♦ ♦ ♦ Yes Yes AKASA LEVI - Updated PROFILE - 5.17

♦  ♦  ♦ Yes AKASA LEVI - Updated PROFILE - 5.17 ♦  ♦  ♦ Yes

AKASAI - PROFILE - STORY The Chinese Curse "May You Live in Interesting Times"

My sincere Aspiration

was always towards

unobstructed exploration --

in the open space

of the Momentariness

of the Experience itself ~

To Be Directly With the

Last Living Buddhist

Meditation Teachers

of the Pre-Global Era --

-- most passed on now.

PROFILE
AKASA LEVI - Updated PROFILE +

"May You Live in Interesting Times"

♦ Once Upon a Time,

Long, Long Ago --- 
Long Before the Sun, the Stars 

and the Earthly Seasons

Marked the Time,

Before sand and water-clocks kept time, before wind-up, mechanical and analog clocks kept time, before digital and electronic devices kept time, and even a time when people just didn't have any time to have a good or a bad time, or even a time when they had too much time -- or just outright, they had No Time at all. Maybe this was actually the Beginning of Time -- a Time before Time. They Began to Find Time. Sorry to see the Time go as quickly as it does -- but it seems Time is a non-entity. Time is just an IDEA formed out of ‘conditioned’ particles in the mind - there develops a notion about Time. It’s about Time. Time Itself-- in reality doesn’t even exist. But it seems to, appears to-- so NOW does. It is always Now. Simple as That. An ever perpetual, ever changing, ever present Now. Be Here Now and you can be available anywhere here Now ! If this was a particular cluster of contemporary Interesting Times you were recently reincarnated into -- as The Chinese Curse story suggests -- some believe, you were reincarnated / born again / rebirthed to have a materially obsessed life-time to reconsider some kind of totally exasperating, low self worth, anxiously depressed, semi-conscious, banal incarnation. That would depend on your young soul / old soul development so far. Just more or less “Contributing Conditioning Factors”. What’s In Your Wallet ?  

The Buddhists suggest that maybe part of your ‘consciousness energy’ just hasn’t broken up yet, hasn’t officially died yet-- hasn’t gone along so rapidly corrupt as with the faulty failing body - in short, you haven’t actually died yet. “Contributing Conditioning Factors” --EveryTHING that goes into making the body’s electro-magnetic pixel-energy fail --and will go where their naturally biased energy-direction is ready to continue to fail --or flourish, Mental-energy conditions for Mind’s growth development --now hook up with a new ‘Body’ potential and become a show-business person and create a brand new, mental ‘identity’, the pixel personality of a person in a growing child. Learning ability will follow. Or so I imagine, A Loaf of Bread, go figger ! Other, more supportive conditions for life-style energy factors that lead to living with your new run of mandatory  ‘language’ ability, your pleasant or unpleasant expressive emotional ‘tone’, and your ‘mood’ stabilizes somewhere between manageable and unmanageable, all energy factors now continue to be available as a person-- in the form of human-level mental chatter, vocalized to have purposeful meaning to another ‘tuned-in’ person using language for communication. Is this being Safe ?  Leaving behind the current complementary Bread and Circus swag - A Loaf of fresh warm Bread when you enter the Colosseum stadium to watch the gladiatorial carnage-- and a loaf of warm bread when you exit the Colosseum - bread in bread out and a loaf to take home. Fox Sports or ancient Rome. And here you are Now, back on The Eternal Carrousel of The Great Chaotic Unrest -- Again -- Again until you finally drop your body and completely let go your Attachment to Existence itself. You finally drop Dead. Here in the feral state of the late 60’s living on East 65^th Street, a short walk for a woman’s visit to my place from just about anywhere. Manhattan in the Sixties had this Breakfast at Tiffany’s look played into a Woody Allen script with lots of brownstone cozy charm. So here I’m making TV commercials with the elegant Rabbi, Herb Freed, A Rebbe-- Go figure ? My taupe linen suit coat from Bloomies is wearing thin, my dark hair getting shaggy, a moustache getting rakish, a dynamite roach in my pocket for a quick toke. I was definitely very full of my 20-something Self. Buddhism addresses this idea of a Self. Are you sure there even is one ? Yea Yuppie America !.

