Dark Matter

This is a favourite sculpture. It is by sculptor Cornelia Parker and is called Dark Matter. I like it in the way a child is just wide eyed about outer space. I don't have to think or analyse it much, it just gives a feeling of wow! dark matter!. Amazing what one can do with getting hold of a shed, calling in the army to blow it up then hanging up the pieces and putting a light bulb in the middle.

Turkish Swimming Cat

On GMTV today they mentioned a cat called a Turkish Swimming Cat. Apparently it is a breed of cat that likes water and can swim. It also has water resistant fur. The woman guest (who I believe was Andrew Lloyd Webber's daughter) said they also have webbed feet. Not sure of the last bit but didn't know such cats exist. Just shows it takes all sorts to make a world.

Trusting or Suspicious

Years ago I undertook some psychotherapy. During this a therapist said that they thought I was suspicious of people. There was the view sometimes held by some therapists in the organisation that provided the therapy that sometimes others can see us more clearly than we can ourselves. Also that we need insight into ourselves in order to progress. To this I thought to myself well I had better believe the therapist then. Of course they are the experts. After all I want to grow and become better in myself etc. So I went around believing them. I trusted their view that I was none trusting. After I finished with the therapist I had some less frequent follow up therapy from another therapist. I told this therapist the same things about myself. This other therapist told me that they thought I was too trusting of people. This caused me to think. Obviously I am being told completely different things. I wanted to check this out so I decided to ask my Friends what they thought. Starting with my girlfriend she told me that she thought I was too trusting of people. Some other Friends said that I was more on the trusting side.

Oh well what does this mean "so much for therapists" well maybe I wouldn't go that far but but it shows how even experts can see things differently even within their own field. Perhaps I should have listened more to myself rather than trust a therapists version of who I was. But hey wouldn't it just put them all out of work if we all did that.

The Poor Must Get Up and Say Yoh!! I Can

While helping out a friend with a Fair Trade stall at the Local University we were approached by a guy with a book. Yes folks a guy with a book! He looked the stall over and then said that he was taking business studies and that in his view all that the poor people in other countries need is to learn to do what was in the book he had. He held up a book on positive thinking. It seems that according to him it is all in the mind then. There are no problems of the lack of available economic structure to create wealth. No exploitation by massive corportations. No unfair trade tarrifs. No corrupt governments or debt to the west. No problems of lack of education. Yup! all they need to do is think themselves out of poverty. Maybe in the best American motivational "I have an autonomous self, I can, it will" is sure to bring it all into manifestation.

Yep Sure!! I of course am confident that the above is not what is taught on business studies courses eeerrr I hope!!!

I Hate Gardening

I hate gardening. Now that it is spring again I will have to do some. I am jealous of those that like gardening and there seem to be so many of them. So many that I am begining to wonder it there is somethin wrong with me. Maybe I need to learn how to relate to my garden in the same way some people need to learn how to relate to other people. Lots of my freinds say they love gardening?????. I am at a loss to understand this. Some people like gardening in the same way that they enjoy a walk in the countryside. Well I love walking in the countryside but hate gardening. I enjoy other domestic stuff like decorating and cooking, housework except ironing but hate gardening. I will have to get myself a gardening mate. So anyone who wants to do my garden please speak to me.

More On Conversation in Last Post

In the last post there was talk between a Buddhist teacher and myself about whether the simple way was always true.

There were other points that were raised. I can't remember what got us around to it but I said that once I thought the East was best but that now I believe that Western thinking has a lot to offer as well and that I consider both valid.

He replied in terms which seemed to be saying. The people who developed the way of Buddhism were not stupid and have a lot of track history which validates it. He also said that
in the west we love inventions etc. He also seemed to be saying that he has met a lot of westerners who are saying that maybe Buddhism should be different in the west. That westerners have a lot of questions and that they like to show they are clever.

I thought about what he was saying at the time he was saying it and afterwards. I wondered why he was referring to inventions presumable meaning western inventions. Well I was talking about western rationalism rather than inventions. Also I would say that ways of thinking do not emerge and develop necessarily because people want to be clever. Sometimes people may talk to appear clever but sometimes they do this with all kinds of types of thinking which may include Buddhist or Western philosophy.

Western rationalist scientific philosophy and method may include the following. Western psychology may want to attempt to measure whether something can have affect on the mind. To do this we could gather groups to practice meditation. We could have a group of fifty people which further we could divide into say male and female. These two groups would practiced simple awareness meditation. As well we could gather another fifty people again divided equally into male and female who would practice some form of visualisation. We could attempt to measure positive change within the groups by before and after questionnaires.

The aim would be to see whether all forms of meditation are equally efficacious under differing conditions. If the results were inconsistent with this assumption then it shows there are other factors influencing the situations of human beings meditating.

I suppose the point of me talking about this is I have doubts as to whether we can have a one size fits all method of trying to progress with meditation. In my own experience I have found that some things have helped me better than other things. As such I will argue this in a first person reportage way. In some ways scientific method is meant to beyond the personal. But sometimes it can also bring us back to it if the results produce variability. That is, variability can mean there are individual conditions to activities therefore sometimes is it better that we find out ourselves what suits us best.

With the above I am not assuming simply that the West is rational and the east is not but only that some kinds of scientific method developed first in the West.

Yesterday evening I went to a local Buddhist meeting. It is a new group which is being set up and it is sometimes to be taken by a particular Buddhist practitioner who has many years of practice and has written on or two books on the subject. I enjoyed the meditation and the talk afterwards and also being with friends who were there.

The leader is of the view that what is important with Buddhism is the practice of simply being aware. He seemed to be saying that Buddhism and Buddhists can get bogged down with too many complexities. Most of the practice within this group would be centred around being mindful and aware within meditation and within our daily lives.

