bodhidave
@bodhidave.bsky.social
humanistic psychodynamic Buddhist deconstructionist ... and all-round sweet guy
interested in cross-cultural parallels in contemplative practice
.
https://utexas.academia.edu/DavidCollins
[header is the rock garden at Ryōan-ji; avatar is an enso]
interested in cross-cultural parallels in contemplative practice
.
https://utexas.academia.edu/DavidCollins
[header is the rock garden at Ryōan-ji; avatar is an enso]
Pinned
bodhidave
@bodhidave.bsky.social
· Nov 21
Deconstructing Mindfulness
There’s been a marked increase in studies of mindfulness and meditation in recent years.
thesideview.co
1:2
The numbers of followers for this account increased this week. I'll re-post an essay I have online which reflects on the present-day "mindfulness" movement.
In that piece, about half-way through, I mention the experience of practicing the jhānas ... and ...
thesideview.co/journal/deco...
The numbers of followers for this account increased this week. I'll re-post an essay I have online which reflects on the present-day "mindfulness" movement.
In that piece, about half-way through, I mention the experience of practicing the jhānas ... and ...
thesideview.co/journal/deco...
snowy night, outside #Asheville tonight
November 11, 2025 at 3:56 AM
snowy night, outside #Asheville tonight
outside Asheville, it was 69F and sunny here this time yesterday ... it's currently 24F ... and snowing ❄️
November 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
outside Asheville, it was 69F and sunny here this time yesterday ... it's currently 24F ... and snowing ❄️
I've mentioned in other posts, I've experienced meditating in dreamless sleep — no doubt about it. And I've been at it long enough, often just taking the posture is enough — things get more intimate and sober and somehow kind on their own.
Another way I've put it: "This horse knows the way home."🙂🙏
Another way I've put it: "This horse knows the way home."🙂🙏
The yoga of implication
Consider a master yogi who enters into a concentration where nothing occurs for him inside or out. He is fully relaxed into empty union.
What understanding of reality would allow you to abandon hope and fear, to completely relax the entire nervous system indefinitely?
Consider a master yogi who enters into a concentration where nothing occurs for him inside or out. He is fully relaxed into empty union.
What understanding of reality would allow you to abandon hope and fear, to completely relax the entire nervous system indefinitely?
November 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
I've mentioned in other posts, I've experienced meditating in dreamless sleep — no doubt about it. And I've been at it long enough, often just taking the posture is enough — things get more intimate and sober and somehow kind on their own.
Another way I've put it: "This horse knows the way home."🙂🙏
Another way I've put it: "This horse knows the way home."🙂🙏
really nice day today (though temps are expected in the 20F's tonight, and all day tomorrow) ... so went for a walk, and said hi to my neighbors
(in the second pic they have clover in their mouth, which I picked for them)
(in the second pic they have clover in their mouth, which I picked for them)
November 9, 2025 at 8:37 PM
really nice day today (though temps are expected in the 20F's tonight, and all day tomorrow) ... so went for a walk, and said hi to my neighbors
(in the second pic they have clover in their mouth, which I picked for them)
(in the second pic they have clover in their mouth, which I picked for them)
I sense it can get subtle — our minds can't help but try to make models of what's happening. And spiritual "effort" and "intention" can have the paradoxical character of "trying to be natural." So it's like how being honest can take effort, but it's an effort towards not doing, not making things up.
November 9, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I sense it can get subtle — our minds can't help but try to make models of what's happening. And spiritual "effort" and "intention" can have the paradoxical character of "trying to be natural." So it's like how being honest can take effort, but it's an effort towards not doing, not making things up.
In tonight's #meditation...
the sense of "I" as an experience
(in other words, "I" as less a starting point or a framer or an instigator or an evaluator, and more as a generated event)
the sense of "I" as an experience
(in other words, "I" as less a starting point or a framer or an instigator or an evaluator, and more as a generated event)
November 9, 2025 at 4:01 AM
In tonight's #meditation...
the sense of "I" as an experience
(in other words, "I" as less a starting point or a framer or an instigator or an evaluator, and more as a generated event)
the sense of "I" as an experience
(in other words, "I" as less a starting point or a framer or an instigator or an evaluator, and more as a generated event)
tonight's sunset, outside #Asheville
November 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM
tonight's sunset, outside #Asheville
on my walk just now, outside #Asheville
November 8, 2025 at 7:22 PM
on my walk just now, outside #Asheville
good foggy morning, from outside #Asheville
November 8, 2025 at 12:31 PM
good foggy morning, from outside #Asheville
... and, in association with khthoniaa's post just now ...
