♦ An Open Door -- AKASA LEVI - post / page

Snippets  on 
the cutting room floor

♦ A Very Ancient

Always Open Door 
The Best Solid Core
The Bodhisattva Tree
Gives Shade for Free
A Lintel Worn Bold
On Wisdom Threshold
A True Portal of Gold
A Gate of Kindness
A Rafter of Strength
A Refuge You Hold
See, Chill Not Cold
You're Not Too Old
For Bodhi Company
Aum Dharma Sangha
or So I've Been Told
Balance Pure Space
By Equanimity's Grace
You Now Hold Solid Gold 

Intro --

_/!\_

with

palms joined

Nama'ste

 A POETIC Sweetened PROFILE

• ♦ Akasa Maitreya Levi
The Laughing Buddha Sangha
Mindfulness Meditation
The First Wave Meditators • 1970's   

♦ Come Practice with the Old Timer's Sangha

that Studied Mindfulness Meditation in India

Back in The Day Before You Were Born ! 

Now Guiding "Mind-FULLY" and ZEN•MEN 

  Santa Monica CA 90405 • 1-310-450-2268

-------------------------------------------------------

.-:¦:-   Big Bro • Bio Profile • To Go

-----------------

According to
Sir Charles...
We’re Living In
a Most Alarming
“UNCERTAINTY
of TIMES” ~
MINDFULNESS
Awakening-Practice
Has Your Back !
-------------------------

It Was The Best of Times -

It Was The Worst of Times

It Was The Age of Wisdom -

It Was The Age of Foolishness,

It Was The Epoch of Belief -

It Was The Epoch of Incredulity,
It Was The Season of Light -

It Was The Season of Darkness,

It Was The Spring of Hope -

It Was The Winter of Despair,

We Had Everything Before Us -

We Had Nothing Before Us,

We Were All Going

Direct To Heaven -
We Were All Going
Direct The Other Way.

In Short, That Period
Was Just Like
The Present Period.

----------------------

Sir Charles Dickens
 "A Tale ofTwo Cities"

a British novel (1859)
---------------------------

" Ma -- They Vetted Me " !
--------------------------------------------------
" Profile / Sch'mo-file,  
I told you to tell 'em
Absolutely Everything

-- and did you ?...

Now you go back

in there and...."

 

♦ An INTRODUCTION: "Pointing Towards"...
About this Home-made Blog-site collection:
I promised I'd make it a more accessible, tangible 'Work in Progress' of my own novice writing progress. I've never done this 'memoir' thing before ~ So here goes... plz read patiently and tolerantly. 

WHY ? and HOW COME ? I became a Buddhist Monk ? 
'How' did this great and persistent 'intellectual' inquiry of mine re-create itself into a high functioning 'intuitive awareness' ? Where 'intellect' morphed into almost becoming 'indigenous' by me going 'native' -- 'How' did that 'come' to be ? -- to just disappear from my former life, friends, parents knew not where - vanished into the misty forests and mountains of Asia ? ( this was the top of the line of running away from home - I always wanted to do that to them -- Hostile, Huh ?)  How did you get interested in things Buddhist ? "Interest" is a prime motivating 'conditioning factor' here - Interest like a lover must be ardent-- and very curious. It's  in the web pages here enclosed. How come you became a Buddhist --and a Monk yet ! Why'dya do that ? --for the backstage pass to it all, really. But you were still so Jewish !!! How could ya' switch over ? --Well, there's a lot of identity issues involved here as you can see: go to the page titled "The Self" -- People always want to know what motivated you -- to see how that fits into their head -- well, at first when I was living in Israel I wanted to study to become a Rabbi and Schlomo told me to go to India first and loosen up my Soul. Could I really do that ?? Nah... But I did.

A somewhat tone of Urgent Concern -Sam'vega carries me forward now as I know the Body of Time and the Body of Flesh is fleeting-- so this thrown about tale, this loose, non-academic exploration, almost an awkward schoolboy's account of an off the wall investigation that led me to an organically deeper truth-inquiry within -- and a maturing of my odd, little kid size anomaly of a quirky peculiar personal story.
'Peculiar' it is: so I'll apologize first in these first few messy in-work paragraphs that'll top this thing off with really bad grammar and a biased point of view -- as it jumps the fence of first second third-person tense - recklessly, irresponsibly: as you read, who's talking ? It's ALL me talking, or you on about me, or there's also a name dropping narrator out here somewhere. 

