“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Sunday, December 23, 2012

"The Thinking Posture": Mudra

Hegel's phrase, which I talk about in my interview (see below). Read Sogyal Rinpoche:

The masters say: “If you create an auspicious condition in your body and your environment, then meditation and realization will automatically arise.” Talk about posture is not esoteric pedantry; the whole point of assuming a correct posture is to create a more inspiring environment for meditation, for the awakening of Rigpa.

There is a connection between the posture of the body and the mind. Mind and body are interrelated, and meditation arises naturally once your posture and attitude are inspired.



6 comments:

Damnatio Memoriae said...

Hello, I just got to know your work, it got me quite interested, been reading your stuff online all day, hoping to get one of your latest books soon. Any clues about a release date of certain book about Buddhism and Buddhafobia that you talked about at the Arcade blog about a year a go?

In the fall of 2013 I might be starting my thesis project on Critic Theory (Yes Lacan Zizek land) and guess what: some Buddhist views.

For a long time I been studying Buddhism (not an expert anyhow) and I'm most interested in what Buddhism has to tell to "western" (whatever that means)todays philosophy. There is a lot of work about exchanged views between Buddhism and cognitive science, the work of B. Alan Wallace for instance, but seems to be so little to nothing about an exchange between today's philosophy and Buddhism, and yes in my own experience as a philosophy student, I get what you mean by Buddhafobics,its like nobody in philosiphy territory is willing to discuss anything to do with Buddhism, not saying agree, but just talking about it. They disscredit any aims to do that by just regarding it to the theology or religious studies deparment, or using some badly documented info to just discarding it, ridiculous documented if they call themselves academics. And ofcourse there is the Atheists fundamentalist clan so, there you go.

Yet Zizek, somehow brings it to the table, although not overcoming old missguided ideas. So anyhow, just wanted to say that I'm so excited to read you're working on a book about just that most needed debate in which I'm also leading too, so... I'm really hoping for it soon as its now on my must read like right now list.

Happy Pagan Holydays by the way! You got a new reader here.



Damnatio Memoriae said...

Hello, I just got to know your work, it got me quite interested, been reading your stuff online all day, hoping to get one of your latest books soon. Any clues about a release date of certain book about Buddhism and Buddhafobia that you talked about at the Arcade blog about a year a go?

In the fall of 2013 I might be starting my thesis project on Critic Theory (Yes Lacan Zizek land) and guess what: some Buddhist views.

For a long time I been studying Buddhism (not an expert anyhow) and I'm most interested in what Buddhism has to tell to "western" (whatever that means)todays philosophy. There is a lot of work about exchanged views between Buddhism and cognitive science, the work of B. Alan Wallace for instance, but seems to be so little to nothing about an exchange between today's philosophy and Buddhism, and yes in my own experience as a philosophy student, I get what you mean by Buddhafobics,its like nobody in philosiphy territory is willing to discuss anything to do with Buddhism, not saying agree, but just talking about it. They disscredit any aims to do that by just regarding it to the theology or religious studies deparment, or using some badly documented info to just discarding it, ridiculous documented if they call themselves academics. And ofcourse there is the Atheists fundamentalist clan so, there you go.

Yet Zizek, somehow brings it to the table, although not overcoming old missguided ideas. So anyhow, just wanted to say that I'm so excited to read you're working on a book about just that most needed debate in which I'm also leading too, so... I'm really hoping for it soon as its now on my must read like right now list.

Happy Pagan Holydays by the way! You got a new reader here.

Damnatio Memoriae said...

Hello, I just got to know your work, it got me quite interested, been reading your stuff online all day, hoping to get one of your latest books soon. Any clues about a release date of certain book about Buddhism and Buddhafobia that you talked about at the Arcade blog about a year a go?

In the fall of 2013 I might be starting my thesis project on Critic Theory (Yes Lacan Zizek land) and guess what: some Buddhist views.

For a long time I been studying Buddhism (not an expert anyhow) and I'm most interested in what Buddhism has to tell to "western" (whatever that means)todays philosophy. There is a lot of work about exchanged views between Buddhism and cognitive science, the work of B. Alan Wallace for instance, but seems to be so little to nothing about an exchange between today's philosophy and Buddhism, and yes in my own experience as a philosophy student, I get what you mean by Buddhafobics,its like nobody in philosiphy territory is willing to discuss anything to do with Buddhism, not saying agree, but just talking about it. They disscredit any aims to do that by just regarding it to the theology or religious studies deparment, or using some badly documented info to just discarding it, ridiculous documented if they call themselves academics. And ofcourse there is the Atheists fundamentalist clan so, there you go.

Yet Zizek, somehow brings it to the table, although not overcoming old missguided ideas. So anyhow, just wanted to say that I'm so excited to read you're working on a book about just that most needed debate in which I'm also leading too, so... I'm really hoping for it soon as its now on my must read like right now list.

Happy Pagan Holydays by the way! You got a new reader here

Damnatio Memoriae said...

Hello, I just got to know your work, it got me quite interested, been reading your stuff online all day, hoping to get one of your latest books soon. Any clues about a release date of certain book about Buddhism and Buddhafobia that you talked about at the Arcade blog about a year a go?

In the fall of 2013 I might be starting my thesis project on Critic Theory (Yes Lacan Zizek land) and guess what: some Buddhist views.

For a long time I been studying Buddhism (not an expert anyhow) and I'm most interested in what Buddhism has to tell to "western" (whatever that means)todays philosophy. There is a lot of work about exchanged views between Buddhism and cognitive science, the work of B. Alan Wallace for instance, but seems to be so little to nothing about an exchange between today's philosophy and Buddhism, and yes in my own experience as a philosophy student, I get what you mean by Buddhafobics,its like nobody in philosiphy territory is willing to discuss anything to do with Buddhism, not saying agree, but just talking about it. They disscredit any aims to do that by just regarding it to the theology or religious studies deparment, or using some badly documented info to just discarding it, ridiculous documented if they call themselves academics. And ofcourse there is the Atheists fundamentalist clan so, there you go.

Yet Zizek, somehow brings it to the table, although not overcoming old missguided ideas. So anyhow, just wanted to say that I'm so excited to read you're working on a book about just that most needed debate in which I'm also leading too, so... I'm really hoping for it soon as its now on my must read like right now list.

Happy Pagan Holydays by the way! You got a new reader here.

Henry Warwick said...

The masters say: “If you create an auspicious condition in your body and your environment, then meditation and realization will automatically arise.” Talk about posture is not esoteric pedantry; the whole point of assuming a correct posture is to create a more inspiring environment for meditation, for the awakening of Rigpa.
.
Hey Tim - So, if you don't agree with the Masters, you fail at the first hurdle?

Anonymous said...

I majored in philosophy for two years at Ohio University and learned a lot from religious studies professors and philosophy professors both concerning Buddhism. Dr. Justin McDaniel (Pali manuscript authority) and David James Woodruff (Schopenhauer/Wittgenstein/Tolstoy scholar) were quite knowledgeable. McDaniel even pointed me to a monastery to attend after graduation.

Western thinkers have not dealt adequately with Buddhism, I think -- from Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hesse and Franz Rosenzweig to Kerouac and Derek Parfit. Parfit's book Reasons and Persons offers I think the most profound treatment.

We are still a long way from having scientific and western humanities institutions study the deep reaches of Dzogchen -- I do think eventually (perhaps 200 years from now) it will be en vogue to collaborate on a science of Ja'lus Pa/ rainbow body realization.