The Simile of the Hard Drive: Vertical and Horizontal Development

I just posted a new essay at kennethfolkdharma.com:

kennethfolkdharma.com/2011/10/the-simile...izontal-development/

Discuss!

"For horizontal development, there are many resources available. Psychology, philosophy, hatha yoga, body work, a conscious recognition of your own limitations, and above all, regular contact with community and wise advisors are but a few of the many ways to broaden your awakening even as you climb the ladder toward buddhahood."

My Lama told me once when speaking of the Mahayana: we are here to serve. Boy does service hurt when mental and physical pliancy aren't present. I liked this post a lot.

Awesome analogy Kenneth. About 4 months ago I started see the mind as a hard drive myself, noticing it's storage and comparison ability, rather than the CPU tag it is usually credited with in the common nomenclature.

regards
Andy

I would say that the measure of our horizontal development is our usefulness to other people and the community as a whole. One small insight that I have recently had is: what use is my own realization if I am not able to transmit it to someone else?

That skill is one of the most valuable results of deep personal realization and no vertical development in itself will enable person to transmit spiritual teachings to someone else in an inspiring and meaningful way.

Thank you Kenneth for your dedication and admirable skill in this regard and for setting an example for all of us.

Ah, thats interesting. I wrote something very related into my log the day before yesterday, maybe somebody can get something out of it: buddha gave different kinds of teachings to different kinds of students:

The first group love to solve problems for themselves, have a rather technical worldview, feel well when they are alone and have a sceptic approach to all kind of promises and dreams. the dominant factor of their experience is isolation, from the divine and other people. life is change and change is problematic. Their experience shows that most things are disappointing and loosing fascination after some time. when they walk the streets they see the ill beggar, the crying toddler and the dog ******** on the streets, when they enter a bar and see an attractive person they feel their inhibition or think: beautiful but in the long term all relationships are unsatisfactory. their main tendency is to reduce things to the essential, to get in contact with the divine, they are ascetic. for them it is best to work with balancing shamata and vipassana. their emotional circuits don't provide them a fair amount of pleasure or a good ratio of pleasure/pain. so when they stop meditating and run on their own software things tend in the direction of suffering and pain. the small vehicle is the best for them (theravada/AF). They are self liberators.

in this case it seems best to get rid of the software (psyche/affective life) at all and run on the hardware (bodyfeelings and the physical senses). they skip the software. the body can live without it and it will be more pleasant for them this way (if one trusts the reports). the ego in this case didn't contribute at all to enlightening experiences.

The second group is living in states where pleasure is prevailing pain. they have gotten enough and parents who were not busy with themselves but open and aware of the kids. therefore there is a natural trustfulness in their environment, they know that there is enough here for everybody and the experience is that in essence the world is good, even if problems can appear from time to time. things will turn out good somehow, if we take care for each other. emotional surplus can be created and brings the wish to share with it naturally. its not because of moral obligations. they like to be touched, sexuality is mainly satisfactory and they love to be with friends, are receptive for common goals and working together, like to fool around with kids and animals. they have a talent in identifying with others and feel instinctively what others feel. they feel lonely and miss other people when kept in isolation. if such one sees somebody attractive his interest will overweigh his fear and contact is made by itself. if you are the one who is making a joke when everybody is discussing, this is your home. you trust in the world and don't think the universe is a perfidious invention of illusions to torture its inhabitants with endless suffering if they don't become superhuman.

in this case your emotional life contributes to your enlightenment and it is better to utilise it. makes progress faster (mahayana/mahamudra). your emotions will transform into benign versions. of course emotions have a somehow illusory quality, evolution invented them to create motivation and to make illusions come true, create activity. they are made to manifest the not existing, your own ideas of partnership, home, an ideal life, the world. therefore they assisted survival and are still here. the development here includes the emotional life and via your emotional relationships all the people that are related to you. this acts as a multiplicator of enlightenment.

a social system is more stable and effective than a single person alone. it will rather survive and create change. one man is not fast, strong or dangerous compared to animals, the reason why he is on the planet is his ability to identify (with somebody or an idea) and to work together.

LocoAustriaco, that reminds me of a factoid from Kevin Kelly's book Out of Control; a bee has a memory of 6 days, the hive has a memory of a month...

link: kk.org/outofcontrol/contents.php

Some people focus too much on diet and neglect the equally important role of stuff like participating in a community, having fun, sleeping enough, getting exercise, etc. This excerpt from an essay by the integrative medicine practitioner Chris Kresser seems relevant. The title is "There's more to health than food, and there's more to life than health."
chriskresser.com/theres-more-to-health-t...-to-life-than-health
"What I've observed in myself, in working with patients and in almost 20 years of meditation practice is that each of us has a significant blind spot or area in our lives where we lack awareness and insight. As a crude analogy, let's call this a weak link in our chain and assume that the chain represents health.

"Most of us invest the majority of our time and energy strengthening the parts of our chain that are already strong. These stronger links are where we feel comfortable and confident, where we can operate safely within the bounds of who we think we are.

"And this is where the problem lies. No matter how much we strengthen the links in our chain that are already strong, if there's still a weak link the chain as a whole isn't stronger. It can break just as easily.

"A better approach, of course, would be to focus our efforts on strengthening the weak link. But that is much, much harder to do. Why? Because it usually requires us to step out of our concept of self and challenge our very identity. It asks us to grow and evolve and shine the light of awareness into the dark corners of our psyche. This isn't something that happens overnight. It's not as simple as popping a pill or eliminating nightshades from our diet. It's a life's work."

Could it be that there's more to development than meditation, and there's more to life than development? Maybe vertical development is the weak link in the chain for some, horizontal for others?