AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.

PF on Doors of Perception. Fabric important in the western tradition (its where painters could get non-figural). Brad Warner against drugs. Flying to the top of a mountain vs climbing there. Capitalism, acquistion (this is exactly what Chögyam Trungpa criticizes as spiritual materialism).

Chögyam Trungpa, Meditation in Action has an interesting passage which suggests, not exactly opposition to purpose, but questioning it at least:

Q: Would you care to sum up the purpose of meditation? A: Well, meditation is dealing with purpose itself. It is not that meditation is for something, but it is dealing with the aim. Generally we have a purpose for whatever we do: something is going to happen in the future, therefore what I am doing now is important — everything is related to that. But the whole idea of meditation is to develop an entirely different way of dealing with things, where you have no purpose at all. In fact, meditation is dealing with the question of whether or not there is such a thing as purpose, And when one learns a different way of dealing with the situation, one no longer has to have a purpose. One is not on the way to somewhere. Or rather, one is on the way and one is also at the destination at the same time. That is really what meditation is for. (p 83)

Whatever happens; may it happen! Whichever way it goes; may it go that way! There is no purpose!

There is no purpose, means that there is no one overriding, overarching, all inclusive – ‘purpose’. God is not working ‘His’ purpose out. There is no such ‘God’ and no such ‘purpose’. Reality is simply the dance of emptiness and form and compassion is the recognition that everything is its own purpose of itself. Each moment of reality is perfect as it is.

Discussion of the compact poetry of Dogen and the various contradictions of Zen Buddhism, and some on Tantra too (Chögyam Trungpa came up). PF was too pains to say he was entirely unqualified to teach dharma, and there was general acknowledgement of the absurdity of the effort.

TwinPages: Flancian

Chögyam Trungpa

23 Sep 2022 - 30 Oct 2026

See The Great Naropa Poetry Wars – Beezone Library but with what intention exactly? Always my problem there.

If you spend enough time with Zen or Dzogchen teachers, it is certain that they will at some point roast your sacred cows—whatever they are. They will contradict something you think every good person must believe. (That might be strongly-held political, religious, or cultural values.) Or they may do something you think no holy person ever should. (It might be a politically-incorrect joke, or eating meat, or ranting about how much they hate a kind of music you like.) They may violate fundamental assumptions you did not even know you had.

Trungpa's bad behavior goes way beyond that. I guess Buddhist teachers aren't supposed to be saints? Just human beings like the rest of us? "Abuse of power comes as no surprise" – Jenny Holzer

Since all things are naked, clear, and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or to realize. The nature of things naturally appears and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralizes onto oneself.

At that point, we tend to give up hope of an answer, or of anything whatsoever, for that matter. We have no more hope, none whatsoever. We are purely hopeless. We could call this transcending hope, if you would like to put it in more genteel terms. This hopelessness is the essence of crazy wisdom. It is hopeless, utterly hopeless. It is beyond hopelessness. (Of course it would be possible, if we tried to turn that hopelessness itself into some kind of solution, to become confused again, to say the least.)