February 3rd, 2023
- brilliant articulation:
- > "deserve" perhaps needs a little unpacking here.
when we say "deserve" often we mean "refutation of deserve-not"
It's not that there is an obligation to provide these things
But that there is /no obligation not to/. No active undeservingness.
- realizing I want to orient more to the existing field of collective awakening
- eg
- One Buddha is Not Enough: A Story of Collective Awakening
- the next buddha may be a sangha quote by Thich Nhat Hanh feels like a good rallying point for people oriented to similar questions
- related to "next buddha", it's intriguing to consider that gautama buddha named the next buddha as maitreya ("love"? more like "friendship" according to wikipedia)
- interesting article by Andrew Cohen (who I heard is sort of a reformed cult leader?? which matches this piece)
- cool experience of collecting awakening / dharma talking
- > This was a pivotal moment in the evolution of my teaching work. Finally a latent potential I’d been aware of for many years became manifest and realized. What was different about this emergence was that simultaneously each individual was aware of their own uniqueness while remaining fully cognizant of their non-dual essence as Self. Even more extraordinary was that inherent in this intersubjective awareness was the mind of enlightenment itself.
- > The miracle of what happened on July 30th is that this direct access to the source of enlightened wisdom itself was present in a shared experience of presence in which all the individuals were immersed. The mind of the Guru had dissolved and had become one with the many. Everybody bore witness as the unique voice of unquestioned spiritual authority spoke through the hearts and minds of many of the individuals present. It was literally awe-inspiring.
- he describes an experience of thinking he had no shadow then becoming disillusioned (tho he doesn't really go deep on this... the writing feels quite surfacey/shallow)
- > In the midst of all this I had an unconscious need for others to see me as being perfect. My new mythic identity reinforced this, and it was constantly reflected back to me. Simultaneously I was deluded enough to actually believe the impossible: that I had no shadow.
- reading Thich Nhat Hanh's remarks in 1993 in which he spoke this quote (idk if it was the first time but it seems like it might be)
- > The Buddha, Shakyamuni, our teacher, predicted that the next Buddha would be Maitreya, the Buddha of love. We desperately need love. And in the Buddha’s teaching we learn that love is born from understanding. The willingness to love is not enough. If you do not understand, you cannot love. The capacity to understand the other person will bring about acceptance and loving kindness.
It is possible the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and lovingkindness, a community practicing mindful living. And the practice can be carried out as a group, as a city, as a nation.
- riffs on that quote but then basically is just saying "sanghas are important, please join/nurture/create one"
- lots of meh stuff, like this which says
- > So what does it mean for the next Buddha to be a sangha? It means that we need not just our teachers or our practice, but a community around us in order to protect and nourish our practice.
- NO -_-
- that is what it means for the sangha to be one of the jewels
- the notion of the next buddha BEING a sangha means something much more interesting
- I probably want to visit Plum Village at some point
- iirc there's an offshoot now that's more families rather than monks
- Bohm Dialogue is ofc relevant too
- oooh hm the Co-Intelligence Institute (CII) is based in Eugene, OR
- Tom Atlee is a name I recognize from Jean Robertson
- fuckyeah they have a page on conscious evolution
- > To the extent we do this, we are evolution -- or at least one significant facet of it -- becoming conscious of itself. Across many domains of society, life and spirituality, we are in the process of birthing ourselves as conscious evolution.
- holy shit I feel like I (& Eric etc) independently came up with exactly these phrases?
- I mean I'm not going to pretend to have been uninfluenced, but like, I didn't feel like I was quoting anyone
- wow yeah this is an epic interlinked site with lots of great articles on great topics