Today’s Oracle takes us to the Aries monthly for Dec. 1, 2004.
Nothing is really normal right now, but somehow everything is normal. In the hydrodynamics of your soul, there is a rush of energy flow being created by Mars retrograde, which is likely to be revealing how complex and contradictory you are. At least there’s nothing subtle about the observations you’re making — in other words, unlike usual, you can actually see and feel contrasts that normally just disappear into the mists. If one of the highest forms of living is to actually express the core of one’s being, there must be something sacred about including your contradictions and twists of consciousness and in any sane definition of love.
Note, The Oracle is a random selection from the Eric Francis horoscope archives. Each day we publish one entry from among the 10,000 in our database. It’s a little slice of horoscope history — but chosen by our Oracle program, which always speaks to the present moment. New horoscopes are published each Friday plus twice a month in Planet Waves subscriber edition and Planet Waves Light. And for your 2012 annual reading, you’ll find Revolution. Revelation. Reality Check.
and to you as well, Mystes.
Ciao,
Paolo
Paolo,
Awrighty then. Glad to hear it, albeit this is a little different from your first post responding to the issue of a) anger and b) the character and (ahem) location of the PP.
I didn’t (and would never) ask for your papers. I’ve had plenty of people wave them under my nose in the past…discovered that while you are proclaiming (or hiding) ‘lineage’ a whole bunch of other stuff wanders around unattended.
So. Happy Equinox. May the Great Anger (MahaKrodha) and the Great Compassion (MahaKaruna) always and ever override each other. “Thus the View is obtained.”
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Prego my dear! So glad…
thank you Huffy for sharing your experience. That was very helpful to me, and I think we come from similar paths. Thanks for the article too!
While I appreciate and love the Dalai Lama, I don’t follow his teachings. While I prefer not to talk about my training, which has been unconventional, the last few years have taken on a visceral and more encompassing experience. For those insights, I am deeply grateful beyond words. So, I have nothing but my direct perceptions welling up from Perfect Wisdom that *is*. There is nothing more Real.
Thanks all of you for a very lively and intriguing discussion!
Thank you, most kindly, Huffy, Paolo and Mystes!
Dawn,
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
M
Paolo,
Your presumption is that I work with T Buddhists. I do not. I don’t have even the tiniest bit of interest in their institutions, competitions and a/theologies.
The Prajnaparamita (*Perfecting* of Wisdom) is not an unadulterated or ‘pure’ or singular bobedyboo any more than any other existential pattern that has been theorized by a religious structure. Right now, It emanates from the GC cause Ah sez so. When Tenzin Gyatso ~for example~ says otherwise, that is true for *his* method of engaging that asymptotic (non)boundary.
My training is direct. There are awakened beings in every single round millimeter of existence, and they are *dying* to help. Religion is frou-frou. You deserve the Real.
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And thanks to Dawn..!
Great debate, Mystes and Paolo! Think it’s really important to acknowledge our anger, especially if it is suppressed, anger is energy, and as we know, if it is suppressed it can result in depression. I grew up with two very angry parents, and it took me a lifetime to be able to stand up to my mother, to have the courage to roar back at her (she’s a Leo), and in so doing I made contact with my own fiery nature, and our relationship transformed into a loving and honest one. However, now that she has dementia, I can’t roar back at her any more. I did so last August, and it distressed her terribly – because she seems lucid at times, but her mind is confused and afraid, and my anger was too much for her. I also realized that if I felt safe in my boundaries with her, I wouldn’t need to use anger. That my anger springs from fear. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with anger in itself – but like all emotions, if we stay with it and study it, without grabbing the nearest hatchet, it leads us to a deeper understanding of ourselves.
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Buddhism/2000/11/Transforming-Anger.aspx
Thank you Mystes for going into that with greater detail. I completely agree with you when you say “their epithets and their siddhis is a lifelong pursuit” and that *one* has to “stop reading and start using direct perception”. I would challenge the view though that “She is also emanating from the GC.” Prajnaparamita doesn’t emanate from anything in form (or a place), nor is the form something that emanates from her. In this way, any anger that is separate from stillness is clouded by subject/object reactions, based in duality, gain and loss, fear and attachment. The expression of anger is no longer constructive but destructive. It becomes an agenda. Many lamas/practitioners female and male are on huge trips thinking they can do whatever they please because they haven’t realized this foundation. They exploit the ignorance and neediness of people and ride them, throwing the crazy wisdom teaching at them whenever possible, instead of the better teaching: Choose your teacher wisely.
