The Great Dharma of 'Row Row Row Your Boat' ~Shinzen Young
This was fantastic unlock this.
Um.
What's your take on this Kitty ditty?
Row row row your boat gently down the stream Merrily Merrily, Merrily, Merrily Life is but a dream.
I learned it in my earlier school years now. I can't get it out of my mind do. You suppose that my elementary teachers might have been latent Buddhists So what that is?
Is that's the wisdom function within you?
Seeing in popular literature, the deeper Dharma mean?
That's really good.
Um.
The.
They once did.
I suppose it's actually been done a lot of doctors, but I know of one study.
That was done by a colleague of mine at Harvard Medical School, many years ago.
All.
Where they gave roshak tests?
Too much of.
Mindfulness meditator's you know about this.
Study down Brown not the damn Brown that wrote the Davinci Code Buddhist and that's a different person.
So.
What they did is?
So OK, let's do psychometric some on monks. You know SE and I guess it was SE Asian. I don't want under the cohort specifically but they were graded by years of experience and there were a couple of them that were.
Reputedly enlightened OK that you know, we're real senior addicts and what they found was that the senior add apps did something with them or shot.
That had never been recorded in the entire history of roar shock.
And lots of People have taken these let's see inkblot test right. You know what it is, you probably taken it certainly seen it on TP.
So what they found among the the reputed our hearts.
Was that that had never been recorded previously?
Is?
Not only did every inkblot appeared to contain some Dharma Principle.
But.
The the sequence of inkblots no matter how they presented the sequence became a coherent sequence of Dharma talks so they concluded that something really major, the way that these People see the world. It's like everything is in the Dharma Marvel comic book is the dark.
So ro ro ro your boat it's absolutely the secret of enlightenment right in there, it's obvious.
You're right.
They were Crypto Buddhist every single one of them.
Or maybe we're just seeing it in a certain way.
And take your choice So what is this song about what does my Dharma I see in this son Rory boat gently down the stream merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.
So what's the stream well that's an interesting.
Ha.
The Buddha said that.
What we're doing is?
Is uh?
Our party so to Garmany Mongo.
Then, what we are on the path that is against the stream.
That's where the name of the group comes from against the street.
OK, but but he saw the party is against so does the street.
So what does it mean means? What we do is against the stream of human culture?
Human culture tends to.
Uh.
Encourage People to put all of their.
Time in enerji into surface or conditional happiness.
And.
Never talks about the skill set associated with total happiness, which would include of course, the deeper on unconditional happiness. So even 2500 years ago, even in the Society of India, 2500 years ago, as far as the Buddha was concerned the society.
Was pushing people in the other direction?
Up.
So, in that sense, we're going against the stream of human culture because the human culture. You know if you learn how to control if you learn the skill of controlling some strings on it, a musical instrument called a tower or you learn the skill of controlling a?
A an elastic inflated sphere.
Call the basketball.
Millions and millions of dollars and adulation and celebrity an you know celebrity sex it all becomes available to you as the result of cultivating those skills so I'll take in a second so how but you know? Is there are there. There's sports awards there's Academy Awards but you know.
Did you see anybody get the the award for the greatest manifestation of equanimity?
Or the longest strong determination, said that's a sub category, the longest strong determination sit by and not Asian.
Those rewards against the stream yes.
No well, I'm actually making a contrast OK. I'm saying that well, we can make different metaphors. I'm going to make 1 just for the fun of it, so the book does said. We go against the stream, but this song says go with the stream right Merilee Merilee, Merilee Row your boat gently down the stream.
So what if we want to make this a Dharma San then we have to find another stream.
But the stream of human culture, according to the Buddha. We have to go against that stream, but is there a stream that we go with that we go down.
When were on this path and I would say that is the stream of nature.
That Enlightenment is just waiting to happen.
It's implied actually in the Buddha's formulation.
The Buddha said.
The Eightfold path.
Is an intervention that removes?
A necessary condition for non perfection.
Implying that the perfection is just waiting to happen. All you gotta do is knock out what's getting in the way so when I said that it is possible that the spontaneity aspect that the Masters speak about maybe that their tasting entropy entropy is the force behind all spontaneous. Maybe not all but.
I'm not.
A physical chemist but
It's it's the force behind spontaneous reactions when things just happen. They happen, because of because of Kemp Trippy. For example, you ever wonder? Why it is if you stretch a rubber band. All you have to do is let go.
And it shrinks.
Well, it's because.
The.
Rubber is made of a lot of different strands is a polymer.
And when you stretch it what you do is you.
You impart in order to those strands.
Which goes and as soon as you let go? It goes back to the disordered state that actually creates a force the spontaneity that just happen in this There's when you let go of the rubber band. There is a just happening nahs.
- It's
Shrinking.
That's the taste of entropy.
It just happens, it goes right down the stream. It falls into existence, so I think that the stream in this Dharma San.
Is?
The natural is the force of nature itself.
That is constantly calling us to enlightenment now you can take a Christian perspective because they say the gods always calling vocal copper location OK.
Whether you can hear the call or not so I think let's take that to be the stream and of course. Merilee merilee means that you that's the happy that I claimed is the one word that describes everything.
Life is but a dream.
App means Featherlight and paper thin.
Which is insight into?
Impermanence and emptiness, but you know the interesting thing is it encourages you to row your boat In addition to just go down the street.
So when you roll the boat, you are exercising control for the OR.
Um.
So do you know what the?
Um.
What the volume?
Why should you have stupid question?
What's the Greek word for someone who rose or control who steers the boat.
But Greek word well, he will recognize it 'cause it's in English, but the person that controls the boat.
Is called the Cooper net ace that's what's given us the word cybernetics also is given us the word governor?
Like in the Watt governor that is a controllers are called governor's like like thermostat OK. It's a controller. It's a government engineering wise, so the encouragement to roll your boat. I would take to mean yes and also In addition to flowing down the stream of of enlightenment.
Exercise control with regards to how you carry yourself in the world.
So the entire Dharma absolutely correct and like I say I am sure that this was intentional part of the school teachers in the 1950s, mostly were Buddhists.