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#1529 - Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - Editor: Joyce (Know_Mystery)  

Angel_Cradling_The_Earth

                           Angel Cradling The Earth

                  Painting by Helena Nelson-Reed

"About The Artist

Helena Nelson-Reed is an American artist specializing in fine art watercolor painting, pencil drawings, fine art illustration, private/commercial commissions, and portraits. Helena's collections portray a visionary world focused on positive, feminine archetypal imagery. Each painting offers the viewer a portal into their imagination, tapping ancient wellsprings of knowledge and emotion. These collections portray a world filled with light and shadow..."

http://www.fine-art-studios.com/

Music: Hope from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Panhala/

 
Alan Jacobs  ~ RamanaMaharshi   From "The Garland of Gurus Sayings"

413

Birds in the air and fish in water
Dart and leave no track behind.
So none can see the path pursued
By those that journeyed towards the Self
And gained it .
 
~ Muruganar after Ramana ~


Marilyn ~ OmniConscious & Laurence Ranson, Photo

   
Bodhi_Tree

Bodhi Tree

 

Photo by Laurence Ranson

 


The Zen Teaching of Huang Po
On the Transmission of Mind


The first part of this selection is taken from John Blofeld’s introduction to his new rendering of this ninth-century Chinese Buddhist classic. [Selections included in Nancy Ross Wilson’s The World of Zen.]

"All Buddhists take Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment as their starting point and endeavor to attain to that transcendental knowledge that will bring them face to face with Reality, thereby delivering them from rebirth into the space-time realm forever. Zen followers go further. They are not content to pursue Enlightenment through aeons of varied existences inevitably bound up with pain and ignorance, approaching with infinite slowness the Supreme Experience which Christian mystics have described as "union with the God-head." They believe in the possibility of attaining Full Enlightenment both here and now through determined efforts to rise beyond conceptual thought and to grasp that Intuitive Knowledge which is the central fact of Enlightenment. Furthermore, they insist that the experience is both sudden and complete. While the striving may require years, the reward manifests itself in a flash. But to attain this reward, the practice of virtue and dispassion is insufficient. It is necessary to rise above such relative concepts as good and evil, sought and found, Enlightenment and unenlightenment, and all the rest.

To make this point clearer, let us consider some Christian ideas of God. God is regarded as the First Principle, uncaused and unbegat, which logically implies perfection; such a being cannot be discovered through the relativity of time and space. Then comes the concept of "God is good" which, as Christian mystics have pointed out, detracts from His perfection; for to be good implies not being evil -- a limitation which inevitably destroys the unity and wholeness of these things, for He transcends them all. Again, the idea of God as the creator of the universe suggests a dualism, a distinction between creator and created. This, if valid, places God on a lower level than perfection, for there can be neither unity nor wholeness where A excludes B or B excludes A.

Zen followers (who have much in common with mystics of other faiths) do not use the term "God," being wary of its dualistic and anthropomorphic implications. They prefer to talk of "the Absolute" or "the One Mind," for which they employ many synonyms according to the aspect to be emphasized in relation to something finite. Thus, the word "Buddha" is used as a synonym for the Absolute as well as in the sense of Gautama, the Enlightened One, for it is held that the two are identical. A Buddha’s Enlightenment denotes an intuitive realization of his unity with the Absolute from which, after the death of his body, nothing remains to divide him even in appearance. Of the Absolute nothing whatever can be postulated; to say that it exists excludes non-existence; to say that it does not exist excludes existence. Furthermore, Zen followers hold that the Absolute, or union with the Absolute, is not something to be attained; one does not ENTER Nirvana, for entrance to a place one has never left is impossible. The experience commonly called "entering Nirvana" is, in fact, an intuitive realization of that Self-nature which is the true Nature of all things. The Absolute, or Reality, is regarded as having for sentient beings two aspects. The only aspect perceptible to the unenlightened is the one in which individual phenomena have a separate though purely transitory existence within the limits of space-time. The other aspect is spaceless and timeless; moreover all opposites, all distinctions and "entities" of every kind, are here seen to be One. Yet neither is this second aspect, alone, the highest fruit of Enlightenment, as many contemplatives suppose. It is only when both aspects are conceived and reconciled that the beholder may be regarded as truly Enlightened. Yet, from that moment, he ceases to be the beholder, for he is conscious of no division between beholding and beheld. This leads to further paradoxes, unless the use of words is abandoned altogether. It is incorrect to employ such mystical terminology as "I dwell in the Absolute," "The Absolute dwells in me," or "I am penetrated by the Absolute," etc.; for, when space is transcended, the concepts of whole and part are no longer valid; the part is the whole -- I AM the Absolute, except that I am no longer "I." What I behold then is my real Self, which is the true nature of all things; see-er and seen are one and the same, yet there is no seeing, just as the eye cannot behold itself.

