Marlowe and Mejda

Should we lay laurels eternally upon Shakespeare's grave in humble thanks for the plays he wrote, or should we be looking to others? There has been an ongoing debate through history suggesting that Francis Bacon wrote some of Shakespeare's works and either attributed his efforts to the Legendary Bard or stole the fame for himself. Check it out in Wikipedia for more information. Anyway, I recently finished reading 'History Play' about Christopher Marlowe, writer of 'Tamburlaine' and 'Doctor Faustus'. Rodney Bolt has suggested that it was Marlowe who wrote the likes of 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Merchant of Venice' and turned them over to his assistant, one Wil Shaksper, to clean them up and have them ready for the actors. First off, Bolt has a few bony facts, which he clothes in alien flesh to create a unique little beast of a story. Very well-written and greatly enjoyable. In the distant past, when identification was not concrete and most folks signed their name with an X, who is to say what was true and what wasn't? Did Marlowe really die in a bar-fight? Was he a pawn instead? Did Shakespeare and Marlowe move in familiar circles enough that they knew each other? If interested, please have a look at this remarkable book.
Meanwhile, I've gotten back into watching 'Mahabharat' again. Episode 79 always makes me cry a little, thanks to its poignant scenes. This has little to do with 'Mejda', other than the fact that both 'Mahabharata' and 'Mejda' both came from India. I may have mentioned this book in previous posts, and if I have, I am going to mention it again today. It is said that the Buddha will come when the world has forgotten the Dharma. With all the sages of various shades emerging in writings from India, China, and Tibet, people are not likely to forget the Dharma for a while to come. That said, these sages all hearken from centuries ago, and are not familiar with the 20th century. 'Mejda' passed away in 1952, so he was no stranger to the evolution of society. I've just started reading this book (although I read it last year and will probably read it again in two years' time) but after I've gotten more into it, I will doubtless make some mention of it later.
It's April Fools' Day, but more importantly, it's my Grandma's birthday as well. She would've been 84 years old today. Rest well, Grandma. You are dearly and deeply missed. Anyway, I guess this post is done. BYE.

Warm feelings

I was acutely aware of Xmas much more this year, and I didn't even put up a tree or string any lights! The only way you can tell it was Xmas in my apartment is the number of gift cards on my table and the gifts I have yet to put away. I've become lazier somehow (I blame it on being unfamiliar with so much free time), but life calls and I have a sink that need tackling! I also have books that need tackling (Bronte Sisters Super-Book!). On the leisure front, I'm getting further in 'Dragon Age: Origins' (better than Oblivion - I CAN CHEAT!) and I've rediscovered 'Dragon Ball Z'. Anymore dragon stuff and I'll start dreaming of the creatures! I've got a copy of 'Flight of Dragons', so maybe this is a sign. I'm feeling warm fuzzies (either from Xmas or from the fact that I've got an apartment - over a year old - powerful fuzzies!) and am looking forward to 2011. I haven't made any resolutions - no sense doing that if I have no intention of keeping them.
On the literary front, I'm toiling away at 'Villette' (which I'm finding to be rough going) and have started reading a thick little book called 'Zen pioneer'. It's a life of Ruth Fuller Sasaki, who's claim to fame is that she helped bring Zen into the West. She among many names who have been lost over time. Apparently she was Alan Watts' mother-in-law. I'm not too familiar with Watts, but for some reason, I think he's a little controversial. I could be wrong. Meanwhile, the weather is very nice out today and I have no plans to go out this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm back with the xtended rels for a belated Boxing Day. Meh.
Time for me to close this up. The next time I post it will be 2011. BYE.

Back thru da past

I'm a slave to nostalgia (esp. the 80's), and lately I've been looking through my older diaries. I'm coming across books I read several years ago and realize that I really should give these books another look. Maybe there's something I missed the last time. Then there's the many famous names I've dropped in between the pages. For instance, I mentioned something by Nietzsche but never got around to reading. Meanwhile, the month of May has dawned and there are only a few weeks before the end of the school. The EA's are already counting down the days. The teachers probably are as well, but I've only heard it from the EA's. I'm working out my plans for the summer. They involve (so far) putting more money away for a future development (Condo, anyone?) and perhaps taking lessons in some instrument (piano... or maybe join a choir - still undecided there).
On the literary front, I'm reading a stunning book called 'The Dzogchen primer', compiled and edited by Marcia Binder Schmidt. Makes me want to seek out a guru or a virtual sangha for my own spiritual progress. Ever feel like you're at a cross-roads or in a rut spiritually? That's kinda how I'm feeling right now. Actually, looking at my stance in a harsher light, I'm looking for some validation. Am I really on the right path? Why am I not seeing any change? Where do I go from here? Am I not doing enough? What's it going to take? Perhaps, if I really had a clear path, I wouldn't feel I need validation from anyone? Besides, is a guru really there to validate someone else's feelings? Not really. He/she's there to teach and keep you on the path. I don't think he/she's there to make you feel special and validated.
Maybe I'm just whining right now. This calls for more reflecting and longer diary entries! Oh, and one more thing. I'm starting to focus on the Baha'i faith. Since I saw those PSA's back in the early 90's, I've kept the Baha'i faith at the back of my mind. Now maybe it's time to explore this faith a little deeper. I'd also like to find those PSA's again. No luck on Youtube. Just keep looking, I guess. BYE.

Strange feeling

One publishing house I've come to respect is Shambhala. If not for this group, so many great teachings and documents would have never reached the West. I have several books from this publishing house already, and know there are many more that I have yet to read. What I like about Shambhala is that they do not dumb down the material. They are trying to make the teachings available to everyone, but they do warn if this or that is too difficult for the beginner down this path. Reading books published by this group brings a smile to my face and a delight to my spirit, so when I come across something from them in the library, I eagerly seize upon it and get reading. My most recent discovery is the Diamond Heart series, and I've started with the 4th book in the series. I also have the 2nd book in the series in waiting, and will get to it as soon as possible.
This book, I'll admit, troubled me for a while. It screams 'California' and 'New Age' in my head, and I usually avoid 'New Age-y' stuff like the plague. The music works out all right, for the most part, but the books I have come across relating to 'New Age' usually annoy me after a while. They talk in enigmas and circles, and they give me a headache. Books on Buddhist teachings give me occasional headaches, but I come away eventually feeling good. Books I have branded as 'Californian' give me a headache and a feeling of 'get this book away from me'. This feeling came over me as I read 'Indestructible innocence' (4th book in the series), but I'm going to keep reading it. I'm not a glutton for punishment, and I do have a reason to get through to the end of this book.
It's turning out to be well-trod ground, which I do not have a problem with. What is well-trod for some is the road n'er travelled by others. Those who wish to start on the path but would rather avoid the Buddhist terms and use terms they can better understand would find this book (can't speak for the series yet) to be a good choice. I don't like New Age because it occasionally gets bogged down in convolution and the 'hippy-dippy', but this book is trying hard to avoid such detours. I'm going to see this journey through just in case I come across something yet undiscovered. Anyway, that's what's going on in my life. BYE.

Books to love

Just an update on my cold and then we'll move on; the cold is only an ominous memory. Hooray for antibiotics! Been reading quite a bit since my last post and today I'm going to talk about two books I've read. If this post goes on rather long, I apologize. First off, I finished reading that Matthew Arnold book I mentioned in my last post. It's called 'Schools and universities on the Continent', and was edited by R.H. Super. Super's a guy who has to have some high respect for Arnold, for he released several volumes of the man's work in the 70's and not all the material is easy reading. In fact, much of it could be considered boring. Still, this book I read, while it might be considered boring, shows that Arnold was a man who really loved his job. It comes through in the writing, which is concise and laden with information. He inspected schools in Prussia, Switzerland, Germany, and France; I cannot imagine what sort of experiences he had that did not come up in this book.
Either he knew several languages or he had a good translator with him. Nothing like this is mentioned, but he comes across as a man who loved his job. Does the job of 'school inspector' still exist? It probably does, but I don't think it's any more glamourous than Arnold's job was. Really, Arnold was just looking at these schools to see how they compared with English schools. I don't know if one can do that any longer. Darn homogenous world!!! Anyway, onto the second book.
I read Kapleau's 'Awakening to Zen' last year and I admit that I felt like I was walking onto uncertain ground. There was something in that book that really unsettled me. I will have to check last year's entries to see what it was that so unsettled me. I returned to it recently and I have to admit; I did not feel at all unsettled this time. Actually, I enjoyed revisiting it.
Maybe I was in a state of turmoil last year and reading this book didn't help me any. I enjoyed coming back to the lectures documented in this book. I won't be returning to it in two years, but it is a good book. For the intermediate traveller, one might say. That's all I can say about it. It's well-travelled ground.
One last note. I'm reading 'Everyday life through the ages'. I like looking through this gem from Reader's Digest every now and again. Chock-full of information. That's all. BYE.

Introspective and inquiring

I paint a frustrating picture of myself whenever I look within to examine my flaws. I've been reading 'The teachings of Kirpal Singh' and this Sikh mystic has been reinforcing just about everything I've read about where self-introspection is concerned. Doubting, fearing, easily irritated, and just plain unmindful of other people's feelings. This negative picture pleases my oppressive superego to no end, but Singh suggests that transcending this whole mess is possible. He passed away in 1974, so he was no stranger to the 20th Century, and still he had faith in humanity. Kudos to you, sir! Perhaps it's the cynic in me, but there are not many people who would willingly confront their demons and work as hard as he would like them to work. Then again, he reiterates that to make any progress, one cannot go it alone. This is a universal point of view. One needs to find a teacher or guru and seek his/her help to completely transcend all these illusions.
This is the part I'm presently working through, and where my doubts do battle with my hopes and my common sense. It would be nice to just take a little walk and find a guru or a teacher who would be willing to guide me all the way through. I feel I've reached some sort of crossroads and cannot go much farther alone. However, while I would like very much for there to be some sort of teacher nearby, my doubts assure me that such a teacher would not have the wisdom nor skills (read: certification or pedigree) to help me. A teacher/mystic like Singh would be wonderful to have nearby, but not very probable. The ones with the right skills (again, read: certification) doubtless live in China, Japan, India, or California, and all those places are currently beyond my reach.
Feels like a Catch-22, doesn't it? On the surface of it, I don't want to be lead astray, but at the same time, I don't want my trust betrayed. That's at the base of it. Whom to trust? Trust issues. That's something I have to keep working on. If I can transcend my doubts and place my trust in a teacher in the hopes that he/she can and will help me go beyond, I'd be pulling off a minor miracle. The cynic in me warns against such an action. Anyway, that's what's going on inside my head right now. Meanwhile, 'The teachings of Kirpal Singh' is a very insightful book. I'll return to it in a year's time, I figure. BYE.

Dialectic and Dialogue

I forget who it was that first said that everything is connected. A good friend of mine came to the conclusion when he was younger and he told me about it. I'm coming to believe it myself. I'm sure it's one of those maxims that, sooner or later, everyone ends up discovering if they look hard enough. About a year ago, I read a phenomenal book by Francisco J. Gonzalez called 'Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato's Practice of Philosophical Inquiry', and I promised myself to re-read it in a year's time. Here we are a year later and I finished reading it last night. Reading this book has lead me to believe there are connections between Philosophy and Buddhism. Buddhism is probably one of the more philosophical religions Humanity came up with over the last few millennia, although many Zen masters will tell you that Buddhism cannot be examined like Philosophy can.
Plato had Socrates share his revolutionary points of view and ideas with men he admired and with students looking for a new way of perceiving the world. It's all about perception in Buddhism as well. What a person sees with their senses is not the reality -- it's part of reality, but not the whole thing. For one to know the entire reality, one would have to see the object from countless points of view. Plato's Socrates, on the other hand, accepts with some resignation that since we cannot 'know' an object this way, all we can do is learn facts and details about the object and use that as our basis of 'knowing' an object or an experience.
One word Gonzalez uses constantly is aporia: a difficulty encountered in establishing the theoretical truth of a proposition, created by the presence of evidence both for and against it. Socrates, unable to confirm or completely prove his ideas before the Sophists he seeks to vanquish, ends everything in a draw. Personally, I don't think the Sophists took his ideas seriously, or anything seriously, for that matter. It was safer for them not to take a stand on something they believed -- I personally find it hard to believe that Socrates' critics believed in anything except trying to bring him down by trapping him with words.
Words and labels are all we have to communicate with, and Homo sapiens is too social an animal to keep from communicating with others. Here is where Buddhism and Plato part company, as far as dialectics is concerned. Words and labels serve their purpose of communication, but they also tie a person down with a constant identity, and Buddhism is all about merging the I, thus losing the identity. Labels especially keep the I from merging. Still, there are too many connections between Philosophy and Buddhism to ignore.
Time to gush over the book in a physical sense. Well-written and thought-provoking, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Plato's work. Apparently, this book presents an alternate view of Philosophy, so be sure to give yourself a few weeks to enjoy this treasure.

