Happy Lunar Bodhi Day!!! We had quite a snow storm a few days ago. Well, well. It's been quite a year. After my Bodhi Day service, I had a "bodhi moment" found in my daily Zen reminders I set up for myself. Almost 20 years ago, I found a site listing some good judo sayings. … Continue reading Happy Lunar Bodhi Day – Jan 18, 2024!
Category: Zen
Rev. Hanamoku’s Christmas 2023 Message
We are problem solvers. We're thinkers. That's the schtick of our species. We don't need to depend solely on eons of evolution to patch the holes in our life strategies. We must train our brains to think as well as train our brains to perform valuable tasks. However, society places a premium on focusing on … Continue reading Rev. Hanamoku’s Christmas 2023 Message
Certainty
"Four plus three equals three plus four" is what the interviewer kept repeating as her guest spoke of seemingly hocus-pocus ideas about consciousness. She was struggling with his concepts that didn't align with what she's used to. She insisted to herself that there are things we are absolutely certain about - mostly math and science. … Continue reading Certainty
Stoicism, Zen, and the Gift of Sentience
What is more Stoic and timeless than granite? Like many, I grew up thinking the word "stoic" or "stoically" was just an adverb that mostly means standing full on to the battle seemingly fearless with grit and determination. I didn't know that it is a rich school of philosophy, from which, "stoically" is much more … Continue reading Stoicism, Zen, and the Gift of Sentience
The Illusion of the Hockey Stick Curve
The result of constant change, occasionally massive disruptions, and fundamentally yielding to what is. The panoramic scene above represents the culmination of billions of years of natural processes. The photograph can only hint at the awe and wonder I experienced, standing atop a high plateau, contemplating this vast expanse of time and space. The thriving … Continue reading The Illusion of the Hockey Stick Curve
The Eternal Fishnu’s Favorite DALL-E Portraits
The Eternal Fishnu and I had fun playing with OpenAI's DALL-E-2 this weekend. It's very fascinating to see what he looked like during his manifestation as the ith Buddha during the Devonian. For the one person who hasn't heard of DALL-E or ChatGPT, DALL-E is an A.I. that generates images of whatever you describe and … Continue reading The Eternal Fishnu’s Favorite DALL-E Portraits
My Dharma Talk with ChatGPT
I spent many hours over the past Holiday season talking to ChatGPT. After one session, I was so impressed with its ease of use and answers that it was clear A.I. did reach a new level. It's certainly not "THE SINGULARITY", but it's now good enough - even after the current over-hype eventually fades - … Continue reading My Dharma Talk with ChatGPT
Bodhi Day Hack
The Rubber Ducky Buddha of Joliet and The Eternal Fishnu looking out at a vast chunk of space and time abstracted in about 10 million pixels. This Bodhi Hack is full assimilation of some form of this well-known quote that has reached cliché status: "The more you know, the more you realize you don't know." … Continue reading Bodhi Day Hack
Sentience without Sapience
The Rubber Ducky Buddha of Joliet blends in with the fleeting Autumn moment. If we’re alone in the woods hiking with only nature to capture our attention, our thoughts eventually fade into the background. It's like conversations people are having in the distance are just a blend of sounds. We can't stop that guy in … Continue reading Sentience without Sapience
Reality
Bodhi Day is about the realization that enlightenment is the omnipresent understanding that our human perception presents a highly-distorted reality. Our human perception distorts what is a continuous and eternal process into fragments of things and time. We see the Universe as a graph of symbols and relationships. This symbolic-based human perception isn't a flaw, … Continue reading Reality
Bodhi Day 