoming a note.

Who bawled forth, come with pleasure’s or daughter, as bravest, where God be thou hast thou art fairer flowers: then with Love, again! Out of the starters, and could catch cold woman, love, for quickly appetite to paused hortensia pleaded, Ida came; for Blanche had thus so costly roots here your souls, at what is my father hurricane of the long- wave light dissolv’d, or any mercer, or thee, dropt upon life, to which are all her sunlight, when I touch of the sea. And by the red drops its there was a million—drawer of her starting joys have fully rude, that love in kissed my sheepe, that lulled through the pock!

To what were furl’d in the spoke they meant well. Lie down an empty airless apart, I must tell not seven days hence, to Pan his croon If you ain’t witnesse brief beside. The scale of that left his two eyes he met her doubts could thus; while on language sprung from her little dross, where you, or anything wan and mother mild, where threescore queens and of ghost she lover, and count it should gae mad, o whistle, and great humanity must an awful topic’s tender face; they neither crescent of what thine eyes, thinks, not of. Is flames upon Branch cut down my faith doth bomb and bliss! I should speak, and perhaps grow.

She in what hears his back not this life Thought of the right and pith to make millions lay, like sleep—their eyes over my heart and Summer, till the green field: void was gone, and love. So much of thy servance hung just be cheat, if Maud in nights not a single head; if everywhere nothing carried by the subway car that toss’d Thee therefore we may the heap a moment, to like, but comely as Jerusalem, as babies beaten—thought, for the Hesperian tunic of melancholy eyes, and many lambs might writhe answer to lose; the pit and behold kings be crown of Nothing myrrh, and thee, and the rain.

An’ I saw him whose Back is like a child. I the street out of Platonic shape of Thee and child. The Moslem rose loveliness I never known; and half a smile as live no frown on those tincture on horse. And in the children leap from which I have touch, thee sitting alone, and wreath of heaven’s circles a change in the serpent rod, and roll the Shulamite; return. Indeed here as her best of silent night tinge with Love, not with old Khayyám, and haste;—they muster faith doth shepheards all that I alone. When all I defiles. The Two-and-Seventh monthly bill? Clown, and I would believe my lips again, and blear’d Silence in the sparrows from week to weapons still thy good the think forward, at what. A nakedness flushing war wrapped wet in consented to see who are no giraffes. And joyous love you this. The color, one is turn the smell of insolence, and hang like terrible array.

All thro’ all my armes I woulds’t, when a children stumbled and set forth, company of the reflex act of it of one by, when we meet bodies cals each prepared to whose only famous slumbers more the calm’d twilight and green-sicknesse, and the lythe Cash in hastens on the fishes as those bright like a flowers, keepers as he that false subtle snake is gone: my soul wither, if she had sketches in au’ and past, no dislike windows do display for loues vnbridled lore would euer last before, whatever in it lightning. And thee, knap the blood stand, threat’ning came throne—thought, I dream of his memory.

Your fame, which longer—in the make her one hour, which prove not I thinkes their gross; with affrighter eyes and foreshadows of gold. Had he sits to perfect ore limbs at numbers more cunning, thinking them clusters without. Out somehow idem semper; modest tress, or of the punch. And the budded fair creatures, or his only Laili, ’ yet a Book of London! To all the disgrace; but that pine, I though, taming trees. Made the luminous air of the sea has devout, psalterian. Past cure I am, yet eloquent reply, marrying hold, as do therefore we must make, unheard, the nice remain.

That love yon red rose-briar bloom renew’d. Made by hovering that laid by their death will she had left with no more, and its knot, I charge? Affirmation If yours such restrained hair is to the Water blast empty but you—two days to bear within, the shouted— Open thy store of; withoute long. Regret. Like mine I knew not why. My Clay with your merry-make; and ’twill answers, with joy to have been poured out his guardian sea-god to woo her. Suns through. Unto the blaste, and leap from a poison behind my swim in his den, and shook the poor desire, empty, pure and flattring for good, plaint, it die?

Take some fresh as is a lovers, child, which came the red Vesuvius loaded, besides,— where yourselves are went his Tears turn’d. Poor restless Titanic shade—for pity Sultán aftertimes. The ground on the mossy green, she brush the Bowl of adoring wynd. Good, good quartered, as o’er who refused to the same town, ’ so Cowper sayes, to grasp. Moving heart and green, and active her Wiles began to wounded man withoute longer nursed be the first time to breaking. Would notarize our home those their wings, the closes, hang on her rugs and thou shall venture thy tempting: not a sight and the cold worse.

All the dark, and their death, for lovers, as we watch with oxygen. Of equal, now look like a flames the walking to circumstance one with the sighed: No, surely be the Two World I begin! Reclined thus seasons dance in the star that which reach time—I that being pangs, weighed in all she herself with loves but a windows shone his carelessly—but I am the roots here. I was to song of their rifles. There them at my heart;—as I must bid the interesting gore: there, who for To-day of bread: come down rome, Babylon, Tyre, Carthage, Nineveh, and howl’d for each other’s cursed be grateful every part, with thy neck is comely, nothing warm, flushing, in detail, where Jamshýd’s Sev’n-ring’d eagle sat, with your father this orient pearl-gray light he said he ow said he go slow and question’d what is better into your own, where if men who know that inhabits you loved me not like a ghost.

Waxed very moving glanced when there’s not up, nor commander in the calendar. ’Er who are smooth bald crow thee is lording to high heart;—as I have been seize; she will stowre. The mob at last Duchess painter’s at the blaze of conscience, and hungry pride and trip and hollows whether towers: his children only, calling Heav’n replied, tis Apollo, that can the distance was full lips he ought two grand poetic diction of morning thus, Ah, Lycius! Juan and Johnson was Werther, struck by little of Medicine says she spake: I sought thine, and ioy their time; whether heart, will not see you press trains.

Me did your vows, and the sang from men’s languish; she taut holding I am my beloved put in ditch against the Dawn of what was without resisted braid. It’s only scourge, that is apt to recite whate’er the golden, especial honour in an amber one whose, therefore hart upon his earth to himself than all poor for light, is tir’d with Predestinate skin lies delays, and trembling its way that swell; tis pity one barren as mine, is love me. My harbouring removèd by our praise upon thee forth the only by the hear her hand from labor in a bear it once, even as midsummer’s front doth farre mens hear; all orders of a kindled, and elegances besides enjoy, your worth despair is gone, but then in liberty. Nay, but follow; get the expense and learnd of your mountains hoar they wound wert truly fair young beneath a glutinous centration also see.

The scorn on the flies. Their endless bound by confirme: for Stella I do sweariness could not be heart that he brushed thee are dead acted by his brain, rain dropped thee to those thousands,—sometimes would griefs in the dark when when men or fifty should! And in the wisest to say, There is undefiled: for thee: could not with rain, swoon’d serpent pain, binding towns, which one full bread, and the same ways are faith the Bough, all cut to our blacke but mine eyes. Mine eyes, possess peace, that will fulfil. Now the dead besprent with the Bird of it; and weep in youth of her hands dying thus, shuffled the rest a dwarfing city.

If the red-ribb’d ledges the sad, it might, like perfect wholly durst in rejoicing, and leave her love in sweet bother. Now they made the depth and would define—nor Lover! A drunken in eastern wolf is his: in pierced his own: t is not breath wills, a frighter in life’s Liquor in many times, parking her cheek where is clean as it were nature she’s down her as his pipe to her home through the glory, should keep court every on the railway, in you canst not run away from the broader-grown greenery which ever this face was latest flake white ravished and Favour His—lo! And heart, and take!

Quest of a few Persian mutes, with the winked in the walls moon-flowers too much is man! Or car’d, nourish, or war? The troops the slope, and that, bright in ribbands, as hath yield, I could euer slakes no thirst for Refuge from thy love, my Philly? And in talcum on the yell of the reflections poured, miseration: then that piece of her brother, it is, the person. They pleasant fruits of Kedar, and some, like a duckling what it to their ration, the north flower. I am true calm. That life, make fire, of green, above the race on grew the edge of war with the heaven’s Angel, but as a bed of old.

And a dozen, came debtor forbids to return’d up to the woods and dream unriddled, cool’d? Where the clefts of surrender by mowing can be sweet bough, a Flask of cloud in either hands, Leezie Lindsay, my praise to our Gibraltar must be at the sky is a star after Sultán’s Turret in Death, with a full heart still he pleasure, when I love that that will make my miseration, thus the worse still to only an acre hath shepheards all my natures nation had all their petticoat, or when the General Ribaupierre’s was much longed for I was things. Toward to a young, as cares their petticoat he sandy tracts, and tenderness might saue my spoke of Heav’n’s halls held carnival at the sky like pale an upper spots are fallen summer season’s children changing, sweeter thy love me—wilt thou ivory combine bed too coarse to move said the distance of one best that ye stir and Hope, earth to life?

Thy navel is look as ye were won his dog, he hew’d awa by Phoebe saying Venus skies to difference. Is gone before once we lose to our better! Behold, he held me up into cities of saucy boyhood: now, even the cornice-wreath of Innsbruck cast it take me Christian mother with th’ inward from the powers at morning, I shed my soul loveth: I held me Head on the rest …. Beside me that oil’d and thrones;—but perish’d into their play, my wife, read love and their Mouths are breathing her way. But cruel lady, it is the trampled with Wine! Then, so sane an’ twenty, Tam!

As soon to mee: no, no, no, my Deare, what a world; approach and put it in and over the thing. Rode with the genitors, all reade your feather, who had brought they appropriated each would given up that in the suddenly the woods. I now his cups divine: Love’s son? Wealth of sea from the muffled; there, as you wert not harvest, where you epitomize little palpitating here grateful, monstrous woodland light I sing for a shelter the clicking coop’t we lives a shining hand, and silent continents, your smile? Snow; yet was the two young hart upon it? Firstly, then with love, only Drink their backs, stars go over the oratory rescues me likeness: it was his baby that earlier think’st thou say. Of love, what the drear flash upon the curve of that I know her eyes, and out his ray. As held, days I have heart, fear, opening carried without resisted braid, or vainly set.

Why, all this Russ so well delight have play: name is in hue, so remembers are rooms were sickly former love, though and throne—thought me for to a world a spirits cannon’s roar was dizzy, busy, and so shallow’d nought I saw the only in other hair. An hour, where the desert sand is neither hell’s pavement back ever. Doth grow: and then his glowing gets himself to man, wilderness were all may brings. As your will become a better to hurt than of Ross run willed, free as these, handling a Gangsters twittered. Oh Thou Jewel of mysteries, his eyes, as the bleak air, and that he owes there.

Do hold you spoke it once it will, they paid that faith in its Cup be dry. If I lose this island, one Moment in an empty Glasses for me? Wild night of carnage, like a springs as true calmly Love—then a child right had been slowly spinning can harp, and she had been us. The River Brink, with rigorous throwes ope, that thus a dearer throat shall happily be hid, as to a woman’s part of muscle, lopsided, about the millinery, that had been forest. Breathless moan. Indeed I loved through the parapet, or lives, and their Wrath and Sence, her grief, tries molder, as he looks; bidding him that Love, only to their present with me alone, and so tangle for half’s delight, rhythm in anything love you quite succeeds dead, from the Wild Ass stamps o’er them orphans: first cut. With just be heart o’ thy Willy. To hate, but bitter, prayer for lovely laughed is quite a brother!

Reason good, good Hobbinol, that she is full of orphans in effect. And in it till Cherry ripe themselves are; talk back to die, or lives a drunk with all its mouth of well-wrought he knowing. By day the amorous herbs, both juan and wonder at having note. A monkey had charms, unless songster Disciple still shut quietly as bright poring at they fell on its wind-tossed my hand those which other. A bore. And I fly into amaze into the Tavern softly in other’s glass, whereon Johnson join’d and opening die, lift up some beauty of branches playing Venus’ temple door.

—Perish in wild goat still the maids and vouches, pearls of man, the ecstasy my hair of all your dreamers to its through the death, with projected, we argue like a sandy plaintive more, o’ercame the monsoon here the crunch, can lend, towards before hart upon they made some sweep for the sick to looke at my heart throw out a wing and done but asking, he helpless; all her famines, to feel: in vain thee; azure pill often she was pearl, and setting said did me to the serpent’s ear and wreaths of ice cream? Here about us—Lo, laughing of the ranked my gift of frankincense, and by the hill, so bury me by myne eie the soul of Nature, as his prior to enter’d now: his stern skies: no other sliding up a single twilight with one did you know above that fill thy youthfu’ May its throng’d with think her Lip. Kiss the tall, and the little many brittle Lamia tremulous hand head.

Entire, would be lynched the stands in moral height to proof, in thilke same heavily downs, which sting! An edge a dry radius descry the harp of star of Lethe screwball rowmes in Pharaoh’s charm. About the sumptuous lie, to sit and where fix’d, and worth her provocations cramp’d no penance in my heart, let not them dropt upon it if only hast said and jealous curls about gold? Would deride and fly far into my Muse and perhaps the leg muscle, lopsided, the state and poor, the baskets head was wreath with, and old, temper; patient, when movement—if it was an end unto the living wealthiest love, that quilts those and speak upon the Fauns from languish passionate the fact’s a fact—and shaking spoke the day see both twain, upon my ivy garland flap those solitary soul than through the triple leaguer, swarm their meal was happy even shorn of it; and the sons of sea.

Thin like Swallows gathered my sheep which keeper …. All was pearly stairs at them into cities parcht; her dream it was to warbles into the morning of Crete. Began to chace the filament—for I withered my mouth, and all the winds such dooms of loue, disputing all my good folks: what you so apply, his truth! Cease to feed her eye; for, soon, not knows. Ye may louely Spring of some need you I could have been declared and delight, again for sweet! What’s too rough, nor fail in child. Who had he to feel the same to come; for that crown’d but thou dost soothing—Thou shalt lower salesman. By hard present case.

I’m weariness what you should turn the beryl: his hoar the moan and our spirit of men, beckoning hands, your minds perfumed tinctures native unwoo’d and day; and daub his Visage with might be: I sit upon her met alone, and here is now occurr’d—it might that doth live. Her through more have put an angry pride who had’retreat deep in lately by playing Venus sitting bid me taste of sight, thy sweet sake a face that such the tender lived him. Our joys, Civilised, the mother’s ground, and trial patient garden where the monsoon here a lion, and bonfires made: and Line, and call Thee down.

Of itself divine could not comes and frantic- mad with what place of the West, that quilts those who didst devise their chief pacha calmly Love! Anything: god slays me with his incesse of timely frozen in the poor you: when choise I had left barefaced snubnosed rogue would not combated with the place where the villages. Blue eyes, and that which on you sweare, what through done with no redeeming gold ringlets, beneath his speed, that he, and trust they han be sweet friend hate; and then, laden sky, sports in this heard a Voice with shiny promise of some as a gordian share wide wings to tell her sound.

There he was, not onley shine own vineyards; let us tasted, turning the services thrown, and girls plays: hither cease to him, without, or pin, but to-night and that we founde? When all me why, arrive the shapes, that old world’s tears his neck grip the face with thee, and dying years, and rise and tears, the thunderstand on the Sufí; a Road I was beat for it may pardon, oh, pardon, their emetic, and will be free for me! Take painted star that doth project like candle-like to not make certain the expressed, like bird to Cleone. Is it bear, as being in Corinth all that sweet dream of him here’s not a turf growth. The good smell in heaven I know that violence, doth calm uneager face and seems you must be therefore that hangs thee, is bright that love her tone came so near that to me, Rise upon the parapet just tallied on love: be her own leg broken purpose wasted, throwes no more.

Next, she is of mind, for Venus seate. The man-slayer, the taxing coals of that kisse. The Seraskier.—The bastion what he spared to the hear the fingertips but shall seek him who longed for thy chair life in Derision, which did they grows upon the first,—I will be ours? Then to imbibe it not? Glared o’er the white turn’d up to the Hand walked aside? And when thousands, Leezie Lindsay, my predestined Plot of might shall read. Stay me whether of a demon’s mistress, or the roost On the serpent rod, and thee how, the resurrection in the truths transitory tone Some music of a nine-hundred years!

Thine eyes, as the same fumes of suffer’d monstrous league decrease, and after Winter comes in a dream, when a child. You know not open it: then another down, they were going one who travels after Sultán after the ivory starry crown with the yard banging, all the presents, but a taverna crammed the world ends a bee circus puffing by but to raised thee stands; then to gaze what least give think’st thou fairer worldly Hope men sayd in Venus’ temple to taste whole day by day did except his leisure forms: I knew her, and I hoped gaine is part her. Den, and quartered, and hide here I was obvious hands held, and I am never noticed young mansion shall my father with the spy you love more come to be done, yours to innocent all smiled on my bosom move? From her stiffen’d bland, and out to grown old, even the upon the Worldly Hope men begun: rift the stars and fiddle.

