"separate, not separate"

do you remember the time we both got drunk
and we argued over James Brown's height?
and I shot your ass.
and I killed you.
why didn't you stop me?

and do you remember when we both fell in love with the same woman?
we went from loving each other
to hating each other
in the name of love.

and before that when we were both trees together in the same forest?
our roots touched.
we have been inseparable ever since.

and even before that when we were both part of the same bird?
you were the left wing and I was the right.
and that's when we decided it would be wonderful
to become Separate -
so we could be friends and touch each other.

and before that we were tongues of flame dancing together.
and before that we were waves on the ocean rolling over each other.
and before that we were particles of dust on opposite ends of the universe
hurtling away from each other.

and do you remember this morning, walking in the woods together?
you were even wearing my shoes.
and we listened to the birds sing and the wind sigh.
and we watched the springtime forest embrace and kiss
the mist covered lake?

[photo: "Two Trees of Whitefish Lake" by Jason F. Vick.]

"Everyone has a light"

"you crawled into my bed that night
like some sort of giant insect
and i found myself spellbound
at the sight of you there
beautiful and grotesque and all the rest of that bug stuff
bluffing your way into my mouth
behind my teeth, reaching for my scars
that night we got kicked out of two bars
and laughed our way home

that night you leaned over
and threw up into your hair
and i held you there thinking
i would offer you my pulse
if i thought it would be useful
i would give you my breath

except
the problem with death
is we have some hundred years and then they can build
buildings on our only bones.
a hundred years and then your
grave is not your own.
we lie in our beds and in our graves unable to save
ourselves from the quaint tragedies we invent,
and then undo from the stupid circumstances
we slalom through.

and I realized that night that the hall light which seemed so
bright when you turned it on
is nothing compared to the dawn,
which is nothing compared to the light which seeps from you
while you're sleeping cocooned in my room
beautiful and grotesque,
resting.
that night we got kicked out of two bars and laughed our way
home. And I held you there thinking, I thought
i would offer you my pulse.
i would give you my breath.
i would offer you my pulse.
i would give you my breath ..."
Pulse, Ani Difranco
[pic of Ani from here]

"What is this light?"

More than a thousand years ago, the Chinese Zen Master Ummon used to ask his students, “Everyone has a light – but if you look for it, you don't see it. What is this light?” For twenty years he posed this challenge, but no one was ever able to give a reply that he would accept. Finally one day Ummon declared, “if you asked me, I would say, 'the front gate, the kitchen pantry.'”

As obtuse as Ummon's answer might first appear, it is not difficult to provide an intellectual explanation. There is an old Chinese proverb that states “the family treasure does not come in through the front gate.” This might refer, on a mundane level, to what is sometimes called “old money”: a truly noble, aristocratic family is one whose wealth has not just recently come in “through the front gate” (that is, by commerce), but rather it is one whose wealth has been in the family generation after generation - preferably for so long that no one can recall there ever having been a time when this family was not rich and powerful. But this ancient proverb can also be interpreted in a more spiritual way, to point out that each of us has a “family treasure” - exceedingly, immeasurably precious – and that this treasure has always been ours and is not something that has been acquired by us. Anything that has been gotten can be lost – only that which we have always had from the beginning is our true “family treasure.”

This concept of “family treasure” figures prominently in an old story about two friends, Ganto and Seppo, who were once traveling together on a religious pilgrimage. Ganto appeared somewhat lax in his spiritual practice, at least to the casual observer. Seppo, on the other hand, was far more fervent, and spent every spare moment seated in meditation – his face grim with determination, his entire body humming with spiritual aspiration. Once during their travels, the two friends found themselves snowed in, and they took shelter at an inn by the side of the road. During their forced lay-over Ganto spent most of his time napping (and snoring loudly), while Seppo was constantly doing meditation – bolt upright in the full-lotus posture.

At one point Ganto awoke from his napping, and, while rubbing his eyes, asked his friend, playfully: “Just what do you think you are accomplishing – sitting there unmoving all day long looking like a statue at some road-side shrine?” Seppo was used to his friend's teasing – and besides he was so completely sincere in his practice that it never occurred to him to be in the least bit embarrassed by it. So Seppo answered innocently and ardently, “My mind is not at rest! That is why I must practice constantly!!” Ganto then asked gently whether or not all of his practice had yet given his mind any rest at all. Seppo started to answer, recounting some of his own “enlightenment experiences” over many years of practice, and also citing famous examples of great teachers who had experienced liberation through long years of meditation. But Ganto cut his friend off in mid-sentence and shouted, “Don't you know the family treasure does not come in through the front gate, it comes out of your own heart and covers all of heaven and earth!” At these words Seppo became greatly enlightened. Seppo would go on to become a great Zen Master, and was one of Ummon's teachers.