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BTW: This Bogus Tale, as a writer friend would say, is told of course, in the First, Second or Third person tense, grammar at the author’s lazy whim -- the writing being unapologetically amateurish -- you know, the My Trip Abroad type stuff, but the intent to offer a personal homage to myself, my ego’s head swelling is with good natured ‘attitude’. I’m gradually packing up this incarnation setting to vacate this long enduring Gift of a rent controlled Santa Monica apartment due to an eviction notice from a Dr, Parkinson’s current namesake Grim Reaper. Time is a fleeting and I have very little time bordering on no time to really do a splendid edit of my solipsistic Life-material here--  as Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, and incurable. Thanks for your interested patience. Enjoy. 5.17

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

Here Goes….

♦ This is all about Akasa Levi - that’s not my birth name, and that was the name I was grounded with and sent to my room with no TV -- now a self-defined, charming yet curmudgeonly Jewish mensch of a man from Hewlet, Long Island and Far Rockaway NY --a few blocks from the lively summer Beach scene and the 34^th Street Boardwalk. Immediately out of college I couldn’t get a job in the City as I was 1A-draftable. No potential employer would hire an employee that they’d soon loose. So I served willingly in the U.S.Army 63-to-65, gaining some savvy from the older men, actually in the unit with the infamous Col. George Patton Jr, himself -- Stetson cowboy hat, twin pearl handled .45 caliber revolvers, and "the smell of napalm in the morning". What a narcissistic prick. Upon my honorable discharge from service with The First Division / 81^st Armored Battalion, I was packed full of a newly found Sixty's vitriolic war protest anger, So in '68 I up and abandoned the creative elitism of New York City, and a socially seductive Breakfast at Tiffany’s lifestyle. Yuppie turning Hippie ! I traded 'Madison Avenue' chic for the steamy river deltas and mountain jungles of Asia. Sarongs replaced suits and ties.

I must take another hefty time-jump here -- a sort of backwards and forwards move-- avoiding some barely understood, un-metabolized as yet ‘Lost Years’ --so that by 1975, I became an officially ordained Buddhist Novice Monk -- and then six years a mendicant Sadhu in “beggar-man’s” orange robes with an alms bowl in the mid-70's walking the deep back-country, in a still very pre-industrial rural Asia. Bollywood hadn't been invented yet.

♦ As an American Monk I was re-named Akasa -- Trained and ordained into the Buddhist Theravada monastic Amarapura Order of The Triple Gem by the beloved and revered 'Bhante' Nyaka Thera Balangoda Ananda Maitreya and Kassapa Maha Thera in Upcountry Kandy, in Sri Lanka's lush Bamboo Forests. Both Monks are now deceased - Bhante Ananda at 102 --Yikes ! See BBC YouTube “Footprints of The Buddha” Earlier, my first novice robes were given to me under the actual Bodhi-Tree itself, in the small donkey and buggy desert village of Bodhgaya India. (fuller ordination story coming)

