Highlights of the March 2017 Sesshin

The day before:  Pierre Marquette Old Stories Visited

Overture:  The Gatha of Atonement

All Harmful Karma ever committed by me since of old
On account of beginingless greed anger and ignorance
Born of body mouth and thought
I now atone for it all

The Ear worms: Bruno Mars 24 Karat Magic, Pitbull Fireball, The Who, Don't let go of the Coat, Pete Townsend, Stop Hurting People (this has to be read with an accent of irony):

A love born once must soon be born again
A spark that burned, then died, leaving cinders to be fanned
By the wind and thrown to flame;
Flames like tongues impassioned in a moments burst.
Tell me friend - why do you stand aloof from your own heart?
The truth confronts you - the truth confronts you as the sea
Crushing without detail,
Impassioned and detached,
Killing with love and power in God's Name.
Love conquers poses. Love smashes stances. Love crushes angles
Into black. So you, without question, know your first love
Is your last. And you, will never - never - Love again
I always wished to walk with her into restaurants, (A clammy tale).
To be seen beside her at the public bar footrail.
I always wanted to be matched with her -
Yet her beauty was so different to mine.
My "beauty" needs an understanding, a knowledge of what I am.
Hers is enough. Earned through eons; for that is what true beauty is -
Time's gift to perfect humility.

The Koans:

There is no separation.  The manifestation of awareness is what you see touch taste hear smell.   There is nothing but the manifestation of awareness.  The manifestation of awareness is nothing.

The Practices:

(1) When you hear someone talk, the realization that it is me talking.  Again, there is no separation. There is only the manifestation of awareness; (2) the textures of thoughts, hard soft flowing accompanied by image, not accompanied by image.

The Channeling:

More or less evoking the spirit of Tony Y.  For obvious reasons.   The reply:  "You have screwed the pooch, you are on your own here, no guidance is available."

The Aftermath:

The daughters learn about big data and the importance of statistics from my new best friend amid cauldrons of chili.

You Must Complete the Following Test to Advance

You have five minutes to answer the following questions.   Please make sure you fill in ovals completely with a number 2 pencil.

Question 1:  (silence)

Here are your choices for answers:

a.  We created the concept of space to put distance between ourselves and everything around us.  If there is no space, there is no separation.  

b.  We created the concept of time to prevent everything from happening at once.  If there is no time, everything happens simultaneously without any separation.

c.  We created the concept of a self, because we don't really pay attention.  If did pay attention, there is nothing but the constant evaporation and condensation of thoughts, sounds, images and sensations. If there is no self, there is no separation.                                                                                                                                                
d.  all the above.  If there is no space, time, or self, we have nothing and everything simultaneously.  And of course, we have always had them all anyway, whether we wanted them or not.  

Question #2:  You are now in a lucid dream.  You can do anything you really want.  You are omnipotent.  What do you do?

But putting aside that question for the time being, a women appears who claims the ability to smell consciousness.   First, she thinks you smell good, which is comforting.   But then you begin to suspect that she is more interested in you as a rhetorical question.   As soon as she has her answer, you can tell her attention begins to wander. 

She remarks as she fades away that she thinks you are easy, but not like a Sunday morning.  How do you react?

Question 3:  Given that social media increases episodic cognition, does it also increase abstract thought? 

Question 4:  Can any amount of self-improvement compensate for lack of self-acceptance?  

Question 5:  if Trump turns out to have dementia, how would we know?