Be like Nike

I wonder what the PR brains at Nike were reading or experiencing when they came up with their philosophy of 'Just Do It'. I had their motto running through my brain when I got half-way through 'Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake'. This is a book made up of various speeches made by a recently departed Zen Master. He had two important points to make to the students he was with, and these two points were repeated time and again in his speeches. One point was that when you think more than feel, what you say becomes complicated. People have a tendency to talk in circles or hide their confusion behind their fine-sounding words. I am among these people more than I care to admit. Anyway, this Zen Master counters this talking and thinking in circles mentality by saying 'Don't think -- just do it'. Sounds something like what Nike was talking about, doesn't it? The latter part, at any rate.
The second point this Master discussed time and again has to do with identity. In the final analysis, we as a people are very fond of labelling things and naming them. We call a dog a dog and we name the sky with the name blue. The dog doesn't name himself as a dog and the sky doesn't name itself as the sky. Our species needs to think of names for things, but I think we're the only one (on this planet, anyway). Through identity comes ego. Drop the name, you drop the identity. The answer to the question, 'What am I?' usually ends as a label. The Master in this book suggests that a more appropriate answer would be 'Don't know'.
Do I agree with these two points? I am not sure. The first point is not an easy one to live by for someone who does most of their living in their head. I do much more thinking than is good for me, it seems. My diaries are just full of thinking, and thinking is a hard habit to break. Of course, it is important to consider the pros and cons of something, but don't go too far. At the end of the day, just go for it and Do It. Thinking oneself into mazes and circles might seem safer, but the time comes when you need to stop thinking and just do what needs to be done. The second point makes me laugh. I usually say 'Don't know' to everything I'm asked around the house. Go figure.
Can I be like Nike? So long as I don't have to wear their overpriced running shoes, sure.

Shantideva's awesome writing

Over the past week or so, I've been getting into 'The Way of the Bodhisattva', by the sage Shantideva. A mind-expanding book to say the least. I have been a devotee of Buddism since my University days when I was taking Religious Studies courses. This book goes far beyond any of my previous investigations into Buddhist materials. Nothing I could say would do this book justice, only to say that it answered some questions I had about the Bodhisattva path and left me with so much more to ask.
A Bodhisattva is one who has the chance to attain Nirvana but defers it in order to help a certain number of people attain Nirvana ahead of him. It's usually in the 100,000's, and is called a 'Bodhisattva vow'. I have tossed and turned the idea over in my head and realized that I am nowhere near Bodhisattva status. Too many attachments and defilements still. Perhaps in another couple of lives - maybe. However, it was a great book to read and be inspired by. To truly be a Bodhisattva, one has to do whatever it takes to help others. I just do not have that level of compassion yet.
More than any other book I've read, this one provides a sort of road map to help the aspirant dissolve the 'I' and the 'Other' by interchanging them to show they are one and the same. Perhaps when I have more courage to be compassionate, I will be able to apply what I have learned from this awesome book. Without a doubt, this will be a book I will return to in a years' time. I have still very much to learn from 'The Way of the Bodhisattva', and perhaps the student will be ready next year for the teacher to appear. One can only hope.