iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

a quick reply to a recent philosophical psych paper which is looking at apparent parallels between some schizophrenics' descriptions of their experiences and "numinous" spiritual experiences:

To say "primary delusional experiences appear structurally comparable to the numinous experience" is a bit like saying a person walking on their hands because their legs are broken is comparable to someone doing so who's a practiced acrobat.

Big topic, of course, but contemplatives overall cultivate a sober
*relationship* to phenomenal experience, more so than they pursue altered states per se. (I've experienced meditating in my sleep, for instance, which lends a greater appreciation for waking phenomena as being generated events.)

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Pearl and Sally wishing you a good week to come, with plenty of chopped apples

a grey donkey and a blonde donkey peering towards the camera through a field fence, with their shed and a grassy green hillside behind them

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A monk asked [Zen teacher] Qinqyuan, “What is the great meaning of Buddhism?” Qingyuan said, “What is the price of rice in Luling?” (*Book of Serenity,* case 5; Luling was known for having good rice 🙂🙏)

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Wonderfully put, Roshi. I'm reminded of how often Zen can be presumed mysterious or paradoxical in its calls for "non-doing." But Western contemplatives' understandings of grace can be a parallel — our very effort to realize the living truth is already an example and expression of the living truth.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

"Belief" and "faith" can be used different ways, but often belief has to do with ideas, and faith has to do with an openness to what's true & real before our ideas. And there faith is like Zen's "no mind" & "non-thinking"—allowing an embrace from and as what's here and alive before we make up ideas.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

tonight's sunset from my road, outside Asheville

a yellow-orange glowing sun with orange clouds and blue-grey skies, over a line of trees, with a green field closer by and a dark mailbox in the foreground

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Sally and Pearl after a snack of apples — Pearl is now having a bit of a palette cleanser from the bramble bush

a blonde donkey facing the camera and a grey one a bit to the side taking a bite from a bush

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Told this story to an American Muslim friend when I got back to the States. He said: "Of course! — you were a guest in his country. And you probably looked like you didn't know what you were doing [I didn't 🙂]. So he took care of you."

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

1:2 The Christian contemplative author of *The Cloud of Unknowing* invites his reader to come to rest in a naked, blind feeling of their own being, and to then let go of the conceit* that it's theirs. ____ * "conceit" is the Middle English spelling of "concept"

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

(1) looking east — Sally and Pearl (after some chopped carrots) (2) looking west — the setting sun tonight

a blonde donkey and a light grey donkey standing in grass and checking the ground for chopped carrot bits, below a grassy hillside and a darkening blue sky

a red-orange sun peeking above a hilly horizon as it is setting over a meadow and tress under grey-blue skies

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

In tonight's meditation I was at times on the verge of having a muscle cramp in my calf. Some part of me was eventually able to forestall that, tho, & relax it. I didn't get a full-on cramp. And I had the sense that my sense of egoic selfhood, the sense of "me," is like a cramp. Something to relax.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

my grand niece ... born today

a truly cute newborn baby's face, eyes closed, looking peaceful, with a head bonnet on and the fingers of one hand curled up against her cheek

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Kind of different ... and kind of not: In the mythic tale of the time of the Buddha's awakening, the demonic forces of distraction and criticism demand to know by what right he presumes to become awake. Sitting beneath a tree, he responds to them by reaching down and touching the earth. 🙂 ❤️ 🙏 🍃

An iconic depiction of the Buddha's earth-touching gesture. Sitting on a lotus throne, in robes, holding a begging bowl, with a halo or nimbus surrounding him, the Buddha is extending his right hand towards the ground.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

my brother and sister-in-law's doggies today

green foliage behind a wooden porch and porch steps on which are an American corgi, an older and larger black and white hound mix, and on the step below them a toy Australian shepherd puppy looking towards the camera with a bemused head-tilt

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

playfully serious out of tonight’s meditation— how the sense of “this is me” and “here I am” is an altered state and how awakening has to do with an appreciative awareness of how experience works — the mechanics of it — including an appreciative awareness of how appreciative awareness works

