In fact in “The Voice of the Silence”, Blavatsky writes

But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed.

These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal. ‘Tis on such soil that grows the midnight blossom of Buddha more difficult to find, more rare to view than is the flower of the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust, it leads him through the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known only in the land of Silence and Non-Being.

A.A.Bailey writes in “The Rays and initiation”

When a Master takes the fifth initiation He… must become consciously aware of the highest aspect: the Will-to-Good. He has developed in Himself “the love necessary to salvation, His own and that of those He loves, His fellowmen;” all His actions and His thinking are qualified by goodwill, in its esoteric sense, and the significance of the Will-to-Good lies ahead of Him and will be later revealed.

Apparently amongst Christian esoterocists, the initiation when one becomes an arhat is understandably called the Ressurection. But apparently, it is the seventh which is the true ressurection. Hell, what do I know?

The fifth initiation is also called among esotericists: the initiation of revelation. I find this more interesting because of the emphasis within Buddhism on awakening. The word Buddha itself meaning one who has awoken; achieving liberation and revelation/awakening occuring at the same point.

Lest we forget. The Diamond Sutra, in which Buddha speaks to his disciple Subhuti, reminds us that there is no ego here.

“Subhuti, what do you think, can an Arhat have the thought, ‘Have I attained the Way of the Arhat?’” Subhuti said, “No World Honored One. Why? Actually there is no dharma called ‘Arhat.’ World Honored One, if an Arhat had the thought, ‘I have attained the Way of the Arhat,’ that would be an attachment to self, others, living beings and to a life. World Honored One, the Buddha has said that I am foremost in the attainment of the No Strife Samadhi, and I am the foremost Arhat free from desire. Yet, World Honored One, I do not have the thought, ‘I am an Arhat free from desire.’ If I had the thought, ‘I have attained the Way of the Arhat,’ then the World Honored One would not say, ‘Subhuti is foremost of those who delight in practicing Aranya.’ Since Subhuti actually does not practice anything, he is called, ‘Subhuti who delights in practicing Aranya.’”

So, this initiation – The initiation of liberation, of revelation – Is it the initiation of enlightenment? Well, just what does one mean by enlightenment? It does all get hard to fathom. We know the practice works in our own lives. We’ve seen what happens, so looking ahead isn’t such a bad thing.

In one sense, what we count as the first initiation isn’t. Counting is a diffiult affair. I offer in that light and the light of Buddha’s discussion with Subhuti, here’s what Dogen has to say in the Shobogenzo:

The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind in the present transcend self and other; correct from head to tail, they are beyond our ability to comprehend thoroughly. For this reason, one’s whole body, as it is, “does not covet and is not defiled.” It does not covet and is not defiled by the whole of “any phenomena, existent or non-existent.” The wholeness, just as it is, of “holding to the four-line verse,” is called “does not covet and is not defiled”; it is also called “the fourth stage of fruition.” The fourth stage of fruition is the arhat.

Just a thought.

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Shravakas and solitary realizers
Spring from the kings of Munis.
Buddhas spring from Bodhisattvas.
The compassionate mind, non-dual awareness,
And the altruistic mind of Enlightenment
Give rise to jinaputras, children of Conquerors.

Mercy alone is perceived as the seed
Of a Conqueror’s abundant harvest,
As water for growth, and as
Fruition in long enjoyment.
Thus I hail compassion at the beginning.

Homage to compassion for gatis,
Powerless migrators, like buckets dropped in a well,
First clinging to some self, an ‘I’,
Then growing attached to things – ‘Mine’.

Homage to compassion for gatis,
Evanescent and empty of inherent existence.
Like the moon in the rippling water.
Madhyamakavatara, CANDRAKIRTI

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Anyway, when we understand that difficult meditations can awaken us to our attachments they become a very interesting tool. That thought that won’t go away is asking to be embraced. By just sitting through a thought that is disturbing us we see just what our ego is gripping onto and see its fears and delusions so much more clearly. Surely that suits our purposes very much. Where is this identity that we’re mistakenly identified with based? Is this really me? Good questions. Experience compassion towards onesself, move beyond the questions and back to just sitting in awareness.

Mind you easy meditations are just as useful too. Stillness and clarity give us a taste of what we’re working towards. Like a reflection in the window. Yet the contrast highlights that we’re still coming and going. We let the easy meditations go too.

Whatever our experience in meditation, it is just experience; nothing more nor less. Don’t hold on to either because then they’re obsessions. One of the things we’re cultivating is the continuing ability of the mind to let go from moment to moment.

Just a thought. May you live in peace.

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Alcohol and drugs harm this part of the brain, which is why perhaps you often find injunctions to not drink or take drugs.