♦ At an auspicious pre-ordained (pun) moment of a traditional ordination -- in the most sacred Buddhist vortex on the whole Earth -- under the very same Holy Fichus Tree ( The Bo Tree ) the Buddha himself sat imperturbable during the final abusive trial of his totally letting go of totally all of his self created, self generated attachments-- into an exquisitely empty, self released, self aware state of kind, compassionate, illuminated, ultimate mental completion and contentment. A state of ground-shaking closure for Gautama on the last leg of his journey of becoming The Buddha-- it was a'fete Accompli -- For me It was an exhausting afternoon since dawn of an awesome overwhelm, Holy-tensions that were almost psychotic. For several moments I myself was Done. I was so very Here ! -- 100% At-one-ment for a timeless atonement moment, amidst a 25 hundred year old epic back-story --and here I was walking in tandem alongside all the Buddhas that have ever been -- as the karmic parallels of my own journey just kept eternally paralleling, narrowing and narrowing -- I was so There... I almost wasn't anywhere. I almost didn't exist !  Yup, so here I was a freshly ordained hapless monastic novice standing awkwardly under a tree-- this was not my opulent country club Bar Mitzvah, this was no big Indian food extravaganza, no celebration with mala garlands of flowers, This was just about as NOTHING special as one could get. Oiy, just little Jewish me. And yet, that ‘Nothing Specialness’ -- that Negative pole of Emptiness energy was so awesome in it’s absolute Absentness. Emptiness-power itself --  if one can handle it. Yet it all was just no big deal: It was me who asked for the ordination. My subjective request. The visiting pastoral Monks that come here to Bodh Gaya with their Buddhist temple patrons --they come and they go during 2500 years of an unbroken Buddhist practice tradition to be liberated and free thru self-compassion for oneself. Another day in Samsara, another ordination on Monk Row, another Bodhisattva Buddha wanabe out there in the universe getting ready for lifetimes as the next enlightened One in Bodhgaya India, the Jerusalem of Buddhism. Maybe see it this way: I was the one who self-elected to do this thing - to become this ordained novice monk -- all my choice, All the Venerable Elders did was give me a metaphorical bus pass. The rest was my small cache of books, and carrying around the academic stuff still in my head, and my battered yellow umbrella under the brutal tropical sun -- but most of all, the object of my monastic affections -- was my iron alms begging-bowl -- my daily livelihood and actual physical well-being depended so strongly on it. A Bowl. Many times I had to go out in the rain house to house and beg food with my bowl, or wash or dye my robes in my bowl with a terra cotta earth stone called gay’ru. Oh, that wonder-filled bowl -- I’d bucket-bathe under it, wash vegetables in it, and stuff it with my other blanket-sized outer robe in it. When traveling, all I could carry was my blessed begging bowl and a carry-on about the size of a smallish duffle bag.  Life as a monk is sort of an end of the line spiritual scenario. I was technically Homeless. Mostly, I asked for this ‘Contributing Conditioning Factor’ to enter my life: I requested it. It fit only into ‘My Subjective Story’. The monks, they ordained me - and then they went home. Sweet, calm, quiet monk smiles from the three Elders in attendance there. Not exactly sensational. Just another moment of Now. Again, No Big Whoop. Done -- Next please. I was  once again on my own as a member of another wandering mendicant sect-- I remembered my Jewish Hibraic history of my family that probably also goes back a few millennia. For now I needed to secure my robe’s undergarment sarong. So here t am newly ordained, trying to tie my bottom robe on, and the damn thing keeps slipping and sliding and wouldn't stay up, I’m almost on the verge of loosing my monk's sarong - leaving most of my wet robes in the dye water-- and me almost bare-assed under the most sacred tree in the world !  What would my Jewish GrandMa say ? "You can come home now Mr. Buddha". (more ordination story to come / no secret teachings imparted)

• Previous to this final 'anointing' ( there's only two monastic tiers - samanera / novice monk and bhikkhu / senior monk ) which all monks enter into with the Greater Maha-Sangha -- only on the basis of one's years of ordination or Seva / service, Rank is by your  'Time' and not with how much inner spiritual 'attainment' one has been developed. Observe and Listen -- No one really knows who has ‘achieved’ or ‘attained’ specifically What spiritually.  What --- In Theravada early Buddhism It's a don't ask - don't tell issue.  (more)