Best of all, Worst of all -- it's all about Me. I'm here in sunny Solipsistic Town as self-obsessed and self-involved as anyone can get -- actually Not True. Which begins to lead me again with a sincere gravitas -- to the serious purpose of this whole loose bag of a blog---  this site is meant to be a sort of mystical Pass of the hands, or a Mudra, a teaching Gesture of the fingers like those bronze Buddha statues that are "Pointing Towards"something ---and this is my initial intent for being here on your screen, to make these Great Road Trips within easier reach for you to eat Saag n' Subgee at my favorite Indian rest stop on the Benares Trunk Road while hitch-hiking to Calcutta on 18 wheelers. ( 1972 )

If you ask "Which Way ?" -- hopefully you get answers  that include a "Pointing Towards" -- But Firstly, Why was I even Here - back There - back Then ? -- When I was smaller. I was fascinated with objects Asian since a child quietly drawing while sitting on my Granpa Max's library floor on a little red Tibetan saddle rug on top of the last of the old Chinese medallion rugs, on top of a vast and never ending Persian carpet that could almost fly. In a pixelated Universe I thought visually and remembered life in textures. My , Dad was a big time big brass and copper pot collector. To me, he cautiously claimed to be an agnostic when I was eight, but by the time I was approaching the 13th Year Hebrew boy to adult male right of passage -- I knew that he knew, that I knew that he was an atheist -- and that I was confused.

To get right to it: I had to know, I didn't like not knowing. I started off with a simple but seminal question: Is there an authentic, wholesome, sound and stable, true, benevolent and universal spirituality 'element' that coalesces into the various individual, indigenous culture based Religions. And, of course, is there a God. By now I am a professional Seeker. I am doing a Spiritual Inquiry: I want to know things. It visibly began when I was eight and I asked "Could I See It ?"  Could I plumb the depths, the density of it ?" Simply put: is Religion and Spirituality and even God -- is it all Real ?  -- you see, there's a PURPOSE to this shaggy dog story, which is Oiy ! OK here's a Hint - It's the Original One that got me out the door and on my way. Actually I should say The Way !  

Apologia --
I Give Thanks and Grateful Appreciation to several friends - and of course, myself, that this old Notebook Journal of my journey even got assembled -- as I've got more pressing considerations, so they say, to give my attention to at 76 -- like the # 1 item in our home is composing my Advance Health Directive, Living Trust and other grown-up gravitas stuff like that to do -- maybe 'cause I'm still in Stage One foot dragging in Denial / Anger about my recently diagnosed Parkinson's Disease ( Dis-at-ease.)
~ Surprise, Blindsided, I didn't see it coming ! 

Parkinson's --
It's brought the whole felt-notion of 'Death' itself so truly close as a 'supreme inevitability' -- that in of itself, it pales in it's very own presence.

I just don't have the time left to tell it:
So I'll give you Links
-----------------------------------------------

"To Me, It is ALL Metaphorical ! 
Metaphorical is Metaphysical:
It's all the same. Humans dream...

Metaphorical ~ The Stories Prevailed
The Stories prevailed. The Healing stories, the Hunting and Battle stories, the Tribal Family stories, the Mystical and the Spirit stories of real Seasons and those Old Ones now gone. The stories come with Magick and Dance called Ritual. Stories are powerful Tellings. Some tribals have lost their people's stories. Often they now Suffer. Stories are ALL Meta / phor / ical. The high Metaphors were skillfully created in the timeless, indigenous Human mind for their social media value for the support of their very own cultural wellbeing. What will survive ?
The "Existential" people -- both metaphorical metaphysical modern people in tandem hand in hand with both experimental experiential Seekers disguised as khaki cargo pants Academics - who leave after a chilly laced lunch hearing accounts of the blood curdling, while meditating in the forest. Yes, It's ALL Metaphorical -- it all started with a story about an Empty Place.  Math and Business machinations never were my forte'-- yet the 'Creatives' find me and ask me. Deep inquiry into the Unfamiliar does provide $ustenance for the Non-ordinary, Uncommon person. Literally, it's been a wonder-filled esoteric Life streaming by --right here in amongst the ordinary dharma of the everyday world's massive consuming mall, as it's always been. "Buy Low, Resell High, Flip and Feed Your Family, Then Feed Your Mind," pondering body/mind contemplations on the details of good thought and appreciative actions. Sutra stories and folk tale scenarios crafted in metaphorical Buddhist art, confusing zen conundrums, and the poetic sacred words of the honorable Heart. Like the Tarot's Fool card true to the role of a Yogi Poet Dharma Bum -- I'm just an Old Hippie (1941) and always kinda' loving it ! moving it !... Nowadays I meet with new people drawn here by their own soul-felt needs. And the Chakra of Life eternallly turns. "I am Poor Bastard yet Blessed" -- Odd, Huh... • Levi    