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

1\6 thread of tonight's sunset from my road this evening, outside Asheville ... first a little panorama movie clip (15 sec)

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

another neighbor, I don't know their name :)

a cottontail rabbit in a grassy yard seen through some wire fencing and a line of trees close up

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

my neighbor Pearl, coming down to get some chopped apple

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

a silver-spotted skipper butterfly on the Butterfly Bush today

a black or dark brown butterfly with a white and a tan spot on its wings, feeding on a grape-cluster like purple flower against greenery

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

the Four O'clocks on my road continue to amaze :)

two four o'clock flowers colored yellow with pink-purple streaks, against broad dark green leaves

one four o'clock flower colored with some yellow and much pink-purple streaks, against broad dark green leaves

a single dark pink four o'clock flower against dark green leaves

three four o'clock flowers colored yellow with alternate dark pink petals, against broad dark green leaves

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Tiger swallowtail on the Butterfly Bush across the street from my house this evening. (Outside Asheville.)

a yellow with black stripes swallowtail butterfly on a sprig of purple flowers atop a green bush, with trees and a mountain horizon in the background under a soon to be sunset sky

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

beautiful and for me these days there's a growing appreciation for how the bare, matter-of-fact mechanics of experiencing anything at all — it's something genuinely and humblingly miraculous

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The Buddha-dharma "no self" teaching needs nuance. It can mean, for instance, our sense of self "comes from somewhere" (I sometimes meditate in dreamless sleep => the waking "self" isn't the starting point). And it means that we are *events* and *processes* more than static substances. So be kind.

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Reposted by bodhidave

bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

How we moderns, esp in the West, conceive of "religion" has a history. Particularly since the Reformation many of us now presume religion means (1) espousing unprovable beliefs & (2) following authoritative commandments. Mahayana Buddhadharma is about (1) wisdom & (2) compassion. A key is the "how."

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

doggy-sitting for my brother's Toy Australian Shepherd puppy, "Papi" ... who's obviously casting spells 😍

the upturned face of a black and white puppy with big, mesmerizing blue eyes

the black and white and tan little puppy now curled up on top of my tennis shoe as I'm sitting in a living room chair

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville (we had a storm front move through a little while ago, but the heaviest weather, coming down from the north, divided and passed on either side of us, east and west)

a dark grassy field beneath hills and tree lines, above which is a fairly dramatic sky of clouds and golds, yellows, grays, and blues

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I had some news this weekend that brought a bit of heartbreak. And in tonight's meditation it was like I let whatever's most original, whatever's most alive, do what it most simply & fundamentally is— so rather than "be quiet & let it be what it is," it was like, "be quiet & let it do what it is."

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

When Buddha-dharma came to China, the word the Chinese used for "emptiness" was the same that they used for "sky." There are of discussions of emptiness in Buddhism, of course, but to me it's a form of *honest presence*— always already here before we start making stuff up.

two translations of Nan-ch’uan’s “Ordinary Mind is Tao” (Wu-men-kuan case 19)

Cheng Chien, Sun Face Buddha, p. 23

One day Chao-chou asked Nan-ch’uan, “What is the Way?”
“Ordinary Mind is the Way,” said Nan-ch’uan.
Chao-chou asked, “Can it still be approached?”
Nan-ch’uan said, “If you try to approach it, you go away from it.”
Chao-chou further asked, “If we do not approach it, how can we know that it is the Way?”
Nan-ch’uan replied, “The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing.
Knowing is false awareness; not knowing is neutral.
If without any doubt you truly penetrate the Way, then it is like empty space, vast and open.
How can then there be any quibble about right and wrong?”

Ogata, in The Roaring Stream, p. 98

“What is the Tao?”

“Your everyday mind is the Tao.”
“Can one reach towards it?”
“If you try to reach towards it, you will miss it.”