♦ Going backwards: Akasa Levi was a Gelugpa Vajrayana initiate  and temple gardener for Geshe Lama Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu in Nepal during the early 70's - Lot'sa "Big Love" - Digging big holes with Lama Yeshe - Urinating on tomato plants with Lama - Moving giant rocks with Lama - Having Lama's dogs trample my garden many times - Seeing Lama's herd of young kid Rinpoche incarnate monks hitch up their burgundy robes and actually fly off a windswept hill up into the air on windstormy nights off the Gompa's meditation hall high steep steps. Then there was November Courses with Lama in '73-75'. There was Bodhgaya with Lama - Dharamsala / Tushita with Lama - Lots of Laughing with Lama, and him laughing at me - London with Lama - The North Umbria Priory with Lama - Los Angeles with Lama - It was truly a Big Love Affair with one’s teacher, of course, and supposed to be that way. That cult-like 'passion' that matures in Good Hearts and leads to Wise and Skillful Self-Compassion and Loving Kindness. In 1982 Lama died here in LA. Lama Thubten Yeshe was 54. Certainly, If you need to have a Root Guru assisting you in steering your Practice, I am so grateful to have been introduced to Lama way up a steep Solo Kumbo mountainside near Namche Bazzar. Loss is a Life inevitability. I experienced deep loss. For now my thoughts and feelings need me to be silent. Thanks, Reader.  

♦  Later on, I became a resident Vipassana student to learn 'Mindfulness' practice directly from the renown Anagarika Munindra Barua, a sweet and nimble man, the leading teaching-master of Satipatthana Mindfulness in Bodhgaya, India where the ancient Bodhi Tree still stands giving 'Refuge' to all newbie Bodhisattvas to come • 1975-76: Also at this time I relished my annual monsoon seasons of non-duality practice in satsang under the wild and notorious ‘Bede Baba’ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in India's Mumbai slums in Old Bombay -- where they make huge copper pots and hammer sheet metal all day - while we try to meditate -- that was jolly good training. Maharaj was India’s leading and most renown teacher of Advaita Non-duality meditation practice. We'd have scores of sores on our heads from the apples and oranges he'd throw at people daily. What an adorable, brilliant, cantankerous, chain smoking old man. Bede Baba --He was the real deal, That !

♦ The Bhikkhu monks and lay teachers of Sri Lanka were very, very good to me -- Nyanaponika, Kassapa, Godwin, Lilly, Fernando -- and the precocious Henri Van Zeyst way up in Kandy's Bamboo Forest.• Bhante Piyadassi gave me singing and voice lessons • Back then, these revered teaching Elders often had a sort of side specialty in the tribal arts, sand mandala or poetics - and laughing - besides some serious academics and meditation guidance.  Yet they were able to offer visiting westerners the most precious Gift of All Gifts that they could -- the Gift of the Dharma --  the next best gift was an invitation to stay on for extended practice training. ... Time at the right time - rent a local room nearby the teacher, where it's common for lay teacers to mentor at their and continue 'practice' whatever that means to you. "Your Practice is IN your Life, your Life is IN your Practice" -- mid 70's •  BTW, all these special teachings may take several lifetimes to comprehend --and one can still be a jerk • Akasa’s sincere aspiration: To Be Directly With the Last Living Buddhist Meditation Teachers of the Pre-Global Era --most passed on now.

"That's the last of 'em, Luke -- Yoda was for real". 

♦  To complete his BA / MA - 59' thru 62' - Akasa attended SUNY Harpur College, State University of New York, Binghamton University • Now returning from a whole 70’s decade abroad, Akasa studied 'Why' and 'How' -- Who's on first, What's on second - through the overly aloof, way above the roof, intellectual intricacies of Western psycho-dynamic analytic intersubjective therapy at UCLA. I was left yearning for something simpler and much warmer • He currently guides "Mind-FULLY" Awakens Awareness and Mindfulness Meditation + Buddhist Insight Therapy at The Laughing Buddha Sangha on 14th Street's Zafu Row • Coaches a ZEN•MEN peer group • and he offers Buddhist-based Individual counseling and Insight therapy • Akasa's Sri Lanka monastic affiliate in LA is the  Dharma Vijaya Buddha Vihara under his decades long old friend from The Maha Bodhi Society in Calcutta, Bhante NyakaThera Walpola Piyananda.