So, referring to things that come in “through the front gate” means anything that can be gotten, obtained, bought, stolen, taken, received, worked for, earned, begged or bargained for, etc – from someone or something other than yourself. Anything that I obtain in that way is not truly mine - at best, it is mine only for a while. The “light” that Ummon is referring to, on the other hand, is something that each of us has intrinsically.

But what about “the kitchen pantry”? This simply refers to anything that can be consumed or “used up” in any way. It could also refer to something that we store up, hold onto, cling to, horde, guard jealously, etc – that is, anything to which we become “attached”.

But can "this light" that everyone has be obtained in any way, can it be used up or diminished even slightly, can it be the source and object of our attachment, clinging, craving, and desire?

The light that Ummon is talking about shines everywhere – so there is nowhere that it is not shining already, and there is nothing, anywhere, that does not already have this light emitting from it. In particular, Ummon says everyone has this light, therefore it is not some special possession that only enlightened people have. Therefore the light is that which comes in through the front gate – and it is also the front gate itself. It is also that which we cling to, and it is the very clinging itself – as well as the one who clings.

[continued here]

Buddhist Goddesses of India

Miranda Shaw's Buddhist Goddesses of India is one of my most cherished books. The Introduction itself is something that I think every Buddhist should read, and you can download it for free from the publisher's webpage. Here's just a taste:

"The Buddhist pantheon of India features a fascinating and diverse array of female divinities. The pantheon is dazzling in its breadth, encompassing voluptuous tree spirits, maternal nurturers, exalted wisdom figures, compassionate healers, powerful protectors, cosmic mothers of liberation, and dancing female Buddhas. Goddesses preside over childbirth, agriculture, prosperity, longevity, art, music, learning, love magic, and occult practices. There are goddesses who offer protection from epidemics, snakebite, demons, curses, untimely death, and every mortal danger. There are also goddesses who support practitioners in their pursuit of knowledge, mental purification, a higher rebirth, and full spiritual awakening."

After the Introduction, the first chapter is on the Earth Goddess, Prthivi. Most Buddhists are vaguely aware of the fact that just before the Buddha attained enlightenment he reached down and touched the earth. In fact, this "earth-touching posture" is one of the most common motifs for statues and other depictions of the Buddha. The whole story goes like this, according to Shaw's rendition:

"When Mara, the king of demons, challenged Siddhartha to provide a witness to his worthiness to attain enlightenment, the Bodhisattva stretched forth his golden hand and touched the earth, invoking the one who observes and remembers every event that transpires on her vast body. Responding to his summons, the earth goddess rendered her testimony in world-shaking tones and personally dispersed Mara's armies. In doing so, she created the environment of peace necessary for the Buddha-to-be to enter the subtlest spheres of meditation and attain full spiritual awakening. So crucial was her intervention that she is said to perform the same role in the enlightenment of every Buddha throughout the ages."

Other chapters that I especially loved were the ones on Lakshmi (whose image adorns the earliest known Buddhist structures found in India), Prajnaparamita (the Goddess who embodies the foundational teachings of Mahayana Buddhism), Tara (the Universal Savioress), Chinnamunda (the Goddess who cuts her own head off while dancing ecstatically), and the Red Enchantress and Mistress of Knowledge Kurukulla (who is often associated with Red Tara).

Maybe some day I'll write a more in depth review of this book. Here's a short and sweet review I found on the web, by Leah Samul.

Alan Watts explains it all

Here is a very well done video which combines snippets of talks given by Alan Watts with animation from Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame.

Unfortunately whoever posted this on youtube gave the whole thing the moronic title "Atheist Spirituality" - but that can be ignored. Alan Watts was about as much of an atheist as I am.

My favorite segment from the video is the one on "Appling", which starts at 3:01. A different version of what Watts says in that segment can be found in "The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are", which can now be downloaded as a pdf (clicking on this link will automatically download the file) here.