![Plotinus knows his suggestion that Nature is contemplation might not be easy to understand. So he starts his treatise with the suggestion that we look at that idea playfully. Here are the opening lines:
Suppose we said, playing at first before we set out to be serious, that all things aspire to contemplation and direct their gaze to this end—not only rational but irrational living things, and the power of growth in plants, and the earth which brings them forth—and that all attain to it as far as possible for them in their natural state....
Then are we [too] now contemplating as we play? Yes, we and all who play are doing this...
And it is likely that, whether a child or an adult is playing or being serious, one plays and the other is serious for the sake of contemplation, and every action [praxis] is a serious effort towards contemplation; ... voluntary action ... springs from the desire of contemplation ... the earth itself, and trees, and plants ... we can relate what the earth makes and produces to its activity [energeian] of contemplation, ... Nature, which ... has no power of forming mental images or reasoning, has contemplation in itself and makes [poiei] what it makes [poiei] by contemplation....
Plotinus says Nature itself is contemplation and that it is by contemplation that Nature makes what it makes. The word he uses for “makes” is a form of the word poien, which can also mean “to do” or “to produce” or “to create.” Our words “poem” and “poet” and “poetry” come from that Greek word poien.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gp3ps5sbvhaw4psrhu6nfvzt/bafkreib6ewhhlcklhddd2rhdzfxruhetem4dauoifr5ws6hgbvtbvrdruy@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 7:57 PM
... and, in association with khthoniaa's post just now ...
I am, at this moment revising some writing I'm doing on Plotinus, who I find to to saying something very similar...
![For Plotinus contemplative experience is the whole point of our lives. It’s the purpose and end of our wholesome actions, and, as noted above, it’s the heart of Nature’s creation. It’s the heart of Nature’s actions and it’s the heart of our own actions. I’m reminded by this of how the Cloud author had said, “it will be the main thing you do, in everything you do.” Plotinus writes:
Action [praxis] ... is for the sake of contemplation and vision, so that for people of action too, contemplation is the goal....
It’s as though for Plotinus “being” and “creation” are things which we’re to appreciate as being both nouns and verbs. For Plotinus everything is creative.
In this next quotation, for example, the word that’s translated as “produce” in the first line is genna, which can also mean “generate” and “give birth”:
when living things ... produce [genna] ... this is an activity [energeia] of contemplation ... and a kind of endless contemplation, for creating [poien] is bringing a form into being, and this is filling all things with contemplation.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gp3ps5sbvhaw4psrhu6nfvzt/bafkreihk7qvaa2qx5erlnwo7s3nigth6mmo6xdulfvoc3gti22erjkwlvu@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I am, at this moment revising some writing I'm doing on Plotinus, who I find to to saying something very similar...
Judge Ellis' statements in issuing a preliminary injunction today against federal agents in Chicago using force against journalists, protestors, and religious figures ... is moving.
Thread:
bsky.app/profile/jons...
Thread:
bsky.app/profile/jons...
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis just took the bench. She's expected to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction governing the use of force by federal agents in Chicago.
Good morning. Back in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who is expected to rule in 20 minutes on the use of force by federal agents against protesters and journalists in Chicago.
November 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Judge Ellis' statements in issuing a preliminary injunction today against federal agents in Chicago using force against journalists, protestors, and religious figures ... is moving.
Thread:
bsky.app/profile/jons...
Thread:
bsky.app/profile/jons...
... meditation is about allowing what is more original than meditation
November 6, 2025 at 4:17 AM
... meditation is about allowing what is more original than meditation
tonight's moon, Western Carolina
November 6, 2025 at 3:53 AM
tonight's moon, Western Carolina
over-simple and needing nuance, but a helpful framing for me from tonight's #meditation:
it's not about what I know,
it's about what is happening.
it's not about what I know,
it's about what is happening.
November 6, 2025 at 3:30 AM
over-simple and needing nuance, but a helpful framing for me from tonight's #meditation:
it's not about what I know,
it's about what is happening.
it's not about what I know,
it's about what is happening.
tonight's sunset from my home ... outside #Asheville, NC
(18 sec)
(18 sec)
November 5, 2025 at 11:44 PM
tonight's sunset from my home ... outside #Asheville, NC
(18 sec)
(18 sec)
saw a flock of geese in the sky outside my window, but they'd moved on before I could step outside to photograph them — got a little rabbit in the yard instead :)
November 4, 2025 at 12:30 PM
saw a flock of geese in the sky outside my window, but they'd moved on before I could step outside to photograph them — got a little rabbit in the yard instead :)
There's a Zen koan (Blue Cliff Record, #27)...