The single aim of the true Zen follower is so to train his mind that all thought processes based on the dualism inseparable from "ordinary" life are transcended, their place being taken by that Intuitive Knowledge which, for the first time, reveals to a man what he really is. If All is One, then knowledge of a being’s true self-nature -- his original Self -- is equally a knowledge of all-nature, the nature of everything in the universe. Those who have actually achieved this tremendous experience, whether as Christians, Buddhists or members of other faiths, are agreed as to the impossibility of communicating it in words. They may employ words to point the way to others, but, until the latter have achieved the experience for themselves, they can have but the merest glimmer of the truth -- a poor intellectual concept of something lying infinitely beyond the highest point ever reached by the human intellect.

It will now be clear that Zen Masters do not employ paradoxes from a love of cheap mystification, though they do occasionally make humorous use of them when humor seems needed. Usually, it is the utter impossibility of describing the Supreme Experience which explains the paradoxical nature of their speech. To affirm or deny is to limit; to limit is to shut out the light of truth; but, as words of some sort must be used in order to set disciples on to the right path, there naturally arises a series of paradoxes -- sometimes of paradox within paradox within paradox.

It should perhaps be added that Huang Po’s frequent criticisms of those Buddhists who follow the more conventional path, cultivating knowledge, good works and a compassionate heart through successive stages of existence, are not intended to call into question the value to humanity of such excellent practices. As a Buddhist, Huang Po must certainly have regarded these things as necessary for our proper conduct in daily life; indeed, we are told by P’ei Hsiu [who recorded the teachings] that his way of life was exalted; but he was concerned lest concepts such as virtue should lead people into dualism, and lest they should hold Enlightenment to be a gradual process attainable by other means than intuitive insight..."

http://www.selfdiscoveryportal.com/arHuangpo.htm


Choo Meh Wah ~ BuddhistWellnessGroup

Start Where You Are

This is an interesting point, to be able to see what we do without hating ourselves. This can also be a description of maitri- loving-kindness. We could see what we do with honesty but with gentleness. We could see what we do and experience the big squeeze. It's the realize that that's our first experience of the big squeeze. Its the path of a warrior, seeing what we do without turning it against ourselves.

This slogan about liberating yourself by examining and analyzing simply means, as with the slogans "Don't be jealous," "Don't be frivolous," and "Don't wallow in self-pity, " that the first step is to see yourself jealous, see yourself frivolous, see yourself wallowing in self-pity. You think to yourself, "Well, what would Dr. Seuss do in this situation?" Instead of using it as ammunition against yourself, you can lighten up and realize it's the information that you need in order to keep your heart open. If everybody on the planet could experience seeing what they do with gentleness, everything would start to turn around very fast, even if we didn't get to the second difficulty.


From START WHERE YOU ARE by Pema Chödrön, © 1994.
Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.


Gary Merrill ~ ConsciousnessIsAll   

Consciousness Is All

Consciousness is likened to gold.

Gold may be formed into anything but intrinsically, beyond any form,
gold remains gold.

Further, if all is gold, if all is consciousness, it cannot know
itself as such, because there would be no non-gold, no
non-consciousness by which to compare.

These words, these thoughts, these imaginings, this computer, these
sensations, are all consciousness. This can only be true because there
is no exception.

You are consciousness, you are that. There is no you and
consciousness.

This Consciousness is synonymous with Oneness or Totality.

The illusion is that there are separate objects and subjects, things
and people. Such illusion being compounded by attribution of qualities
and judgements to things as being good or bad. This illusion is also
Consciousness.