Simply being mindful can often be enough to feel better and even sometimes change and transform things that may be bothering us in our lives. However I did have a question which I put to him during the talk after meditation and it related to my own experience.

A few years ago I was suffering some pains which most likely were psychosomatic. Simply being aware of them was not enough to deal with them. However meditation did seem to put me in contact with the cause of them which was psycho/emotional. I started to apply what could be called meditation on emptiness to the problem. Without going into too much detail about what this is it can involve analysing phenomena seeing it's origins and breaking it down into its parts whether this is a person or a thing. This involved doing something which was a bit more complex than just being aware. However it worked far better than just being aware.

I put this experience to him I hoped in the context of questioning is it always true under all circumstances that the simple is the best. I would like it myself if the simple was always the way. He gave the following answers.

He said he knew that there were different practices etc. He was not being critical of what I was saying. He said however that the community or Sangha is important in that having support for things that happen with development. He said that practice is emotional. By this I understand it to be that we encounter our emotions. It was one of those moments where upon first hearing a reply I feel I have to go and think about it in order to understand the point.

Later I thought sure these things are positive or have the potential to be but I couldn't help wondering if this was just a side issue. I was pointing out that maybe something is not true all the time. Would it have been better if he could have just acknowledged that or put a counter argument to show that I was wrong or something else but I cannot understand why he referred to those things in particular.

Brainstorm Biography

I grew up as a lower working class person from the scrag end of town. House with mice and cockroaches. Part of this was in a one parent family, father died in shooting accident when I was five. Had couple of accidents, burned in house fire at nine, run over by car at eleven. Left school at 14. Became interested in Buddhism and Hinduism at 17. Gained acceptance on degree course at 23 (1980) because could write dissertation on the Nastika connection to the Upanishads. Came out with History Degree. After looked for job. Tool year out to look at myself. Then had breakdown. 1984 Spent year in psychotherapy clinic in Birmingham. Started meditating, the start of a number of spiritual changes. Did three year Counselling course. Was student Counsellor for a while and worked for Social Services. 1993 Decided to go back to college to learn biology so could research mind body relations. Also started working as a healer in a spiritualist church although was a practicing Buddhist and not quite a spiritualist. New computing technology came along. So taken with it that I changed courses to the first Undergraduate Mulitmedia course in Europe. Ended up with MA in graphics. Live near countryside on the edge of town with fields and trees and ponds and canals. Now work at cinema, art centre. Met lots of people, lot and lots.

Is This Better

I have started an about me category in order to just put it down in fast rough form. I suppose I am wondering if it will explain myself better than having a concise composed ditty on the profile section. I sometimes wonder if is representative to do that. Anyway this will be a succession of blabs about myself.

Simple or Complex?

Yesterday evening I went to a local Buddhist meeting. It is a new group which is being set up and it is sometimes to be taken by a particular Buddhist practitioner who has many years of practice and has written on or two books on the subject.

I enjoyed the meditation and the talk afterwards and also being with friends who were there.
The leader is of the view that what is important with Buddhism is the practice of simply being aware. He seemed to be saying that Buddhism and Buddhists can get bogged down with too many complexities. Most of the practice within this group would be centred around being mindful and aware within meditation and within our daily lives.

Simply being mindful can often be enough to feel better and even sometimes change and transform things that may be bothering us in our lives. However I did have a question which I put to him during the talk after meditation and it related to my own experience.

A few years ago I was suffering some pains which most likely were psychosomatic. Simply being aware of them was not enough to deal with them. However meditation did seem to put me in contact with the cause of them which was psycho/emotional. I started to apply what could be called meditation on emptiness to the problem. Without going into too much detail about what this is it can involve analysing phenomena seeing it's origins and breaking it down into its parts whether this is a person or a thing. This involved doing something which was a bit more complex than just being aware. However it worked far better than just being aware.
I put this experience to him I hoped in the context of questioning is it always true under all circumstances that the simple is the best. I would like it myself if the simple was always the way. He gave the following answers.

He said he knew that there were different practices etc. He was not being critical of what I was saying. He said however that the community or Sangha is important in that having support for things that happen with development. He said that practice is emotional. By this I understand it to be that we encounter our emotions. It was one of those moments where upon first hearing a reply I feel I have to go and think about it in order to understand the point.

Later I thought sure these things are positive or have the potential to be but I couldn't help wondering if this was just a side issue. I was pointing out that maybe something is not true all the time. Would it have been better if he could have just acknowledged that or put a counter argument to show that I was wrong or something else but I cannot understand why he referred to those things in particular.

Metaphysics of Presence

I keep wondering what this is. I have thought that it was as of something a lecturer said which was something like for something to exist something needs not to exist or be true. Also that this way of thinking has influenced us from the time of the Greeks. Other ways of thinking can include both aspects of a polarity has having existence or validity. For examply this can include Post Modern ideas or maybe some eastern ideas of non dualism. For a while I was under the assumption that the metaphysics of prescence was associated with Aristotle but recently I have been reading an association with Heidegger. Perhaps I should just research it thoroughly once and for all and find out.

Gautama was a spoilt kid

I have often wondered how to what extent things which are good for one person can be generalised to others. For example Gautama (the Buddha ) gave some advice to others as to how they could overcome suffering. Well ok it worked for him but then he was a spoilt prince who had a wake up call when he encountered suffering in the world. Why should it be assumed that his way and methods should be appropriate for say an abused kid or even an abused kid who was later on in life spoilt.

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers was and still is a major influence. He developed what is called person centred therapy. Simply it means don't make interpretations and accept what the client says.
It means sit there and don't do much.

The Sound of the Jews Harp

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Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway