Beautifully Broken Weekend Edition | Issue 1
Beautifully Broken Weekend Edition | Issue 1
Editorial, Feature Articles, Daily Enlightenment Prompts 26 Jan-2 Feb, 2024
EDITORIAL
First of all, thank you to everyone who subscribed, I hope you're finding some value in Beautifully Broken.
A special thank you goes out to paid subscribers who helped me meet some of my inflation-ridden bills this week so I can keep on sharing my art and teachings along with the knowledge that I've gathered over the years from my own teachers.
This week's weekend edition combines everything that has been produced from last Saturday until this Saturday. This first edition is little longer than it will ordinarily be. I made two posts prior to last Saturday that are included and normally, the weekend edition will feature the first, new feature of the week, but this edition will include this Saturday's short fiction feature (Into The Labyrinth) plus last Saturday's review piece (Howls of Laughter as Beauty Queen's Dream of World Peace).
If you're a paid subscriber feel free to write to me and I'll reply. If you want substantial replies or would like to me to write a piece on a particular topic (even some specific aspect of spiritual or mind-body practice), please consider upgrading to become a foundation member and I'll set aside the necessary time.
I'm donating 10% of all income from subscribers to Kids For Peace (apart from the 13% that Substack charges for their services).
Remember, don't be discouraged by the current state of the world. Connect to the beauty around you and share the light from person to person! Keep the dream of world peace through enlightenment alive.
Best regards,
Morgan
Into The Labyrinth (with Philip K Dick, The Monkey King, and Dante)
SHORT FICTION | HAIBUN
Fifty years, most of it trapped in this dank labyrinth, sometimes awake, most of it asleep. Either way, time passes.
There was a time before the labyrinth. My body was a soft, sunlit ball, then a pliable, thoughtless sprite, and eventually a fleshy automobile, blooming in motion. This flesh vehicle feeds on the sacrifices of countless plants and animals. Before I could voice any objection it hurtled into the labyrinth and I was trapped, taken along for the ride.
I wandered for so long I lost sense of how much time had passed. On rare occasions, I would discover messages written by others who had been lost before me, scrawled on the walls in blood.
The poet Dante was lost in a forest. He descended into hell and found a mountain he could climb up to heaven. That’s what it took to get out of that forest!
Sun Wukong, the Monkey King was banished from heaven for the sin of arrogance. The Buddha put a mountain on top of him for 500 years until he agreed to go on a dangerous pilgrimage to bring the Buddhist scriptures from India to China. 500 years before he said sorry! That’s human stubbornness for you.
Philip K. Dick was trapped behind the walls of a black iron prison that transcended time and space. His message is inspired but written in fragments throughout the labyrinth so I don’t know if he ever escaped.
A forest, a mountain, a prison. I knew they were talking about the labyrinth. I was eight years old when I watched a TV show about an evil wizard who trapped children in a magical labyrinth. I knew at once that I was trapped in there with them, and have been ever since.
With one exception: 20 years ago, I was wandering around, determined to escape, when I happened upon a pair of wings. They were just like the kind made by Daedalus for his son Icarus (when you are trapped in the labyrinth you hear about all the different means of escape). I flew free! But not for long.
I learned first-hand that Icarus was not proud; he didn’t want to see how high he could fly. Listen, here’s how you get into trouble flying free from a labyrinth: looking down from those divine heights, you see that the pattern of the maze is the pattern of your entire life. Every event, good and bad laid out so that it makes perfect, harmonious sense. Like a peacock’s shimmering tail. So beautiful. It’s only then that you realize you’ve flown too close to the sun. Wings catch on fire and down you go in a blazing heap.
How terrifying to return to darkness and confusion. For a long time I wished I had never known freedom at all, but time passed and the taste of it faded. Poor Icarus fell into the vast depths of the Unconscious Sea and was never seen again. I was fortunate to be able to pick up my broken pieces and start rebuilding my vehicle.
The flames that consume my sacrificial fuel have lost some of their potency. I find myself in a strange space between consumption and being consumed myself (by time). My steps are slower now. Slowing down reveals details that I missed before.
These walls I’m passing, they're a perfect example. I’ve walked past them before, I'm certain of it, but something's different. What’s this? There are small cracks in the wall, through which the sun is shining.
The cracks of light leap. They begin to move, to dance. Sparks of light pull themselves up from the surface of the wall and jump at me. They pass right through my skull, into the fleshy flower that is my brain.
Up and down the spinal column stem, faster and faster until the light becomes heat, heat becomes fire that flits around on the winds of my thoughts.
I cannot keep the fire locked inside. I must let it out. Pichu, pichu! I spit it out. One flame after another.
When I’m done and the water clears from my eyes there’s a very strange sight to behold.
Before me, on the floor of the labyrinth, is a flickering trail of fire.
Finally, I no longer have to stomp about in the dim maze. My feet regain the springy bounce of their youth; my heart fills with heat. I write this message on the wall with the blood of my left index finger, marking the beginning of a new path:
Groping in the dark,
fifty year labyrinth, then
a trail of bright thoughts.
Walking Through The Words: Behind the Scenes of Today's Haibun Short Fiction.
Haibun
Basho, the Zen poet, invented the term "haiku" for the famous 5-7-5 syllable poem and also the lesser known haibun.
Haibun (俳文, literally, haikai writings) is a literary form combining poetry and prose. The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal.
The most famous haibun is Basho's Narrow Road To A Far Province.
Basho's Narrow Road To A Far Province
Oku no Hosomichi (奥の細道, originally おくのほそ道), translated as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior, is a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period. The text is written in the form of a prose and verse travel diary and was penned as Bashō made an epic and dangerous journey on foot through the Edo Japan of the late 17th century…In one of its most memorable passages, Bashō suggests that "every day is a journey, and the journey itself home". Of Oku no Hosomichi, Kenji Miyazawa once suggested, "It was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it."[5]
Here is the first haibun in the sequence of The Narrow Road to the Interior, which inspired my labyrinth-themed piece.
The passing days and months are eternal travellers in time. The years that come and go are travellers too. Life itself is a journey; and as for those who spend their days upon the waters in ships and those who grow old leading horses, their very home is the open road. And some poets of old there were who died while travelling.
There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the seashores. I returned to my hut on the riverbank last autumn, and by the time I had swept away the cobwebs, the year was over.
But when spring came with its misty skies, the god of temptation possessed me with a longing to pass the Barrier of Shirakawa, and road gods beckoned, and I could not set my mind to anything. So I mended my breeches, put new cords on my hat, and as I burned moxa on my knees to make them strong, I was already dreaming of the moon over Matsushima.
I sold my home and moved into Sampû’s guest house, but before I left my cottage I composed a verse and inscribed it on a poem strip which I hung upon a pillar:
This rude hermit cell
Will be different now, knowing Dolls’
Festival as well.
Translated by Dorothy Britton
(A Haiku Journey: Bashô’s Narrow Road to a Far Province, 1980)
Read more about Basho and his haiku poetry here on my first Enlightenment Prompt: Divine Suicide For A Happy 2024 (with Basho's Frog).
Dante's Divine Comedy
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
From The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Sun Wukong, The Monkey King
The Monkey King or Sun Wukong is a fictional character best known as one of the main players in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, and many later stories and adaptations. In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices.
As a child in Australia we were exposed to a mix of American and Japanese television. Monkey Magic (Saiyūki, 西遊記, lit. 'Account of the Journey to the West'), was on TV every night after school and served a my first encounter with Buddhist philosophy (my friend, the Tibetan monk Lama Lobsang Tendar once told me that he also watched the Tibetan version of the show as a boy). It transfixed me immediately and, from what I understand, was very popular with most Australian schoolboys. To hear someone say out loud that the world was an illusion, that we were trapped within our own thoughts, that there was a path to liberation from the suffering of the world confirmed what I intuitively felt from a young age.
Philip K Dick
At the time of his death, Dick's work was generally known to only science fiction readers, and many of his novels and short stories were out of print. To date, a total of 44 novels have been published and translations have appeared in 25 languages. Six volumes of selected correspondence, written by Dick from 1938 through 1982, were published between 1991 and 2009.
The Library of America has issued three collections of Dick's novels. At least nine films have been adapted from Dick's work, the first being Blade Runner in 1982.
Recurring themes in Dick's work
Five recurring philosophical themes in Dick's work have been classified by Philip K. Dick scholar Erik Davis:
• False realities
• Human vs. machine
• Entropy
• The nature of God
• Social control
Similarly, in Understanding Philip K. Dick, Eric Carl Link discussed eight themes or 'ideas and motifs':
• Epistemology and the Nature of Reality
• Know Thyself
• The Android and the Human
• Entropy and Pot Healing
• The Theodicy Problem
• Warfare and Power Politics
• The Evolved Human
• 'Technology, Media, Drugs and Madness'
"The Black Iron Prison" is a concept of an all-pervasive system of social control postulated in the Tractates Cryptica Scriptura, a summary of an unpublished Gnostic exegesis included in his novel VALIS. Dick wrote:
Once, in a cheap science fiction novel, Fat had come across a perfect description of the Black Iron Prison, but set in the far future. So if you superimposed the past (ancient Rome) over the present (California in the twentieth century) and superimposed the far future world of The Android Cried Me a River over that, you got the Empire, as the supra- or trans-temporal constant. Everyone who had ever lived was literally surrounded by the iron walls of the prison; they were all inside it and none of them knew it.
Into The Labyrinth is a British children's television series. It was produced for the ITV network between 1980 and 1982. Three series were produced and directed by Peter Graham Scott. The series was created by Scott along with Bob Baker, who had previously written several stories for Doctor Who.
The series was based around a struggle between two timeless, feuding sorcerers - the noble Rothgo and the evil Belor. Each aimed to obtain possession of the Nidus, a magical object of limitless power…The first series followed a group of modern-day children (Phil, Helen and Terry) who find Rothgo, almost lifeless, in a labyrinthine cave. Rothgo sends the children through different periods of time to search for the Nidus, which is disguised as a different object in each time period and can only be seen in reflection. The children arrive at various points of history (the French Revolution, Ancient Greece, English Civil War, etc.), in which they find an earlier version of Rothgo himself, playing a character from each period. Together they search for the Nidus, but their attempts are constantly thwarted by Belor who also appears in each time period disguised as a character herself.
The Story of Icarus
Icarus's father Daedalus, a very talented Athenian craftsman, built a labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull. Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he believed Daedalus gave Minos's daughter, Ariadne, a clew (or ball of string) in order to help Theseus escape the labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur.
The Lament for Icarus (1898) by H. J. Draper
Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings for himself and his son, made of metal feather held to a leather frame by beeswax. Before trying to escape the island, he warned his son not to follow his path of flight and not fly too close to the sun or too close to the sea, but, overcome by giddiness while flying, Icarus disobeyed his father and soared higher into the sky. The heat from the sun melted the beeswax, causing the wings to fall apart as he flew. Icarus attempted to stay aloft, but ultimately fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus wept for his son and called the nearest land Icaria (an island southwest of Samos) in memory of him. Today, the supposed site of his burial on the island bears his name, and the sea near Icaria in which he drowned is called the Icarian Sea. With much grief, Daedalus went to the temple of Apollo in Sicily, and hung up his own wings as an offering to never attempt to fly again. According to scholia on Euripides, Icarus fashioned himself greater than Helios, the Sun himself, and the god punished him by directing his powerful rays at him, melting the beeswax. Afterwards, it was Helios who named the Icarian Sea after Icarus.
Howls of Laughter as Beauty Queens Dream of World Peace (with Funny French Movie Titles & John Lennon)
FRESH LOOK | JANUARY REVIEW
An unusually cold winter’s night on the French Riviera. The picturesque scenery of the valley that lay below my apartment was covered by a vast cloud of impenetrable mist that the locals call “dragon’s breath”.
I was music-fatigued after a day of working on a novel (I listen to Vangelis when I write) and with eyes too tired to read and the terrace a fog-encumbered write-off, there was nothing for it but to turn to what in the 20th century was regarded as the lowest form of entertainment — the television.
In France, if you’re in the mood to watch something in English (a.k.a. la Version Originale), there’s seldom a broad selection. You choose from the one or two movies or series that are being broadcast, or failing that, grit your teeth and face the countless panels of earnest French talking heads discussing current affairs, civics and politics.
Some present English-language choices include The Love Boat (known as “The Cruise Has Fun” in French), Hart To Hart (For The Love Of Risk) and the original Charlie’s Angels series (Charlie and His Funny Ladies).
If you’ve never heard of those series, it’s probably because you didn’t grow up in the 70s and 80s like me. Who buys these old shows in the 21st century? Somewhere, there had been a meeting of French television executives to discuss why anyone would even want to watch a show in English. English was not French. I imagine a lone, young executive raising her hand and pointing out that there were many French people in the process of learning English and that English language shows might help them. The committee nods sagely as one and then concludes that, in that case, the age of the show didn’t matter and that whatever was going cheap at the annual Mipcom trade show for the television industry, held just up the road in Cannes, would more than suffice.
When it comes to English language television in France, “you get what you get and you don’t get upset”, as my Scottish mother is fond of saying.
That night I settled on the comedy film Miss Congeniality (2000) or Miss Détective as it’s titled in France. Here’s the rundown: After the lives of the contestants are threatened, Sandra Bullock's FBI agent character goes undercover as Gracie Lou Freebush, New Jersey’s entry in the Miss America beauty pageant.
A harmless balm to soothe an aching mind, and to boot, Sandra Bullock gives a great comedic performance. I’ll also admit, as a sometimes science fiction writer, to taking pleasure in William Shatner’s role as the pageant host. Shatner, the original Captain Kirk from the television show Star Trek, always brings his enormous self-assurance to any role, and we love him for that. (Despite his stage persona of someone deeply enamored with himself, make sure to look up his refreshing and insightful article describing his voyage into space on the first flight of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin shuttle*).
As I relaxed into the movie, one of the jokes Sandra Bullock delivered really caught my attention. It centers around the beauty queens’ stock standard reply to the question “what is the one most important thing our society needs?” Every contestant gives the same answer: world peace. A round of applause ensues after each identical answer until Sandra Bullock’s character switches things up with the reply, “harsher punishments for parole violators”. The audience falls silent, Sandra takes stock and then, to everyone’s relief, gives the required answer “…and world peace”. Sighs of relief, mass applause, the show can go on.
The implication is that no one actually cares what the female contestants have to say; the focus of a beauty pageant is the physical appearance of the contestants. Anything they say that is poignant or genuinely interesting will detract from that and render a contestant less competitive. The beauty queen must proclaim the most harmless, infantile, naive thing possible, put on a smile and wait for applause.
While there’s no doubt that world peace is far from a simple undertaking, have we truly reached the point where it should be considered a ridiculous, laughable notion? Have we become so jaded that a noble quest to save ourselves and our world has been turned into a thoughtless cliché—two words that no one should ever utter unless they want to be regarded as stupid?
Surely “world peace” should be the first thing out of anyone’s mouth when asked what society or humanity most needs? World peace should be something we take to the streets en masse to demand or perhaps an accepted greeting in place of “how are you?” or “hello”.
Miss Détective led me to think about how deeply this kind of negative anti-world-peace assumption has become ingrained in the different forms of media we’re exposed to. News reporting and fiction in film, television and print seems to have become typically dystopian in character, suggesting that doom and self-destruction are inevitabilities that we must simply accept and come to terms with (in the way that the advent of adorable tiny houses suggests that young people come to terms with the idea that they can never afford to live in normal-sized houses). Well, I’m not ready to give up hope for a bright, peaceful future just yet (or ever).
John Lennon said: Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you'll get it as soon as you like. If you want peace, you won't get it with violence. If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.
Years of meditation and mind-body practice have led me to a similar conclusion. If we can develop a sense of connection to something greater than the limited boundaries of the ego and our immediate needs then we can share in a collective enlightenment. Hopelessness dissolves at once and world peace is not just possible, but inevitable.
What can we do to start the process of world peace? Perhaps start with the idea that we have far, far more things in common with one another than we do things that separate us. Relax, subtract fear and our immediate wants, and all that’s left is our shared humanity, and connections between people instantly blossom.
So, as a good way to start 2024, I’d like to reconsider my perception of beauty queens and join with them in demanding immediate and unconditional world peace.
*: “Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong. I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis….I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us.” Find the full article in Variety: William Shatner: My Trip to Space Filled Me With ‘Overwhelming Sadness’
Bonus Content: Photo-haiku of the dragon's breath below the French Riviera.
Divine Suicide For A Happy 2024 (with Basho's Frog)
ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #1
REPORTAGE HAIKU
Fall
out
of
your
plane,
into snow-glare winter sky -
bright new suicide.
Look! The saw-toothed, ice-capped range of the European Alps thrusts up through white, feather-soft lines of cloud. Far below lies the placid coastline of the French Riviera, part of the rim of the great azure bowl that holds the Mediterranean sea. I took this photo a few days ago with the camera on my tiny, cracked iPhone 5 flying into Nice.
You may have noticed that the layout of the words and lines of my haiku suggest falling and also the shape of an airplane. The meaning is metaphorical. Of course I don't mean that anyone should physically kill themselves, so what am I trying to get at? The word suicide comes from Latin and is comprised of two parts: "sui", meaning the self, and "cide" coming from the verb "caedere", the act of slaying. So the literal meaning of the word is to slay the self. Let's explore the metaphorical ramifications of this idea. A popular Zen expression you may have heard is, "If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him." The expression was coined by Linji (Lin-Chi) Yixuan (臨濟義玄), the founder of his own school of Chán (Zen) Buddhism during Tang dynasty China which later spread to Japan. He died in 866 AD. Here's a passage from The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi translated by Burton Watson (Shambhala, 1993):
“Followers of the Way, if you want to get the kind of understanding that accords with the Dharma, never be misled by others. Whether you’re facing inward or facing outward, whatever you meet up with, just kill it! If you meet a buddha, kill the buddha. If you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch. If you meet an arhat, kill the arhat. If you meet your parents, kill your parents. If you meet your kinfolk, kill your kinfolk. Then for the first time you will gain emancipation, will not be entangled with things, will pass freely anywhere you wish to go. These students of the Way who come from all over— there’s never been one of them who didn’t appear before me depending on something. So I start right out by hitting them there. If they come with a raised hand, I hit the raised hand, if they come mouthing something, I hit them in the mouth. I tell you, there’s no Buddha, no Dharma, no practice, no enlightenment. Yet you go off like this on side roads, trying to find something. Blind fools! Will you put another head on top of the one you have? What is it you lack? Followers of the Way, you who are carrying out your activities before my eyes are no different from the Buddha and the patriarchs. But you don’t believe that and go searching for something outside. Make no mistake. There’s no Dharma outside, and even what is on the inside can’t be grasped. You get taken up with the words from my mouth, but it would be better if you stopped all that and did nothing. Things already under way, don’t go on with them. Things not yet under way, don’t let them get under way. That’s better for you than ten years traveling around on pilgrimages."
Master Lin is also speaking metaphorically. He is saying that we should extinguish anything that causes us to cling to our sense of self - any images, feelings, thoughts, labels or preconceptions that suggest that we are not enough in and of ourselves. Rather than outward seeking and desperately clinging to a teacher or idea, he demands a stripping away of identity, of self-reflection, self-consideration, so that what we are left with is pure, unencumbered, non-reflective being.
In Western culture, January is a time for reflection and planning for the year to come. Common questions people ask themselves, prompted by tradition and the media are along the lines of "what will you try to achieve in 2024?" "What positive change will you make to your life?"
Dieting, wealth, dating and career are common subjects that top people's lists. I've got to increase my net wealth, get a designer watch, a sports car, a hot partner, a better house or apartment, a better paying job, etc.
If you made a series of resolutions along these lines on the 1st of January this year, have you already failed to honor them? I would like to suggest that resolutions like this are, by nature, bound up in fear and desire and therefore set to self-destruct.
The little voice in our head that is only satisfied when our fears are assuaged and our desires satisfied, only allows us a short moment to enjoy our indulgence and then it comes back crying for more like a small child. So why bother with these ideas at all? Master Lin wants to knock all those crutches away in a single instant so we can connect to a greater reality.
For the new year though, that might be a little too intense, too great a leap, especially if we're not ready for it (not everyone is a monk in a monastery with no worldly commitments). Can we seek a more pragmatic method that can be immediately put into practice in our busy day-to-day lives?
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of America, started his day with the question "What good shall I do this day?" and ended his day with "What good have I done this day?" By making himself accountable for "doing good" he ensured that his focus was not on satisfying the illusory demands of his ego, but on taking practical good action with the intention of helping others.
You are reading my answer to that question. If we can't have immediate, revelatory death to self, what the Zen masters call instant enlightenment, then we can have something close to it, a sailing away from the self in the direction of helping those of us in need. Could there be a better way to start the new year? What good can you do today?
Bonus: About Haiku and the Zen Master Basho
Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 phonetic units in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a kireji, or "cutting word"; and a kigo, or seasonal reference. Here is a very literal translation into English of one of the most famous haiku by Zen master and poet Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 –1694).
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I found a website that featured thirty-two English language translations of Basho's poem, ranging from the most direct and simple (which from a Zen perspective is helpful) through to very stylistic interpretations. A few of the translations sought to retain the Japanese 5-7-5 syllable pattern in English, which I also prefer. Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins also creates English language haiku using 5-7-5:
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I've attempted a spontaneous rendition in English of Basho's poem using the 5-7-5 pattern. There is no season word in Basho's poem because the frog itself is a spring animal and therefore becomes the season word, but since that isn't immediately apparent to Western readers I took a few syllables up front to spell that out and set the scene. I used the middle line to highlight the poem's Zen elements and for the last line tried to keep the direct Zen simplicity using the literal Japanese translation.
Spring time ancient pond, frog-no-frog breaks still surface -- the sound of water.
Please submit your own version of Basho's poem if you like, or try your own hand at haiku now you've grasped the idea. According to Yasuhiro Ohwa's “Why is Basho the supreme haiku poet?” (2014), the old pond is, by its nature, forgotten and suggests death, a portal beyond life. “The sound of a frog jumping into water'', by contrast, represents a spontaneous living movement. Through its action, the frog breathes life into the pond and remakes it as something new.
Dragon Hopes
ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #2
REPORTAGE HAIKU
Dragon plays with ball,
last cold breath of Winter fades-
Spring hopes peek through dirt.
2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon, beginning on February 10th, 2024 (Chinese New Year) and concluding on January 28th, 2025 (Chinese New Year's Eve). In Chinese culture, the Dragon holds a significant place as an auspicious and extraordinary creature, unparalleled in talent and excellence.
I was delighted to catch this dragon cloud sunrise earlier in the week! An auspicious omen for all of us as the Year of the Dragon approaches.
The Chinese dragon has very different connotations from the European dragon – in European cultures, the dragon is an aggressive fire-breathing creature, whereas the Chinese dragon is a spiritual and cultural symbol that represents prosperity and good luck, as well as a rain deity that fosters harmony.
Many pictures of Chinese dragons show a flaming pearl in their jaws or claws. The pearl is associated with spiritual energy, wisdom, prosperity, power, immortality, thunder, or the sun or moon. Chinese art often depicts a pair of dragons chasing or fighting over the flaming pearl.
I try to meet the sunrise each morning with moving meditation (be it tai chi or qigong). It's not unusual to feel some resistance to morning practice, especially in Winter when it’s warm in bed and bitterly cold outside, but once I’m out the door a positive energy gradually takes over and by the time I pass through the tunnel beside the cathedral in Grasse, a short walk from my front door, I'm more often than not greeted by a blast of gold-orange light that fills me with joy.
The rising sun is never repetitive, it is an artist without parallel, painting the sky with strokes of luminescent color. If you do morning exercise in the dawn it bestows a special gift that is impossible to receive at any other time of the day. The Chinese call this "ch’i” or "qi" (same pronunciation and meaning, two different spellings depending on whether you use old or new transliteration to English). The first light of the day fills the body with energy, calling it to open in the same way as it summons flowers to open and reveal themselves.
So stretch, overcome resistance and pull yourself out of bed (the French say se lever, “to pull yourself up”), and head towards the Year of the Dragon filled with light and energy.*
And afterwards, give yourself permission to relax, put down the heavy bag of "self", and enjoy your weekend, unencumbered by distraction or expectation.
*There's a whole art to drawing energy from the sunrise to power you through the day along with using the dawn as an oracle to predict how your day will go. There’s no superstition involved, just practical methods that deliver results, uncovered through years of daily practice.
Bonus Content: Professor Cheng’s Teaching on the Word “Relax”, the “Self Bag” and the Secret of the Laughing Buddha.
Here are some encouraging words from the founder of my tai chi tradition Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing :
“I have been practicing T’ai-Chi Chuan for over fifty years. Only recently have I started to fully understand the word ‘relax’. I remember my T’ai-Chi Chuan teacher Yang Cheng-Fu who did not like to talk much. He used to sit all day without saying a word if no one asked him questions. However, in our T’ai-chi class he would tell us to ‘relax’ repeatedly. Sometimes it seemed like he would say the word hundreds of times during the practice so that the word could fill up my ears. Strangely enough he also said that if he did not tell me of this word that I would not be able to learn T’ai-chi in three life-times (meaning never). I doubted his words then. Now that I think back, I truly believe that if he did not keep reminding me of the word ‘relax’, I doubt if I could have learned T’ai-chi Chuan in six life-times.
What is the meaning of ‘relax’ in T’ai-chi? Here is an example to help you understand the word. When we go visit a Buddhist temple we usually see a statue of Mei-Lo Buddha. The one who has a big rounded stomach with a big smile on his face. He carries a large bag on his shoulder.
On top of this statue we see a motto: ‘Sit with a bag. Walk with a bag. It would be such a relief to drop the bag.’ What does all this mean? To me, a person himself or herself is a bag. Everything he or she owns is baggage, including one’s children, family, position and wealth. It is difficult to drop any of one’s baggage, especially the ‘self’ bag.”
Enlightenment Caper (with Earth, Wind & Fire + This Morning's Sunrise)
ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #3
REPORTAGE HAIKU
Plan a getaway,
escape this winter jail-
eternal sunshine!
Right outside my front door two cats were hijacking a beat up Vespa. To go where? To do what? Everything they needed was right there—they knew their territory, how to survive within it and find shelter, comfort, food. The Vespa had only recently arrived and its engine still offered warmth, its torn seat, a soft cushion to curl up and gather heat from the rays of winter sun. Existing in place, a plan to escape to nowhere. No desire for what will come in the future, no fear of what came before in the past. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?* The cats live completely in the moment and therefore for all time.
This sentiment is echoed in the words of Rūmī, a 13th-century poet and Sufi mystic. Rumi's works were written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic and Greek in his verse. It’s normal to feel at sea, lost, a stranger in a strange land. The journey to return home begins the moment we look within instead of seeking for answers external to us.
“All day I think about it. Then at night I say it. Where did I come from and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere. I’m sure of that. And I intend to end up there. This drunkenness began in some other tavern. When I get back around to that place, I’ll be completely sober. Meanwhile, I’m like a bird from another continent sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off. But who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
What is the soul? I can not stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn’t come here of my own accord and I can’t leave that way. Whoever brought me here will have to take me home…”
Bonus Content: Today's Sunrise, Getaway by Earth, Wind & Fire off their 1976 album “Spirit”.
From Wikipedia:
Music Week proclaimed: "With a more spiritual, ethereal feel than the six albums they had already cut to that point, Spirit really marks a turning point in the career of Earth, Wind & Fire and is crammed with excellent tunes."
"Getaway" the first song on the album, was written by Peter Cor and Beloyd Taylor. This song fit the "spirit" of the album, which found the band seeking transcendence. Like many Earth, Wind & Fire songs, "Getaway" is a powerful message wrapped in a funky groove. The lyric could be interpreted as seeking an escape from the mundane, or as a call to look outside your boundaries for your higher self.
So you say you tried
But you just can't find the pleasure
People around you givin' you pressure
Try to resist all the hurt that's all around you
If you taste it, it will haunt you
So come, take me by the hand
We'll leave this troubled land
I know we can, I know we can, I know we can, I know we can
Getaway
Let's leave today
Let's getaway
Watch for the signs
That lead in the right direction
Not to heed them is a bad reflection
They'll show you the way
To what you have been seeking
To ignore them you're only cheating
So come, take me by the hand
We'll leave this troubled land
I know we can getaway
Getaway
*: 1 Corinthians 15:55
World Behind The World (with Buddha's Eightfold Path & The Holy Grail)
ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #4
REPORTAGE HAIKU
Sun strikes a dull sphere,
gong ripples through our waters-
world behind the world.
Life is crazy busy. We are constantly surrounded by noise and distraction but every once in a while, quite at random, we might experience a moment of numinescence*. Our thoughts are swept away and there is a moment of union, a oneness with creation that makes us feel as if we were fully present in our bodies and at the same time looking down upon our own lives as if from a great height. Everything suddenly makes sense, all worries and wants fall away, we can see the pattern of our own existence. I can count the number of times I have experienced this over the course of my life on one hand but I’m certain that you’ve had a similar experience, moment’s like this are woven into the fabric of life.
Think carefully, it might be a childhood memory, something that happened a long time ago, or just yesterday. These kinds of encounters with reality don't have to happen on an expensive, thrill-seeking vacation; beholding the Grand Canyon or achieving the summit of Mount Everest. It can happen be in your garden, meditating, standing under a tree, beholding light moving over water, walking through a crowd, there's no criteria. Something just clicks, the mind stops, everything connects, and suddenly you're no longer separate from the world.
Precious moments like this give us a brief glimpse of the world behind the world.
A questions arises: Whether we seek enlightenment through physical action or through inner practice, how do we not lose our way? Or find ourselves on an endless, fruitless quest? Like a spiritual knight who, despite keeping faith, never finds the transformative Holy Grail that he or she seeks?
Read on for today’s Practical Enlightenment Method…
The Buddha tells us that there is an eightfold path to enlightenment that comes about by aligning ourselves to a correct way of being. Even if we can't manage consistency with the Buddha's Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, we have help at hand- our numinous moments.
Practical Enlightenment Method:
Let your numinous moment be your enlightenment talisman. Keep it in your heart and mind. These are a golden moment(s) of small enlightenment. They are a vital signpost that will keep you from getting lost in the sea of noise and distraction, a map to lead you back to the correct path when you’re feeling directionless and confused.
If your numinous moment happened a long time ago, try writing it out in as much detail as possible to see if the feeling you had then returns (even a flicker of remembrance is enough).
Have the courage to venture forth on the road to enlightenment knowing that you now have a map at hand!
*: Numinous (/ˈnjuːmɪnəs/) means "arousing spiritual or religious emotion; mysterious or awe-inspiring"; also "supernatural" or "appealing to the aesthetic sensibility." The term was given its present sense by the German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto in his influential 1917 German book The Idea of the Holy. He also used the phrase mystertremendum as another description for the phenomenon. Otto's concept of the numinous influenced thinkers including Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, and C. S. Lewis. It has been applied to theology, psychology, religious studies, literary analysis, and descriptions of psychedelic experiences.
Momento Mori, Remember You're Going To Die (with Steve Jobs, Something About Mary & Emily Dickinson).
ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #5
REPORTAGE HAIKU
Four score and ten rides
round the sun is what you get -
momento mori.
I was walking the dog alongside the Grasse cathedral path yesterday when I stumbled upon a dead man. Skull with a jawbone full of teeth, pelvis, and who knew the bones at the base of the spine were so thick? No grisly murder scene, an archaeologist was at hand with his brush and shovel, carefully exposing the remains. The archeologist informed me that since the bones were only from the 16th-18th century they were not considered a particularly old or important find. In my home country of Australia where the first European colony was established just over 230 years ago, such a discovery would have been a major news event.
Here was someone who had been buried alongside the cathedral, presumably to help guarantee a place in heaven or at least a proximity that would serve as a kind of booster rocket to lift their soul in an upwards direction if it found itself in hell or purgatory.
I was in two minds about taking the photograph. On one hand, I believe it’s important to respect the dead and, on the other, I realised that what lay before me was a genuine, poignant, momento mori and that a photo of it with some discussion might be of use to you, the reader.
Memento mori (Latin for 'remember that you [have to] die') is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards. The most common motif is a skull, often accompanied by one or more bones. Often this alone is enough to evoke the trope, but other motifs such as a coffin, hourglass and wilting flowers signify the impermanence of human life.
The themes of Beautifully Broken are personal enlightenment and how we can utilise that experience as a path to world peace. The idea of the momento mori is useful as part of this process but only if it’s approached in the right way (and because this can be a grisly subject for some I've added some humorous content to lighten the mood).
When Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer gave the commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 he said:
"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
I like the quote, Jobs is using his own reflection in the mirror as a kind of momento mori but because he was a successful entrepreneur and much admired, there is a risk of taking what he said the wrong way and, in heading off course by a degree in the beginning, ending up a thousand miles off course by the end.