Brad Warner on Buddhism, Evolution, and Women

Brad Warner's article on Buddhism, Evolution, and Women that he wrote for Suicide Girls is damn good. He says "The powerful patriarchal religions of the modern world have mostly treated women like shit .... Except for Buddhism." He then spends the rest of the article defending this claim against the anticipated charge of "sounding like a shill for Buddhism."

The reason I really like what Warner says is that there are far too many people who unthinkingly make sweeping generalizations about "all religions" without ever bothering to find out what different religions actually do and say. Buddhism is far from perfect with respect to the issue of sexism, but I think Warner makes a good case that wherever and whenever there is sexism in the Buddhist Sangha, this "goes against the explicit directions" of the Buddha himself.

Oh, the actual article by Warner (at the Suicide Girls website) is here. Warner is supposed to have a new article coming out soon on meditation and post-traumatic-stress, or something like that. That's what I was looking for when I found this article. When that one comes out I'll probably post something about it, too.

OK, so finally I've got a little Buddhist content on this blog!

Note added later: Warner's next SG article won't appear until Monday, his blog says it will be "about whether or not zazen is dangerous for trauma survivors."

Wicca and Philosophy, Part Three: The Threefold Law

'Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold.' (For this is the joke in witchcraft, the witch knows, though the initiate does not, that she will get three times what she gave, so she does not strike hard.)
[High Magic's Aid by Gerald Gardner]

The Story, Glaucon, would take too long to tell; but the sum was this: --He said that for every wrong which they had done to any one they suffered tenfold .... for each and all of their offenses they received punishment ten times over, and the rewards of beneficence and justice and holiness were in the same proportion.
[The Republic by Plato, Book X, The Myth of Er]

Selena Fox, of Circle Sanctuary, wrote (here) that "Most Wiccans acknowledge that whatever magical force is sent out returns magnified to the sender." I have taken the liberty of emphasizing the word "magnified" in the quote, because I think that this puts the correct focus on what is truly important. The idea is not just that the results of of our actions return to us, but that my actions have more effect on me than they do on others. It is not just that when I harm others I am also harming myself - I am primarily harming myself and only incidentally harming anyone else. Agreeing on exactly what the "magnification" is (whether 3, or 10, or whatever) is far less important than understanding that this magnification does occur.

Wren Walker, of the Witches Voice website, has written (here) that "The Threefold Law takes the notion that 'what we reap, we will sow', a few steps further ... in fact, THREE steps further. For what we do 'for good or for ill, shall be returned to us threefold.' In light of this fact, Witches are loath to cause any harm..." This makes it clear that the Threefold Law is usually not just interpreted as applying to magic, but to all of our actions.

It is completely within the realm of the possible that Gardner was directly influenced by Plato's Myth of Er when he wrote about the Threefold Law of Return. References to Plato and other Greek philosophers and classical authors can be found scattered throughout High Magic's Aid, Witchcraft Today, and The Meaning of Witchcraft. However it is not necessary to claim such a direct influence merely to establish that the idea wasn't simply concocted by Gardner out of thin air.

The idea of karma appears to have been already present in Western culture since even before Plato. In all probability the Greek concept of metempsychosis was taught by Pythagoras, and possibly even earlier by a philosopher named Pherecydes of Syros (whom some believe to have been one of Pythagoras' teachers). But it was Plato (who was born over 60 years after Pythagoras died) more than anyone else who popuarized the idea of metempsychosis, not only in the Republic, but also in his Gorgias, Phaedrus, Meno, Phaedo, Timaeus, and Laws.

For now it is important to separate out the idea of (a) any sort of spiritual progress being made from one lifetime to the next from (b) the more basic idea that the results (ie, "karma") of a person's actions carry over from one lifetime to the next. In fact there are four different ideas which, despite being closely related, need to be kept at least somewhat separate:

(1) that the results of all of our actions return to have an impact on us
(2) that when our actions redound on us the impact is even greater than the impact on others
(3) that this process of returning karma persists from one lifetime to the next
(4) that the purpose of all this is for us to make spiritual progress over many lifetimes

It might appear that the Threefold Law only entails the first two of the above concepts. But we all know of examples of people who act badly throughout their lives and yet appear to suffer no (or very little) negative consequences, just as we also know of all too many cases of good people to whom bad things happen. Only if karma persists for more than a single lifetime is it plausible to insist that all of our actions redound on us, because without that it seems almost certain that it is possible to "cheat" karma. But as one American Buddhist teacher once quipped, "karma means you don't get away with nothin'."

