無門關

What do we mean when we say that the mind wanders? Simply that thought is everlastingly enticed from one attraction to another, from one association to another, and is in constant agitation. Is it possible for thought to come to an end?

J. Krishnamurti (via thebuddhistmind)

Nyoirin Kannon (Sk:Cintamanicakra) of the Murouji

wood, height: 78.7cm,

Heian Period

Nara, Japan

Woman’s nudity is wiser than the philosopher’s teachings.

- Max Ernst

In awe of another-bondi-blonde

"You want a physicist to speak at your funeral.

You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died.

You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed.

You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world.

You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.

And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you.

And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it.

And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time.

You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around.

According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly.

Amen."

—Aaron Freeman

artwork by beeple

“I do not wish to convert people from one organised religion to another; I have no interest in any of these organised religions. My interest is in Dhamma the truth, the teachings of all Enlightened Ones. If at all there is any conversion, it should be from misery to happiness, from defilement to purity, from bondage to liberation, from ignorance to enlightenment.”

— Satya Narayan Goenka

All Along the Bollingen Tower

αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων, πεττεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη*

In 1950, a most unremarkable year otherwise, on the occasion of his 75th birthday, Jung set up a stone cube on the lakeshore, just West of the tower he had made built, inscribing it on three sides.

One side contains a quote taken from the Rosarium philosophorum:

Hic lapis exilis extat, pretio quoque vilis, spernitur a stultis, amatur plus ab edoctis.

“Here stands the mean, uncomely stone, 'Tis very cheap in price! The more it is despised by fools, The more loved by the wise.”

A dedication is also inscribed on this side of the stone: 

IN MEMORIAM NAT[ivitatis] S[uae] DIEI LXXV C G JUNG EX GRAT[itudine] FEC[it] ET POS[uit] A[nn]O MCML 

(In memory of his 75th birthday, C.G. Jung out of gratitude made and set it up in the year 1950.)

The second side of the cube depicts a Telesphorus figure, a homunculus bearing a lantern and wearing a hooded cape reminiscent of the figure of The Hermit (IX) (Major Arcana VIIII). It is surrounded by a Greek inscription:

«Ὁ Αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων, πεττεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη» · Τελεσφόρος διελαύνων τοὺς σκοτεινοὺς τοῦ κόσμου τόπους, καὶ ὡς ἀστὴρ ἀναλάμπων ἐκ τοῦ βάθους, ὁδηγεῖ «παρ' Ἠελίοιο πύλας καὶ δῆμον ὀνείρων».

The inscription says:

Time is a child — playing like a child — playing a board game — the kingdom of the child. This is Telesphoros, who roams through the dark regions of this cosmos and glows like a star out of the depths. He points the way to the gates of the sun and to the land of dreams.

"Time is a child at play, gambling; a child's is the kingship" is a fragment attributed to Heraclitus.

"He points the way to the gates of the sun and to the land of dreams" is a quote from the Odyssey (Book 24, Verse 12). It refers to Hermes the psychopomp, who leads away the spirits of the slain suitors.

The second side also contains a four-part mandala of alchemical significance. The top quarter of the mandala is dedicated to Saturn, the bottom quarter to Mars, the left quarter to Sol-Jupiter [male], and the right quarter to Luna-Venus [female].

The third side of the cube is the side that faces the lake. It bears a Latin inscription of sayings which, Jung says, "are more or less quotations from alchemy."

The inscription reads:

I am an orphan, alone; nevertheless I am found everywhere. I am one, but opposed to myself. I am youth and old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother, because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish, or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of aeons.

Quote of the Rosarium philosophorum

hic lapis exilis extat, pretio quoque vilis, spernitur a stultis, amatur plus ab edoctis 

("this stone is poor, and cheap in price; it is disdained by fools, but it is loved all the more by the wise"),

and the dedication

IN MEMORIAM NAT[ivitati]S DIEI LXXV C G JUNG EX GRAT[itudine] FEC[it] ET POS[uit] A[nn]O MCML "in memory of his 75th birthday C.G. Jung out of gratitude made and set up [this stone], in the year 1950."

On the second side, Jung Telesphorus figure, a dwarf or homunculus bearing a lantern and wearing a hooded cape, surrounded by a Greek inscription

  "Ὁ Αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων, πεττεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη» · Τελεσφόρος διελαύνων τοὺς σκοτεινοὺς τοῦ κόσμου τόπους, καὶ ὡς ἀστὴρ ἀναλάμπων ἐκ τοῦ βάθους, ὁδηγεῖ «παρ' Ἠελίοιο πύλας καὶ δῆμον ὀνείρων". The central figure is Homunculus-Mercurius-Telesphorus, wearing a hooded cape and carrying a lantern. He is surrounded by a quaternary Mandala of alchemical significance, with the top quarter dedicated to Saturn, the bottom quarter to Mars, the left quarter to Sol-Jupiter ("male") and the right quarter to Luna-Venus ("female"). The Greek inscription translates to approximately: "Aion (Time, Eternity, the Eon) is a child at play, gambling; a child's is the kingship. Telesphorus ("the Accomplisher") traverses the dark places of the world, like a star flashing from the deep, leading the way to the Gates of the Sun and the Land of Dreams" Time is a child at play, gambling; a child's is the kingship is a fragment attributed to Heraclitus. To the Gates of the Sun and the Land of Dreams is a quote of the Odyssey (24.11), referring to Hermes the psychopomp leading the spirits of the slain suitors away.

From David C. Hamilton

* Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child.

Quoted by Hippolytus, Refutation of all heresies, IX, 9, 4 (Fragment 52), as translated in Reality (1994), by Carl Avren Levenson and Jonathan Westphal, p. 10

Variants:

History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man’s power in the world.

As quoted in Contemporary Literature in Translation (1976), p. 21

A lifetime is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child.

As quoted in The Beginning of All Wisdom: Timeless Advice from the Ancient Greeks (2003) by Steven Stavropoulos, p. 95

Time is a game played beautifully by children.

As quoted in Fragments (2001) translated by Brooks Haxton

Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child.

As quoted in The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (1979) translated by Charles H. Kahn

“But what's puzzling you Is the nature of my game”

“Among animals I am the lion; among birds, the eagle Garuda. I am Prahlada, born among the demons, and of all that measures, I am time.I am death, which overcomes all, and the source of all beings still to be born. Just remember that I am, and that I support the entire cosmos with only a fragment of my being. Behold, Arjuna, a million divine forms, with an infinite variety of color and shape. Behold the gods of the natural world, and many more wonders never revealed before. Behold the entire cosmos turning within my body, and the other things you desire to see. I am time, the destroyer of all; I have come to consume the world.”Lord Krishna, The Bhagavad Gita