It cannot be said to exist objectively as it is all existence.

It is love in that it is unconditionally all and one and knows no
other.

Love
Gary


Pete ~ AdvaitaToZen & Helena Nelson-Reed, http://www.fine-art-studios.com/

 

   

 Field

 
 

Painting by Helena Nelson-Reed

http://www.fine-art-studios.com/ 

        

Paradise Recovered  
Try pure perception. You know, the way you used to see as a child. You might think you can't do that any more, but yes you can, and do, if only for a few seconds. If you try that when there is nothing better to do, an old new world might be born, a paradise lost might be recovered.
 
 
 

Steve Toth ~ TrueVision

EXCUSE ME

The times are always changing
     but not enough
to make a difference
     in the way I still want you
     How can I keep silent
when at every moment my life
     keeps interrupting me
with new ways to talk about you?
Words give us something to fill in
     the gaps in our realities
while the real conversation is going
     on all around us

Where is there a world for us to move into
     that life hasn't already
     popped like a balloon?
If it isn't a matter of what we believe
     but a matter of what is
then why believe anything at all?
Some words are more like ideas
     others are more like things
but none of them are to be believed
We don't have to understand to experience
     Space is a time machine
     & so we keep moving

When the wind picks up its music
     all the trees in the forest
quicken the tempo of their dancing
Let the wild seeds get carried away
     The future is always racing with the past
but neither quite makes it to the present
We don't have to know where we are
     to be where we are
We can be dreaming
     & not know we're asleep
Are you sure we're awake?
     Excuse me
I thought the sun was shining
     but it's you


Shawn Hair ~ Nisargadatta

Just " I "  

I just found this new talk by Cee. I think she is great. I
resonate...what can I say?
  )))Shawn   Here is an excerpt:  

It is important, therefore, to discriminate between this pure Being
in deep, deep meditation and some little flutter of arising. That
first arising is the arising of an "I." If you can discriminate really
finely, right there, between Being and arising, you will
understand creation, because that is the moment of creation,
right there! And you create it yourself! No one else creates it! It is
the "I." That is why we go deeply into our own sense of "I"
because right beyond -- or behind, we could say -- the "I" is that
pure Existence, where there is no individualized "I." This is the
bottom line. This is really all that ever is.
 

So it is a matter of looking into "I." Whatever you think "I" is, if it
seems to be a body, inquire, "Who is aware of that body?" If it
seems to be a thought, a movement, or an energy that seems to
hold that sense of identity, inquire, "Who is aware of that identity?
Go deeper and deeper into the Existence, itself. The Existence is
never an object. It is always the subject. So you go deep, deep,
deep into, you could say, the "feeling" of Being. In this way, you
eliminate all the objects that are illusory and binding. It is not that
you have to annihilate or kill the ego. It is simply that the ego is
not really there. You see it as an object and you know it cannot
be true, because who is looking at that ego? The clearer you can
look at the ego -- well, see if you can look at the ego! [Laughter]
Who is looking? Like that.
 

http://presentnonexistence.com/transcripts/ajata.htm


Scott Reeves ~ AwarenessTheWayToLove

"What is the highest act a person can perform?"

"Sitting in meditation."

"Wouldn't that lead to inaction?"

"It IS inaction.

"Is action, then, inferior?"

"Inaction gives life to actions. Without it they are dead."

Anthony de Mello, SJ


MORSEL:  Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of
human life. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
~

 


Helena Nelson-Reed

Field
 
 

Rhiannon by Helena Nelson-Reed

http://www.fine-art-studios.com/

        

Rhiannon
Birds were sacred to Rhiannon, a Welsh goddess. For love, she left the realm of Faerie in order to wed a mortal, and in doing so, forfeited immortality and eternal youth. The birds remained her beloved friends and messengers throughout her life in this earthly dimension. Rhiannon is the embodiment of the holy spirit of the land, sending us gifts of healing, grace and balance. We receive them when we choose to walk a healing path upon her, living in a mindful manner..   ~ Helena Nelson-Reed ~

yickkenghang ~ Sangha  

Seven Elements of Enlightenment  

Of the seven elements of enlightenment:  