A monk asked Zen teacher Yunmen, “When the tree withers and the leaves fall off, then what?”
Yunmen said, “The body is exposed in the autumn wind.”
....
The "autumn wind," also referred to as the "golden wind," brings ripening.
🙂 🙏
A monk asked Zen teacher Yunmen, “When the tree withers and the leaves fall off, then what?”
Yunmen said, “The body is exposed in the autumn wind.”
....
The "autumn wind," also referred to as the "golden wind," brings ripening.
🙂 🙏
Autumn this year reminds me that my life is in the beginning of its own autumn.
My leaves are changing color and the heat of summer has faded, but the air is crisp and clear.
My leaves are changing color and the heat of summer has faded, but the air is crisp and clear.
November 3, 2025 at 8:35 PM
There's a Zen koan (Blue Cliff Record, #27)...
A monk asked Zen teacher Yunmen, “When the tree withers and the leaves fall off, then what?”
Yunmen said, “The body is exposed in the autumn wind.”
....
The "autumn wind," also referred to as the "golden wind," brings ripening.
🙂 🙏
A monk asked Zen teacher Yunmen, “When the tree withers and the leaves fall off, then what?”
Yunmen said, “The body is exposed in the autumn wind.”
....
The "autumn wind," also referred to as the "golden wind," brings ripening.
🙂 🙏
November 2, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by bodhidave
I'm named after my grandfather who, in turn, was named after a Union soldier who his father had met when they were at Gettysburg. His father was a Confederate. The two soldiers met at night while on guard duty, and, rather than shoot one another, they traded books.
November 1, 2025 at 7:31 PM
I'm named after my grandfather who, in turn, was named after a Union soldier who his father had met when they were at Gettysburg. His father was a Confederate. The two soldiers met at night while on guard duty, and, rather than shoot one another, they traded books.
a poem that is awake
an appreciative participant expression of the way things are
in and as creation
(realized largely in allowing an embrace from being alive)
.
tonight's #meditation
an appreciative participant expression of the way things are
in and as creation
(realized largely in allowing an embrace from being alive)
.
tonight's #meditation
November 1, 2025 at 3:39 AM
a poem that is awake
an appreciative participant expression of the way things are
in and as creation
(realized largely in allowing an embrace from being alive)
.
tonight's #meditation
an appreciative participant expression of the way things are
in and as creation
(realized largely in allowing an embrace from being alive)
.
tonight's #meditation
Doing some writing on Plotinus. It's often fun to see modern associations for the Greek terms he used. In this passage, e.g., "aei," endless or always, is related to our word "eternal" and also to "aye," our old word for "yes," which previously had had connotations of "yes, always," or "yes, ever."
November 1, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Doing some writing on Plotinus. It's often fun to see modern associations for the Greek terms he used. In this passage, e.g., "aei," endless or always, is related to our word "eternal" and also to "aye," our old word for "yes," which previously had had connotations of "yes, always," or "yes, ever."
pretty fall day here, outside my house, near #Asheville, NC
(not sure what the little green goblin moving across the screen midway is — some Halloween visitor, I presume)
(not sure what the little green goblin moving across the screen midway is — some Halloween visitor, I presume)
October 31, 2025 at 7:47 PM
pretty fall day here, outside my house, near #Asheville, NC
(not sure what the little green goblin moving across the screen midway is — some Halloween visitor, I presume)
(not sure what the little green goblin moving across the screen midway is — some Halloween visitor, I presume)
Word of gratitude to US gov't employees—
Called in to Social Security to change the account where I receive direct deposit payments.
The person I spoke with took care of it. Efficiently. Pleasantly.
With so much sad antipathy from the Trump admin these days,
I'm thankful for the kind interaction.
Called in to Social Security to change the account where I receive direct deposit payments.
The person I spoke with took care of it. Efficiently. Pleasantly.
With so much sad antipathy from the Trump admin these days,
I'm thankful for the kind interaction.
October 31, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Word of gratitude to US gov't employees—
Called in to Social Security to change the account where I receive direct deposit payments.
The person I spoke with took care of it. Efficiently. Pleasantly.
With so much sad antipathy from the Trump admin these days,
I'm thankful for the kind interaction.
Called in to Social Security to change the account where I receive direct deposit payments.
The person I spoke with took care of it. Efficiently. Pleasantly.
With so much sad antipathy from the Trump admin these days,
I'm thankful for the kind interaction.
Reposted by bodhidave
