Tiru: May 23, 2019

Sitting in the first hall at the Ashram. A man is sitting next to me reading a newspaper. People seem to do what they want here. Earlier, in the place where the newspaper reader sat, was a man who read aloud Sanskrit slokas. The temple as coffee shop. I set up my stall here, cloth for the floor, bag, water bottle, mala. Self-contained. Mostly doing nothing. Sometimes doing japa. Staring into space. Seldom dozing or dreaming, as it is better to stay awake and observe.

I listen respectfully to D’s advice regarding vichara (self-inquiry), while realizing that it is not my practice. Just as I have listened to many others in a similar way. Perhaps I’m ineducable. But it is correct to be respectful of a person’s deeply held spiritual beliefs, rather than engage in disputes. Especially when they are more advanced in their practices than I am in mine. But previously discussion has helped me to come to what little insight I have attained.

At some point I will need to explain to D at least my practice, rather than go on pretending to be doing something that I am not doing. What I’m trying to develop is very important. It may not be unique. But it is somewhat necessary to arrive at it by my own steam.

Tiru: May 22, 2019

My ideal spot for meditation would be something like the Villa Monastera gardens in Varenna. Not so much these old ashram buildings. If I were a rich philanthropist I might endow such a garden. In Bodhgaya, they created a meditation garden, with a time-limited entry, but it’s very contrived. The Matrimandir gardens in Auroville are beautiful, but the man at the gate does not want one to sit there. There is no understanding.

When I was writing this earlier, in the meditation hall, a small boy came to sit next to me and asked what I was writing. I smiled, but stopped writing and moved away, ignoring his repeated question. D. was saying earlier that Indians are less disturbed by such interactions than are westerners.

Tiru: May 21, 2019

Found a quiet place on Arunachala hill to sit and meditate. I was reading a little The Divine Life of Sri Aurobindo this morning. It reinforced the idea that reality is a composite of name, form, existence, consciousness, bliss. It is not that reality is an illusion, but that the way we see it is illusion. It is so because we fail to see the divine part of it. We are unable to see that because we separate ourselves from it in a subject-object relationship. The more we are able to see the other as existing without that separation from self, the closer we are to seeing reality. When we grasp the non-separation, there is a transformation of consciousness, so that the five components of reality come together and give birth to a different understanding with supersedes the component parts. Then, there is no longer a universe such as we know it.

But I think the way is to become aware of the unseen parts, of which we are normally oblivious. I think this is not a process, necessarily, of looking within, but of seeing the stranger as oneself. The indication is that this would more closely resemble karma yoga, or, karma yoga might be conducive to developing such a vision.

Tiru: May 19, 2019

The discipline is to gradually remove the individual frame of reference rather than dwell upon it; to remove the feeling of identity with a particular religion or nation. Learning to feel comfortable in different countries and environments, without any sense of belonging to them.

Tiru: May 18 2019

The heat is felt cumulatively. I felt it quite strongly this morning. But, after coffee and a short morning nap, I’m feeling better again.

I lack the aspiration of seekers like S.S. Cohen. I’m somehow out of that race. When I go to the ashram I feel peaceful, but it is removed from the context of life. As Krishnamurti says, it is only in relationship that we begin to understand. It is the vicissitudes of life that give learning. Being in the ashram, like being in a university, does not provide adequate context. As one of my professors at Exeter said: if it appears that what we are studying is irrelevant, we should stand under the underpass of a busy highway.

Well, here in Tiru, all one has to do is pass outside the ashram gate, and all the squalor of the Tamil city instantly makes itself felt, by all the senses. But there is no personal involvement as such.

First day in Tiruvannamalai

The journey was easy. The only remarkable event was the interview with the immigration official at Chennai airport. I was virtually the only foreigner arriving, so perhaps he was bored, and asked many questions. I discovered that I have a habit of evasiveness with such persons and that I did not have ready answers to many of his questions.