(1) discernment,
(2) joy and
(3) vigor are in seeing,   while (4) ease,
(5) equanimity and
(6) concentration are in stopping;  

(7) mindfulness is in both.  

~~~ Chih-I ~~~


The Shape of Song
 
"What does music look like? The Shape of Song is an attempt to answer this seemingly paradoxical question. The custom software in this work draws musical patterns in the form of translucent arches, allowing viewers to see--literally--the shape of any composition available on the Web. The resulting images reflect the full range of musical forms, from the deep structure of Bach to the crystalline beauty of Philip Glass. 

Pink_Floyd_Time

Pink Floyd: Time

 

 http://turbulence.org/Works/song/data/92/http___www.tooninn.com_pink_Time2.mid

   
 
Bach_Brandenburg_Concerto

Bach: Brandenburg

 

 http://turbulence.org/Works/song/data/4/http___www.bachcentral.com_brandenburg_BRAND2.MID

About the artist
Martin Wattenberg is a New York-based digital artist whose work centers on the theme of mapping information. Recent pieces include Apartment, with Marek Walczak, shown at the Whitney's Data Dynamics exhibit and on the Turbulence web site, and WonderWalker, also in collaboration with Walczak. Wattenberg also works in the field of financial data visualization and is known for the SmartMoney.com Map of the Market. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from U.C. Berkeley."

  http://turbulence.org/Works/song/
More from Martin Wattenberg: http://www.bewitched.com/  


Ben Hassine ~ NDS  

Van and Krishnamurti/some lite infotainment ;-)
As one might guess from the a careful listening to some of Van Morrison's lyrics, there is a connection between Van and Krishnamurti. The book Krishnamurti: 100 years by Evelyn Blaugh contains a quote from Van Morrison (page 237):
 

Although I came across and read Krishnamurti's books in the early 1970s, I only heard him speak once, at Masonic Hall in San Francisco. As far back as I can remember I have been influenced by religious and philosophical works and I had a big change in my state of mind just prior to discovering Krishnamurti's books. His philosophy corresponded to what I myself was going through on an inward level. I feel the meaning of Krishnamurti for our time is that one has to think for oneself and not be swayed by any outside religions or spiritual authorities. Some time ago I wrote "In the Garden" from my album No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. Part of the lyrics are:


And then one day you came back home
You were a creature all in rapture
You had the key to your soul
And you did open that day you came back to the garden

  The song concludes with:  

In the garden, in the garden, wet with rain
No Guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the Father in the garden 


Two Canyons Series   Pinhole camera images made in the Columbia Gorge, in Washington, and the streets of Manhattan, New York City http://www.halcyon.com/cif/Kingfisher/Photo/Pinhole/blue.html
  "Project description:
This project was an effort to identify and expand the boundaries of personal intuition through a narrowly defined set of conditions. The object was not to restrict the imagery, but to provide it with an environment where free operation of the intuition would be not only possible, but necessary.  

The elements were established as follows: The Camera was a pinhole camera. Two versions were used, both of a similar design involving a pinhole optic off-axis. These cameras do not photograph what is directly in front of them as the center of the image; the center will be either considerably higher or lower than the horizon depending upon whether the camera is used right side up or upside down. The camera is also one that sees an extremely wide angle. Thus it is impossible to employ any kind of a "finder" for the photographer to know what is being taken in. This must be learned intuitively, and worked out in notes and drawings. The cameras differed in size; the 8 x 10 inch camera was used in the Vantage Washington images, a 4 x 5 inch camera was used in NewYork City.   Strict orientation to the horizon and to the plumb. Thus, the perspective, despite the extreme eccentricity of the camera, will appear absolutely normal and ordinary. Any appearance of oddity in the perspective will result from our inability to see things from a perspective that the camera can in a particular instance.   Two locations, involving extreme social differences but certain structural similarities, were employed. These were the area in and around the Columbia Gorge near Vantage, Washington, and the urban context of Manhattan, New York City. While apparently very different, both of these locations consist largely of stone and have few trees. Both have canyons. Both have strong vertical structures.   