On the other hand, from what I can gather sleep, regular high protein meals, exercise, goal setting and following, and most interestingly meditation all help to develop the prefrontal cortex.

It seems that meditation thickens the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) which controls the amygdala (anger and fear), the hypothalamus (appetite, sex drive), the nucleus ambens (pleasure) and the insula (empathy).

But if we were to support our meditation practice, we could engage in exercise, in fact all the things we listed above. And again from what I’ve been able to find, Omega-3 oils play an important role in brain function, according to Amen in Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, who also says that DHA, which is in flaxseed oils “is critical for normal brain development in fetuses and infants and for the maintenance of normal brain function throughout life.”

What’s also interesting is that the ACC seems to contain a lot of serotonin transporters. Amen says elsewhere that Inositol is “a natural chemical found in the brain that is reported to help neurons use serotonin more efficiently.”

And how about this? Vitamin D3 “activates receptors on neurons in regions important in the regulation of behavior, and it protects the brain by acting in an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity.”

But don’t accept what I’ve found out. Rather think about how your physical lifestyle is affecting your practice.

Something I’d like to add is that there is a deliberate practice that uses the ajna chakra, or 3rd eye as it’s sometimes called. The “ā” meditation, which uses a process of visualisation and an energy sweep through the ajna chakra.

And then there’s mindfulness of emptiness, beyond thought. Perhaps the physical brain correspondence here is the connection between the PFC and the cerebellum. Perhaps strengthening this connection is the physical correspondence of opening the third eye. Food for thought, don’t you think?

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Imagine for just a moment that we don’t die. How would that affect the way we live? It’s true that it can breed an incredible poverty inducing complacency. The belief that a person is born the way they are because of karma.

On the other hand it could give rise to an incredible sense of invulnerability. How would we live if we felt invulnerable that whatever happened? We might start making fearless choices, taking more risks.

Imgagine realising that you’ve had other senses of self that were completely different from the one you have now, that though some part of you have survived your ego hasn’t. How seriously would you take yourself then?

Reincarnation is an important doctrine in Buddhism, yet in our own personal experience it is, for most people anyway, unverified.

So why aren’t we aware of previous incarnations. Is it that we need to give each other a second chance, a fresh opportunity? Would the sense of guilt or shame as we look back be too overwhelming? Do we need to develop a profound level of compassion towards ourselves as well as towards others to be able to cope with the memories? Is compassion, like karma, a law of the universe?

If you’re interested there are some other interesting videos to watch in YouTube.

Then you look over your own life and see various patterns, karmic patterns perhaps. I suffered for twenty years from an obsessive compulsive disorder, triggered by an incredibly small incident. Was that karma? Are we rooting out more than the contents of a mind that has been conditioned in this life?

And then you do your best in a work situation, only to be caught in politics that have nothing to do with you. Yet on some level you feel this is of your own doing. Is that cogitations of an infantile mind believing itself to be more powerful than it is or a real insight into a karmic situation?

There is no doubt that we want to impose some kind of order onto what might otherwise seem to be a random life. Is the end of karma the beginning of the acceptance of randomness.

At the same time it does seem that we are beginning to anchor in a watchfulness, an ever present awareness. It is clear to me that dukka is caused by my own mind. I am awake to the extent that I realise this at least intellectually and awake enough to be doing something about it.

Is our faith that we can end the pain and suffering caused by our own minds? For the ever-present-awareness it strikes me that there is no death and certainly no physical nor mental pain.

But is there something else going on other than our own liberation? I think so and I think that it is the end of separation. A Tibetan once wrote that there is only one sin and that is the sin of separation. If that is true, and I tend to believe it is, then unity is surely the present goal. Surely that means dealing with not only our own karma but others’ karma as well because they are inextricably linked. Or perhaps that others’ karma is our karma. And that’s the root of compassion isn’t it. Don’t you think?

There is no doubt that there is group karma. If our greed, which has now cycled into global warming, continues to develop then we will have major global calamities on our hands. Group karma. Those of us who have modified our greed and our consumption patterns will be deeply involved in the consequences. I don’t believe for a second there will be some especial 144,000 secretly sequestered. We will suffer together.

And so we come back to the thought that we become enlightened not just for ourselves but for all beings. And the root of that enlightenment is compassion. Subhuti who was the other party in the Diamond Sutra, one of Zen’s foundation scriptures, before this enlightening discussion with buddha had developed his root in Metta – loving kindness.

Dhyana and Metta. It seems to be the only way through this cycle of karma that the world faces, that we the speaking monkeys have brought. Are we up to stopping this looming cycle of pain and suffering before it’s too late.