But we needn't go all the way back to Plato to find indigenous (or at least indigenized) Western versions of the concepts of karma and reincarnation. German, French, British and American literature from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries offers many references to Seelenwanderung, palingenesis, metempsychosis, and reincarnation. And these ideas and terms are found in philosophy, poetry, drama, fiction, and even in political discourse! Two excellent books on this subject are: Secular Spirituality: Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth-Century France by Lynn L. Sharp, and Continued Existence, Reincarnation, and the Power of Sympathy in Classical Weimar by Lieselotte E. Kurth-Voigt.

Wicca and Ancient Philosophy, Part Two: The Really Big Picture

Either Wicca is a religion divinely inspired by the same Gods that ancient Pagans worshipped thousands of years ago, or it is not. My belief is that it is. This does not in any way require that Wicca, as we know it, existed thousands of years ago, or even hundreds of years ago. All religions change over time, and this is just as true of Pagan religions as it is for Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Christianity, or any other religion.

But all religions must have some essence, and this essence obviously does not change over time, or if it does, then the religion itself changes into something that, essentially, it was not before. So what is the "essence" of Wicca? Although you might never guess it if you talked to Wiccans, there are actually a great many things that we generally agree on.

Here are some things that most Wiccans will agree on:

(1) worship of the old Goddesses and Gods that were worshipped by the Pagans of the ancient oikoumene prior to the suppression of that worship in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe by Christians and/or Muslims.
(2) spiritual progress through successive incarnations
(3) the efficacy of divination of various sorts
(4) the immanence of the divine in nature
(5) the erotic/sexual nature of the divine
(6) sympathetic magic
(7) The Threefold Law
(8) The Wiccan Rede

Is it possible that all 8 of these aspects of modern Wicca can be found among ancient Pagans? If so, are we not completely justified in declaring that our religion is the same as theirs, that is to say, that we truly are practitioners of the Old Religion?

In the first post in this series I already addressed the Wiccan Rede itself, and a great deal more could be written on just that one aspect of Wicca and it's ancient roots. But I want to fly over each of these eight aspects of modern Wicca at 30,000 feet, so to speak, before dropping down to take a closer look and going into more details.

Some people (including many Pagans) might find it absurd to suggest that there are meaningful links between Greek philosophy, or classical Greco-Roman culture in general, and Wicca. This objection would have never occurred to Gerald Gardner, who quoted the Roman Pagan author Apuleius in the forward to his first major nonfiction work on Wicca, Witchcraft Today:

"I can only repeat the words of Lucius Apuleius in the Metamorphoses, xl, 23, who wrote a long account of his own initiation into the mysteries in cryptic language, saying: 'I have told you things of which, although you have heard them, you cannot know the meaning.'"

In addition to the Apuleius quote, Gardner also makes references to Plato, Pindar, Heraclitus, Proclus, and Orphism. And on the specific issue of origins, Gardner states that his view is that Wicca had been "influenced by the Greek and Roman mysteries which originally may have come from Egypt" (see the chapter on "Witch Practices").

Wicca and Ancient Philosopy, Part One: Plato, the Stoics and the Wiccan Rede

Donald Frew, Wiccan author and elder, has pointed out that both Platonism and Hermeticism are important sources of (modern) Pagan ideas. In this interview (which is taken from the book Modern Pagans) Frew specifically mentions the writings of Porphyry, Iamblichus, Julian ("the Apostate"), and Proclus, along with the Corpus Hermeticum, as among "the oldest written sources for Pagan theory and ritual". In an article he wrote for the Academic journal Ethnologies Frew provides a more detailed argument to support his contention that much of "the roots of Wicca can be found in the writings of the late Roman Neoplatonists."

I want go a bit further than Frew and show that basic Wiccan ideas can be traced back to Plato himself, who lived six centuries before Plotinus, and also to the Stoic philosophers, whose school is almost as old as Plato's.

