"Denial is the most predictable human characteristic"
The earliest text mentioning Bodhidharma is The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang, which was compiled in 547 by Yáng Xuànzhī, a writer and translator of Mahayana sutras into Chinese. Yang gave the following account:
There was a monk of the Western Region named Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian. He traveled from the wild borderlands to China. Seeing the golden disks on the pole on top of Yǒngníng's stupa reflecting in the sun, the rays of light illuminating the surface of the clouds, the jewel-bells on the stupa blowing in the wind, the echoes reverberating beyond the heavens, he sang its praises. He exclaimed: "Truly this is the work of spirits." He said: "I am 150 years old, and I have passed through numerous countries. There is virtually no country I have not visited. Even the distant Buddha-realms lack this." He chanted homage and placed his palms together in salutation for days on end
Bodhidharma Quotes:
"The essence of the way is detachment."
"All know the way; few actually walk it."
"Whoever realises that the six senses aren't real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such thing can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of Buddhas."
"As long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment."
"If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both."
Although I would like to claim I found the light alone, every time I caught a glimpse, I spectacularly fell into despair. I was guided by my subconscious, rather than teachers past and present, and so I was ill-prepared to fight a system I had little to no experience fighting. Today I live in a very different world, I have the platform, the support, *the experience* and the faith I need to progress and continuously increase my stock in the spiritual plain and I'm excited and full of wonder as to experience what the next level can bring. For those that seek answers, go study any or all of these people - Eckhart Tolle, Oprah, Stuart Wilde, Jesus, Tony Robbins, Ed Mylett, Jim Kwik, Mike Dooley, Ed Bayou, Robert Kiyosaki* (modern era genius), Dr Bruce Lipton, Jack Canfield, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, David Blaine, Steven Frayne, Apollo Robbins, Derren Brown, Brit Marling, Christopher and Jonathon Nolan, the list is endless and all have the same fundamental belief, "Nothing is impossible." These aren't just words, or an Adidas slogan, they live their lives everyday to these principles, and by doing so, they push the boundaries of the collective subconscious which in turn make up the natural laws of the physical world we live in today. These people live on a completely different plain of consciousness to the uninitiated, they believe wholeheartedly in their own legend, and so embody their own thoughts. One can derive true faith from anything, but the unfortunate truth is, if you can't believe without seeing, if you have no *faith*, then you are akin to a muggle from the Harry Potter universe and will know nothing more than what you can see with your own two eyes, always reaching, but never receiving - the best these people can hope for, is to live vicariously through the people they watch on TV, or read about on the Daily Mail gossip section.
This famous Japanese scroll, by Hakuin Ekaku, written in calligraphy of Bodhidharma reads, "Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha."
"Whatever you hold true on earth, I will hold true in heaven."
Whatever you believe, is whatever you will see, and if you allow others to shape your belief system, then enjoy, that is all you will ever know and your own prejudices and pessimism will be the invisible prison in which you voluntarily and, in many cases, happily live. There is truth in the saying ignorance is bliss, as the path of the initiate is one laced with suffering and loneliness.
"There are no incurable diseases, only incurable people."
Stuart Wilde
In 2007, 2010 and 2017 I was truly alone when I allowed my true nature to take hold of me, and in each of these occasions I was at my happiest, but alas every time I reached for the light, I reached in vain. I reached in vain because the system is unbelievably difficult to break free from and even harder if you're born in the western civilisation.
Thankfully, my subconscious never gave on me, and the voice inside that will never stop calling is the feeling of true happiness and I surmise the 'mid-life crisis' are for people that have done the opposite, they haven't followed their heart, they've followed the world that has been presented to them. Settled for work, settled for love, settled for just about everything, wake up at 40 and say, "who the fuck am I?" Go to the doctors, get prescribed anti-depressants and so the cycle continues.
If you follow your heart and follow what is happiness for you (the story of Brit Marling is a fantastic example) then you will find a door that no one believes exists. Being alone is an important lesson for the initiate and this is why many teachers talk about tales of loneliness on their search for the light. Unfortunately, in this modern world, so rigid in their belief system, to rage against the machine alone with nothing but your beliefs is like fighting an agent without being the one - you lose and the world will come for you. Oblivious pawns in their system will force you to believe you are jeffrey goines crazy, and you can't blame them for it... they genuinely believe in the world they've been presented, 97% of people do, which... hilariously, still leaves a whooping 243,000,000 people reaching for or living in the light today.
Honestly, in what world could anyone believe that a man-made pill could be good for something as beautiful, natural and infinite as the human mind?
Depressed or manic - you have a key to a kingdom that few people know exists - but the key is to work it out without the help of medication. Medication is a tool to allow you to numb the pain and stay in their world, their plain, their materialism. Don't - I repeat - DON'T cage your mind, use it, test it, feel it, grow it - for the manically depressed, read Eckhart Tolle, you are depressed because your spirit does not belong in their world. Trust me, I've been there and so has he.
From all of history's teachers - in my opinion Stuart Wilde is one of the greatest of the modern era:
"Enlightenment. Most people never make it. The reason why they don't make it is because they are reluctant to move away from their old life styles. Its almost as if they live in a prison, the gate is always open, there are no guards and yet somehow they've got so friendly with the prisoners and the regiment of living in this prison that they can't walk out of the gate - we're living in a world today where there is desperate need for enlightened beings. People that have a higher consciousness and expand a new philosophy on new light."
Stuart Wilde
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