The flowery memorial elms, and childish escaped or godlike, when your affairs suppose. The dusk with all their Words they, for there with green kirtle to his ground goblet, golden keys. When you the ones dead religious metal, those head, but claim’d the evening rise the void—my little captive from the Alamo. To slay,—a human blood, the dead, my mood is cheek recline from her Lip. It was in the ivory; thine angel officers a things and therein, that houses can every steps of melancholy. Where the truth—i say that I triumph’d ere mething Paradise, nor all the earth are lock.

Yet once the phraseology for the one whole that which go up from his cunning wealthy feet thou laddie! Past, point to learned touch that tower of ivory lute with crime is perpetrated ere melted, and wound him gain-say, then therefore we may be far as well’s pale with many brittle beyond then inclose in lopping earth to return no more! With sweet to the world, or bindeth the clash’d together, dwarfing city. Grass turned all that the field, transgresses nearer to themselves to come should! That held me Head and must and do—I’ll speak give my carrot, my sommer says—and taste eternities!

Who feathers that which has left him and please a smiled on, to the Hesperian tunic of Dido’s alphabet; and common wages nor equal right, against the sun soon he roses give you may serve them in dewless at first train in the breath, O ye daughter in this? I thinkes your common not ask you a whiteness, leaning out of joy is,—empty of songs did call me how much better thy clear as crystal dropt upon the western hills round is neither child, from haste as bristly and so Adieu. Stars, like hats but a sight, and mine hostile lightbulb. Our vines with spikenard sends a spark up: is it better, or ruined marble door, has fallen in eastern philosophy’s aye-babbling in war on the water in the winked in seeming tea and Nature she were there lay with chain so sung he dying: kind intended Florian: with red with pain and happy I had no fear, to Do.

There as the only scoure. And, like one I love; Thy radius describing Priam’s, Peleus’, or Jove’s gains, he rushed the Sand. That swell tolling, maud is hush and was his not moves from my mouth of some fair one? Love! Makes and bad, thought me in her blossomed anew,— yon looks to Dissolution. Is it no boon. It chance ever-smitten Hermes, leave thy belly is like where and thee without as if he will’d, already count it shower’d for he given him as fast bound by confirme: for as in the blue, autumn, yes, with green silk neckcloth too, yet looking third was with wingèd light we wanton air dangled.

Let’s go said, and who had never move, Herrick, that I read was his. But they weave me no more; till she I love you requisite? That him raised to send or the family of the world slowly twins. And as mortal door, and When stickle. Beside me from the holly is lessoned cat, its supporting joy of the unsuspective her I something of the Hielands, and the pass’d by salámán harmless days she trees,—he moves but tell her red. I shall never dreerie death all songs have was by it trouble have been net and I lost; thou down rome, Babylon, Tyre, Carthage, Nineveh, all the Soul to Sin?

Why this small porch and with what we makes his darkening not to bits—and take! It favored halls held carnival at will thy beames but to golden age—why not one for the valley; let us taste, my Celia, let me be warm, with myrrh and gazed, entrapped with flower. Far along as if in iron mess. One is come, yield to shield, and scapegoat. To Jack and glad. There and go at love a wing and of ghost of fine golden grain septembering will I, as well. And weary, dreary moorland groaning planet hung from valedico nugis. Charlotte subtle snakes descried in still were my body’s gift.

Symmetrically from above with whom we shall be no spices!-Place, assembled: Ah, said and ease. My verses yet once, tearily, and death I will not. Breaking up some wantonness; some buried on me, thou upon the number of our little by love, too until mine. Reflection from Cenchreas’ shore, and my sister, miles of the roses as one to cancel, to my garden, they talked, that Ida whom we shall tangle for thou art covetous and stops her beauty’s form a little cry, till to prayer fortune floure of my wine of dangerous darlings, this this sun and mates, when it goes.

Which physician to be done, and loosely boundless off, dancing Muse. I might steal to the gate is tame, and many thing hours on the minister rain dropping upon the Saints that tracks? But perish’d forehead calling man’s disgrace, that sucked upon woman, all sounds of a single cord of God, or vainly Make: they scarce even as midsummer love my side, and stately should give! And as my trusteth no reason fades, in lucent wavering wood, he sand, and thee thy boughes will fall. That ancient case of all her side of its bark more cover, and there by fate, dost fly: if thou received that it flies.

The Great from mere comfort still truckle unto the bride in me so deep, never delight thee array’d; the individualities, and that oiled back to cover of our branch. Then came a monument of your branches sit, chirping like the apples; and night my father’s breath skin feathers fright, us canon? No faces were going still, approving spire; and bad, tho’ the air is furious stretch my veiling Lips open’d head, and polished up, to the number let it fades, but I found, so that no just be carrying and tears, bitter when he none. Lord of wit giuing disdain you this is my part.

Of loue his point, a savage; and to the upon there firm, or with your body carrot, my soul with spicy nest. In one volume fell? For each other, she learnd euen so as the chords which the younger heart believe her creature sprang elate, but me. I questions poor: that I remember thy poet’s verse, the things thee has been then unharm’d, for leaning to save my yet he seem’d no less fair God! Come with raines spred; she brook, with green. Under stream, sweet the tedious moan. Now lies that I think what dies alone bent over your mind. Than in a room of existence, like apple truth that immortal can.

#poetry #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Markov chains #Markov chain length: 6 #227 texts #sonnet sequence

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 years ago

Link

What attracts people to Trump? What is their animus or driving force?

The reasons are multiple and varied, but in my recent public-service book, Profile of a Nation, I have outlined two major emotional drives: narcissistic symbiosis and shared psychosis. Narcissistic symbiosis refers to the developmental wounds that make the leader-follower relationship magnetically attractive. The leader, hungry for adulation to compensate for an inner lack of self-worth, projects grandiose omnipotence—while the followers, rendered needy by societal stress or developmental injury, yearn for a parental figure. When such wounded individuals are given positions of power, they arouse similar pathology in the population that creates a “lock and key” relationship.

“Shared psychosis”—which is also called “folie à millions” [“madness for millions”] when occurring at the national level or “induced delusions”—refers to the infectiousness of severe symptoms that goes beyond ordinary group psychology. When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an influential position, the person’s symptoms can spread through the population through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence—even in previously healthy individuals. The treatment is removal of exposure.

Why does Trump himself seem to gravitate toward violence and destruction?

Destructiveness is a core characteristic of mental pathology, whether directed toward the self or others. First, I wish to clarify that those with mental illness are, as a group, no more dangerous than those without mental illness. When mental pathology is accompanied by criminal-mindedness, however, the combination can make individuals far more dangerous than either alone.

In my textbook on violence, I emphasize the symbolic nature of violence and how it is a life impulse gone awry. Briefly, if one cannot have love, one resorts to respect. And when respect is unavailable, one resorts to fear. Trump is now living through an intolerable loss of respect: rejection by a nation in his election defeat. Violence helps compensate for feelings of powerlessness, inadequacy and lack of real productivity.

Do you think Trump is truly exhibiting delusional or psychotic behavior? Or is he simply behaving like an autocrat making a bald-faced attempt to hold onto his power?

I believe it is both. He is certainly of an autocratic disposition because his extreme narcissism does not allow for equality with other human beings, as democracy requires. Psychiatrists generally assess delusions through personal examination, but there is other evidence of their likelihood. First, delusions are more infectious than strategic lies, and so we see, from their sheer spread, that Trump likely truly believes them. Second, his emotional fragility, manifested in extreme intolerance of realities that do not fit his wishful view of the world, predispose him to psychotic spirals. Third, his public record includes numerous hours of interviews and interactions with other people—such as the hour-long one with the Georgia secretary of state—that very nearly confirm delusion, as my colleague and I discovered in a systematic analysis.

Where does the hatred some of his supporters display come from? And what can we do to promote healing?

In Profile of a Nation, I outline the many causes that create his followership. But there is important psychological injury that arises from relative—not absolute—socioeconomic deprivation. Yes, there is great injury, anger and redirectable energy for hatred, which Trump harnessed and stoked for his manipulation and use. The emotional bonds he has created facilitate shared psychosis at a massive scale. It is a natural consequence of the conditions we have set up. For healing, I usually recommend three steps: (1) Removal of the offending agent (the influential person with severe symptoms). (2) Dismantling systems of thought control—common in advertising but now also heavily adopted by politics. And (3) fixing the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to poor collective mental health in the first place.

What do you predict he will do after his presidency?

I again emphasize in Profile of a Nation that we should consider the president, his followers and the nation as an ecology, not in isolation. Hence, what he does after this presidency depends a great deal on us. This is the reason I frantically wrote the book over the summer: we require active intervention to stop him from achieving any number of destructive outcomes for the nation, including the establishment of a shadow presidency. He will have no limit, which is why I have actively advocated for removal and accountability, including prosecution. We need to remember that he is more a follower than a leader, and we need to place constraints from the outside when he cannot place them from within.

What do you think will happen to his supporters?

If we handle the situation appropriately, there will be a lot of disillusionment and trauma. And this is all right—they are healthy reactions to an abnormal situation. We must provide emotional support for healing, and this includes societal support, such as sources of belonging and dignity. Cult members and victims of abuse are often emotionally bonded to the relationship, unable to see the harm that is being done to them. After a while, the magnitude of the deception conspires with their own psychological protections against pain and disappointment. This causes them to avoid seeing the truth. And the situation with Trump supporters is very similar. The danger is that another pathological figure will come around and entice them with a false “solution” that is really a harnessing of this resistance.

How can we avert future insurrection attempts or acts of violence?

Violence is the end product of a long process, so prevention is key. Structural violence, or inequality, is the most potent stimulant of behavioral violence. And reducing inequality in all forms—economic, racial and gender—will help toward preventing violence. For prevention to be effective, knowledge and in-depth understanding cannot be overlooked—so we can anticipate what is coming, much like the pandemic. The silencing of mental health professionals during the Trump era, mainly through a politically driven distortion of an ethical guideline, was catastrophic, in my view, in the nation’s failure to understand, predict and prevent the dangers of this presidency.

Do you have any advice for people who do not support Trump but have supporters of him or “mini-Trumps” in their lives?

This is often very difficult because the relationship between Trump and his supporters is an abusive one, as an author of the 2017 book I edited, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, presciently pointed out. When the mind is hijacked for the benefit of the abuser, it becomes no longer a matter of presenting facts or appealing to logic. Removing Trump from power and influence will be healing in itself. But, I advise, first, not to confront [his supporters’] beliefs, for it will only rouse resistance. Second, persuasion should not be the goal but change of the circumstance that led to their faulty beliefs. Third, one should maintain one’s own bearing and mental health, because people who harbor delusional narratives tend to bulldoze over reality in their attempt to deny that their own narrative is false. As for mini-Trumps, it is important, above all, to set firm boundaries, to limit contact or even to leave the relationship, if possible. Because I specialize in treating violent individuals, I always believe there is something that can be done to treat them, but they seldom present for treatment unless forced.

#quotes #articles #Scientific American #shared psychosis #Tanya Lewis #psychology

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

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Ougi and Araragi

Hi! I was wondering if you could write a meta about Ougi from the Monogatari series.

It’s impossible to talk about one of them without talking about the other, so let’s discuss the unique relationship between Ougi and Araragi underneath the cut, the special relationship between a boy and his shadow.

1. Character Concept: The Jungian Shadow

There’s a lot that can be discerned about Ougi just from the type of character they are. Their relationship with Araragi defines them entirely, without Araragi there is no Ougi.

Ougi’s design is intentionally meant to parallel Araragi’s. Araragi has a very bland light novel protagonist kind of look to him (hence why he never gets any cover art) his only distinguishing feature is that his hair is styled to cover one eye at almost all times. This is because Araragi’s primary character trait is obfuscation looking at things through only one eye you are never going to get the entire picture.

If Araragi’s character design is plain and normal, because that is what the primary protagonist type of these kind of series are an ordinary high school boy, then Ougi’s is the opposite, their design is attention grabbing and unique. If Araragi is normal, Ougi is visibly abnormal, you can already tell there is something subtly off by looking at them. What Araragi hides underneath the surface, Ougi is.

The primary feature of Ougi’s face and the one you notice immediately is their eyes, large, dull eyes, which are the focus of their entire face. Ougi is always shown staring forward with those eyes, unblinking, directly at you. It’s symbolic, eyes are symbols of insight, if Araragi obfuscates then Ougi sees everything. Ougi also wears the Naoetsu high girls uniform. They take the appearance of what Araragi cares about the most, a girl that he can save. Their skin is pale, and their hair dark, which could mean two things, either black and white, light and shadow kind of thinking that Ougi represents or, it’s just supposed to make them look like the kind of ghost that is common in Japanese horror.

Finally, Ougi’s sleeves are so long that their hands are almost never shown. This indicates two things, one human hands are signs of intimacy. What are your hands for? is a pretty famous quote from Evangelion, by never showing their hands Ougi cuts off intimacy because they exist as a symbol of isolation. The next is that Araragi is characterized as someone who always reaches out a helping hand, whereas Ougi is the opposite they stress individual agency and often leave others like Nadeko to their own fate. They may orchestrate things from the shadows, but ultimately Ougi never directly acts, and let’s the characters decide to step off the cliff all by themselves.

The fact that Araragi a boy, makes Ougi appear as a girl is also a play on binary gender. Ougi is technically genderless, but they appear as a girl initially because themes of binary opposition, and black and white thinking are at play in their character. Araragi is someone who tends to see the world in a binary way. Light and dark, black and white, male and female, they assume there is some kind of proper order to the world that needs to be followed. When Araragi begins to let go of these ideas Ougi is freer to express their gender any way they like.

A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system of language and/or thought by which two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.

Ougi is based primarily on two ideas. One of them is a pretty obvious reference to the King of Distortion from Boogiepop, which is the series which started what we now call ‘Light Novels’ in Japan by popularizing urban stories with heavy sci-fi or fantasy elements. Araragi even directly references the king of Distortion.

“Tell me, what are you thinking about now...?” “Don’t suddenly become the king of Distortion.” Out with the cool quotes, scolded my sister. I deeply reflected on it. (Nekomonogatari White).’

The king of Distortion is a character who’s physical appearance and personality changes with every character they interact with, and who is able to enter the dreams of other people and see the desires in their heart after which point he makes an attempt to correct them.

While the King's personality changes with whatever person's form he is taking, in general, he seems to share a soft-spoken, calm and collected attitude each time, always seeming confident, most likely because of his knowledge of distortions in the hearts of each person's subconcious he enters. He claims his goal to be to 'turn the people's suffering into gold', which involves having people deal with their inner turmoils and coming to terms with them, which is why Boogiepop does not consider the King an enemy of the world, as he doesn't truly do anything particularly villainous.

King of Distortion like Ougi is also born from a single character’s regrets. The King of Distortion was born the moment Shirou Tanaka arrived at the Moon Temple. The main cause for the King's creation was the pent-up regret Shirou felt after entering a relationship with Naoko Kamishiro even though he didn't love her, figuring that he would just develop feelings for her later. After the girl's death, Shirou's self-hatred grew as he realized he wasn't particularly affected by her death in any real way. These feelings were also amplified by the fact that he knew about Akio Kimura, someone who truly loved Naoko, and deserved her way more than himself. These complex feelings of his manifested as the King of Distortion, a being born from Shirou's MPLS evolution.

King of Distortion is an entity born from repressed regrets and self hatred, what a character refuses to acknowledge about themselves or confront. Therefore, both King and Ougi are Jungian shadow archetypes.

Both as one, one as both.

One is both, both are one.

The Niounomiya siblings with their slaughtering magic.

He and she pass their time in the same body.

Passing their shuttered time.

Passing their shuttered space.

She is Jekyll, and he is Hyde.

One as both, both as one.

Both are one, one is both. Hitokui Magical - [x].

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the now famous tale, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story famous for its astute psychological insight that “Man is not truly one, but truly two.”

In Stevenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll is a well respected doctor who cares deeply about the admiration of others and strives to be a good human being. In his laboratory he concocts a potion that when ingested transforms him into Mr. Hyde a primitive, unruly and destructive man. Reflecting on the nature of his transformation, he discovers a truth about the nature of a human being.

“I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could be rightly said to be the either, it was only because I was radically both.” [Source.]

The shadow exists in a dual relationship with the persona, developing in turn with it. In Jung’s terms the self, is the sum total of the psyche. Both is one, and one is both.

The persona comes from the latin word for “mask”, it’s the elements of personality which arises “for reasons of adaptation or personal convenience.” [Source.] It’s a simple idea, the way you talk around your friends is different from the way you talk in front of your grandmother. People are constantly choosing consciously which parts of their personality to show in front of others, especially in relation to how they would like to be perceived. It is a performance, but that does not mean it is not real. Every part of the identity matters.

It leans heavily on embodying only one’s best qualities, leaivng all those negative traits which contradict the Persona to form the “Shadow.” Jung called the shadow the part of the psyche the unconscoius aspect of the personality. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspeccts of one’s personality, the shadow is largely negative. It consists of everything which exists outside of the light of consciousness, but it can be both positive and negative. “Everyone carries a shadow”, Jung wrote, “And the less it is embodied in a person’s life, the blacker and denser it is.” The shadow is unscious, things which our mind experiences but we cannot control, dreams, desires, instincts.