Light drawings were added to each image before development by drawing with a light pencil using a camera mounted matte box. Thus, each image has an area where drawing may take place. There is a strong accidental element here; it is not possible to know for sure what is in the latent image, just where upon the image the drawing area will fall, how the drawing will fit with the subject matter in terms of shapes, line qualities, or brightness. There is a considerable variation in the visibility of the drawing, as well as its specific qualities. Drawing was done through consultation with notes and sketches.   Prints were made from the negatives on hand coated cyanotype paper, using unsized Arches 88 as a support.   The composite image formed through the interaction of the subject image and the drawing. The wide diversity of subject matter and drawing was unified through the intense blue color of the prints, the similarity in formal structure of the images (strong verticals, location of the drawings within the frame, the uniformity of vertical images as opposed to horizontal, deep space, etc.) and certain common subject features (stone, trees, light, etc.).

It was intended that the drawings would admit a certain fracturing of the conventional reality, which itself may be a more or less conventionalized fiction. The suggestion of another element imposed over the top of what we might unconsciously see was deliberate. This could be an analog to the way intuition functions in this world of lists and hierarchies. The result should be the integration of extremely complex collections of material."  
http://www.halcyon.com/cif/Kingfisher/Photo/Pinhole/Twocan.html   More Pinhole Photography: http://pinhole.pair.com/   "Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe? O mighty process! What talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as these? What tonque will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily, none! This it is that guides the human discource to the considering of divine things. Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!"
~ Leonardo da Vinci ~ 


The Gender Genie

  "Inspired by an article in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author."
 
http://www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.html


Joyce ~ Listcology


From http://www.bewitched.com/m/web/atlas.html, a pictorial
representation about what a web community is thinking about.

"Below is a rough sketch of a new type of web atlas. At a basic
level, it is analogous to a world map where the size of each country
reflects population rather than area. The "population" referred to,
however, is not the web itself but rather the people using it. The
result could be considered a map of what the web community is
thinking about.
 

The altas is based on thousands of real queries which users typed
into a popular search engine. I created a program to categorize these
searches based on the standard taxonomy of web-based information:
Yahoo. The java applet at the bottom of the page transforms the
resulting hierarchy into an interactive 2-D map, where each region's
area is proportional to its popularity as a search target. You can
drill down within a topic region for more detailed information on
what we are all thinking about on that topic.

How to use this map:
White rectangles are subject areas.
Gray rectangles are actual search queries.
Click on rectangles to see more detail.
Hit backspace or click on title bar to zoom out."
Martin Wattenberg   http://www.bewitched.com/m/web/atlas.html


Stephen (Bodhibliss) ~ josephcampbellmythologygroup  

Ritual: Who Needs It?
 ...well, who doesn't?
 

I taught eighth-grade math three days this week out in Newman, on the
west side of the valley, a forty-five minute drive through the
country - pleasant, but the earlier rising time (i normally wake at
5:30 on weekdays), and the extra hour-plus on the road each day takes
a toll.
  Nevertheless, i have been enjoying this time alone, on the road. Our
spring weather - sunny and warm - vanished this week, bringing
chilly, biting temperatures and drama in the sky - hail and thunder
and other phenomena of biblical proportions - but i've been cozy in
the car, listening to tapes of excerpts of hours of Michael Toms,
host of "New Dimensions" radio show, interviewing Joseph Campbell in
the seventies and eighties (available, i believe, through Jonathan
Young - mythicstory, on JCMG - Campbell's assistant, and driving
force behind The Center for Story and Research - i believe the
website is in the group's Links, on the panel to the left of this
message if at the JCMG site - click on the Center's link, and check
out The Mythic Book store).
  I've listened to these tapes many times - but one passage in particular caught my attention - for some reason, i was moved to
rewind and listen again, and again, to Campbell's words in response
to Toms' question, "What is the significance of ritual?"
 

From memory, Campbell's answer closely followed this vein: "Ritual is
the enactment of a myth - and myth is the projection of the depth
wisdom of the psyche. By participating in a ritual, you participate
in a myth - and by participating in a myth, you partake in the wisdom