'Search' -- James Hilton's 1939 film "Lost Horizon", an Indiana Jones of it's day strongly influenced Akasa by the repeatedly persistent presence of 'The Search' for Wisdom Elders, sacred 'power objects' and human liberation from suffering.  'Search' as an umbrella theme explored in G.I.Gurdjief's "Meetings with Remarkable Men" 1927, and Paul Brunton's "Search In Secret India" 1931 -- these innocent and romantic pulp non-fiction adventure stories motivated Akasa’s sincere aspiration in going into the uncharted --and be willing to get entangled in the fascinations of Indra's Net in the first place... So Where did he go and what did he do ? --- there is more to come, but with the Answering process - just like the Questioning process - is up to the reader, adventurer, seeker -- facilitated by the Search.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Akasa Levi’s original motivated intention was to visit with a very special, now extremely endangered, almost extinct 'spiritual species'-- and a sincere and developing heart-felt aspiration of his was:
To Be Directly With the Last Living
Asian Buddhist Meditation Teachers
of the Pre-Global Era (most passed on)
Akasa's 'actual' Meetings with these 
Remarkable Holy Men face-to-face -- 
was still a relative subjective Reality
that was seemingly totally Real
for that moment of experiencing.
The proof is I still posses intact, 
my well worn and road weary
old-style passport stamped
into story time oblivion.
That was 'Real' Enough for him.
Off he went on his way --
a solo Traveler all on HIS very own
improvised way towards 'The Way
( 1968 Europe/Mideast somewhere
-- The Big Bippy was yet to come ) 
------------------------------------------ 

Caveat Emptor
Given Akasa's Way -
an askew True Being:
A Bogus Rogue in
Buddha's Nature for 
Fraudulent Tricksters.
So someone thought
this cheeky Big Bio is 
rumored to be snarky,
affected, self-effacing,
flamboyant and funny.
So it is.

----------------------------------

 Big Bro • Poetry • To Go
 Mentors Mindfulness Therapy
 "Mind-FULLY" and ZEN•MEN 
 ------------------------------------------------------------

About MY "SELF"

I'm A Construction,

Fabricated
Out of My Own
Wounded 'Idea'

of A "Self"
--------------------------

" I Didn’t Get

Enough Love

As A Child "   

-------------------------
I Became
a Famished
Mad Poet
How Come ?
-------------------------
Everybody
Elsewhere,
Everyone
Everywhere,
------------------------------
Knows About Certain
Dreadful Things called
"Undesirable Deficit"
Everyone Else Knows
That To Be Undesirable
is Not Desirable.
is Not Lovable.
------------------------
Actually,
Maybe Desirable, 
Maybe Wanted
Just a Little Bit -- 
Just 'Not Enough'
Bodies Laughing
Touch Warm Skin
but Me Not Held -  
And That Left Me
A Very Needy
Grumpy Little Kid. 
-------------------------
The Curse of 
'Rejection' and 
'Just Not Enough'
Karma: Genetically,
Purely Choiceless,
It Strikes
Any One
Any Body
Any Where  
Any Which Way
Six Ways to Sunday

Any Damn Way,
ANYWAY -- Needy,
Angry and Confused.
The Loba, Dosa, Moha
Dark Mother Mantra cries
--- Sad n' Scary, Huh ?

--------------------------------
'Cept If You Teach 
Yourself To Love
Yourself, First --
Compassionately 

and Buddha roared 
" Hey You -- 
It's Gotta Be
YOU First ! " 

-------------------

So I asked -- 

"Which way
is The Way ?
The Way
Outta' Here ?"
You Mean
The Real Deal--
The Big Bippy--
Self-Realization to
the Emptiness of Self

------------------------------ 

"So Which Way
is The Way ?
Someone Pointed
n' said confidently
"That-a-Way" and
He Pointed East.
-------------------------

"Which way
is The Way ?

Phenomena Come and Go and Ebb and Flow
as Centuries of sometime Time Lines pass
-- and Monks with Exotic Spiritual Names 
having honest to God ancient mystical
incarnation lineages that never ever died---
as I deeply soak into kind, loving eyes merge
with a smiling little nut brown forest dweller
who's been happy almost for ever -- and 
that's the Way in some Pacifica place
they're monastery-made in a gracious 
silent flurry of a hurry as they scurry
like a happy house full of enabling
Bubbies and Aunties
with big soup spoons 
----------------------------

‘All-the-time-Awareness’

-- then I was stuck on the freezing Beach 34th Street boardwalk with a hot potato k'nish in what's now become greasy cotton gloves solidifying in the bitter cold bite of a Far Rockaway NY snowy winter... Uncle Carl's up in Woodstock in all that snow wasn't that cold like this...

-------------------------------


The Lotus has its roots in the dank dark mud,

Grows up through the cloudy deep water,

And finally rises to the surface.

It blooms into perfect beauty and purity in the sunlight.

It is like the mind unfolding to perfect joy and wisdom.

~ Lotus Sutra

" What is accepted by the majority of people ~

 does not mean it is Real " ............................ ~ Buddha

" One common mistake

is to think that 'your' reality is THE reality.

You must always be prepared to leave

'your' reality for a greater one." ............ ~ Meeraji 

 

" Only in quiet waters

do things mirror themselves undistorted.

Only in a quiet mind

is there a more complete perception of the world " . ~ Hans Margolius

 

" Good timber does not grow with ease.

The stronger the wind ~ the stronger the trees." .. ~ Willard Marriot

" The Greatest Risk Is Not Taking One "  

 
~ end ~