The Master Series: 3,000 Years of Wisdom

Glad you liked it! Kabir and the Leonard Cohen perspective kind of go hand in hand, I think they're good reminders that enlightenment is inside of us, and that - well, Mr. Cohen said it pretty perfectly. Just because somebody has a big sign doesn't mean a whole lot. It just means they've got an interesting sign. I'm pretty internally enlightenment based so I like that stuff. Such a humble person too - being honest like that, being a famous musician and everything - it's like he just pulled back the sheet.

 

I find nature to be incredibly healing. Spending time outside away from the hustle and bustle of mainstream society allows us to return to a pure and wholesome state of being. In nature it is very easy to practice letting go of our endless thoughts, good and bad, and by letting go one tunes into something much greater, something timeless...

So along with all the mental discipline training and self improvement efforts, much of my recovery incorporates simply unplugging from the constant thinking, returning to the Source if you will.

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉)





Basho was a famous Japanese Zen poet. The simplicity of his work brings one very close to the truths of nature that are ineffable, words simply cannot explain that which is beyond analytical understanding.

Great article on Basho: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/bashos-trail/howard-norman-text, here is the first paragraph if you don't care to explore it,


On the Poet’s Trail

Footsteps fall softly
Following the path
Of Japan’s haiku master.

By Howard Norman
Photograph by Michael Yamashita

“Each day is a journey, and the journey itself home,” the poet Matsuo Basho wrote more than 300 years ago in the first entry of his masterpiece, Oku no Hosomichi, or Narrow Road to a Far Province. The words are on my mind as I prepare to walk in the footsteps of this revered poet, along his narrow road—the 1,200-mile route he followed through Japan in 1689. I confess that even to imagine doing so is a bit daunting. My late friend Helen Tanizaki, a linguist born and raised in Kyoto, told me, “Everyone I went to school with could recite at least one of Basho’s poems by heart. He was the first writer we read in any exciting or serious way.” Today thousands of people pilgrimage to Basho’s birthplace and burial shrine and travel parts of Basho’s Trail. After three centuries his Narrow Road, in print in English and many other languages, still speaks to readers around the world.

 

Why thank you, tis old Kenji reincarnated!

 

I haven't had time to go through the entire thread. I just want to thank the OP and those who have contributed. There is a lot of great stuff in here.

 

This is a thread worth making the time for! I would say I browse only 10% of the threads here (for various reasons including time, whether I think I can contribute something of value that will help someone, leisure, to connect with someone, or if there is something that will help me), so take it from a selective thread reader!

 

The shackles of lust.

How life destroying they are. Lust is truly a fire that will burn much progress down in a very short amount of time. A weed that is best pulled from one's mind sooner than later....

NSFW and possibly triggering lyrics in this battle, but it illustrates wonderfully lust vs. love (I've been so poisoned by lust I think it will take a long time to heal before I can ever love a woman without desiring to have sex with her, perhaps my time for clinging to fleshly desires has neared its end):



I will reread each post in this thread and reabsorb them deeply, one per day. Gratitude for this thread @warriorofthelight70

 

Great thread here. Not sure if I missed it but Gandhi himself struggled with his goal of sexual purity known as brahmacharya.

In his autobiography The Story of My Experiments With Truth, he explains how he tried to keep his cravings down and also just remain with his wife!

He tried all kinds of techniques to do this and he would test himself by sleeping in the same bed as another woman, only to report that he failed the experiment.

It wasnt until later in life that Gandhi actually controlled his sexual nature and eventually remained celibate, becoming an actual brahmachari. So, the point is, even Gandhi, a man with an indomitable will, also struggled with this type of addiction.

 

Kabir

From wiki:
"Kabir (IAST: Kabīr) was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement and his verses are found in Sikh's scripture Adi Granth.[1][2][3] His early life was in a Muslim family, but he was strongly influenced by his teacher, the Hindu bhakti leader Ramananda.[1]

Kabir is known for being critical of both Hinduism and Islam, stating that the former were misguided by the Vedas and the latter by the Quran, and questioning their meaningless rites of initiation such as the sacred thread and circumcision respectively. [1][4] During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views.[5]:4 When he died, both Hindus and Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs.[2]

Kabir suggested that True God is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, considered all creatures on earth as his own self, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world.[2] To know God, suggested Kabir, meditate with the mantra Rāma, Rāma.[5]:4

Kabir's legacy survives and continued through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognises him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members, known as Kabir panthis.[6]

Early life background The years of year of Kabir's birth and death are unclear.[7][8]:14Some historians favor 1398–1448 as the period Kabir lived,[5][8]:5 while others favor 1440–1518.[1][8]:106[9]"

Quite an enigmatic and hated fellow, hah!

I will post his poems in images here when I get around to slapping them together, for now a poem in plain old forum text (so very wearied of typing on forums these days):

I Said To The Wanting-Creature Inside Me

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?

There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the
soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

 

I read about Gandhi performing 'celibacy experiments' with his grandnieces,

http://www.minoritiesofindia.org/gandhis-sexual-abuse-of-grandnieces/

Sad stuff.

Such a famous man and a figure of peace with a dark history, much like John Lennon's darkside (wife abusing alcoholic).

@giggleshmack use to have an avatar with this Oscar Wilde quote (the only reason I know this quote ),

 

From one of my favorite Stoics and favorite reads, this is Epictetus at his best: The Moral Discourses


“Well then; such as the cause is, such will be the effect. From this day forward, then, whenever we do anything wrong we will impute it only to the principle from which we act; and we will endeavour to remove that, and cut it up by the roots, with greater care than we would wens and tumours from the body. In like manner, we will ascribe what we do right to the same cause; and we will accuse neither servant, nor neighbour, nor wife, nor children as the causes of any evils to us; persuaded that if we had not such principles, such consequences would not follow. Of these principles we ourselves, and not externals, are the masters.”

Of course everything from Epictetus is profound, but here he speaks specifically about acting on desire knowing that the act is beneath us.

The Stoic philosopher reassures us not to blame anyone for our own actions. He demands that action be taken in the future to cease all impurity, with more care than a doctor would remove a tumor from a body. Now one of the best parts is his mention of the consequence coming from our principles. If we don't want to give in to our desires, than we truly wouldn't. Thats the ideal anyway, but Epictetus surely had god-like willpower developed over many, many years; something we can all strive for. And the ending is so sweet, saying that nothing outside of ourselves is our master, but we are the master of self.

If your feeling down about a recent relapse, be it moments ago, remember that humans have been fighting urges since day one. So, relax, breathe, cheer up, your moment of victory will strike as soon as you create it.

 

As a Christian (Roman-Catholic to be exact), I shall share what Jesus Christ taught us that could be his most famous teaching:

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

 

While we are on the teachings of Jesus, this recording is great if you have the patience or interest to listen to insightful things:



www.soundstrue.com

 

Gonna slap dem Kabir picture sayings together today.

'What is seen is not the Truth
What is cannot be said
Trust comes not without seeing
Nor understanding without words
The wise comprehends with knowledge
To the ignorant it is but a wonder
Some worship the formless God
Some worship his various forms
In what way He is beyond these attributes
Only the Knower knows
That music cannot be written
How can then be the notes
Say Kabir, awareness alone will overcome illusion.'

 

How very excited I am for these images I will post tomorrow.

Kabir was the man.

 

Here's a Christian who was fighting porn daily and finally beated his addiction. He even made a lovely song that personally helps me right urges

 

Wow Kabir's gold mine is vast. All the energy I have left to post in this thread will be dedicated to Kabir.