of the universe, which after all,is inside you."
 

I'm sure this paraphrase is a little off, but catches the gist of
Campbell's words. Of course, he's speaking of living rituals. I
notice that many people today disparage ritual - perhaps because the
rituals we're most familiar with don't seem to speak to the soul
anymore - flat, favoring form over substance. Campbell identifies the
Catholic mass in English as one such example, as opposed to the high
mass in Latin, which conveyed majesty and mystery, a rhythm to potent
syllables, poetry lost in the mundane English translation.
 

Many of us have experience with rituals that were nothing more than
obedience to rote and repetition - nothing animated, inspiring,
ensouled - but a means of enforcing control. Sooner or later all
rituals fade, as they lose their connection to nature and lived
experience, becoming concrete, rigid...
 

Ritual takes many forms - but the point of ritual seems to be to open
a portal and pitch us past surface realities into an experience of
the depths underlying the world we perceive with our senses. Ritual
allows us an experience transcendent to, yet in harmony with, that of
the physical senses. A living ritual has a numinous, dream-like,
surreal component - "participation mystique," Jung, Zimmer, and
Campbell call it. Ego breaks down, and one's sense of self often both
dissolves and expands beyond individual identity. Like in a play
(drama, come to think of it, having evolved from sacred rituals), we
suspend our disbelief, and participate in the myth
  .

..and then we return to this world, like waking and remembering a
dream, bringing with us a gift, a tiny draught of wisdom...
 

I participate in many rituals, personal and collective: daily
meditation; writing down and interpreting dreams; drawing a tarot
spread and/or tossing the I Ching on birthdays and at cardinal points
of the year (plus a daily three card spread); years of attending
Grateful Dead concerts (which Campbell likened to the ancient mystery
rites at Eleusis); regularly visiting sites in Nature, known only to
me, yet clearly visited by others with similar intentions; gathering
with others of like mind for a celebration in Nature every summer,
joining a circle 20,000 strong to chant and pray for peace and
healing of the Earth on July Fourth in a remote mountain meadow...
 

For me, these events evoke those numinous qualities, that encounter
with the unconscious mystery - and ultimately, that is what living
ritual offers - a means to engage the Mystery that underlies Life and
Being and All That Is and All That Isn't.
   

We each have different doors into this realm... What are your
rituals? What moves and inspires you?
 

namaste
bodhibliss

 


Rick Matz ~ Monks_Mystics & Helena Nelson-Reed, http://www.fine-art-studios.com/  



How We Live Our Lives Is Our Philosophy   Philosophy Practiced
"Philosophy practiced is the goal of learning."
Thoreau

A useful teaching method used at the School of Cultivation and
Practice is to organize our activities according to Yan Gao Fei's
theoretical hierarchy:

philosophy-> principles->applications-> form
From the philosophy of one's art, comes the principles. The applications in turn are derived from the principles, and subsequently manifest themselves in the form.
I think it might be helpful to say a few things about philosophy.
"How we live our lives is our philosophy."
Rick Matz

We can intellectually be drawn to the ideas of a given philosophy. If we feel strongly in the truthfulness or utility of a philosophy we will order our lives to be in alignment with that philosophy, and actually become a living example of it. It doesn't commonly work that way though.
"Words mean exactly what I want them to mean, neither more nor less."
Lewis Carroll

I know countless people who consider themselves Christians, for example, but don't in any way, outside of attending church rituals (and sometimes not even that!) adhere to the teachings of Christ. In fairness, the same could be said of so many who consider themselves Taoists, Buddhists, pagans, pacifists, liberals, conservatives, or whatever.   We tend to want to adopt a philosophy of life, and then bend it to what "we want." If that's what you're going to do, that's just hijacking the name of someone else's philosophy. If you're not living it, you're not doing it. It's been said elsewhere, with regards to the classics of a given martial art, that people tend to bend the classics to what they are doing; rather than change what they are doing to reflect the classics. I'm saying the same thing in a larger sense.
I submit that it doesn't matter whose books you can quote from memory, or what society collects yours dues; your philosophy is exhibited by how you live your life. Quoting someone doesn't necessarily reflect
 
Rhiannon_II 

Rhiannon II

         Helena Nelson-Reed

                  http://www.fine-art-studios.com/ 

 

 


