Walking the Line

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to live a monastic life. Having my own space and more time to my own thoughts than what I know to do with, I've been even more contemplative than usual.

A Buddhist monk lives by two rules:

1. Chastity
2. Poverty

Unlike most other religions, Obedience is not a vow that Buddhist monks are required to take. Nor are they to commit to a single leader. It's expected for monks to be able to rule and govern their own spiritual path as well as physicial well-being. Spiritual and individual independence comes first.

"Vinaya is for the sake of discipline, discipline for the sake of freedom from remorse, freedom from remorse for the sake of relaxation, relaxation for the sake of rapture, rapture for the sake of calm, calm for the sake of bliss, bliss for the sake of samadhi, samadhi for the sake of insight and knowing things as they are, insight and knowing of things as they are for the sake of disenchantment, disenchantment for the sake of dispassion, dispassion for the sake of liberation, liberation for the sake of insight and knowledge of liberation, insight and knowledge of liberation for the sake of total unbinding without clinging." (Pv.XII.2)

During Buddha's lifetime, he and his disciples came up with 250 rules for the Vinaya, all created by circumstance and all with exceptions to the rule. Since Obedience wasn't a vow, no one was punished, but to break the Vinaya was a personal burden that a monk would have to carry on his own. For someone whose life is devoted to meditation and enlightenment, to do something "wrong" would require a personal penance to oneself - whatever that may be.

There have been way too many occasions in my past where I acted too impulsively and excessively. Had I just taken a step back at those critical points and reflected, I feel certain that my inner wisdom could have prevailed. But I was afraid of losing my nerve I guess - or afraid of losing the moment, so I rushed forward. Some lessons are only learned when the cold, wet pavement hits your face and your teeth fall out.

As I contemplate the next phase of my life, I will look inward for the path I need to take. And I think a few monastic vows to myself wouldn't hurt either.

6th chakra - seat of concealed wisdom

as i travelled sleepily through the streets of a busy city in india, my attention focused on the bindis that float just between and above the eyebrows of everyone who passes by.

this is a movie of course because i've never been to india (yet) and i was surprised to see that everyone in this film both men and women wore bindis (i always throught that only women wore bindis as made popular in western cultures by gwen stefani and madonna).

in my semi-conscious fog i imagine the 6th chakras as eyes which we cannot see, but that which sees everything. the wise bindis winking and smiling at each other, silently acknowledging the divinity within each other, chuckling at the petty mortal problems that their bodies must endure in each life.

hello i'm the 6th chakra of jasmin, pleasure to meet you.

there are days when nothing matters anymore, it's all bullshit. people are stupid. some very fine thread of connection between my self and the rest of world is severed. and i suspect that this thread is connected to us by the 6th chakra.

my attraction to bindis starts here then. i can't help but wonder if wearing a bindi would help remind us every day that we are guided by something bigger than us - and i'm not talking about god or divinity. just our simple purpose in life - a purpose that has existed since the day we were born; passed on to us through ancient ancestry; directed by the ebb and flow today; and reaching always towards death and/or rebirth.