Don't Use An Awareness Of Death To Beat Yourself Up
Part of current The American Dream seems to be bound up with the idea of a personal, endless, capital-generating productivity. Productivity has become a booming industry with companies, systems and products in competition with one another. When you have to beat the previous book or course, you have to promise more productivity, more growth, and with less effort. It reminds me of that hilarious scene from the comedy movie Something About Mary* where Ben Stiller nearly becomes the victim of a hitchhiking serial killer for blowing up his dream of being the creator of "7 minute abs” by postulating the possibility that someone else might come up with "6 minute abs”.
So more productivity, more growth, with a great big helping of stress rebranded as "less effort” until presumably, you die from a heart attack. I recently looked at the daily to-do list of Benjamin Franklin, one America's founding fathers in my first Enlightenment Prompt: Divine Suicide For A Happy 2024 (with Basho's Frog). Franklin seems to have settled upon a balanced mix: 8 hours work with a generous 2 hour French-style lunch with reading and later, evening conversation and music. A good portion of the morning is spent planning and in meditation (addressing Powerful Good).
A reasonable, achievable productive schedule for the newly formed democracy in the New World. Not "more, harder, faster". This cannot be the formula for a good life. If we are to seek wisdom in momento mori it must not be as an anxiety-inducing productivity talisman. It’s important to make this clear because beating yourself up with the idea that death is coming might very well be superficially effective. Our bank balance might grow and our business plan accelerate. Psychology teaches us that behaviour we are rewarded for tends to be reinforced and repeated. But starting with these ideas will, in the long run, bring about suffering and move us away from enlightenment.
How can we make death an ally that will help us towards enlightenment instead of perceiving him as an enemy to be feared?
Read on for The Dance of Death, today’s Practical Enlightenment Method…
Practical Enlightenment Method: Emily Dickinson & The Danse Macabre
The Danse Macabre
The Danse Macabre (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death.
The Danse Macabre consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and labourer.
Yes, we have to learn to dance with death. The Danse Macabre arises in medieval Europe where the plague was ravaging the continent, and claiming everyone in equal measure, regardless of age or status. The idea of a "dance” suggests an intimate partner that gracefully coordinates with us as we move through the cycle of life.
Fear is one of the great impediments to enlightenment and a fear of death is not just a construct of the mind. Each of the body's organs is possessed of its own consciousness, a drive to fulfil the means of its expression and survival. The drive to eat, to reproduce, to rest, these come upon us, override conscious action even, when they are not attended to. These organs can experience shock and fear when they are threatened, whether from a physical injury or psychological trauma and become their own source of negative thoughts and behaviours that prevent us from realizing our highest potential.
Thankfully, we can calm the unconscious fear of the mind and body through familiarity. Spend time in an old persons home, with older relatives, especially if they are on their death bed. In Modern Western society we have divorced ourselves from death, outsourced the entire process of ageing and dying because it makes us uncomfortable and breaks one of our favourite illusions—that we just might live forever. Move closer to death, become comfortable with it, realise your own death is a gradual, slow dance with a kind and gracious partner and that will remove any fear.
American poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) characterises death beautifully in her poem Because I Could Not Stop For Death.
Emily Dickinson's Gentlemanly Death
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
Emily Dickinson's Death comes to us as a gentleman to help usher us into the next world, slowing everything down because we cannot manage that very well on our own.
With an enlightened concept of momento mori we can dance through life with death as a gracious partner, asking Ben Franklin's question—what good have I done today?
Bonus Content: Something About Mary's French Title & 7 Minute Abs
Hitchhiker : You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
Ted : Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the exercise video.
Hitchhiker : Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.
Ted : Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you're going.
Hitchhiker : Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
Ted : I would go for the 7.
Hitchhiker : Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.
Ted : You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?
Hitchhiker : If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".
Ted : That's right. That's - that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?
[Hitchhiker convulses]
Hitchhiker : No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.
Ted : That - good point.
Hitchhiker : 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch.
Shadow Play (Escape Suffering with CG Jung, The French Impressionists, Joseph Campbell & My Rescue Dog)
ENLIGHTENMENT PROMPT #6
REPORTAGE HAIKU
Strong light fills the mind,
shadow ghosts come out to play-
blur of joy, no fear.
I'm grateful to the powerful gold light in the South of France. The famous light that inspired Cézanne, Chagall and Monet to create art with colors and shapes that had never been seen in the great galleries of Europe before. Part of what gives these paintings their striking character is the contrasting shadow that that light provides. When the light of the Côte d’Azur reflected my own shadow in an interesting way I captured it with my camera phone. Over time, I’ve created a series of shadow self-portraits.
I've posted some of these on Instagram and every now and then a follower will comment that a particular shadow photo seems “creepy” or “unnerving”. I never intentionally frame my shadow portraits to appear that way (see some samples below), I try to pose the shadow to take advantage of the environment in which it appears, and try to communicate with nothing but a black outline, how I’m feeling at the time. What others see in the shadow form is, of course, up to them. The idea that a shadow image is in some way frightening is perfectly valid and also, perhaps very useful.
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was famous for lecturing on the shadow, which he used as a symbol to represent our unconscious selves, the repository of our deepest fears and desires.
“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it… But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East
I mentioned briefly in the last post (on momento mori), that our organs have a consciousness of their own. Imagine a series of small animals, all connected via nerves, hanging like fruit from the tree trunk of our spinal column, communicating their fears and desires upwards to the seat of consciousness and physical action—the brain.
When we physically injure ourselves—a “frozen shoulder” is a perfect example—the muscles around the injury lock in place to give it time to heal. Unfortunately, unless you possess a very young body, there is no automatic mechanism for releasing and resetting the frozen musculature once the injury has cleared up. Tension lingers, hardness has a tendency to set in. This is because, once past adolescence the body is, at its most primitive level, all about survival and reproduction.