your own knowledge that is held deep within you. How one lives is worth examining. How else can we derive principles, create applications, etc? In doing this each of us creates our own art after our own image. It becomes uniquely ours, and is a Natural Boxing in the truest sense.
Having said that, if you really understand your own philosophy of life, you can draw on the works of others freely. The work of those who have come before us is a storehouse of tools and knowledge that we can draw upon. We create our lives, but there is no need to recreate the wheel.
Is one's philosophy a fixed and unchanging thing? No. You live and grow. You learn. Life is a process, and so is one's philosophy. The way I conducted my life 20 years ago is so much different that the way I do today. One's art grows and changes. Look at films of the founder of Aikido when he was a young man, and when he was older. You're not just witnessing an increase in his skill, you are seeing his deepening understanding of his philosophy of life.
"We should think for ourselves. Tell us more."
The Life of Brian

A tricky thing about one's philosophy is that it can't be forced. For a philosophy to be authentic, it must well up unhindered from one's inner being. To force one's philosophy into a given shape is just riveting on some armor. This would be a philosophy hijacking the individual; forcing one to behave and think in certain ways.   "One should clean out a room in one's home and place only a tea table and a chair in the room with some boiled water and fragrant tea. Afterwards, sit solitarily and allow one's spirit to become tranquil, light, and natural."
Li Ri Hua, a Ming Dynasty scholar
So what to do? Just as the air that we breathe, and the food that we eat provides us with input that our body puts to use; our reading, or discussions, and our daily activities are our inputs into our individual systems of philosophy. What we do with all these inputs is to ... relax; and like a cup of tea, steep to attain the flavor of our lives. The outcome will be reflected in the way we live our lives.
We do not learn kung fu, we practice it.

Pete ~ AdvaitaToZen

A Spherical Perspective

Imagine an expanding sphere and each point of the interior surface a locus
of awareness. Each point has a unique perspective of the sphere. This unique
perspective, and a selective history of whatever occurred within that cone,
soon becomes the identity of that point. Other points on the opposite wall
becomes the others. I'm sure you get the drift of the simile.

If one of the points realizes it has no separate existence apart from the
sphere, that point may be tempted to consider this discovery as the underlying
reality, and further it might be tempted to deny the existence of all those
other points. It would probably fail to see that his new knowledge is simply
an expanded perspective, rather than the sole reality. No perspective no matter
how comprehensive ever becomes reality. No perspective is true or false. No
perspective ever disappear. It can only be transcended. So the relative never
disappears and the absolute viewpoint never becomes the only viewpoint.


Lisbeth ~ Monks_Mystics  &  Bill Rishel, http://www.art-nova.com/

 
 
Harmonics

Harmonics

 

Art by Bill Rishel

http://www.art-nova.com/

Labels 365 Tao


Don't call me a follower of Tao
.


Following Tao is an intensely personal endeavor in which you spend each
minute of your life with the universal pulse. You follow the fluid and
infinitely shifting Tao and experience its myriad wonders. You will want
nothing more than to be empty before it -- a perfect mirror, open to every
nuance.

If you put labels on who you are, there is separation from Tao. As soon as
you accept the designations of race, gender, name, or fellowship, you
define yourself in contrast to Tao.

That is why those who follow Tao never identify themselves with the name
Tao. They do not care for labels, for status, or for rank. We all have an
equal chance to be with Tao.


Reject labels.
Reject identities.
Reject conformity.
Reject convention.
Reject definitions.
Reject names.


Panhala ~ Joe Riley   Heart of the Heart   The wise and holy visit briefly;
they laugh and they cry and move on.
Poets record the echo,
artists give shape to the shadow.
But here is the one knowable truth,
the heart of the heart of it:
only I can live my life,
only you can live yours.
 
~ Jose Orez ~
 
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Heart_of_the_Heart.html Web archive of Panhala postings: www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html To subscribe to Panhala, send a blank email to Panhala-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 
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http://www.thechicagoloop.net/lyrics/
This page isn't here. It's gone off into the wide world to find itself. It might come back one day.


Toombaru ~ AdvaitaToZen

  Walking  
Walking through the forest, holding hands,
they came upon a small pond..........

It was beautiful in the moonlight.

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