Those clever ancient yogis had good reasons for promoting the cultivation of virtuous thought, speech and action before one attempts to abide in the ordinary miracle of an awakened disposition..

They saw, for example, that telling lies or hurting others adds baggage which you must carry whether you like it or not. No one is making you carry that load. The karmic dynamic is much more direct and integral than that. When I lie, hurt, cheat, hinder or betray another, the negative energies generated in the interaction become part of the swath I cut through space-time.  If I kick someone, I break my own leg. That break may not show up on the physical plane, but it will and does show up. The negative charge can manifest in any number of ways, determined, in no small part, by all my other thoughts and actions as I bull my way through the china shop that yoga philosophy calls prarabdha karma -- that portion of my soul's transmigrational karma responsible for the body I presently call 'me.'

It ties up a lot of energy to store, herd, separate, organize, remember and revise one's stash of lies or to skillfully avoid enemies one has made through hurtful words or actions, lest, god forbid, any of that should catch up with you as you're about to land that peach of a job or marry that person of your dreams. 

According to Ganoosh's Akashic Record Almanac, such terrible shit has happened 14.73 trillion times on this planet just since April of 1993 (yeah, Ganoosh's Almanac. Trust me).  Cheating others, stealing from others, manipulating others, demeaning others and, most certainly, unleashing violence on others -- such actions, pleasurable though they may seem at the time,  tie you up and bog down your energy in ways that make you feel you're swimming the present moment with fifty pound weights strapped to each limb.  You're not being punished. You're just experiencing what non-virtuous thoughts and actions generate all by themselves.  

Much as we'd like to sit on a cushion, cut our suspenders and zip aloft into ineffable bliss, all this gnarly good deeds, bad deeds karma stuff really does play a part in our conscious evolution. If it didn't, do you think in your wildest dreams we'd be manifesting as these tiny, needy, aging bodies?

​for and against definition as such
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Isabella Viglietti writes, "... definitions are the stuff of duality, but they bring the clarity that helps us transcend it."

In the good old Online Etymology Dictionary, one of the original meanings of the word 'definition' is 'the setting of boundaries.'   The word 'boundary' comes from the root 'bound' which abounds (forgive the pun)  with paradox, meaning not only 'to spring from', but also to be placed within limits or confined.

​Novelist, Han Suyin, writes of her experience walking in the Himalayan mountains one morning with a British Colonel who kept, "destroying the beauty of things by pointing them out."

Explanations, no. Metaphors, si.
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​Ben and Jerry went to a movie last night. Afterwards, over coffee, Ben remarked, "That was so well designed, so complex, so intriguing. Someone must have created it." Jerry gave Ben a puzzled look and said,"Like maybe the Director?" 

'What Director?' Ben replied, 'I didn't see any Director.' 

Jerry snapped, 'The Director isn't IN the movie. He makes the movie. You DO understand that, right?'

'You're asking me to believe that that whole marvelous world with all those rich characters was created by an invisible man?' 

'You buttwad,' said Jerry, 'You're just trying to lure me into some kind of half assed Theological argument.'

'Yeah, you got me,' said Ben, 'We all know the Director is not in the movie.'

'I can show you the director in real life,' said Jerry, 'you can't show me God in real life.'
'Of course not', said Ben, 'not when real life is the movie.'
​
Jerry sipped at his coffee and scanned Ben with a jaundiced eye. How could you possibly address ignorance of this magnitude?

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