UnbornMind Zen

Posts Tagged ‘Ascesis’

Don Mak The outstanding feature between these major thinkers from diverse spiritual traditions is how they both employ the negative-way to drive-home their Weltanschauung. Nāgārjuna downplayed conventionalities in their reliance upon other dependent structures thereby betraying their lack-of-self-substantiating truth rendering them void and essenceless.  The nada as found in John of the Cross also bespeaks the limits of human faculties (Intellect, Memory, Will) that, in the face of the Unborn Read more [...]

Evagrius Ponticus (b. 345 in Ibora; d. 399 in Egypt), was an ascetic-theologian monk and is considered to be one of the most outstanding intellects of the fourth century. Seemingly destined for a brilliant ecclesiastical career, he chose the more radical option of fleeing to the desert in Egypt and living at the monasteries in Nitria and Kelli. This move was necessitated after engaging in a brief extramarital affair: Evagrius fell in love with a married woman of the aristocratic class, but even Read more [...]

For some time now this blog has been presenting the Way of the Unborn through different modalities: Within Yogic parameters the The Yogasūtras of Patañjali and The Bhagavad Gita portray the ascetical discipline necessary in which to put to rest the appetite for carnal things within which the Unborn can be approached freely and unobstructed. The Lankavatarian Book of the Dead, The Tathāgatagarbhatārā Tantra, and Notes from the Iron Stupa comprises a Tantric Trilogy which encompasses Atiyoga, Read more [...]

For Evola ascesis was disassociated from morbid religious connotations, those negative self-afflictions that Nietzsche found so revolting—a sickness of the soul. What is needed is a return to its original impetus: The original meaning of the term ascesis – from άσλέω, "to train" – was simply "training" and, in a Roman sense, discipline. The corresponding Indo-Aryan term is tapas (tapa or tapo in Pāli) and it has a like significance: except that, from the root tap, which means "to Read more [...]

Our next series will be an exegesis of Julius Evola’s masterful work on Early Buddhism: The Doctrine of Awakening. Of special interest for Lankavatarians is his treatment of the Ariyan Spirit, one that is reinforced through a proper understanding of ascesis, one that is totally divorced from standard westernized notions of extreme mortification of the senses. For Evola, the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold path (ariyamagga) is also far and away from corrupted western misconceptions, in particular Read more [...]