♦  Akasa now a feisty 76 - finds himself not a proper academic, but more of an out on a limb improper 'experience provider' -- he has an odd, sort of awry, happy Doubter's Joy in his altruistic, aesthetic, atheistic approach to the Dharma. At heart, Akasa is a vulnerable old school Bohemian from a NYC art-based family, that can be a perpetual nud'nik to the gravitas of established Buddhist composure. At times, truly without a clue about his own genuineness, a fragile identity, an authentic 'Not knowing' What he is, maybe play acting the curmudgeon, or maybe the Fool card - in that he didn't like the other lay-life choices offered anyway. Maybe he was the original Zelig.

• To counter his delusive Bewilderment, he's continually serving up generous Seva ( service ) by creating lots of weekly pro-bono available time for basic heart to heart and hand holding of people in pain. He’s really funny, an eccentric Grandpa Dharma - and a respected BuJu tribal elder. K'vetchy by genetics, but not too creepy, a flamboyant old rogue, he's definitely an acquired taste like Thai shrimp paste.

• Seriously: Akasa is into nourishing the many 'contemplative' vocal aspects of the emerging 'heart-wisdom' poetry revealed in a student's use of developing dharma vocabulary words -- mentoring a maverick “iconoclast intelligence” in the students and people he treats, teaches, counsels at his little meditation shrine room near the beach, filled with Dharma books, tribal masks and ritual objects, and cool calm statues of the ancient Buddha.

• Akasa Levi, an emeritus-level senior meditation teacher in the Theravada lineage, guides us into the cognitive/empirical Felt Sense Awareness of a Sati-awakening present moment -- fully self-caring, fully self-aware training in his mindFULLY approach. Akasa knows that by building on Self-inquiry and meditation practice skills, you can effect a calm, fearless and loving, meaningful, noticeable difference in yourself. Akasa is known for his spontaneity, wise ready warmth, and wry unpredictable humor. 

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

" Kindness " is more

important than ' Wisdom ' -
and the clear recognition of this -
IS the beginning of Wisdom "  

~ Theodore Issac Rubin

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

" You don't get enlightened -- 

it is 'enlightenment' itself 

that gets enlightened." 

----------------------------------
"May You Live

in Interesting Times"

_/!\_

with

palms joined

Nama'ste

Here’s a Former Buddhist Monk’s

Somewhat ½ Awakened Profile

Not For Profit Donations Accepted

Bless the Thought that Finds You Well  

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

Akasa  Maitreya  Levi

The Laughing Buddha Sangha

Mindfulness Practice Satsangs

The First Wave Meditators

• Asia1970’s   
Come Study the Dharma of Mindfulness

The First American Old Timer's Sangha
who Practiced "Mindfulness" in India

when the Vipas’sana teachers were alive
Private "Mind-FULLY" • TEN•Satsang Group
Santa Monica CA 90405 • 1-310-450-2268

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

Please, SCROLL Back Up FOR PROFILE

A Journal that Needs Recounting, as this

sort of fragile material is only momentary.

You too can search out Buddha-natured

happy people of similar good intention --

but the paper in the books we studied

abroad have turned brown -- Hurry Up !

We DO wish to Name-Drop our Holy assets

-- accessible, yet educable in your own way.

Back in The Day Before You were Born --  

 Meditators simply sat, breathed, observed.

Everyone then had bottoms just like Now.

We Practice Mindfulness in Santa Monica.

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

-:¦:-  Buddha Big Bro • Dharma Stories • To Go

"May You Live

in Interesting Times"

Well, Not TOO Interesting !

Why ? ~ Why Not.

---end---

♦ AKASA LEVI - PROFILE - STORY

_/!\_

with

palms joined

Nama'ste

Here’s a Former Buddhist Monk’s

Somewhat ½ Awakened Profile

Not For Profit Donations Accepted

Bless the Thought that Finds You Well  

 PROFILE

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

Akasa  Maitreya  Levi

The Laughing Buddha Sangha

Mindfulness Practice Satsangs

First Wave Meditators • Asia1970’s
Come Study the Dharma of Mindfulness

The First American Old Timer's Sangha
who Practiced "Mindfulness" in India

when the Vipas’sana teachers were alive
Private "Mind-FULLY" • TEN•Satsang Group
Santa Monica CA 90405 • 1-310-450-2268