It is unfortunate that modern writers, including even a Pagan like Frew, continue the misguided practice of referring to Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblchus, Julian, and Proclus as "Neoplatonists". The inevitable implication of the use of the term "Neoplatonists" is that many of the ideas of these later Platonists, especially their more mystical and religious ideas, are not genuinely Platonic. The prefix "neo" is affixed precisely in order to insinuate that Plato's own writings were neither mystical nor religious in any way. In fact, all of the philosophers labeled by scholars as "Neoplatonists" referred to themselves simply as Platonists, and their philosophical writings were based solidly on Plato's. Therefore the term "Neoplatonist" should be rejected as anachronistic and misleading, and, for that reason, I will consistently refer to Plotinus, etc, using the terminology they themselves used: Platonists.

Let's start with the Wiccan Rede: "An it harm none, do as you will." The exhortation to "harm none" comes straight from the most famous of all of Plato's dialogues, the Republic. As classicist Robin Waterfield states in his own translation of the Republic, "Socrates finally concludes that it is never right to harm anyone under any circumstances." (See his commentary on p. 8 of that book.) It is especially significant that Waterfied is here commenting on the first book of the Republic, and that the remaining nine books are largely devoted to defending this conclusion. This same idea is found in other Platonic dialogues as well, especially the Crito and the Gorgias.

But what about "do as you will"? It turns out that the clearest expression of this admonition is found not among the writings of Plato, but among the Stoics. For it was the Stoics who taught that:

"They are free who live as they will; who are not subject to compulsion, to restraint, or to violence; whose pursuits are unhindered, their desires successful, their aversions unincurred."

The Stoics not only provide an ancient and highly respectable pedigree for the second half of the Wiccan Rede, they also provide a strong argument for how the two parts of the Rede are connected:

"Who, then, would wish to lead a wrong course of life? No one. Who would live deceived, erring, unjust, dissolute, discontented, dejected? No one. Wicked persons, then, do not live according to their own wills; therefore no such person is free."

Both of the above quotes are taken from the Discourses of Epictetus, book IV, section 1.

At the risk of being repetitive, let me summarize. The Wiccan Rede really has three components: (1) to "harm none", (2) to "do as you will", and (3) the implication that these two admonitions are connected with each other, or at least compatible with each other. The writings of Plato provide multiple examples of the first idea, while the writings of the Stoics provide an ancient philosophical basis for all three. In fact, as the last quote from Epictetus shows, we can only truly be free (that is, do as we "will"), when we act justly and rightly, and that anyone who is deceptive, unjust, etc, is not truly free.

Finally it should be noted that the second quote from Epictetus is actually a restatement of one of the most famous and singular teachings of Socrates: that no one ever does wrong knowingly. The Socratic world view had no place in it for "evil" as a fundamental principle. For Socrates, Plato, and the Stoics the Cosmos is fundamentally "good", and all apparent "evil" is only the result of our ignorance. This radical view of the Cosmos teaches us that if we so choose, each of us is capable of living in a way that is beneficial to ourselves and to our fellow creatures, and that is also in accordance with our own wills, and that, moreover, living in such a way is the only way to be truly free.

Plato's Timaeus

"The very properties that constitute goodness in the cosmos also do so in human life: order and proportionality. Timaeus' ethical recommendation is therefore that through cosmology we can imitate the order of the universe in our own souls and thereby become more virtuous and happier."
Plato's Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias Thomas Kjeller Johansen (p.3)

"[the Demiurge] found that, among things that are by nature visible, no work that is without intelligence will ever be better than one that has intelligence ... and moreover that intelligence cannot be present in anything apart from soul [psyche]. In virtue of this reasoning, when he framed the universe, he fashioned reason within soul and soul within body .... This, then, is how we must say, according to the likely account, that this world came to be ... a living creature with soul and reason." Timaeus 30a-c [Cornford translation]

"[W]e may conclude that Plato's Demiurge, like the human craftsman in whose image he is conceived, operates upon materials which he does not create, and whose inherent nature sets a limit ... on his work." Cornford Plato's Cosmology p. 37

"This was his [the Demiurge's] intent: first that it might be in the fullest measure a living being whole and complete, of complete parts; next, that it might be single, nothing being left over, out of which another might come into being; and moreover that it might be free from age and sickness [!!!]. For he perceived that, if a body be composite, when hot things and cold and all things that have strong powers beset that body and attack it from without, and they bring it to untimely dissolution and cause it to waste away by bringing upon it sickness and age. For this reason and so considering, he fashioned it as a single whole consisting of all these wholes, complete and free from age and sickness." Timaeus 32c-33b