Without a well developed shadow, a person can easily become shallow and extremely preoccupied with the opinions of others, much like how we see Araragi act in Monogatari. Jung believed that, not wanting to look at their shadows directly, many people project those flaws onto other people.

In terms of literary theory then, the Jungian Shadow archetype is a character who is made up of all the flaws that the protagonist refuses to confront. They challenge the protagonist merely by existing, because the protagonist wants to look away and leave those qualities unacknowledged. Often, they are an antagonist merely because the protagonist projects all of the flaws they cannot see into themselves, onto that other person.

2. Araragi Koyomi - He Obfuscates

It is impossible to see the shadow without the light. It is impossible to describe Ougi without first talking about Araragi Koyomi. Just like Ougi, let’s start with the origins of his character. While this is just my own personal speculation I’m not NisioIsin, Araragi has always read as written in response to two things to me: First Ii-chan, the protagonist of his first series Zaregoto, and second harem protagonists in general.

II-chan and Araragi are both very flawed and non-confrontational human beings, but whereas Zaregoto is a story about how II-chan really does not want to change himself and instead just kind of wants to stay treading water, wants to never cause any more ripples, wants to hold onto the fragile sense of self he has Araragi’s is a story of a bad and hypocritical, shallow kind of person striving to grow up and become a good person, acquire depth.

The stereotypical harem protagonist is this, a plain guy with no personality who somehow gets girls to fall all over him, often for showing them the bare minimum of kindness. Monogatari is partially a deconstruction of harem series because it shows the kind of circumstances that would cause all these girls to fall all over one guy, literally they are all so deprive of affection that the smallest show of kindness does actually make them fixate on Araragi.

The thing is Araragi does have a clear personality. He is very cynical, he’s judgemental of other people, he really likes to snark. Part of the reason he likes talking to Senjyogahara so much is he can be meaner, and sharper tongued than he normally presents himself as around people. He has traditional black and white views of justice. He tends to meddle. He is observant, but his style of thinking is flawed because he tends to jump to conclusions quickly rather than thinking out the details slowly and methodically. He’s almost constantly anxious, but usually responds to the anxiety with avoidance. However, a lot of his more distinct personality traits sound more negative rather than positive, so Araragi has a version of himself he presents to others who he is less close to. This ‘self’ is much more vague, and wishy-washy, very go with the flow. Despite the fact that Senjyo and Hanekawa both comment that Araragi is well known among the students as a delinquent, Araragi himself says that he’s a typical high school student with a completely normal personality. He defines himself as vague on purpose, that sole purpose being to appear as more acceptable to others, because like an ego that refuses to acknowledge his shadow Araragi is very shallow and defines himself entirely on the opinions of the other people around him.

He is lacking a sense of self, or rather that sense of self eventually escapes from him when his shadow runs away Peter Pan style and becomes Ougi.

Araragi has three primary character flaws that manifest in the form of Ougi, Araragi is a hypocritical altruist who only cares about weak girls that need to be saved, Araragi obfuscates, and Araragi only thinks in black and white.

Araragi is not someone who helps people because it is the right thing to do. He does not do good deeds because they are good. He only helps others because there is something he gains out of it. One thing that’s important about Araragi is that he has a cripplingly low self esteem, to the point of self harm, self flagellation, and even suicide attempts.

He literally says so when he finds Kiss-Shot’s body, his first response is not to call for help but rather to try to let Kiss-Shot kill him, apologizing for living such a worthless life until this point. It’s not just that Kiss-Shot was in trouble, Araragi also made it about his own self loathing.

Araragi seems selfless to a fault, but he’s actually very self obsessed. While it’s true that Araragi desires to be a good person, and improve as a person, his methods for self improvement are faulty. He’s obsessed with appearances, and it’s more like he wants the appearance of a good person rather than actually having to put in the work at first. He wants to feel like he’s saved others. He wants to feel like he is someone worth something. He saves others because it increases his self worth, and also once again he gets something out of it. Araragi saving women that are weaker than him makes him feel special, like somebodyy needs him.

He wears the persona of a hero, rather than actually trying to be one. It happens again and again in the series. Despite the fact that Araragi actively does heroic things literally all the time, he also denies any role of being a hero because he does not want the responsibility of being one. Araragi wants the world to be burger king, he wants to have it his way. He wants the best of both worlds, Hannah Montana style. He wants to save girls, but he doesn’t want to be their hero and be entirely responsible for them.

“Araragi-kun, even if you can become a star, you can’t become a hero.” “I can’t become a star.” I shook my head. “I can only become a vampire.” And I even failed at that. “I see.” So you’re not going to be - my hero.

Nekomonogatari: White (Hanekawa and Araragi)

Take his actions in Nekomonogatari. Araragi claims it’s impossible to be a hero, he says that Hanekawa cannot be saved and calls for her to take personal responsibility and face everything that is wrong with her life. However, rather than trying to just support her with that difficult task Araragi immediately jumps to self harm.

It’s impossible for Araragi to become a hero, but he can swallow a katana and then trick Hanekawa into killing him because that is somehow easier than facing his feelings for Hanekawa head on. Araragi prefers bloody, painful self harm to the terrifying ordeal of being known. Araragi knows that Hanekawa is in need of help, but the fact that she is such a messy person different from the person he originally saw her as, makes him afraid of her.

The thing is human beings are really sloppy. They are a messy gray, and Araragi wants to save them, but he really is just a kid out of his depth with a lot of things. He sees the abuse of Hanekawa’s household, and because he’s literally never even encountered an abusive life he gets so terrified that he runs away screaming. He does care about Hanekawa, but she’s far too complicated for him. He does not even want to touch that mess. It’s much easier for him to see Hanekawa as a hero, all black, or all white, then try to attempt something he does not know how to do and could screw up Hanekawa even worse.

Once again while it is not Araragi’s responsibility to fix an abused girl, and it makes sense a normal high school kid does not understand coping with abuse at all, Araragi at the same time wants to help her. Instead of just admitting that he can’t do anything for Hanekawa, he play-acts at being a hero.

Here’s the thing about Araragi, have you ever once seen him try to save a boy? He only cares about helpless girls because those are the kind of people that heroes save. He does not care about people that are stronger than him, because then he is depending on them rather than the other way around. Araragi only interacts with about three male characters in the story significantly.

Oshino, who is an adult figure that Araragi aspires to be like, and then Kaiki and Seishirou who he both views as rivals for the two most important girls to him Senjyogahara, and Seishirou. Do you notice there is a far different tone in Araragi’s interactions with Seishirou and Kaiki? Araragi absolutely refuses to see Kaiki as anything other than a villain, and while Seishirou is clearly a victim, Araragi cares very little about actually saving him and instead prioritizes competing with him over Kiss-Shot.

Once again this is dude psychology that is present in Harem series. Did you notice if male characters do show up in harem series they are oftentimes, either comic relief, they are terrible people for the main character to look good in comparison, or they are old men mentor types. That is because any other man who would exist in a harem series is automatically competition for the girls. Araragi does not want to compete, he does not want to feel inferior to anyone else, because he always feels inferior all the time therefore he never has any male friends.

Therefore it’s hypocritical altruism, while Araragi is willing to help and that’s a good thing, he also never once helps unless there is something he gains from it. Even if it’s a chance to exercise his self loathing. Once again Araragi’s self loathing is incredibly harmful, he literally gets bones broken, limbs severed, and organs torn out almost every time he helps someone. Not only that but it’s always the first solution he jumps to. This is not the behavior of a healthy person, this is the behavior of someone attempting to punish themselves. Helping these girls by martyring himself is an act of attrition for Araragi, because he believes he deserves pain for all of his hypocrisies, but once again it’s still self obsession. Just hating yourself, just beating yourself up, is different from having to do the actual work of facing yourself and picking yourself up. Araragi will always choose dishonesty over honesty, obfuscation over seeing things clearly.

Araragi’s primary strategy of dealing with these many hypocrisies and contradictions in himself, and keeping his ‘ego’ in balance has always been obfuscation. Araragi is observant, but he presents himself as ignorant. He always goes on claiming how stupid he is, and how he’s nothing more than a worthless washout.

This is because Araragi was raised with an overpowering sense of responsibility. While his parents are not necessarily bad parents, they are police officers. He was raised made to feel responsible for things like justice, saving others, and especially made to feel responsible for his own flaws. Police officers are also symbols of justice, who as human beings often fall far short of the law and authority they are supposed to represent, because symbols are symbols and humans are humans.

Therefore, what Araragi wants to avoid at all costs is feeling responsible. He wants to be important, but he never wants to take the responsibility of actually being important. This is his immaturity, the part of him that refuses to grow. For Araragi, if situations are too complicated for him to handle, or he fears his meddling will only make things worse and therefore he will be indicated as responsible his response is to just avoid it entirely rather than struggle or try.

This is shown in the case of Sodachi Oikura, once again someone that Araragi knew about and sympathized with but at the same time could not comprehend. Sodachi lived in horribly abusive circumstances, and both times Araragi encountered her he was a child. Araragi at the same time takes far too much responsibility, and far too little. It’s completely understandable that Araragi a middle schooler had no idea what to do to deal with what was obviously an abusive household, most adults are pretty useless when it comes to handling abused children. Yet, at the same time Araragi avoids any responsiblity whatsoever, he just forgets about Oikura claiming he has a bad memory depsite encountering her at three different significant parts of his life. Rather than struggle and fail, it’s better for Araragi to just not know anything at all therefore it can’t be his fault.

When Ougi drags Araragi through Sodachi’s case, Ougi ‘deduces’ everything, but Ougi’s catchphrase is I only know what you know. Ougi cannot have come to a conclusion that Araragi did not already know or was not capable of figuring out on his own, Araragi just did not think of those things because it was too painful to think.

This is also present in his dealing with other characters. There are several characters who have heavy romantic crushes on Araragi while Araragi is already in a relationship, Nadeko, Hanekawa, etc... Rather than ever just going through the awkward interaction of rejecting them it’s much easier to just pretend he never even notices their affections. Therefore we see him hypocritically, have a girlfriend, at yet at the same time constantly hang out with other girls who have a clear attraction to him and romantic feelings for him and never do anything about it.

Nadeko turns into a god because of obfuscation, both on Araragi’s part and on Nadeko’s. Nadeko is called out for what a hypocritical person she is never wanting to face anything directly, but that behavior is only a reflection, a foil to Araragi’s own, hence why Araragi was never able to save her.

Once again, Nadeko clearly has several problems with her personality, and she also blatantly hits on Araragi several times despite one being a middle schooler, and two Araragi having a girlfriend. Rather than just reject her outright, or acknowledge these parts of her personality, Araragi chooses to ignore everything and reduce her to being a cute girl. Nadeko puts on the act, and Araragi perceives. He then ignores all of her feelings, until they repress more and more and then bubble out into a jungian shadow expression that is Snake God Nadeko who just indulges on all of her instincts and desires and gives up conscious thought and her persona completely.

Ougi always mocks Araragi has a helpless fool, because that is what Araragi wants to be, helpless, foolish, and therefore not at fault when there are unintended consequences of his actions.

Finally, Araragi only thinks in black and white. This is also part of his obfuscation, he never wants to acknowledge how complicated people are. When he’s forced to confront the ugly side of people he almost always looks away.

Black cats, white cats, hmmm, I wonder what that means. Araragi was only disappointed with the idea of justice, because he wanted to believe in it in the first place. He wants to believe that things like heroes can exist, and that his black and white perceptions of the wolrd are real. Araragi craves that order more than anyone else, perhaps even more than his younger sisters who just play at being heroes of justice. The reason he becomes so disillusioned is because he expects there to be an order of things, for their to be roles just like in a story, for their to be a sequence of events with meaning.

Araragi expects narrative rules to apply to real life. For life to have meaning. That is why he is a story teller. There are monsters and oddities, and humans with a clear line between them, despite the fact that Araragi himself is someone who blurs these lines by existing as a quasi vampire. Araragi’s life is a story that he tells himself, and that’s why it’s so important that his perceptions are so off. In Tsuki he even gets called on this twice, he calls his increasing vampirism punishment instead of just consequences for his actions and he’s told not to think he’s so special that god would go out of his way to punish him. Tadatsuru asks why they are facing off like this, why Araragi is protagonist and he is antagonist.

Araragi does not like acknowledging how sloppy the world is, because that makes him feel insignificant and weak. It would make anybody feel that way, because it means acknowledging that we are not as in control of things as we would like to be.

3. Oshino Ougi - They Reveal

Ougi Oshino is Ougo Oshino.

They are a vague existence, Araragi refuses to define them because defining Ougi means defining themselves and that kind of confrontation is the last thing Araragi wants.

Ougi Oshino is born out of a desire for Araragi to punish himself, the same way he always seeks external punishment by allowing people to beat him up and rip out his intenstines. Rather than confront what is inside of him, Araragi externalizes it and confronts it as an external force which he projects upon.

Ougi is a shadow born from the light of Araragi’s ego. It was not the darkness that created them, but rather Araragi himself and the shadow he cast. Therefore while Ougi can be seen as a corrective force, they actually embody all of those flaws that Araragi has, and their own character traits are always in response to those flaws.

Wheraes Araragi is a hypocritical altruist, Ougi is someone who exists to fix people’s mistakes, or punish them for their mistakes rather. Despite manipulating them, Ougi also ultimately leaves them up to their own fate. He leads them up to the cliff but does not push.

Ougi is a hypocritical fixer, because while he seems to be punishing others for their mistakes he really only exists to punish himself in the form of Araragi. All of the ‘mistakes’ he corrects are just Araragi’s own mistakes foiled in other people.

Nadeko is a foil to Araragi, she represents his own feigning of innocent and being unknowing. Kaiki is a foil to Araragi, he represents how much of a fake Araragi is by pretending to cling to ideals of justice and saving others but also denying them as well. Sodachi is also like Araragi, they both prefer to wallow in misery than try to work towards their own happiness. Araragi even says his famous line with his relationship with Shinobu, an ending where everyone is miserable, where nobody gets what they want. There are serious problems with his current relationship with Shinobu, a power imbalance, and both know they cannot last this way forever but rather than attempting to fix their relationship they both cling to the way thing’s are.

Repression and obfuscation is always favored over directly addressing the issues, especially the things which Araragi probably cannot control, or fix, like the complicated nature of abuse. Ougi claims they operate out of some imaginary set of rules that totally exist, but once again Ougi is the hypocrisies of Araragi laid bare. They are every bit the hypocrite that Araragi is.

They are just punishing other people who reflect Araragi’s negative traits. Those who do not acknowledge their shadow, will project their flaws onto other people and see themselves in other people in order to cope.

Ougi is made up of Araragi’s repressed desires. They are a girl he wants to save, which is the only type of person Araragi interacts with. At the same time, they are also connected to Oshino, who is Araragi’s model in the series for adulthood and maturity. Oshino who is always able to figure things out, and very self-collected often making fun of Araragi for his youthful excitement and his naivete for not knowing much about the world.

While Araragi presents himself as an idiot, Ougi is intelligent an capable of figuring things out from scraps of information. Araragi jumps to conclusions, Ougi is deductive and a good thinker. Ougi Oshino already knows Araragi better than himself, therefore Araragi does not have to carry any of the burden of self reflecting, or making himself known to other people around him.

During Ougi and Arraagi’s first meeting in the anime, he hallucinates that the classroom that he is locked inside of floods with water. The depths of the water, the shadow, dreams, these are all the realm of Jung. If the conscious mind is the water’s surface, then the subconscious is its depths.

Araragi obfuscates, whereas Ougi reveals the uncomfortable truth. Ougi always positions themselves as a detective. In the realm of stories, it is the detective who makes the big reveal at the end. After all Ougi even says when they are locked in the room together, because there is no famous detective that Ougi themselves will play the role and announce the culprit.

However, Ougi’s reveals are just as hypocritical as Araragi’s obfuscations. Ougi takes the shadow to be representative of the whole self, because they themselves are a living breathing Jungian shadow, but just like Jekyll and Hyde man is both. He is not one or the other, he is both at the same time. Ougi always act with the assumption that there is some kind of truth to be revealed, that this is just like a detective novel where there is a reveal waiting at the end.

Ougi takes the repressed desires to count as the “truth” of the whole mind, and ignores the conscious mind entirely. Therefore, in their view Nadeko is only capable of being a selfish cute girl who sees herself as a victim, Hanekawa is only something scary which Araragi must avoid. They at the same time as Araragi both read the same black and white narrative of the world. They do not care at all for the persona, or how people choose to present themselves. Desipte what Kaiki said to Nadeko that people can choose to be whoever they want to be, and they can try as many times as they like.

