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]
I hope you have good insurance 👍
November 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I hope you have good insurance 👍
me and Bradley (I'm the slightly less furry one)
November 11, 2025 at 4:41 AM
me and Bradley (I'm the slightly less furry one)
November 10, 2025 at 4:18 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."
November 10, 2025 at 2:24 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."
Many-leveled question, but I like this playful suggestion:
Awakening is an accident — and practice makes us accident prone.
Awakening is an accident — and practice makes us accident prone.
November 9, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Many-leveled question, but I like this playful suggestion:
Awakening is an accident — and practice makes us accident prone.
Awakening is an accident — and practice makes us accident prone.
I'm reminded of how much magick and spiritual experience is ultimately a form of natural attunement and honesty ... and ... how it can take sometimes considerable sincere practice for us to be natural and honest.
🙂 🙏
🙂 🙏
November 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I'm reminded of how much magick and spiritual experience is ultimately a form of natural attunement and honesty ... and ... how it can take sometimes considerable sincere practice for us to be natural and honest.
🙂 🙏
🙂 🙏
Yes. It's over-simple on my part, but I often find it helpful and wholesome to see our words and language as *poetry,* especially spiritual language. Poems can help us see things and put us in touch with things — especially when we don't take them literally. 🙂 🙏
November 9, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Yes. It's over-simple on my part, but I often find it helpful and wholesome to see our words and language as *poetry,* especially spiritual language. Poems can help us see things and put us in touch with things — especially when we don't take them literally. 🙂 🙏
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 5:00 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 an ritual Q&A after an intense Zen retreat in Berkeley, I once asked the abbot, Mel Weitsman:
"Zen master Nanquan said, 'If you try to approach it, you'll miss it.' So what are we to do?"
Mel said: "Don't try so hard."
That was helpful to me. I smiled and I bowed.
And Mel said, "Like *that.*"
"Zen master Nanquan said, 'If you try to approach it, you'll miss it.' So what are we to do?"
Mel said: "Don't try so hard."
That was helpful to me. I smiled and I bowed.
And Mel said, "Like *that.*"
November 9, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reminds me, studies suggest that if you present an ambiguous image to persons and have some of them make an early guess as to what it is, then gradually fill in more detail to the image, the persons who make an early guess take longer to see the actual image than those who didn't guess early.
November 9, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reminds me, studies suggest that if you present an ambiguous image to persons and have some of them make an early guess as to what it is, then gradually fill in more detail to the image, the persons who make an early guess take longer to see the actual image than those who didn't guess early.
the burden of our potential
November 9, 2025 at 4:03 AM
the burden of our potential
Once asked an engineer friend of mine what time it was. He replied, "You mean now?"
✨⌚
✨⌚
November 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
both satisfying and filling
November 8, 2025 at 6:50 PM
both satisfying and filling
And your comment now puts me in mind of Dōgen's teaching that awakening entails our realization that nature (the dharmas) "practices" us. We are their expression. (*Genjōkōan)
November 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
And your comment now puts me in mind of Dōgen's teaching that awakening entails our realization that nature (the dharmas) "practices" us. We are their expression. (*Genjōkōan)