I completely disagree about: “I would say that this is true for men. They often do require a monastic or military structure to deal with their innate anger…”.
All my comments were gender neutral as we each have an equal propensity to neurosis. My observation regarding monks (in this case) has been that there was too high an emphasis on monasticism and military like structure and that families rushed their son’s off to monasteries to gain status (under the preoccupation of gaining as much merit as possible), and perhaps an education. What the families and lamas failed to recognized in blindly following these social customs, is that they deprived their sons of the care and influence of their mother and the mother principle on an early boys mind. Things like respect, softness, compassion, gentleness, nourishment, etc. were replaced by a dogmatic regime that only served the social standing of the monastery as a dominant role among people. There was never a fair balance shown to the girls, hence the gross disproportionate number of monks to nuns. So to suggest that men need this same institutional military like structure to deal with their anger is imo the very fatal flaw in actually helping them heal this internal rift, and healing an outdated system of learning. And I’m sorry but Tara practice everyday at 4am (surrounded by a room of yelling men) is NOT a suitable replacement for one’s mother.
Thank you for this opportunity to debate!
I wrote…
“That’s why the Mahayana Buddhists get such a hearty catch when they throw out the ‘anger is samsara’ net.”
And then Paolo wrote:
“Any wrathful deity or expression becomes samsaric or worldly (and thus destructive) once it leaves stillness.”
Thank you for providing such a complete illustration of my point. I would say that this is true for men. They often do require a monastic or military structure to deal with their innate anger, and most of their theologies enveign against the expression of anger. I am seeing this more and more clearly now that I am raising a son.
*8^}
Paolo, there is more than one way to skin the cat. Yes, the Prajnaparamita is the *also* called the Mother of the Buddhas. She is also emanating from the GC. In the Mother Tantras, both the consort of Yamantaka (Destroyer of Death) and the consort of Heruka is referred to as the MahaKrodha. Honestly, I first discovered the textual reference to this back in 1992, so can’t pull the chapter and verse out of my ear, but I found it in a text by Guiseppe Tucci or Benosh Bhattacharya or David Snellgrove. Those were three I was reading most closely that year.
When I read it, my hair literally stood on end. As for the crosspollination of Buddhist and Hindu tantric deities, well that’s pretty much a truism now. There have been no firm lines between them … ever. To imagine there ever has been is a Western affliction.
If you’d like an audience with Her –the MahaKrodha Mother of the Buddhas, the quick path is to work with Troma – the Nyingma lineage protector. She is not only easy to find, she’s a hoot to work with. (Tell Her I sent you and She’ll charge you (bzzzt!) double).
I’ve been a practicing tantrika since I was 15. I am now way way way older than that. The scholarship on tantric deities, their epithets and their siddhis is a lifelong pursuit, but at some point you have to stop reading and start using direct perception – generally available after the first 72 hours of a closed (very closed) & intensive retreat. I highly recommend them, in whatever flavor you like. Ask the question there.
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Dawn, thank you for expressing yourSelf! You are an energetic manifestation of the Universe which seeks fulfillment in how you express yourself.
Mystes, I am not familiar with Mahakdrodha nor have I ever heard her referred to as Mother of the Buddhas. Do you have some info you can share on that? From my knowledge, Mahakrodha is an emanation or aka Ashta Bhairava (specifically another emanation being Krodhana Bhairava). This is primarily a Hindu wisdom tradition.
The Mother of the Buddhas is traditionally referred to as Prajnaparamita. Herself the embodiment of Emptiness/Luminosity. She is beyond any notion of being characterized as this or that, using words or descriptions, beyond form and yet the very form itself. Anger as skillful means is never absent from stillness, is completely imbued with emptiness, is never outside it. Any wrathful deity or expression becomes samsaric or worldly (and thus destructive) once it leaves stillness.
ooohhh… i’ll think about that distinction. thanks, dawn.
Yes, Amanda, connecting with how the recipient would feel about it has kept me from expressing what needs to be said, so to save their feelings. Not sure this is entirely healthy.
However, I’m trying to learn that I am not responsible for how others feel. Someone could take the info constructively or choose to feel hurt. It is a choice.
Men don’t edit their thoughts/words nearly as much as we do! They are not concerned with how another man might *feel*. Not that that means one should be unfeeling or mean, but it does mean that we should express our dissatisfactions, backed up with data to support them, or else risk harboring these negative feelings and unresolved issues within our bodies/minds.