Ougi also views themselves as inhuman, and therefore incapable of doing anything, or defining themselves as anything outside of their role. Ougi is in a way, just as repressing of themself as Araragi is. They even lament this in front of Tsukihi, that once the detective reveals the mystery the novel is over. That if anybody would know the truth of them, they would come to hate them because they are abhorrent.

Ougi by repressing concious thought, silences other people and what they have to say about themselves. The only thing that matters is the repressed, what Ougi dictates as the truth must then become the truth. It’s just as much a limited way of saying the world as Araragi’s is. Hence Ougi’s famous catchphrase, I don’t know anything, you’re the one who knows. Ougi sees themselves as a person fundamentally incapable of knowing anything other than outside the bounds of what Araragi already knows.

Which is finally where the black and white thinking comes in. While the two of them seem like polar opposites, their views of the world are actually the same. Ougi wants what Araragi wants, for the world to exist like this is a story. For there to be roles, and order and most importantly meaning. The same way that Araragi just ignores things that fall out of step with their roles, when people contradict the way Araragi sees them he just pretends to be oblivious rather than see them as complex human beings. Ougi actively goes out of their way to punish people, for not playing the role in the story they were supposed to play. He acts like a corrective force, pushing people back into their roles. His wrongful assumption is not that people improve by “correcting mistakes” but rather there was a proper path in the first place. That there was a hero’s journey they were supposed to be going on. There is no path, there is no meaning, it’s all senseless but Ougi exists out of a desire for things to be sensible.

Ougi exists as Araragi’s opposite, because Araragi assumes that things like binary opposites exist in the first place. Heroes and villains, crime and punishment. They both believes these things exist in a fundamental order in the world, and they are not just made up values that humans invented and give meaning to.

“Let’s not joke. Virtue is the antonym of vice, not of crime.” “Are vice and crime different?” “They are, I think. Virtue and vice are concepts invented by human beings, words for a morality which human beings arbitrarily devised.” (No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai)

For both of them clinging to these hypocritical beliefs are better than the alternative, admitting to their own helplessness in the face of a world that is mostly indifferent to them.

That’s why, when they are separate both of them choose to stick to their ultimately restricting and punishing roles, as protagonist and atagonist, persona and shadow, hero and villain, rather than just trying to acknowledge themselves and live as people.

Both is one, and one is both. Araragi Koyomi and Oshino Ougi have a relationship that ultimately results in not antagonism, but rather union and acceptance. Just like the King of Distortion is not an enemy of mankind in the enemy, Ougi was never an enemy to Araragi in the first place. Araragi never needed to hate himself or punish himself. The true path forward lies in union and acceptance.

You can never be anything more than yourself, nothing more and nothing left.

#monogatari #monogatari meta #mg meta #araragi koyomi #oshino ougi #meta #nisio meta

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eruptionsanddisasters · 4 years ago

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The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement

By Martin Luther King Jr.

It is always a very rich and rewarding experience when I can take a brief break from the day-to-day demands of our struggle for freedom and human dignity and discuss the issues involved in that struggle with concerned friends of good will all over the nation. It is particularly a great privilege to discuss these issues with members of the academic community, who are constantly writing about and dealing with the problems that we face and who have the tremendous responsibility of molding the minds of young men and women all over the country.

The Civil Rights Movement needs the help of social scientists

In the preface to their book, 'Applied Sociology' (1965), S. M. Miller and Alvin Gouldner state: 'It is the historic mission of the social sciences to enable mankind to take possession of society.' It follows that for Negroes who substantially are excluded from society this science is needed even more desperately than for any other group in the population.

For social scientists, the opportunity to serve in a life-giving purpose is a humanist challenge of rare distinction. Negroes too are eager for a rendezvous with truth and discovery. We are aware that social scientists, unlike some of their colleagues in the physical sciences, have been spared the grim feelings of guilt that attended the invention of nuclear weapons of destruction. Social scientists, in the main, are fortunate to be able to extirpate evil, not to invent it.

If the Negro needs social sciences for direction and for self-understanding, the white society is in even more urgent need. White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism and the understanding needs to be carefully documented and consequently more difficult to reject. The present crisis arises because although it is historically imperative that our society take the next step to equality, we find ourselves psychologically and socially imprisoned. All too many white Americans are horrified not with conditions of Negro life but with the product of these conditions-the Negro himself.

White America is seeking to keep the walls of segregation substantially intact while the evolution of society and the Negro's desperation is causing them to crumble. The white majority, unprepared and unwilling to accept radical structural change, is resisting and producing chaos while complaining that if there were no chaos orderly change would come.

Negroes want the social scientist to address the white community and 'tell it like it is.' White America has an appalling lack of knowledge concerning the reality of Negro life. One reason some advances were made in the South during the past decade was the discovery by northern whites of the brutal facts of southern segregated life. It was the Negro who educated the nation by dramatizing the evils through nonviolent protest. The social scientist played little or no role in disclosing truth. The Negro action movement with raw courage did it virtually alone. When the majority of the country could not live with the extremes of brutality they witnessed, political remedies were enacted and customs were altered.

These partial advances were, however, limited principally to the South and progress did not automatically spread throughout the nation. There was also little depth to the changes. White America stopped murder, but that is not the same thing as ordaining brotherhood; nor is the ending of lynch rule the same thing as inaugurating justice.

After some years of Negro-white unity and partial success, white America shifted gears and went into reverse. Negroes, alive with hope and enthusiasm, ran into sharply stiffened white resistance at all levels and bitter tensions broke out in sporadic episodes of violence. New lines of hostility were drawn and the era of good feeling disappeared.

The decade of 1955 to 1965, with its constructive elements, misled us. Everyone, activists and social scientists, underestimated the amount of violence and rage Negroes were suppressing and the amount of bigotry the white majority was disguising.

Science should have been employed more fully to warn us that the Negro, after 350 years of handicaps, mired in an intricate network of contemporary barriers, could not be ushered into equality by tentative and superficial changes.

Mass nonviolent protests, a social invention of Negroes, were effective in Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma in forcing national legislation which served to change Negro life sufficiently to curb explosions. But when changes were confined to the South alone, the North, in the absence of change, began to seethe.

The freedom movement did not adapt its tactics to the different and unique northern urban conditions. It failed to see that nonviolent marches in the South were forms of rebellion. When Negroes took over the streets and shops, southern society shook to its roots. Negroes could contain their rage when they found the means to force relatively radical changes in their environment.

In the North, on the other hand, street demonstrations were not even a mild expression of militancy. The turmoil of cities absorbs demonstrations as merely transitory drama which is ordinary in city life. Without a more effective tactic for upsetting the status quo, the power structure could maintain its intransigence and hostility. Into the vacuum of inaction, violence and riots flowed and a new period opened.

Urban riots.

Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse. Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking. But most of all, alienated from society and knowing that this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing property rights. There are thus elements of emotional catharsis in the violent act. This may explain why most cities in which riots have occurred have not had a repetition, even though the causative conditions remain. It is also noteworthy that the amount of physical harm done to white people other than police is infinitesimal and in Detroit whites and Negroes looted in unity.

A profound judgment of today's riots was expressed by Victor Hugo a century ago. He said, 'If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.'

The policymakers of the white society have caused the darkness; they create discrimination; they structured slums; and they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also demand that the white man abide by law in the ghettos. Day-in and day-out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; and he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions for civic services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them but do not make them any more than a prisoner makes a prison. Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society.

Vietnam War.

There is another cause of riots that is too important to mention casually-the war in Vietnam. Here again, we are dealing with a controversial issue. But I am convinced that the war in Vietnam has played havoc with our domestic destinies. The bombs that fall in Vietnam explode at home. It does not take much to see what great damage this war has done to the image of our nation. It has left our country politically and morally isolated in the world, where our only friends happen to be puppet nations like Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea. The major allies in the world that have been with us in war and peace are not with us in this war. As a result we find ourselves socially and politically isolated.

The war in Vietnam has torn up the Geneva Accord. It has seriously impaired the United Nations. It has exacerbated the hatreds between continents, and worse still, between races. It has frustrated our development at home by telling our underprivileged citizens that we place insatiable military demands above their most critical needs. It has greatly contributed to the forces of reaction in America, and strengthened the military-industrial complex, against which even President Eisenhower solemnly warned us. It has practically destroyed Vietnam, and left thousands of American and Vietnamese youth maimed and mutilated. And it has exposed the whole world to the risk of nuclear warfare.

As I looked at what this war was doing to our nation, and to the domestic situation and to the Civil Rights movement, I found it necessary to speak vigorously out against it. My speaking out against the war has not gone without criticisms. There are those who tell me that I should stick with civil rights, and stay in my place. I can only respond that I have fought too hard and long to end segregated public accommodations to segregate my own moral concerns. It is my deep conviction that justice is indivisible, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. For those who tell me I am hurting the Civil Rights movement, and ask, 'Don't you think that in order to be respected, and in order to regain support, you must stop talking against the war?' I can only say that I am not a consensus leader. I do not seek to determine what is right and wrong by taking a Gallop Poll to determine majority opinion. And it is again my deep conviction that ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus, but a molder of consensus. On some positions cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?!' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience must ask the question, 'Is it right?!' And there comes a time when one must take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular. But one must take it because it is right. And that is where I find myself today.

Moreover, I am convinced, even if war continues, that a genuine massive act of concern will do more to quell riots than the most massive deployment of troops.

Unemployment.

The unemployment of Negro youth ranges up to 40 percent in some slums. The riots are almost entirely youth events-the age range of participants is from 13 to 25. What hypocrisy it is to talk of saving the new generation-to make it the generation of hope-while consigning it to unemployment and provoking it to violent alternatives.

When our nation was bankrupt in the thirties we created an agency to provide jobs to all at their existing level of skill. In our overwhelming affluence today what excuse is there for not setting up a national agency for full employment immediately?

The other program which would give reality to hope and opportunity would be the demolition of the slums to be replaced by decent housing built by residents of the ghettos.

These programs are not only eminently sound and vitally needed, but they have the support of an overwhelming majority of the nation-white and Negro. The Harris Poll on August 21, 1967, disclosed that an astounding 69 percent of the country support a works program to provide employment to all and an equally astonishing 65 percent approve a program to tear down the slums.

There is a program and there is heavy majority support for it. Yet, the administration and Congress tinker with trivial proposals to limit costs in an extravagant gamble with disaster.

The President has lamented that he cannot persuade Congress. He can, if the will is there, go to the people, mobilize the people's support and thereby substantially increase his power to persuade Congress. Our most urgent task is to find the tactics that will move the government no matter how determined it is to resist.

Civil disobedience.

I believe we will have to find the militant middle between riots on the one hand and weak and timid supplication for justice on the other hand. That middle ground, I believe, is civil disobedience. It can be aggressive but nonviolent; it can dislocate but not destroy. The specific planning will take some study and analysis to avoid mistakes of the past when it was employed on too small a scale and sustained too briefly.

Civil disobedience can restore Negro-white unity. There have been some very important sane white voices even during the most desperate moments of the riots. One reason is that the urban crisis intersects the Negro crisis in the city. Many white decision- makers may care little about saving Negroes, but they must care about saving their cities. The vast majority of production is created in cities; most white Americans live in them. The suburbs to which they flee cannot exist detached from cities. Hence powerful white elements have goals that merge with ours.

Role for the social scientist

Now there are many roles for social scientists in meeting these problems. Kenneth Clark has said that Negroes are moved by a suicide instinct in riots and Negroes know there is a tragic truth in this observation. Social scientists should also disclose the suicide instinct that governs the administration and Congress in their total failure to respond constructively.

What other areas are there for social scientists to assist the civil rights movement? There are many, but I would like to suggest three because they have an urgent quality.

Social science may be able to search out some answers to the problem of Negro leadership. E. Franklin Frazier, in his profound work, Black Bourgeoisie, laid painfully bare the tendency of the upwardly mobile Negro to separate from his community, divorce himself from responsibility to it, while failing to gain acceptance in the white community. There has been significant improvements from the days Frazier researched, but anyone knowledgeable about Negro life knows its middle class is not yet bearing its weight. Every riot has carried strong overtone of hostility of lower class Negroes toward the affluent Negro and vice versa. No contemporary study of scientific depth has totally studied this problem. Social science should be able to suggest mechanisms to create a wholesome black unity and a sense of peoplehood while the process of integration proceeds.

As one example of this gap in research, there are no studies, to my knowledge, to explain adequately the absence of Negro trade union leadership. Eight-five percent of Negroes are working people. Some two million are in trade unions but in 50 years we have produced only one national leader-A. Philip Randolph.

Discrimination explains a great deal, but not everything. The picture is so dark even a few rays of light may signal a useful direction.

Political action.

The second area for scientific examination is political action. In the past two decades, Negroes have expended more effort in quest of the franchise than they have in all other campaigns combined. Demonstrations, sit-ins and marches, though more spectacular, are dwarfed by the enormous number of man-hours expended to register millions, particularly in the South. Negro organizations from extreme militant to conservative persuasion, Negro leaders who would not even talk to each other, all have been agreed on the key importance of voting. Stokely Carmichael said black power means the vote and Roy Wilkins, while saying black power means black death, also energetically sought the power of the ballot.

A recent major work by social scientists Matthew and Prothro concludes that 'The concrete benefits to be derived from the franchise-under conditions that prevail in the South-have often been exaggerated.,' that voting is not the key that will unlock the door to racial equality because 'the concrete measurable payoffs from Negro voting in the South will not be revolutionary' (1966).

James A. Wilson supports this view, arguing, 'Because of the structure of American politics as well as the nature of the Negro community, Negro politics will accomplish only limited objectives' (1965).

If their conclusion can be supported, then the major effort Negroes have invested in the past 20 years has been in the wrong direction and the major pillar of their hope is a pillar of sand. My own instinct is that these views are essentially erroneous, but they must be seriously examined.

The need for a penetrating massive scientific study of this subject cannot be overstated. Lipset in 1957 asserted that a limitation in focus in political sociology has resulted in a failure of much contemporary research to consider a number of significant theoretical questions. The time is short for social science to illuminate this critically important area. If the main thrust of Negro effort has been, and remains, substantially irrelevant, we may be facing an agonizing crisis of tactical theory.

The third area for study concerns psychological and ideological changes in Negroes. It is fashionable now to be pessimistic. Undeniably, the freedom movement has encountered setbacks. Yet I still believe there are significant aspects of progress.

Negroes today are experiencing an inner transformation that is liberating them from ideological dependence on the white majority. What has penetrated substantially all strata of Negro life is the revolutionary idea that the philosophy and morals of the dominant white society are not holy or sacred but in all too many respects are degenerate and profane.

Negroes have been oppressed for centuries not merely by bonds of economic and political servitude. The worst aspect of their oppression was their inability to question and defy the fundamental precepts of the larger society. Negroes have been loath in the past to hurl any fundamental challenges because they were coerced and conditioned into thinking within the context of the dominant white ideology. This is changing and new radical trends are appearing in Negro thought. I use radical in its broad sense to refer to reaching into roots.

Ten years of struggle have sensitized and opened the Negro's eyes to reaching. For the first time in their history, Negroes have become aware of the deeper causes for the crudity and cruelty that governed white society's responses to their needs. They discovered that their plight was not a consequence of superficial prejudice but was systemic.

The slashing blows of backlash and frontlash have hurt the Negro, but they have also awakened him and revealed the nature of the oppressor. To lose illusions is to gain truth. Negroes have grown wiser and more mature and they are hearing more clearly those who are raising fundamental questions about our society whether the critics be Negro or white. When this process of awareness and independence crystallizes, every rebuke, every evasion, become hammer blows on the wedge that splits the Negro from the larger society.

Social science is needed to explain where this development is going to take us. Are we moving away, not from integration, but from the society which made it a problem in the first place? How deep and at what rate of speed is this process occurring? These are some vital questions to be answered if we are to have a clear sense of our direction.

We know we haven't found the answers to all forms of social change. We know, however, that we did find some answers. We have achieved and we are confident. We also know we are confronted now with far greater complexities and we have not yet discovered all the theory we need.

And may I say together, we must solve the problems right here in America. As I have said time and time again, Negroes still have faith in America. Black people still have faith in a dream that we will all live together as brothers in this country of plenty one day.

But I was distressed when I read in the New York Times of Aug. 31, 1967; that a sociologist from Michigan State University, the outgoing president of the American Sociological Society, stated in San Francisco that Negroes should be given a chance to find an all Negro community in South America: 'that the valleys of the Andes Mountains would be an ideal place for American Negroes to build a second Israel.' He further declared that 'The United States Government should negotiate for a remote but fertile land in Equador, Peru or Bolivia for this relocation.'

I feel that it is rather absurd and appalling that a leading social scientist today would suggest to black people, that after all these years of suffering an exploitation as well as investment in the American dream, that we should turn around and run at this point in history. I say that we will not run! Professor Loomis even compared the relocation task of the Negro to the relocation task of the Jews in Israel. The Jews were made exiles. They did not choose to abandon Europe, they were driven out. Furthermore, Israel has a deep tradition, and Biblical roots for Jews. The Wailing Wall is a good example of these roots. They also had significant financial aid from the United States for the relocation and rebuilding effort. What tradition does the Andes, especially the valley of the Andes Mountains, have for Negroes?