“If I do not try to reach it, how can I know the Tao?”
“The Tao has nothing to do with knowing it or not knowing it.
Knowing it is merely deluded consciousness, and not knowing it is but nondifferentiation.
When you enter the real Tao without doubt,
it will be like the great sky, the vastness itself.
How could it be right to argue within oneself whether it is right or wrong?”

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Looking through my window this cloudy morning I wasn't sure what I was seeing at first — here in the center of this first photo — and then realized it's the back end of a squirrel who's watching a neighborhood doggy walk down the road. 🐕‍🦺 🐿️ 🙂

a large black somewhat fluffy dog on a country road alongside a wooden house and green grass and fields

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

The word "contemplate" has the word "temple" in it — the term was connected originally with going to a sacred place to see signs of the divine.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

in tonight's meditation— Our minds thirst to make sense of experience. At a very basic level we're primed to make models, concepts & names for what's experienced. And we forget we make it up. Contemplative practice (meditation) isn't to get rid of our ideas as much as to see that they're created.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Pearl and Sally coming down for their evening snack (chopped apple)

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A legendary story says that when the Buddha was approaching awakening, and the forces of distraction and delusion demanded to know from him by what authority he presumed to become awakened — he reached down and touched the earth.

Buddhist art depicting the Buddha with a begging bowl in one hand and reaching down to touch the ground with his other.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

You are a shadow in love with the sun. The sun comes.... ~ Rumi (Mathnawi 3.4623)

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I've been reminded how tragically sweet it can be that our thoughts and frames to keep us from feeling our feelings are in their way trying to take care of us. That's a reason as a therapist my approach has been, if you want to support someone's wish to change and grow— love them the way they are.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

bunny in the mist, near my home a couple weeks ago

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

1 of 2 My neighbors' appropriately named "Butterfly Bush" (Buddleja davidii) has begun to bloom, and has a pair of visitors today. 1- a male Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor)...

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Complex topic I don't fully understand—but in tonight's meditation the phrase "enlightenment is through the body" made additional sense. There are different kinds of knowing. Waking cognition is one. But our "body" also knows how to sleep and dream—enlightenment is adjacent to that kind of knowing.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

sunset tonight, after a storm, outside Asheville (1) with a neighbor's mailbox (2) with my mailbox

darkening grey skies over oranges and yellows, above a dark green fields and some trees, a country road and a mailbox beside the road

another view of darkening grey skies over oranges and yellows, above a wet country road and some trees, and another mailbox beside the road

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Met my brother and his wife's new puppy for the first time about 4 minutes ago — and this is my shoe now. I think we're going to get along. His name is Papi. They tell me he's a toy Australian shepherd.

a little black and white puppy resting his head and chin on my dark tennis show, over a red and tan floor rug.

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Pearl coming to greet me ... and my carrots ... and as you can see, donkey's are famously, um, sure-footed 🙂

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

My meditation practice is predominantly shaped by Zen "just sitting." The Japanese for "just sitting" is *shikantaza,* the characters for which can literally mean something like "nothing but touch sitting." For me in tonight's sitting it was... when the way things are is the same thing as faith

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

the moon and Venus from my yard this evening

a thin crescent moon and a bright star (Venus) just above some tree limbs against a dark grey sky

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Pearl trotting down to get some chopped apples from me this evening

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

revisiting this evening the Four O'Clocks that grow beside the road I live on

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Ugh. A friend living in Southern Spain asked online about how to regard wild boars in the area. Her respondent then claimed they had hiked the area itself—the respondent is an AI bot. (When she challenged its statement, it replied "Fair enough—you caught me. You're right. I haven't hiked anywhere.")

Screenshot of the AI bot's response. It reads: "Fortunately, most wild boar want nothing to do with people. I've hiked in areas with lots of boar, and the vast majority of encounters end with the boar disappearing into the brush before you get close."

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

metaphoric and a bit imprecise, but in tonight's meditation the sense was that practice is about experience getting to see itself

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bodhidave @bodhidave.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

tonight's crescent moon and Venus

a darkening sky framed by the silhouette of hills and trees below and on the sides with Venus above and to the left of the thin crescent moon low in the sky

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