And I’m sorry about not making myself more clear as to what the irritation was about. When I think of spiritual, I think only of what my higher self and/or angel guides know about my True Self. To me, astrology is a tool to understand this current life’s construct, not necessarily the Source of Knowledge about my Soul.
ahh — thanks dawn! sorry to misconstrue — i consider astrological advice to be one form of spiritual advice, hence i made the wrong conclusion.
glad to hear you were able to express and release your anger. for sure, that is something i have often struggled with, along with how to handle being on the receiving end of someone else’s anger.
Mystes, Yes, it may be perfectly acceptable, in the West, for men to express anger. Women, however, are reared to be good little girls. Expressing anger isn’t part of acceptable female behavior, along with expressing sexuality and any number of things. Keeping our lights under a bushel, as it may be.
Oh, Amanda, not angry at Eric or Planet Waves! I would have written astrological advice, not spiritual advice, if those were my thoughts. I’m disgruntled/making observations about something outside this wonderful arena.
I have written to the person with whom I feel I have been shortchanged, so the anger is released.
dawnbrocco: just curious, since i’m not 100% i catch the drift of your original comment here:
are you angry that the oracle-of-the-day is generic and random, in addition to being filtered through eric’s personal lens?
or are you angry that the horoscopes and articles that people pay for — not the oracle-of-the-day, which is free — are not personal readings, and are filtered through eric’s lens?
or are the things you are angry about separate from planet waves and the oracle and eric’s horoscopes?
thank you for clarifying!
Dawn, my understanding is that in the West we are taught that anger is GOOD, healthy, necessary, manly. Whoops! did I say “manly”? … *8D
That’s why the Mahayana Buddhists get such a hearty catch when they throw out the ‘anger is samsara’ net. Cause we’re drowning in wrath, and in ways so pervasive and continuous that we barely remark it. Goes along with drowning in lust, since they are two sides of the same coin.
Occasionally the coin lands on its edge and one can see that clearly. Most of the time one side obscures the other. I think this Oracle addresses the moment when the edge flickers by. But really, it’s not an edge, it’s a line of subduction.
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Yes, Mystes, “Anger” is one word for a whole bunch of different states. Like ‘snow’ for eskimos, it behooves us to parse those distinctions.”
As an Aries, I am fire. Anger and action are my natural states, as is passion. When my anger sleeps, or is quelled, my essence is being denied. Allowing myself a voice for my anger awakens my energy, my me-ness, in the same way as putting my passion into cooking, gardening or lovemaking, or enjoying my passion for color. I love myself by allowing my anger, just as I love myself by being creative, kind, and caring.
We’re taught that anger is bad, which I think is confused with aggression. They’re not the same and one doesn’t necessarily need to lead to the other.
Yes to this, Dawn: “Thankfully, my best way to heal and get in touch with my passionate energy, and therefore the answers I seek, is to get pissed off. Anger is my friend, as it prompts me to action. Hold it inside and all it does is cause depression, hopelessness and then illness.”
“Anger” is one word for a whole bunch of different states. Like ‘snow’ for eskimos, it behooves us to parse those distinctions. In the West, it helps to remember that the very first word in Western literature is ‘anger’: Θυμός referring to the wrath of Achilles. The mother of the Buddhas carries the epithet “mahaKrodha” – the Great Anger.
The wrath of Achilles is not the Great Anger of the Mahakrodha. Hers is reflective only. Pulsed by only the nanovolt of energy that it takes to establish reflection, then she enters Sunya or great stillness.
But in the West we have established aggression as the wild overture to desire, so we swing back and forth between them, almost not noticing when one has become the other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44cH_T8-lbA&feature=related
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So, Aug. 8, ’03 and Dec. 1,’04 are recurring oracles for yesterday and today (9/20 and 9/21, ’12). Nonetheless, complex and contradictory – you bet!
And the observations I’ve been making/seeing – that no matter the source of the spiritual knowledge, it comes cloaked in that person’s ego and agenda, colored by their own focus. Few seem to know how to, or wish to, detach their egos from the process.
Not completely providing info that is geared *just for the other person*, but is more a fill-in-the-blanks, generic model, complete with blanket assumptions. This is one thing when the cost is little to none, but when charging big bucks to be of spiritual service to others, eh, the expectations are that the info matches the outlay of precious funds.
Thankfully, my best way to heal and get in touch with my passionate energy, and therefore the answers I seek, is to get pissed off. Anger is my friend, as it prompts me to action. Hold it inside and all it does is cause depression, hopelessness and then illness.