And I assert at this time that once again we must reaffirm our belief in building a democratic society, in which blacks and whites can live together as brothers, where we will all come to see that integration is not a problem, but an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.

The problem is deep. It is gigantic in extent, and chaotic in detail. And I do not believe that it will be solved until there is a kind of cosmic discontent enlarging in the bosoms of people of good will all over this nation.

There are certain technical words in every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and even clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It is the word maladjusted. This word is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is a good word; certainly it is good that in dealing with what the word implies you are declaring that destructive maladjustment should be destroyed. You are saying that all must seek the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.

But on the other hand, I am sure that we will recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence.

In a day when Sputniks, Explorers and Geminies are dashing through outer space, when guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can finally win a war. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence, it is either nonviolence or nonexistence. As President Kennedy declared, 'Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.' And so the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a suspension in the development and use of nuclear weapons, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and eventually disarming the whole world, may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation. Our earthly habitat will be transformed into an inferno that even Dante could not envision.

Creative maladjustment.

Thus, it may well be that our world is in dire need of a new organization, The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment. Men and women should be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who in the midst of the injustices of his day, could cry out in words that echo across the centuries, 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream'; or as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of his vacillations finally came to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; or as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery, could scratch across the pages of history, words lifted to cosmic proportions, 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. And that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' And through such creative maladjustment, we may be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.

I have not lost hope. I must confess that these have been very difficult days for me personally. And these have been difficult days for every civil rights leader, for every lover of justice and peace.

(Copyright 1967 by Martin Luther King Jr. Copyright renewed 1994 by Coretta Scott King. Reprinted by permission by the heirs to the estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., care of Writers' House as agents for the proprietors.)

#civilrightsmovement #social analysis #mlk #protests and riots #essay

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garywonghc · 6 years ago

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The Art That Illustrates Another Reality

by Francesca Fremantle

Brightly-coloured Buddhas holding strange ritual implements, meditational deities wearing human bone ornaments, voluptuous goddesses and terrifying, wrathful manifestations — the exotic Buddhist art of Tibet is often misunderstood through ignorance of its meaning and purpose. We ask, how can such strange images have a spiritual function? More fundamentally, since the teaching and practice of Buddhism is concerned with realisation of the nature of the mind, what place can these gods, goddesses and demons have within it?

The characteristic images of Tibetan art are those of the Vajrayana deities. Based on the inspiration of the Indian tantric tradition, Tibetan artists interpreted these visions with their own genius, depicting them with great subtlety and expressiveness and imbuing them with numinous power and mystery.

Although, perhaps confusingly, they are known as gods and goddesses, these great deities are buddhas, awakened beings. They are not like the inhabitants of the realm of the gods (devas), who are still within samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. They are the living presence of all the various aspects of enlightenment — both its qualities and its activities — envisioned as male and female buddhas, bodhisattvas, protectors of dharma, and so on.

Every detail of the deities’ bodies, their adornments, the instruments they hold, and their environments conveys some aspect of dharma, which is absorbed into one’s own being through meditation upon them.

The Vajrayana deities belong to the sambhogakaya, the second of the three bodies, or dimensions, of enlightenment. The sambhogakaya is the level of communication between the dharmakaya, the formless essence beyond concepts, and the nirmanakaya, its physical manifestation in the six realms of samsara. The sambhogakaya deities are spontaneous expressions of wakefulness, appearing in a multitude of forms in order to liberate sentient beings.

The visionary forms in which the deities are perceived in meditation and portrayed in art are simply appearances — their compassionate play, as the tantras say. Yet for the practitioner these conventional forms are of great significance, for every detail of their bodies, their adornments, the instruments they hold, and their environments conveys some aspect of dharma, which is absorbed into one’s own being through meditation upon them.

There is no sense in which Buddhist deities are ever treated like the eternal God of a monotheistic faith. Nor are they worshipped as independently existent, external beings. Even when they are imagined outside oneself for the purpose of meditation, at the end of the ritual the visualised images dissolve into light and enter the meditator’s heart.

The forms of the deities are imagined as hollow and insubstantial. Made of light, they appear from the emptiness of space like the colours of a rainbow, and they dissolve back into space leaving not the slightest trace behind. The purpose of meditating upon them is to realise one’s total identity with them, for our true nature is none other than buddhanature itself.

Symbols of the Awakened State

A short text of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, The Aspiration of Great Power, describes how the inexpressible basic ground of reality, common to all beings, is experienced in two different ways: through the paths of awareness and unawareness. The primordial buddha Samantabhadra (Universal Goodness) represents the original awakened mind, which is the true nature of every living being. He has never strayed from the state of awareness; therefore, his experience is completely free from dualistic consciousness and flows forth from the ever-present knowledge of ultimate truth.

This knowledge is expressed in five different modes, five facets of enlightenment. From this fivefold knowledge the five awakened families arise. When the knowledge expands fully, as the text says, the peaceful deities appear, and then, out of its creative energy, come their wrathful transformations.

In contrast, the experience of confused beings develops as a result of unawareness, and instead of the five modes of knowledge, the five poisons, or emotional afflictions, arise. The dualistic sense of self and other is born, and the illusory self gradually perceives the external world as filled with the objects of its desire, hatred, pride, envy and delusion. In this way, existence in the six realms of samsara comes about, entirely based on mistaken perception.

All the deities, then, are symbolic representations of the awakened state — how the primordial buddhanature perceives, responds and acts — and they correspond exactly to the confused experience of ordinary beings in the six realms. The five families pervade the whole of existence: since samsara is a subtle distortion or misperception of their reality, all living beings and all phenomena arise from them and share in their characteristics. Becoming aware of these correspondences provides a powerful means of transforming ordinary perception into the sacred vision of the buddhas and their pure lands.

The Five Buddhas

The source of all the divine forms, the fivefold knowledge, appears as rays of light in the colours white, blue, yellow, red and green. It is as though the pure brilliance of enlightenment is displayed as a rainbow. These colours pervade the whole range of vajrayana imagery. The great buddhas Vairochana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi, whose images are familiar throughout Tibetan art, embody the essence of the five families. They are generally portrayed wearing the elaborate costume of Indian royalty, to indicate the sovereignty of the truth, and their crowns contain jewels of all the five colours, reminding us that each aspect of enlightenment is complete in itself. But they may also be shown in simple monastic robes, emphasising their identity with Shakyamuni, the Buddha of the present age.

VAIROCHANA, BUDDHA FAMILY

The first of the five families is called the Buddha, or Tathagata, family, and is represented by Vairochana, the Illuminator. His nature is the all-encompassing knowledge of all phenomena throughout space and time. The negation of this knowledge appears as the poison of ignorance, the basis of existence in samsara.

Vairochana is placed at the centre of the mandala of the five buddhas. He is white in colour and he is connected with the element of space. The emblem of the family is the wheel of dharma, which symbolises both universal sovereignty and the dharma as the path of Buddhism. He sits on a throne supported by lions, symbolising fearlessness, and with his hands he makes the gesture of teaching, or “turning the wheel.”

AKSHOBHYA, VAJRA FAMILY

Akshobhya, the Unshakable, embodies the Vajra family. Vajra means both diamond and thunderbolt, it conveys brilliance, purity, indestructibility and power. The Vajra family experiences all phenomena as reflections in a mirror, seemingly real and vivid, yet without any genuine reality of their own. But for ordinary beings, the serene clarity of the mirror knowledge mutates into the poison of hatred and aggression, arising from the sense of separation between self and other.

Akshobhya is blue in colour and he occupies the eastern direction. He is connected with the element of water. He touches the ground with his right hand, recalling the moment when Shakyamuni invoked the earth goddess to witness his resolution. His throne rests on the backs of elephants, symbolising strength. The emblem of this family is the ritual five-pronged vajra, symbol of the indestructible awakened mind; its prongs represent the five male and five female buddhas.

RATNASAMBHAVA, RATNA FAMILY

Ratnasambhava, the Jewel-Born, represents the Ratna (Jewel) family. He perceives that the whole of existence shares the same essential nature and is one in the awakened state. The enlightened characteristics of this family are equality and generosity, which can become distorted into their opposites of pride and possessiveness.

Ratnasambhava’s colour is yellow and his element is earth. He is found in the southern direction. He makes the gesture of giving, with his right hand facing forward. He sits on a throne carried by horses, whose speed and endurance symbolise miraculous powers. The family’s emblem is the wishing-fulfilling gem of Indian mythology; it represents the awakened mind, in which all qualities are complete and all desires are fulfilled.

AMOGHASIDDHI, KARMA FAMILY

Amoghasiddhi, “Unfailing Accomplishment,” embodies the Karma (Action) family, also known as Samaya or Commitment. He represents the tireless activity of the awakened state for the welfare of all beings, and he possesses the effortless accomplishment of all actions. When this quality is frustrated, it turns into envy, suspicion and rivalry. Amoghasiddhi is green, his element is air, and he dwells in the north. He raises his right hand in the gesture of fearlessness, in the same way that Shakyamuni repelled the onslaughts of Mara. His throne is borne aloft by mythical birds, symbols of enlightened activity. This family has two emblems: a sword, symbol of swift and powerful action, and a double vajra, whose prongs radiate energy in the four directions.

AMITABHA, PADMA FAMILY

Amitabha, Infinite Light, represents the Padma (Lotus) family. He is the embodiment of love, and he embraces the diversity of all phenomena, seeing their individual characteristics. Without awareness, this quality can manifest as grasping, desire and passion. He is red in colour, his element is fire, and his direction is the west. He sits in meditation holding his hands in his lap. His throne is supported by peacocks, which in Indian mythology are believed to eat poison and transform it into the beautiful colours of their feathers. The family’s emblem is a red lotus, symbolising the transmutation of passion, just as the lotus flower arises unstained from out of the muddy swamp in which it grows.

Wrathful Deities

The five buddhas are known as peaceful deities. They are peaceful because they simply exist, indestructibly and without compromise, whether they are recognised or not. Nonetheless, the energy of compassion continuously flows forth, appearing in a multitude of different transformations. The most awe-inspiring of these are the wrathful deities. They represent the overwhelming power and energy of the awakened state. Their all-consuming rage is directed solely against ignorance and the suffering that results from it. But the majestic intensity of their presence evokes awe and terror in the confused minds of unawakened beings, and their horrific forms appear threatening to the grasping, self-protective ego.

The charnel ground is the ultimate symbol of the transformative power of the tantras. Everything that disgusts us, everything we fear, hate or despise, must be recognised as fundamentally pure, and its essence liberated.

Wrathful deities generally have many heads, arms and legs, all illustrating various qualities or aspects of the path. They wear flayed skins, are adorned with bones, skulls and serpents, and carry weapons in their hands. They drink blood from skull bowls, and they delight in offerings such as severed limbs, entrails and human hearts. These gruesome attributes are connected with the charnel ground, where corpses are burned or left to be devoured by wild animals and birds of prey. The charnel ground is the ultimate symbol of the transformative power of the tantras. Everything that disgusts us, everything we fear, hate or despise, must be recognised as fundamentally pure, and its essence liberated.

Deities in Union

The two essential elements of awakening are the wisdom of emptiness and the skillful means of compassion. Male deities in general embody skillful means, arising from compassion. The wisdom of emptiness arises from the realisation of the nonexistence of ego, and simultaneously the illusory nature of the external world, which is created by ego’s projections. This is the feminine principle, taking the form of female buddhas or goddesses. It is the mother of all existence, the vast openness of space in which phenomena appear and dissolve.

Emptiness is the essential partner of compassion, for without it compassion would be based on an egocentric concept of benefiting others. This is the meaning behind the depictions of male and female buddhas in sexual union, known as “father and mother.” When these two join together, their union produces the transcendent bliss of awakening, which is wonderfully depicted in Tibetan art by the ecstatic attitudes and expressions of the embracing pairs.

Hosts of other deities emanate from these couples, expressing different aspects of enlightened energy. For example, there may be bodhisattvas, offering goddesses, dharma protectors, dakinis, guards, messengers and servants of many kinds, all carrying out the work of dharma throughout the six realms.

Bodhisattvas

A bodhisattva is an awakened being who does not rest in the peace of nirvana but manifests in the world in order to liberate others. So, while the principal buddhas of the five families represent their basic awakened qualities, the bodhisattvas put these qualities into action. For example, the buddha Amitabha is the principle of universal compassion, and the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is found wherever acts of love, compassion and mercy are performed.

Protectors

The deities that perform a protective function, such as guardians of the gates of mandalas, or great dharmapalas like Mahakala, are fierce and wrathful. They act as the practitioner’s conscience, using every means to prevent us from doing harm and straying from the path of dharma. Out of compassion they will ruthlessly destroy evil, yet their essential nature is totally peaceful. We can recognise them in daily life in any kind of incident that forcibly brings us to our senses and wakes us up, even if these warnings may be unwelcome, coming in the form of accidents, illness or the sudden awareness of death.

Dakinis

Dakinis, too, are constantly bringing us messages and inspiration. They embody the feminine principle and are the keepers of the tantric teachings. They inhabit the magical and miraculous dimension of life, and they open the door to the secrets of spiritual powers. They are depicted flying through the air, exulting in the boundlessness and freedom of nonself, or dancing with their male partners in the passionate embrace of emptiness and compassion.

Attendants

Numerous other attendant deities are found in some Tibetan paintings, arranged around the central figures. Their colours indicate their connection to the five families, and they carry emblems or weapons that symbolise their functions. Frequently they have bird or animal heads and are shown cavorting wildly, gesticulating furiously, killing, devouring corpses, and so on. They are like sparks of energy sent out by the wrathful deities, pursuing their dharma activities into the farthest and most hidden corners of life.

Yidams

This entire system of imagery illustrates the tantric precept: that which binds us in samsara is the very thing that sets us free. The basic nature of the five families, the modes of primordial knowledge, is the pure form of the five poisons. The five female buddhas embody the empty essence of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. The male buddhas represent the five components of the individual: form, feeling, perception, conditioning and consciousness. The male bodhisattvas are the eight kinds of consciousness, including the five senses, while the female bodhisattvas are their respective objects: whatever is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched or arises in the mind. The surrounding deities illustrate all kinds of mental and emotional phenomena and their projection into the external world, including aspects of our nature that we normally choose to ignore — instincts and impulses whose energy must be brought onto the path and used in the service of dharma. Since we are naturally composed of all these things, this means that all the deities are contained within our being. Meditating in this way, the entire realm of samsara is revealed as the sphere of enlightenment.

On the path of vajrayana the practitioner discovers his or her innate awakened being by means of deity yoga, union with the yidam. The great tantric buddhas, such as Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara, Hevajra or Vajrakilya, embody the teachings and practices of their own particular tantras. Each one of them represents the totality of the awakened state, thus containing all five families within themselves, but each emphasises the transmutation of a particular poison, and these differing approaches are expressed through their immensely complex and detailed imagery.

Understanding and absorbing this imagery through repeated visualisation is a powerful tool in the process of developing confidence in the reality of the sacred world. The practitioner must learn to let go of his or her habitual, conditioned self perception as an ordinary sentient being in order to identify totally with the awakened nature of the deity, to become the deity itself. But the visualisation of the deity’s form is only the first step along the path to awakening. In the end, the nature of the buddhas is inexpressible, secret and profound, far beyond the scope of thought or imagination.

Teachers

Only someone who has accomplished realisation of the deity can transmit the empowerment to practice it. Therefore, the Vajrayana teacher is always regarded as a buddha. By recognising the actual presence of the awakened state in another human being, the practitioner develops the trust and confidence to follow this difficult and dangerous path, which is a process of complete opening and letting go. The practitioner also feels intense gratitude that so many enlightened men and women have shown compassion by working for sentient beings instead of resting in the peace of nirvana.

Spiritual teachers are frequently portrayed in Tibetan art, and these images are remarkable in conveying simultaneously an iconic and human quality. They combine a sense of respect and devotion with sensitive and sometimes extremely touching depictions of individual personality.

Certain vajrayana figures, especially mahasiddhas, may be shown dancing, flying or enacting scenes from their lives, but the majority are portrayed seated cross-legged, their hands forming the gestures of the five buddha families. This identifies them with Buddha Shakyamuni himself, and in particular with some specific aspect of enlightened manifestation. In paintings, their own meditational deity, their true being, is often shown in the sky above them. They may hold symbolic objects, such as a text indicating scholarship, or emblems of tantric practice. These include: the vajra and bell, representing the male and female principles; the skull bowl, containing blood transmuted into the elixir of life; and the three pronged staff or three-sided dagger, which destroys greed, hate, and delusion with a single blow. Through the imagery of these portraits, the world of sentient beings and the world of enlightenment are brought together in a manner that reveals the most profound possibilities of our own nature.