So the whole interview felt a bit awkward. I’m not very good at speaking with such people and I think probably the best strategy is actually honesty, in my case. A full explanation is sometimes best. The official wants to be addressed as a human being, and his questions are aimed at establishing the truth of the person’s visit. The best way is to speak to that human level, especially since my visits are within the normal bounds of the acceptable. If it didn’t go well (and will influence the result of future applications), well just too bad. Life is fluid, and there is no reason to feel attached to any one place or situation. I’m half there, with my process of understanding.

The heat (it’s the hottest time of the year for Tamil Nadu) seems bearable if one is careful. It is okay if there is not much physical effort, and if one stays inside during the hot hours of the day.

Conscientious objection in Israel

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/25/teenage-war-resister-israel

Very inspiring article, pretty accurate, as far as I know. Usually what happens, or what has happened in the past, is that young COs who won’t budge from their objection, eventually get released on medical/psychological grounds, sometimes following prison. I know at least two like that.

The army tries to discourage objections but to keep this low key – they certainly aren’t interested in the world know about them or potentially start a mass movement. But the fact is, they don’t really need a universal conscription. Many young people get out among the poor, among the rich and, of course, the ultra-orthodox religious.

Two things learned from a Buddhist monk

Two things I learned from a Thai Buddhist monk we met up with three years ago in Ladakh: First, always carry a cloth for sitting: then you always have a place to sit down, wherever you go. Mine’s a little more sophisticated than his – a light microfiber yoga towel from Target, that I can lay out for some yoga practice or fold for sitting.

Second, always carry a shoulder bag to put stuff in. Mine’s a cotton messenger bag that I picked up for €10 from a street seller in Rome.

There’s a third thing I’m sometimes tempted to implement. It seems that standard equipment for Thai Buddhist monks of his order included a Samson tablet. He used it as computer, phone, camera and e-reader – one device for everything. But I don’t think I could get any work done on that!

Jami

This messaging program Jami has an interesting name. Its website claims that the name comes from the Swahili word for “community”. Though of course Swahili is related to Arabic and in Arabic Jamia جامعة means a gathering, and by extension a mosque, as well as a university. Friday in Arabic is Yum al-Jumaa – the day of the mosque. As such, the Arabic word has a close parallel to similar words in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Sanskrit. The Hebrew word for synagogue ( which itself is Greek for a “place of assembly” is Beit Knesset בית כנסת- also a “house of assembly”. The Knesset is also Israel’s parliament, and a Kenes means a conference.

The words for church in several European languages come from the Greek Ecclesia ἐκκλησία which was originally the [principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesia). (The Hebrew word for church is Knissia.)

In Sanskrit (and later Pali), a group or gathering is a Sangha (संघ ). This also means an assembly. A satsangha – an “assembly of the wise” is often used to mean a time for chanting, reading from holy books, etc. Sangha – as the gathering of students of the Buddha, is one of the important three refuges of Buddhism: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Sangha, which can also be spelt samgha, originally means “to come together as one” and originated in the proto-Indo-European root Sem. which means “as one”; like the English word “same” and the same word in Sanskrit which also means “same” or “equal”. Consider the German word zusammen (together), which became in old English tosamne.

There’s another important use of the name Jami: he’s the medieval mystic Sufi poet who hailed from the city of Jam, in the province of Khorasan, in present day Afghanistan. I would love to read more about this Jami and his works. He lived much of his life in the city of Herat, for which I have a certain nostalgia. He was a scholar in a school of Ibn Arabi. If there is one area of shameful lack of modern English translation, it is of the Persian poets. In a future lifetime I will learn Parsi.

The Mithraism of Ancient Rome

In Rome’s museums I was fascinated by the way in which Romans incorporated into their culture beliefs from Egypt, the Middle East and Persia. Christianity was the one we think of today, but another important one was the cult of Mithras. Wikipedia has a very long article about him. He was originally a Persian or Indian god, associated with Zarathustra and probably with the Mitra of the Rig Veda. He was believed to have sprung from a rock and was usually worshiped in underground temples. The content of their rituals or beliefs is not very well known. However, during the fourth century the cult of Mithraism became prominent and spread across the Roman empire and signs of the cult have been found everywhere from North Africa to Northern Europe. Perhaps, if the adherents of Mithra had not been so cruelly persecuted by the Christians, we would still be under the sway of Mithraism today.