A psychic injury has the same mechanism—the injured mind moves into a protective mode and freezes to buy survival time. This is because in reality, the body and mind and not separate but one functional unit. As such, it’s not unusual to have mental trauma manifest itself in the body, or bodily trauma manifest itself as a problem with the mind.
This pain can manifest itself in endless forms: obsessive eating or starving the body, excessive hand-washing, alcohol and drug addiction, even daily doom-scrolling on a mobile device. Repetitive behaviours that pull us out of balance and cause imbalance with our health and relationships because, hidden in the depths of the shadow are unresolved complexes: bundles of memory and experience bound up with strings of fear and desire.
Worse, these shadow characters on the unconscious landscape, when feeling threatened or anxious that perhaps the same trauma that initially hurt them might reoccur, will come to the fore and override our conscious mind to ensure our survival.
I believe that because of the lack of an effective channel of communication, our shadow self is harming us, our greater consciousness, because it is a being of limited consciousness and perspective and simply doesn’t know any better. The shadow takes command for what it wrongly believes to be the survival of the whole . Unfortunately, it’s not equipped or qualified to captain the ship.
The power of the shadow force will catch us out time and time again unless we start to open the lines of communication.
So, how can we work with our shadow to help heal ourselves and the world instead of constantly engaging in combat with our unconscious self?
Read on for today’s Practical Enlightenment Method and an anecdote about my beautiful rescue dog…
A year ago we adopted a rescue dog from a shelter. A beautiful and, if you know the breed, surprisingly docile Jack Russell terrier. He’d never eaten meat or learned to jump because he’d been in a dog run with a low cage roof. He had not been well treated but had a kind disposition and was very grateful to become part of our family.
Only now, a year later, has he started to relax and realize that he’s going to be okay, that he’s part of a pack that will protect and care for him. I’m pleased to report that his natural level of energy and physicality has started to manifest itself (along with a desire to eat my shoes).
You can't reason with an animal consciousness, I couldn’t explain to the dog that he was going to be okay with words, all I could do was make a positive environment and be patient, to trust in kindness and time. The dog had to come to a place of trust organically, in his own time. In the same way, although words can help point the way, the shadow part of us and the complexes within it are also non-verbal, less sophisticated forms of consciousness. Knowing this gives hope.
If the shadow is manifesting in the body then gently touching the area and speaking aloud can help open the lines of communication. How would you soothe a distressed small child or animal? With kind words, gentle contact, a soothing embrace—loving attention, even if the child or animal doesn’t understand the meaning of the words, it understands the intention and energy behind them.
Bodywork practices like yoga, tai chi or qigong can aid this process, relaxing and releasing the body, drawing heat to frozen places, gradually opening the darkness to allow light to enter.
If the shadow manifests in the mind then meditation can help, creating a space for the shadow to repeatedly chant its mantra, sometimes complaining, sometimes mindlessly repeating song lyrics or words, so that those repetitions are seen as something apart from the self and eventually, over time, release and dissolve.
Don't rush. Slow, soft, calm, relaxed are the watchwords.
It might take some time like it did with my rescue dog, but the shadow and its contents are definitely conscious and any one form of consciousness can communicate with another.
Just like with Japanese kintsuki pottery, where the broken pieces are made whole again with a golden glue, we too can be remade even more beautiful than before.
Bonus Content:
Shadow Portraits
French Impressionists Paint The South of France
Dr. CG Jung on the need to understand ourselves before we are overwhelmed by our collective shadow
Mythographer Joseph Campbell on Consciousness
Conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers about comparative mythology and the role of myth in society. First broadcast on PBS, 29 July 1990.
Joseph Campbell: Jean and I are living in Hawaii, and we’re living right by the ocean. And we have a little lanai, a little porch, and there’s a coconut tree that grows up through the porch and it goes on up. And there’s a kind of vine, plant, big powerful thing with leaves like this, that has grown up the coconut tree. Now, that plant sends forth little feelers to go out and clutch the plant, and it knows where the plant is and what to do– where the tree is, and it grows up like this, and it opens a leaf, and that leaf immediately turns to where the sun is. Now, you can’t tell me that leaf doesn’t know where the sun is going to be. All of the leaves go just like that, what’s called heliotropism, turning toward where the sun is. That’s a form of consciousness. There is a plant consciousness, there is an animal consciousness. We share all of these things. You eat certain foods, and the bile knows whether there’s something there for it to go to work on. I mean, the whole thing is consciousness. I begin to feel more and more that the whole world is conscious; certainly the vegetable world is conscious, and when you live in the woods, as I did as a kid, you can see all these different consciousnesses relating to themselves.
CAMPBELL: Heaven and hell are within us, and all the gods are within us. This is the great realization of the Upanishads of India in the ninth century B.C. All the gods, all the heavens, all the worlds, are within us. They are magnified dreams, and dreams are manifestations in image form of the energies of the body in conflict with each other. That is what myth is. Myth is a manifestation in symbolic images, in metaphorical images, of the energies of the organs of the body in conflict with each other. This organ wants this, that organ wants that. The brain is one of the organs.
MOYERS: So when we dream, we are fishing in some vast ocean of mythology that --
CAMPBELL: -- that goes down and down and down. You can get all mixed up with complexes, you know, things like that, but really, as the Polynesian saying goes, you are then "standing on a whale fishing for minnows." We are standing on a whale. The ground of being is the ground of our being, and when we simply turn outward, we see all of these little problems here and there. But, if we look inward, we see that we are the source of them all.