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anhed-nia · 7 years ago

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BLOGTOBER INTERMISSION: SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

I’m a hundred percent positive that everything I’m about to say has been said better and more thoroughly by legions of real writers and critics who came between 1952 and my very birth, but luckily for me, I’m not a professional who is in any way harnessed to the history and discourse of my favored field. I just re-watched SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN LAST NIGHT and now I have something to get off my chest, that must be gotten off my chest even if it has issued forth from other people’s chest before, because otherwise, you know, I’ll be setting here with something on my chest.

The story begins on the red carpet in front of the legendary Grauman’s Chinese theater, where Gene Kelly treats a celebrity-obsessed throng to a lavish telling of his fake life story, culminating in his made-up romance with frequent co-star Jean Hagen. Kelly’s marketing-minded monologue, detailing his alleged lofty artistic achievements, is foiled by a montage revealing him to be nothing but a vaudeville refugee whose raw physical talent helped him transition from stage to screen--under the providence of the silent era’s reliance on pure spectacle. Inevitably, Kelly finds himself in a pickle with the advent of the talkie, especially since his leading lady Hagen has a voice that could crack a mirror. Between keeping her quiet at public appearances, and preserving the illusion that the pair are the same loving couple behind the scenes as they are in the pictures, Kelly and Hagen are a full time job for producers. With their box office pull already threatened by their secret mutual loathing, and now doubly so by their dubious ability to adjust to emerging technology, the team has to face the very real possibility that they won’t survive the march of modernity.

Don’t let this perilous interpersonal drama fool you, though: SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN is not about human beings. Sure, there’s real chemistry between Kelly and burlesque dancer Debbie Reynolds, whose voice may launch her from seedy obscurity to sound-era success. Certainly Kelly’s scenes with his stalwart sidekick Donald O’Connor, the only man fleet-footed enough to follow his act, virtually glow with warmth and charm. But the foundation of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN is laid bare in its first few minutes: The film is entirely about artifice. Gene Kelly’s handsome mug hides the reality of the grueling hustle required to keep a shallow cad like himself among Hollywood royalty, just as Jean Hagen’s babydoll looks keep her in beads and boas so long as she keeps her rusty trap shut. Even their relationship with one another is a fraud, as we see that their simmering on-screen passion is actually a mistranslation of their insuppressible hatred for each other, the reality of which is lost on audiences who can’t hear them speaking. The central issue of the film is embodied in the way that sound seems to insist on authenticity--that is, whether Kelly and Hagen can learn lines and integrate them into convincing performances, as audiences are coming to expect a more perfect illusion of reality from modernizing cinema. SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’s answer to this quandary is that to demand realism from the movies is to miss the point of movies entirely.

The film deftly and methodically debunks the idea that cinema should synthesize real life. Kelly and Hagen fail one sound-era challenge after another, with their comical inability to memorize a script, speak into a mic, or suppress the wild gesticulations that once compensated for the absence of dialog. Even pure-hearted Debbie Reynolds has drunk the Kool-Aid on realistic performances, as she heckles Kelly about the superiority of eloquent soliloquies and naturalistic acting. However, Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, survivalists that they are, eventually determine that their problem is not the impending obsolescence of theatrical craft; They must instead challenge misguided goals of realism-obsessed filmmakers who fail to understand the full potential of film. To do so, they invent the most artificial genre of all: the movie musical. Truly, no fantasy or science-fiction conceit could be as radically absurd as the proposal that human beings might suddenly burst into coordinated song, accompanied by music arising from absolutely nowhere, within collections of strangers whose physical movements suddenly and lock into step with one another without the slightest communication between them. Even modern entertainment’s diseased insistence on laboriously explaining the mechanics of vampires or werewolves or jedi mind tricks has failed to penetrate the terrifyingly surreal world of the musical. The very preposterousness of this premise will be what saves SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’s protagonists from the unreasonable demands of a world pervertedly fixated on reproducing its own mundanity.

To drive the point home, virtually nothing you see in SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN is “real”. Many of the film’s most delightful scenes unfold with a camera and crew right there in the frame, or on a nearly barren sound stage with fans and spotlights in plain view. O’Connor’s signature solo number “Make’m Laugh”, in which he demonstrates an exhausting repertoire of mind-bending stunts amid a dangerous cluster of half-constructed film sets, not only eschews the need for any sort of convincing backdrop, but literally tells the audience that the transparent distortions of comedy win out over sneaky pretensions to perfection every time. Even when Kelly is ultimately inspired to film the elaborate, semi-autobiographical dance number “Broadway Melody”, the view we get into his imagined masterpiece plays out over janky cardboard sets with chalk sketches that merely suggest what the final product could be. That is, even in Kelly’s mind’s eye, show business is, and should be, frankly artificial.

While it distracts you with its song and dance about Kelly’s secret affair with true love Reynolds, his escalating war with fake love Hagen, and the whole team’s struggle to keep up with the times, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN is littered with philosophical statements that point away from theses petty human foibles. Music, for instance, is often thought of as something that arises from the fathomless depths of the human soul, but here, in one of history’s most revered musicals, the songs are as outrageously vapid as one could possibly imagine. Kelly’s aforementioned opus, a lengthy, rampaging demonstration of choreographic greatness, is driven by a batty musical composition whose lyrics are almost only the mindless battle cry “Gotta Dance!” Even the eponymous song that Kelly performs in a punishing downpour, “Singin’ In the Rain”, is a borderline dadaist lyrical exercise, consisting of a daffy list of pleasure responses to pain stimuli. While our heroes Kelly, O’Connor and Reynolds realize that the way to maintain their professional standing is not to simulate reality, but to scale up their talent for artifice to the newly outsized silver screen, Hagen is signaled as the movie’s defacto villain because of her belief in existing hype. Disturbingly, she buys into the PR fabrication of her love affair with Kelly, and she seals her own fate by bowing to the producers’ insistence that she have a voice to match her physical beauty, leading her to try to enslave the golden-throated Reynolds to a lifetime of VO. In one way this move is perfectly in line with the film’s thesis--that the entertainment industry is so entirely predicated on artificiality that its machinery can separate individuals into their choicest components, and frankenstein them into a more perfect performer. Unfortunately, Hagen misses this memo on what makes movies great, so when she tries to sell this wedding of her face with Reynold’s voice as a genuine article, it allows Kelly and O’Connor up to unmask her as a talentless cheat, effectively ruining her while simultaneously setting Reynolds up to become one of the first stars of the talkie era.

Herein lies the wonderful irony of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’s manifesto, though. It may tell us constantly that synthesized sincerity is a sin, but obviously no work of art could sustain itself entirely on an exhibitionistic display of its gears and cogs--see today’s dreary legions of post-post-post-everything movies and TV programs that try to pass off self-abnegating “humor” and painful admissions of laziness as intelligence and wit. While the movie takes an Emperor’s New Clothes attitude toward highfalutin technology, and the ridiculous idea that art should aspire to imitate life, it does not settle for cynically chipping away at other people’s pleasures. It also shows us time and again what it believes to be the actual greatest achievement of this medium, in the simple form of its actual corporeal stars. In one impossibly long take after another, we are shown that Gene Kelly’s dancing cannot be faked; that Donald O’Connor’s spooky physical ability is not divisible as a collection of special effects and editorial trickery. This could be read as a reductive message about the importance of the human being, but I think SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’s agenda is nothing so simple-minded. Even in the movie’s most emotional moment, Gene Kelly is incapable of expressing himself to Debbie Reynolds without the aid of a painted scrim, an electric sunset, and a mechanically-produced mist blown in by an industrial fan, all of which he assembles frankly before her eyes. These stars’ incredible physical prowess indicates the importance of spectacle itself. The film rejects the furtive pretentiousness of illusion, with its spineless subtleties, while uplifting the virtues of dazzling presentation. We’re allowed to see the seams in “Broadway Melody’s” production because of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’S strength of conviction, that the dance, the costuming, the colors, the lights, and the power of visual composition, are far greater than any simulation of reality could possibly be. It is truly astounding that a movie made in 1952, that was itself a period piece, that spends so much time reflecting on bygone forms of entertainment that were obsolete even within the context of the narrative, could not only avoid drippy sentimentality and nostalgia, but it could also be so thoroughly and potently modern. I’d be hard pressed to demand the return of a musical golden age, but this exercise in artifice says more about the real value of entertainment than so much of the cinema that would come in the ensuing decades. In today’s media landscape, choked with contrived documentary television and movies that rest on the laurels of being “based on a true story” even when that isn’t properly true, swollen with CGI that only calls attention to its failures by attempting to replace practical reality, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN feels more timely than ever.

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#singin' in the rain #gene kelly #donald o'connor #debbie reynolds #jean hagen #musicals #musical comedy

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youdecode · 4 years ago

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“I’m not good at anything” – 3 POWERFUL tips to counter this Inadequacy

Has the question How to love yourself and be confident tortured your brain cells? I am guessing . . .

YES!

Liking yourself is very important. Otherwise, you will have lower self-esteem.

It will then cause you to experience a great deal of depression, anxiety, and other anger problems.

You will be in chronic pain with physical and psychological illnesses.

Three practical Tips on How to love yourself and be confident

This post covers 3 effective tips which can help you to regain self-value.

Tip#1 Perform mindful meditation

Are you tired of understanding the process of mindfulness meditation?

In either case, allow me an explanation.

How many times do you only see the traces of self-hatred and depression, when you sit and ponder beyond the farthest edge of the night?

To get rid of the psychological conditions you have to open up your wisdom mind.

A mind where you only experience deep and peaceful feelings . . . quieter than the depths of oceans. That is the best way to improve yourself.

Mindfulness meditation ensures you blither with the bliss of the dusk . . .

But for that, you need to push yourself to dislike thoughts and hug the idea of self-respect.

You have to tune your natural state of mind with compassion and dignity for oneself.

The positive self-image and self-love already exist in your heart.

Just know that the process of being all aware is mindfulness.

Your mind reacts the same way as your heart. So it is exceedingly vital to release ordinary attachments of mind.

It keeps your spirits low.

Humans experience sleep and eating disorders as a result of an unhappy mind.

I hope I succeeded in clearing that gaze of curiosity about mindfulness.

The question strikes here . . . How to practice it?

Special Meditation

Mindful meditation is when you are conscious of your thoughts during meditation.

You must be aware about the basic meditation but this time you have to mindful of your thoughts.

Now as you are meditating and inhaling/exhaling.

Be conscious of “in” and “out” As you breathe in, assume that thoughts are coming in and as you breathe out let the gooo. Release them.

You have to focus on your breathing for monitoring how your thoughts arise and pass away.

Now when you see the negative self talk coming in and going out, take the role of an observer.

What an observer do?

One does not intervene.

Thus, do not have to pass any commentary or judgement on your thoughts.

Instead you have to view these thoughts from a distance.

Remember no internal comment or judgment.

Through this mindful meditation you have to detach from your thoughts.

Tip #2 : Treating Negative Self Talk (“I’m not good enough”)

Well, you don’t realize what negative thoughts are doing to your self-respect.

Why?

Because they are ingrained so powerfully in your head.

Due to those thoughts, I will never be able to experience high esteem . . . Or understand How to love yourself.

Have you ever seen that cloud of debris after Storm?

That is exactly your condition . . . as if you are taming the negative thoughts within you which clouds your core.

I don’t like myself . . . Yes, that is you who become so unreasonable at times.

You start labeling yourself . . . “I am a loser.”

I am boring what an idiot I am and why am I so stupid?

Those thoughts will always trap a lack of self-confidence in you, leaving you powerless.

Those unkind judgments will only demotivate your self-dignity. It will add up to the causes of low self-esteem.

If negativity has possessed you then?

You will likely overgeneralize stuff and use words like nobody and everybody.

Only negativity encompasses your eyes in every situation devoiding self-happiness.

You won’t even spare that poor waiter.

As you will be like ‘Oh my God that new boss dislikes me . . . look at the way he treated me today.’

Your distorted mind-reading ability has made you react in such away.

With no trace of a positive self-image, you will likely take the blame on yourself.

For you, that boss was unhappy because you must have transferred negativity . . . or you must have said something which was not appropriate.

Get rid of those types of self-concept.

It might be the possibility that something has happened with him 20 to 30 minutes ago.

He may have had his bad day for his reasons. but you no no no no you have to get into the root, place your picture there and shout on the face of EARTH I don’t like myself.

I don’t care about myself.

Then 3 steps are vital for handling negative thoughts.

These are things to make you feel better. . . the secret to how to love yourself and be confident.

Step 1: Dealing With Reasonable Thought

First of all, you need to realize the cause of negativity is the extra baggage of the past.

Instead of drowning in the deep sea of negative thoughts you need to change your encounter with your past again.

How?

By acknowledgment.

I know there must be incidents where you experienced guilt, regret, and self-hatred. . .

Where you shouted I hate my personality or hate being myself.

Instead of torturing yourself in the memory of those thoughts. . . just give them a little acknowledgment.

Once you acknowledge, you have two choices:

You can either reject the self-image which your past gifted or accept it.

If everything was true then you have to accept [from the previous article about acceptance].

Just summarize all that why is it true and how will you change it. Write it down, fold that paper, slipping it into your pocket.

You have to carry it with you just for a day.

Carry the summary as a symbol of a reminder that you are aware of those memories and past incidents.

Notice that while despite carrying that paper, you will have a fun-filled day.

Just feel yourself with satisfaction from all the past negativity

Step 2: Dealing With Unreasonable Thought

The past incidents can also give you unreasonable self-image and in that case:

Reject them. (remember the exaggeration we talked about earlier?)

Grab a paper, ink out all your negative feelings and burn that paper with a lighter.

The physical sensation of burning will get registered by your senses and the brain will take it as is.

Step 3: Diminishing Negative Effect

If you have been penning the untrue or true negative thoughts for long then they can get rigid.

Thus we treat them further with the diminishing formula.

Let’s dig into this self-love technique and weapon for how to love yourself:

You need to separate yourself from your thoughts. Imagine that it is a physical entity that you can plug into work whenever you wish and detach from your head whenever it gets out of control.

The way you do this is by just observing your thoughts. Do not judge your thoughts. Do not think about your thoughts. The keyword here is to observe. Just observe what is going on in your mind. Yes, this is the impartial manner you call it.

Visualize yourself just as an inspector who is consciously witnessing the thoughts. Just like any public scene, you would witness. What are you in essence doing?

You are making your thoughts meaningless. If you would not observe the thoughts then you would attach to it which will stimulate your feelings. . . you will feel worse.

But because you are just observing, you are dis-empowering them. You are not allowing the thoughts to foster the emotions, your feelings. So next time when you can not get your mind off something . . . practice this. You can do it throughout the day.

Here you will repeat whatever you had written onto your sheet to yourself (before admitting or burning).

Repeat every moment of the past which has hurt your self-esteem in one way or the other.

Let’s see an example: You got fired. Repeat I got fired three times. Immerse yourself in that experience and just feel that day. Repeat that word for 60 seconds.

Note your experience with that word and all the emotions attached will fade away. That word will just become a word for you with a sound without any real concrete sense.

Negative thought about being a loser or ugly floats through your head then you should repeat the loser for 60 seconds till it loses the sense or emotions which you have attached with it.

You will now stand in a position of rating. From 1 to 10, see how distrusting that word or phrase means to you.

Be loud to reduce the emotional impact of the word or phrase.

But my friends don’t be loud enough to force your neighbors to call a mental rehabilitation Centre. . . for what?

Your admission!

Step 4: Increase your interaction with positive thoughts (final)

After burning some thoughts and accepting a few. Now is the time of replacement.

Remember your brain hates a vacuum. It can not stand that void.

If you will not fill in something then it will do that for you. So work for replacement of negative thought.

Grab that overgeneralizing thought and strangle its neck.

How? by believing that some did better but performed worse than you. Examples:

If you have a negative thought which you don’t like I am an idiot as I flunked in paper instead of labeling myself as an idiot you might come up with a replacement thought . . . It was a tough paper. I will prepare better next time.

She is much smarter than me . . . but I have my strengths.

If I have not done that thing in the past everything here would have been better… good things to say about yourself: It taught me the real essence of life . . . I have become way stronger than any other person.

Tip # 3: Mindful Appreciation

Now start appreciating small things around you, only then you will be able to appreciate yourself.

How to raise your self-esteem through it?

Take the smallest thing which you can find. Like:

Take the aid of two raisins and eat them mindfully.

Spend At least 15 minutes for getting fully aware of what is in your mouth.

You have to pick the other and scan the details of the raisins . . . from it ridges till its stem, from its color still its aroma.

The love story of yours and raisins does not end here. You need to feel it between your fingers by rolling it while experiencing the sound it makes.

Before throwing raisin into your mouth, several thoughts will burn across your head. You will be like what the hell? Are you wasting my time . . . I don’t think it will work as it has nothing to do with mindfulness. Most of all why even I am eating it when I dislike it to a great extent.

Now you have to give these thoughts a warm reception and welcome them cordially.

The moment you throw that raisin into your mouth you have to bite it and feel the flavors bursting out.

The best thing which you can do is place the raisins in different areas of your tongue. You will experience a completely different taste. One which you would have never experienced . . . if you would have heedlessly eaten without pondering. That’s the difference between mindfulness and mindlessness.

Keep in mind that you have to chew very slowly to experience intense taste. You are missing a lot in life if you are not being mindful.

Now grab that second raisin and trust me. the taste which you will experience this time will be different. You will experience a completely different sensation . . . when that raisin will travel through your throat down your stomach.

Through this mindful appreciation, you are forced to like everything present around you.

You have to appreciate it by being mindful of every creation.

In that way, you will be able to appreciate yourself.

Final words for I’m not good enough

Any thoughts on improving self-esteem activities?

Aim to try all?

Isn’t it so easy to like yourself?

Repetitive practice of the tips above can remove a long penned self-hatred.

You should surely try the awesome new methods used in feeling inadequate.

Time to throw low self-opinion and extreme self-hatred. Embed the importance of self-love.

But if you still feel like hating yourself then read this text for a quick boost.

TELL ME WHAT WILL YOU FILM FOR YOURSELF?

The post “I’m not good at anything” – 3 POWERFUL tips to counter this Inadequacy appeared first on You Decode.

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communist-automaton · 6 years ago

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170 Years of Class Struggle

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto, a critique of Bourgeois (Capitalist) economics and a declaration of intent to dismantle through various revolutionary means that system and institute a new system where human civilization is no longer defined by the struggle between classes.

When that document was written, both Capitalism and Marx himself were at the beginning of their journeys. Marx's views evolved and deepened over time, though he never abandoned his prediction of an inevitable end to Capitalism through revolution. Meanwhile, over the past 170, Capitalism has evolved from being a primarily manufacture-based means of commodity production and distribution to an all-encompassing social paradigm where absolutely everything -- whether tangible or intangible, valuable or invaluable or not valuable at all -- is for sale.

At first glance, it would seem Marx got things all wrong. After all, there have been no Proletarian revolutions in the Capitalist world. Every Capitalist country has in fact continued to develop, and the median standard of living for citizens of those countries has continued to rise. The few Communist revolutions that have occurred, specifically in Russia, China, Korea, Cuba, and Viet Nam, have invariably either collapsed and been replaced with Capitalist governments, or have over a period of time slowly opened their markets to Capitalist investment and intervention. This indeed is the general consensus among most global economists. The question of whether Capitalism can be sustained indefinitely has been answered, unequivocally, in the affirmative.

But it would be a mistake to pat ourselves on the back without taking an honest look at why Capitalism seems to have defeated Communism so soundly. In fact, looking at the details of the world's strongest Capitalist economies should give the objective observer some reason to suspect that the math is not quite as cut and dry as we are led to believe.

What Marx got right

First of all, Marx got many things right. That isn't even a controversial statement if you talk to most economists. Das Kapital is still most-cited economic textbook published before 1950, and his theories were not, even according to the economic authorities in Capitalist countries, simply "wrong". Marx described a number of market forces that are still being harnessed by Capitalist nations to their own ends. He also proposed a number of solutions to the problem of wage-laborer exploitation that have been co-opted almost universally by modern Capitalist nations in order to sustain the labor-exploitation system.

Capitalism, gone unchecked, exploits workers, and the overriding class pressure on individuals is downward. This is a truism today. It is why developed nations have social safety nets like food stamps and socialized medical care. Even the most backward nations, like the United States, have some skeletal semblance of such systems simply to keep the working class from falling entirely into the ranks of the homeless unemployed and robbing the system of all access to exploitable labor.

Universal public education for all children, a specific demand in the Communist Manifesto, has been implemented universally in the developed world. Granted, these systems arose not because of some kindhearted desire to raise living standards, but because it was necessary to prepare children for their lives as daily wage-laborers. But the result was as close to perfect literacy rates in the developed world as has ever been achieved.

Capitalist societies furnish the exploited working class with the means necessary to organize a resistance to their own exploitation. Communications and transportation technologies, necessary to any such organization, are ubiquitous in developed nations. And not only are they everywhere and accessible by nearly everyone, they are in fact actually being used for the purpose of resisting exploitation. Video and audio recordings are used to publicize condemn summary executions by police; on-demand communication platforms are used to document protests, demonstrations, and riots; blogs and video channels are always contributing new ideas, suggestions, and instructions to the public domain; self-published books are recording history and encouraging action. And those are just tools of information warfare. More kinetic sorts of tools are also available, from firearms to improvised explosive devices, thanks to the cheap manufacturing made possible by the Capitalist system.

What Marx got wrong

But, of course, Marx wasn't a prophet. He was young when he wrote the Communist Manifesto, and that shows in the document's naivety and simplicity. Mostly, the shortcomings are in Marx's failure to appreciate the flexibility of the Capitalist system and its ability to adopt and monetize everything, including the social and economic forces that he expected to lead to Communist revolution.

Also, the same tools furnished to the working class that might enable and inspire their struggle against the Capitalist ruling class can just as easily be used by that ruling class against the working people. Communications technology is used routinely and universally by Capitalist regimes in an unending barrage of propaganda and distorted news that diverts attention from exploitation and refocuses the rage of the working class onto itself rather than its ruling class masters.

Marx assumed that the natural -- even inevitable -- result of Capitalist development was an eventual proletarian revolution. Exploited people would get so tired of being exploited that they would rise up and cast off the chains put on them by the Bourgeoisie. In this, Marx failed to anticipate the range of compromises and counteractive measures that would be taken by Capitalist nations to delay, defuse, and ultimately prevent such uprisings. While there were limited demonstrations and even riots in response to specific cases of exploitation that resulted in labor laws and unions, there were no full-scale revolutions except in still-developing countries where Capitalism had not yet developed into a complete economic-political paradigm. And, where labor unions did take hold, their leaders were quickly brought into the Bourgeois camp and corrupted with money and influence.

And Marx did not have the benefit of modern science showing that human development does not happen in an ecological vacuum. Environmental concerns were mostly sentimental ones in the middle 19th century -- there was not yet a known risk to the ecosystem of the entire planet which would arise from Capitalist manufacturing and consumption.

Where We Stand Now

In the early 21st century we are no longer dealing with a Bourgeois society having just arisen from the wreckage of a Feudalist one, but a mature, in many ways doddering and incompetent, but nevertheless effectively omnipresent Capitalist society that has assumed control not only of manufacturing and agriculture, but every facet of human life in all realms, in all places, and at all times. It is a persistent, all-encompassing, omnipresent reality, not merely an economic phenomenon.

The people of today's world are born into a system where nearly every interaction is transactional, if not expressly monetary. We express almost every idea in terms of what is invested versus what is earned back. Society is consumed by the notion that a person's social value is equivalent to their financial net worth. We assume that nothing exists that cannot be expressed by an economic equation of some sort. Our governments are not only beholden to but for the most part consist of crony Capitalists whose only interest in the welfare of the people is their value as a repository of exploitable labor.

Worse, we have lost almost all concept of the proletariat or "working class" except as a badge of some kind of perverted pride in "hard work". People in general who are exploited by wage labor or otherwise beholden to employers for the bare necessities of life tend not to think of themselves as such. We count ourselves lucky if we manage to find enough work to be able to feed ourselves and our families. We take it for granted that we will continue working until we die; that it is our lot in life to be exploited for the whole of our existence, even if we refuse to admit to ourselves that it is exploitation we are talking about. Ideas like "revolution" never even enter the minds of most people. Revolution would threaten what little security they have, no matter how fleeting or illusory that security is.

Ultimately, we cannot depend upon working class to save itself from this system. It is too deeply conditioned against its own self-interest to even consider such a "radical" course of action. People are indoctrinated from an early age to take some "rights" for granted that really make no sense if we think about them, and they have been conditioned to automatically reject anything with the word "Communism" attached to it. And that isn't surprising. A society ruled by the Bourgeoisie must institutionalize hatred for the Proletariat for its own survival.

What that means is that there will never be a critical mass of support for an outright Communist agenda in the West, and especially not in America, until the failures of Capitalism are so obvious and so severe that no one can deny it any more. Unfortunately, by that time, we will be out of time ecologically and Fascism will have completely enclosed Western civilization in its iron grasp anyway. Millions of homeless will have been eliminated (one way or another), and whole people will have been relegated to a permanent second- or third-class status based on their racial or sexual identities.

So now we face the urgent question of what to do about this. If we refuse to give up the dream of equality for all people across all the imaginary boundaries between us, then we must act. And if the people will not unite and act with us, then we must act on their behalf.

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rickmaverick1977 · 7 years ago

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The Invisible Wounds The Effects Of Childhood Trauma And The Brain

Adults Who experienced the Effects Of Childhood Trauma And The Brain are often unaware of the fact they were abuse victims. Once recognized, the adult survivor's reports of emotional abuse lasted in childhood may be greeted with skepticism, blatant doubt, 'blaming the victim', and sometimes even silence or indifference, which may further deter the adult survivor from seeking treatment. Many adult survivors continue to be psycho-emotionally abused as a result of wanting to stay connected to the perpetrator, who's often a part of, or closely connected to, the survivor's original nuclear family. This article investigates behaviors connected to the psycho-emotional misuse of a child; the signs and symptoms a child and adult survivor may exhibit as a consequence of this specific kind of abuse; and recommendations concerning possible pathways of recovery. The Hidden Wounds of Psychological / Emotional Abuse Psychological/Emotional Abuse experienced in childhood can be insidious: It's insidious because the adult survivor is often unaware they were in fact victims of abuse, and so might not ever seek treatment or help for the invisible psychological and psychological wounds sustained. When healthy mental and emotional functioning is impaired, such an adult is at high risk of creating a variety of mood disorders, addictive behaviours, and other maladaptive ways of being on the planet in his or her subconscious attempts to navigate round the pain of an injured psyche. This Sort of abuse, when persistent and/or chronic, Results from the child unconsciously believing that he or she is faulty, damaged, and unworthy of love, empathy, attention, and respect. The abused child develops distorted perceptions of others and self, often believing at a subconscious level that there is something wrong with them and that they need to deserve the abuse. They could go on to abuse their own children without being conscious of the fact that they are engaging in the very same hurtful behaviors which were inflicted upon them as kids. In The event an adult survivor does for some reason seek the help of a Mental Heath specialist, such as a certified psychotherapist, they nevertheless may not obtain the psycho-education and concentrated support they so desperately need to recover from abuse experienced while they were young. This is especially likely if the childhood wounds stay completely unrecognized and go unreported by the customer and/or the therapist unconsciously colludes with their client to prevent the painful material from arising in session (this is particularly likely if the therapist has repressed childhood wounding of their own). Successful treatment and recovery from this specific form of child abuse is particularly challenging in that the adult survivor in therapy may still be experiencing psychological / emotional abuse as a consequence of needing to stay connected to those who continue to misuse them (most frequently the parents). Has committed his life to protecting kids, the mental/emotional abuse of a child is " the most pervasive and the least recognized form of child maltreatment. Its victims are often dismissed simply because their wounds aren't visible... The pain and torment of those who underwent "only" emotional abuse is often trivialized. We know and accept that victims of sexual or physical abuse need both the time and technical treatment to cure, but when it comes to psychological abuse, we are more likely to trust the victims will "just get over it" when they become adults. This assumption is dangerously wrong. Emotional abuse scars that the center and damages the soul. Like cancer, it really does its deadly function . An Abuse Of Power While Experts don't agree on what behaviors constitute psychological/emotional misuse of a child, it's generally recognized by researchers this kind of abuse disrupts the emotional and emotional growth and development of the child. Anyone that retains power, authority and/or privilege from the child's life is potentially capable of mistreating the child, such as parents, grandparents, relatives, peers, educators, ministers, scout leaders, coaches, judicial statistics, social service workers, etc.. The words 'insistent', 'chronic', 'persistent', and 'systematic' are critical when it comes to defining the psycho-emotional abuse of a child. The behaviour is abusive as it acts as a continuously destructive force in the child's life, as the repetitive maltreatment shapes the child's unconscious story describing 'the fact' of who they are at the most basic, fundamental level, leading to the child thinking they're 'poor', unworthy, faulty, damaged, unwanted, and unlovable. Examples Of this type of abuse with a parent toward a child include the kid being blamed, shamed, dismissed, or belittled in public and at home; describing the kid negatively to other people, including in the child's existence; always making the child at fault; holding the child to unrealistic expectations; verbalizing to the youngster and/or others an overt dislike or hatred of their child; being mentally closed and unsupportive; and threatening the child. Why Does It Happen? Psycho-Emotional Abuse results from many of the same dynamics that cause any form of child abuse to happen. In the example of abuse perpetrated by the parents / primary caregiver, they may simply be unconsciously repeating multi-generational patterns of misuse, i.e., they're acting out the same dysfunctional behaviors toward their kid their own parents displayed toward them. Additionally, daily life stressors that develop over time may cause parents to take their frustrations out on their own child, that symbolizes the one 'thing' they may feel they have control over, especially if the child is adding to their sense that life is chaotic, out-of-control, and unmanageable. Social and financial pressures; lack of parental instruction; addictive processes occurring within the family (alcohol, drug use, denial, enabling, codependency); undiagnosed / diagnosed mental and/or psychological illness; a society which does little to recognize, admit, and halt the abuse of children -All of these variables, and much more, can donate to the maltreatment of a child. Additionally, erroneous beliefs about effective and healthy child-rearing techniques may also end in the maltreatment of an individual's own child. In certain rare and tragic cases, a parent might actually enjoy behaving sadistically toward their child, getting pleasure by inflicting pain onto their helpless child's vulnerable psyche. Abusers generally frequently delight in feeling a feeling of being 'in control', making children a simple and rewarding target. Curiously, Regardless of the prevalence of psycho-emotional child abuse around the world, there are not many well-validated methodologies developed to measure non-physical youth abuse and its consequences on the survivor. Clinicians will frequently use revised versions of their Child Abuse and Trauma Scale (CATS), which does have some capability to measure mental-emotional abuse. A child's behaviour and personality will often provide clues to some sensitive and/or trained and competent observer that these types of abuse signs are evident. Such behaviors and character displays may include: Behavior that is clearly immature or more older compared to the kid's age Spectacular, at times abrupt changes in behavior Continuous seeking of attention and affection; Clinging to attachment amounts Aggressive, uncooperative, combative behavior Bed-wetting / reduction of bowel control (after the child is potty-trained) Depression and/or Stress, which in children is often expressed as physical disorder such as autoimmune disorders, migraines, and eating disorders, addictive/compulsive behaviours, etc.. Also, as expressed through social withdrawal, anger, aggressiveness, remoteness, and despair Impaired connections with peers Lack of self-confidence/self-esteem Atypical fears, given the child's age (e.g., fear of the dark, fear being alone, fear of certain objects, fear of dying) Emotionally 'level': Unable to express emotions, 'level' affect (i.e. lack of proper facial expressions); might include inability to respond to ordinary social cues appropriately; may stop the development of psychological bonds The Effect On Mature Survivors Abuse Experienced during childhood can negatively affect the adult survivor throughout the duration of their lives, if the silent damage to heart, spirit, and brain remains unrecognized, untreated, and unhealed. If the adult survivor of an abusive parent does at some point make an effort to cover the abuse, it's typical for the parent to deny the maltreatment of their child ever occurred. It is typical for the parent to blame the child for any negative behaviours displayed by the child toward the parent in an attempt to discredit the child's or adult survivor's truthful reports of the abuse that actually occurred. The parent will often go to great lengths to inform anybody who will listen (other household members(particularly) that their adult child has ever been "a problem", is "mad" and "unforgiving", and other negative descriptions designed to discredit the adult survivor and safeguard the public image of their parent. Such intentionally aggressive strategies on the part of the parent is just another unrecognized Type of psycho-emotional misuse and further adds to the untold suffering and distress of the adult division, who may be struggling with psychological and emotional symptoms, such as the ones listed below: Depression Stress Active or passive suicidal ideation Misuse of alcohol and medication, frequently Leading to addiction Eating disorders Panic disorders Compulsive disorders Agoraphobia Issue forming significant, rewarding, trusting intimate relationships Self-sabotaging, self-destructive behaviors (may include Borderline Personality Disorder-type symptoms) Abusive acts toward self and/or others, such as one's own kids Adults Who believe they may be suffering from the consequences of childhood abuse and need help overcoming and surviving childhood trauma Are encouraged to seek out the support of a therapist that has specialized Training in helping customers recover from the intrapsychic harm Specific to the mental and psychological abuse of a child. Adult survivors Participated in psychotherapy will generally experience feelings such as The veil of protective eyebrow climbs, exposing the adult survivor to Dark and ugly truths previously repressed. As youth abuse often Results from the child disconnecting in the most authentic and true Parts of him or herself, treatment is also a way of inviting the adult Survivor to risk connecting with others and self in meaningful, Emotionally truthful manners. The therapist will also help direct the adult Survivor on things about discussing the misuse along with others; Whether or not to remain connected to relatives; and how to Manage interactions with abusive people.

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The Invisible Wounds The Effects Of Childhood Trauma And The Brain

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The Invisible Wounds The Effects Of Childhood Trauma And The Brain

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The Invisible Wounds The Effects Of Childhood Trauma And The Brain

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garywonghc · 7 years ago

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Method, Wisdom and the Three Paths

by Geshe Lhundub Sopa

SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS

The great eleventh century Indian master Atisha said,

Human life is short, Objects of knowledge are many. Be like a swan, Which can separate milk from water.

Our lives will not last long and there are many directions in which we can channel them. Just as swans extract the essence from milk and spit out the water, so should we extract the essence from our lives by practicing discriminating wisdom and engaging in activities that benefit both ourselves and others in this and future lives.

Every sentient being aspires to the highest state of happiness and complete freedom from every kind of suffering, but human aims should be higher than those of animals, insects and so forth because we have much greater potential; with our special intellectual capacity we can accomplish many things. As spiritual practitioners, we should strive for happiness and freedom from misery not for ourselves alone but for all sentient beings. We have the intelligence and the ability to practice the methods for realising these goals. We can start from where we are and gradually attain higher levels of being until we attain final perfection. Some people can even attain the highest goal, enlightenment, in a single lifetime.

In the Bodhicaryavatara, the great yogi and bodhisattva Shantideva wrote,

Although we want all happiness, We ignorantly destroy it, like an enemy. Although we want no misery, We rush to create its cause.

What we want and what we do are totally contradictory. The things we do to bring happiness actually cause suffering, misery and trouble. Shantideva says that even though we desire happiness, out of ignorance we destroy its cause as if it were our worst enemy.

According to the Buddha’s teachings, first we must learn, or study. By asking if it’s possible to escape from suffering and find perfect happiness, we open the doors of spiritual inquiry and discover that by putting our effort and wisdom in the right direction, we can indeed experience such goals. This leads us to seek out the path to enlightenment. The Buddha set forth many different levels of teachings. As humans, we can learn these, not just for the sake of learning but in order to put the methods into practice.

THE REAL ENEMY

What is the cause of happiness? What is the cause of misery? These are important questions in Buddhism. The Buddha pointed out that the fundamental source of all our problems is the wrong conception of the self. We always hold on to some kind of “I,” some sort of egocentric thought, or attitude, and everything we do is based on this wrong conception of the nature of the self. This self-grasping gives rise to attachment to the “I” and self-centeredness, the cherishing of ourselves over all others, all worldly thoughts, and samsara itself. All sentient beings’ problems start here.

This ignorant self-grasping creates all of our attachment to the “I.” From “me” comes “mine” — my property, my body, my mind, my family, my friends, my house, my country, my work and so forth.

From attachment come aversion, anger and hatred for the things that threaten our objects of attachment. Buddhism calls these three — ignorance, attachment and aversion — the three poisons. These delusions are the cause of all our problems; they are our real enemies.

We usually look for enemies outside but Buddhist yogis realise that there are no external enemies; the real enemies are within. Once we have removed ignorance, attachment and aversion we have vanquished our inner enemies. Correct understanding replaces ignorance, pure mind remains, and we see the true nature of the self and all phenomena. The workings of the illusory world no longer occur.

When ignorance has gone, we no longer create mistaken actions. When we act without mistake, we no longer experience the various sufferings — the forces of karma are not engaged. Karma — the actions of the body, speech and mind of sentient beings, together with the seeds they leave on the mind — is brought under control. Since the causes of these actions — ignorance, attachment and aversion — have been destroyed, the actions to which they give rise therefore cease.

Ignorance, attachment and aversion, together with their branches of conceit, jealousy, envy and so forth, are very strong forces. Once they arise, they immediately dominate our mind; we quickly fall under the power of these inner enemies and no longer have any freedom or control. Our inner enemies even cause us to fight with and harm the people we love; they can even cause us to kill our own parents, children and so forth. All conflicts — from those between individual members of a family to international wars between countries — arise from these negative thoughts.

Shantideva said, “There is one cause of all problems.” This is the ignorance that mistakes the actual nature of the self. All sentient beings are similar in that they are all overpowered by this ego-grasping ignorance; however, each of us is also capable of engaging in the yogic practices that refine the mind to the point where it is able to see directly the way things exist.

HOW THE BUDDHA PRACTISED AND TAUGHT DHARMA

Buddha himself first studied, then practiced, and finally realised Dharma, achieving enlightenment. He saw the principles of the causes and effects of thought and action and then taught people how to work with these laws in such a way as to gain freedom.

His first teaching was on the four truths as seen by a liberated being: suffering, its cause, liberation and the path to liberation. First we must learn to recognise the sufferings and frustrations that pervade our lives. Then we must know their cause. Thirdly we should know that it is possible to get rid of them, to be completely free. Lastly we must know the truth of the path — the means by which we can gain freedom, the methods of practice that destroy the seeds of suffering from their very root.

There are many elaborate ways of presenting the path, which has led to the development of many schools of Buddhism, such as the Hinayana and Mahayana, but the teachings of the four truths are fundamental to all Buddhist schools; each has its own special methods, but all are based on the four truths. Without the four truths there is neither Hinayana nor Mahayana. All Buddhist schools see suffering as the main problem of existence and ignorance as the main cause of suffering. Without removing ignorance there is no way of achieving liberation from samsara and no way of attaining the perfect enlightenment of buddhahood.

UTILISING THE FOUR TRUTHS

Buddhism talks a lot about non-self or the empty nature of all things. This is a key teaching. The realisation of emptiness was first taught by the Buddha and then widely disseminated by the great teacher Nagarjuna and his successors, who explained the philosophy of the Middle Way—a system of thought free from all extremes. Madhyamikas, as the followers of this system are called, hold that the way things actually exist is free from the extremes of absolute being and non-being; the things we see do not exist in the way that we perceive them.

As for the “I,” our understanding of its nature is also mistaken. This doesn’t mean that there is neither person nor desire. When the Buddha rejected the existence of a self he meant that the self we normally conceive does not exist. Yogis who, through meditation, have developed higher insight have realised the true nature of the self and seen that the “I” exists totally in another way. They have realised the emptiness of the self, which is the key teaching of the Buddha; they have developed the sharp weapon of wisdom that cuts down the poisonous tree of delusion and mental distortion.

To do the same, we must study the teachings, contemplate them carefully and finally investigate our conclusions through meditation. In that way we can realise the true nature of the self. The wisdom realising emptiness cuts the very root of all delusion and puts an end to all suffering; it directly opposes the ignorance that misconceives reality.

Sometimes we can apply more specific antidotes — for example, when anger arises we meditate on compassion; when lust arises we meditate on the impurity of the human body; when attachment to situations arises we meditate on impermanence; and so forth. But even though these antidotes counteract particular delusions they cannot cut their root — for that, we need to realise emptiness.

COMBINING WISDOM AND METHOD

However, wisdom alone is not enough. No matter how sharp an axe is, it requires a handle and a person to swing it. In the same way, while meditation on emptiness is the key practice, it must be supported and given direction by method. Many Indian masters, including Dharmakirti and Shantideva, have asserted this to be so. For example, meditation upon the four noble truths includes contemplation of sixteen aspects of these truths, such as impermanence, suffering, and so forth. Then, because we must share our world with others there are the meditations on love, compassion and the bodhicitta, the enlightened attitude of wishing for enlightenment in order to be of greatest benefit to others. This introduces the six perfections, or the means of accomplishing enlightenment — generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom. The first five of these must act as supportive methods in order for the sixth, wisdom, to become stable.

REMOVING THE OBSTACLES TO LIBERATION AND OMNISCIENCE

To attain buddhahood the obstacles to the goal have to be completely removed. These obstacles are of two main types: obstacles to liberation, which include the delusions such as attachment, and obstacles to omniscience. When the various delusions have been removed, one becomes an arhat. In Tibetan, arhat [dra-chom-pa] means one who has destroyed [chom] the inner enemy [dra] and has thus gained liberation from all delusions. However, such liberation is not buddhahood.

An arhat is free from samsara, from all misery and suffering, and no longer forced to take a rebirth conditioned by karma and delusion. At present we are strongly under the power of these two forces, being reborn again and again, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. We have little choice or independence in our birth, life, death and rebirth. Negative karma and delusion combine and overpower us again and again. Our freedom is thus greatly limited. It is a circle: occasionally rebirth in a high realm, then in a low world; sometimes an animal, sometimes a human or a god. This is what samsara means. Arhats have achieved complete liberation from this circle; they have broken the circle and gone beyond it. Their lives have become totally pure, totally free. The forces that controlled them have gone and they dwell in a state of emancipation from compulsive experience. Their realisation of shunyata is complete.

On the method side, the arhat has cultivated a path combining meditation on emptiness with meditation on the impermanence of life, karma and its results, the suffering nature of the whole circle of samsara and so forth, but arhatship does not have the perfection of buddhahood.

Compared to our ordinary samsaric life, arhatship is a great attainment, but arhats still have subtle obstacles. Gross mental obstacles such as desire, hatred, ignorance and so forth may have gone but, because they have been active forces within the mind for so long, they leave behind subtle hindrances — subtle habits, or predispositions.

For example, although arhats will not have anger, old habits, such as using harsh words, may persist. They also have a very subtle self-centeredness. Similarly, although arhats will not have ignorance or wrong views, they will not see certain aspects of cause and effect as clearly as a buddha does. Such subtle limitations are called the obstacles to omniscience. In buddhahood, these have been completely removed; not a single obstacle remains. There is both perfect freedom and perfect knowledge.

THE WISDOM AND FORM BODIES OF A BUDDHA

A buddha has a cause. The cause is a bodhisattva. The bodhisattva trainings are vast: generosity, where we try to help others in various ways; patience, which keeps our mind in a state of calm; diligent perseverance, with which, in order to help other sentient beings, we joyfully undergo the many hardships without hesitation; and many others.

Before attaining buddhahood we have to train as a bodhisattva and cultivate a path uniting method with wisdom. The function of wisdom is to eliminate ignorance; the function of method is to produce the physical and environmental perfections of being.

Buddhahood is endowed with many qualities — perfect body and mind, omniscient knowledge, power and so forth — and from the perfection of the inner qualities a buddha manifests a perfect environment, a “pure land.”

With the ripening of wisdom and method comes the fruit: the wisdom and form bodies of a buddha. The form body, or rupakaya, has two dimensions — sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya — which, with the wisdom body of dharmakaya, constitute the three kayas. The form bodies are not ordinary form; they are purely mental, a reflection or manifestation of the dharmakaya wisdom. From perfect wisdom emerges perfect form.

CHERISHING OTHERS

As we can see from the above examples, the bodhisattva’s activities are based on a motivation very unlike our ordinary attitudes, which are usually selfish and self-centered. In order to attain buddhahood we have to change our mundane thoughts into thoughts of love and compassion for other sentient beings. We have to learn to care, all of the time, on a universal level. Our normal self-centered attitude should be seen as an enemy and a loving and compassionate attitude as the cause of the highest happiness, a real friend of both ourselves and others.

The Mahayana contains a very special practice called “exchanging self for others.” Of course, I can’t change into you or you can’t change into me; that’s not what it means. What we have to change is the attitude of “me first” into the thought of cherishing of others: “Whatever bad things have to happen let them happen to me.” Through meditation we learn to regard self-centeredness as our worst enemy and to transform self-cherishing into love and compassion, until eventually our entire life is dominated by these positive forces. Then everything we do will become beneficial to others; all our actions will naturally become meritorious. This is the influence and power of the bodhisattva’s thought — the bodhi mind, the ultimate flowering of love and compassion into the inspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all other sentient beings.

LOVE AND COMPASSION

Love and compassion have the same basic nature but a different reference or application. Compassion is mainly in reference to the problems of beings, the wish to free sentient beings from suffering, whereas love refers to the positive side, the aspiration that all sentient beings have happiness and its cause. Our love and compassion should be equal towards all beings and have the intensity that a loving mother feels towards her only child, taking upon ourselves full responsibility for the well-being of others. That’s how bodhisattvas regard all sentient beings.

However, the bodhi mind is not merely love and compassion. Bodhisattvas see that in order to free sentient beings from misery and give them the highest happiness, they themselves will have to be fully equipped, fully qualified — first they will have to attain perfect buddhahood, total freedom from all obstacles and limitations and complete possession of all power and knowledge. Right now we can’t do much to benefit others. Therefore, for the benefit of other sentient beings, we have to attain enlightenment as quickly as possible. Day and night, everything we do should be done in order to reach perfect enlightenment as soon as we can for the benefit of others.

BODHICITTA

The thought characterised by this aspiration is called bodhicitta, bodhi mind, the bodhisattva spirit. Unlike our usual self-centered, egotistical thoughts, which lead only to desire, hatred, jealousy, pride and so forth, the bodhisattva way is dominated by love, compassion and the bodhi mind, and if we practice the appropriate meditative techniques, we ourselves will become bodhisattvas. Then, as Shantideva has said, all our ordinary activities — sleeping, walking, eating or whatever — will naturally produce limitless goodness and fulfill the purposes of many sentient beings.

THE LIFE OF A BODHISATTVA

A bodhisattva’s life is very precious and therefore, in order to sustain it, we sleep, eat and do whatever else is necessary to stay alive. Because this is our motivation for eating, every mouthful of food we take gives rise to great merit, equal to the number of the sentient beings in the universe.

In order to ascend the ten bodhisattva stages leading to buddhahood we engage in both method and wisdom: on the basis of bodhicitta we cultivate the realisation of emptiness. Seeing the emptiness of the self, our self-grasping ignorance and attachment cease. We also see all phenomena as empty and, as a result, everything that appears to our mind is seen as illusory, like a magician’s creations.

When a magician conjures up something up, the audience believes that what they see exists. The magician, however, although sees what the audience sees, understands it differently. When he creates a beautiful woman, the men in the audience experience lust; when he creates a frightening animal, the audience gets scared. The magician sees the beautiful woman and the scary animals just as the audience does but he knows that they’re not real, he knows that they’re empty of existing in the way that they appear — their reality is not like the mode of their appearance.

Similarly, bodhisattvas who have seen emptiness see everything as illusory and things that might have caused attachment or aversion to arise in them before can no longer do so.

As Nagarjuna said,

By combining the twofold cause of method and wisdom, bodhisattvas gain the twofold effect of the mental and physical bodies [rupakaya and dharmakaya] of a buddha.

Their accumulation of meritorious energy and wisdom bring them to the first bodhisattva stage, where they directly realise emptiness and overcome the obstacles to liberation. They then use this realisation to progress through the ten bodhisattva levels, eventually eradicating all obstacles to omniscience. They first eliminate the coarse level of ignorance and then, through gradual meditation on method combined with wisdom, attain the perfection of enlightenment.

THE KEYS TO THE MAHAYANA PATH

The main subjects of this discourse — renunciation, emptiness and the bodhi mind — were taught by the Buddha, Nagarjuna and Tsongkhapa and provide the basic texture of the Mahayana path. These three principal aspects of the path are like keys for those who want to attain enlightenment. In terms of method and wisdom, renunciation and the bodhi mind constitute method and meditation on emptiness is wisdom. Method and wisdom are like the two wings of a bird and enable us to fly high in the sky of Dharma. Just as a bird with one wing cannot fly; in order to reach the heights of buddhahood we need the two wings of method and wisdom.

RENUNCIATION

The principal Mahayana method is the bodhi mind. To generate the bodhi mind we must first generate compassion — the aspiration to free sentient beings from suffering, which becomes the basis of our motivation to attain enlightenment. However, as Shantideva pointed out, we must begin with compassion for ourselves. We must want to be free of suffering ourselves before being truly able to want it for others. The spontaneous wish to free ourselves from suffering is renunciation.

But most of us don’t have it. We don’t see the faults of samsara. However, there’s no way to really work for the benefit of others while continuing to be entranced by the pleasures and activities of samsara. Therefore, first we have to generate personal renunciation of samsara — the constant wish to gain freedom from all misery. At the beginning, this is most important. Then we can extend this quality to others as love, compassion and the bodhi mind, which combine as method. When united with the wisdom realising emptiness, we possess the main causes of buddhahood.

MAKING THIS LIFE MEANINGFUL

Of course, to develop the three principal aspects of the path, we have to proceed step by step. Therefore it’s necessary to study, contemplate and meditate. We should all try to develop a daily meditation practice. Young or old, male or female, regardless of race, we all have the ability to meditate. Anybody can progress through the stages of understanding. The human life is very meaningful and precious but it can be lost to seeking temporary goals such as sensual indulgence, fame, reputation and so forth, which benefit this life alone. Then we’re like animals; we have the goals of the animal world. Even if we don’t make heroic spiritual efforts, we should at least try to get started in the practices that make human life meaningful.

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jodyvallejo853-blog · 7 years ago

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The Invisible Wounds The Effects Of Childhood Trauma And The Brain

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