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#2399 - Tuesday, February 21, 2006
- Editor: Gloria Lee
"The wise man does not seek enlightenment, he waits for it.
So while I was
waiting it occurred to me that seeking perplexity might be more
fun," said
Lu-Tze.
(Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett)
posted by Joe Riley to Allspirit
by Bob Seal, one of our creative readers! http://advaitatoons.blogspot.com/
Sincerity is
not a test of truth. We must not make
this mistake: He must be right; he's so sincere. Because,
it is possible to be sincerely wrong. We can only judge
truth by truth and sincerity by sincerity. Find someone
who is willing to share the truth with you.
~Jim Rohn posted
by Gill Eardley to Allspirit
The Other Syntax
Did the universe really begin?
Is the theory of the big bang true?
These are not questions, though they sound like they are.
Is the syntax that requires beginnings, developments
and ends as statements of fact the only syntax that exists?
That's the real question.
There are other syntaxes.
There is one, for example, which demands that varieties
of intensity be taken as facts.
In that syntax nothing begins and nothing ends;
thus birth is not a clean, clear-cut event,
but a specific type of intensity,
and so is maturation, and so is death.
A man of that syntax, looking over his equations, finds that
he has calculated enough varieties of intensity
to say with authority
that the universe never began
and will never end,
but that it has gone, and is going now, and will go
through endless fluctuations of intensity.
That man could very well conclude that the universe itself
is the chariot of intensity
and that one can board it
to journey through changes without end.
He will conclude all that and much more,
perhaps without ever realizing
that he is merely confirming
the syntax of his mother tongue.
--Carlos Castaneda
THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY
posted to The Power of Silence
by Bob Seal http://advaitatoons.blogspot.com/
yummmm ... candy bars
... You see, we are still talking about the same old
problem but we have put it one step up. "How can I improve
myself?", was the first problem, and the second problem is,
"How can I accept grace?", but they are both the same
problem because in each case you have got to make a
move that will put yourself out of your own control into the
control of a "better."
And if you do not believe in the Christian kind of a God you
can believe in the Hindu kind of a God who is your inner self.
You have a lower self that you call your ego - that is that
little
scoundrelly fellow that is always out for "me." But
behind the
ego there is the atman, the inner self, or the inward light, as
the Quakers call it; it is the real self, the spirit that
is
substantially identical with God. So you have to meditate in
such a way that you identify with your higher self.
But how do you do that? Well, you start by watching all of
your thoughts very carefully. You watch your feelings, you
watch your emotions, and you begin to build up a sense of
separation between the watcher and what is watched. In this
way, you are no longer carried away by your own stream of
consciousness. You remain the witness, impassively,
impartially suspending judgment and watching it all go on.
Now, this seems to be something like progress - at least you
are taking an objective view of what is happening, and you
are beginning to be in a position to control it. But just wait a
minute! Who is this self behind the self, the watching self?
Can you watch that one? It is interesting if you do because
you find out, of course, that the watching self, or the observing
self, behind all your thoughts and feelings is itself a thought.
That is to say, when the police enter a house in which there
are thieves, the thieves go up from the ground floor to the first
floor. When the police arrive on the first floor, the thieves
have
gone up to the second, and so on to the third and finally out
onto the roof. Just so, when the ego is about to be unmasked,
it immediately identifies with the higher self. It goes up a
level,
because the religious game version is simply a refined and
high-brow version of the ordinary game "How can I
outwit me?"
So if I find, for example, that in the quest for pleasure, the
ordinary pleasures of the world - food, sex, power, possessions -
become a drag and I think, "No, it is not that," and
then I go in
for the arts, literature, poetry, and music, and I absorb myself
in those pleasures, then after awhile I find that they are not
the
answer either. So then I go in for psychoanalysis, and I find
out that is not the answer, and then I turn to religion, but I'm
still seeking what I was seeking when I wanted candy bars!
I want to get that goodie.
Only I see now that it is not going to be a material goodie
because all material goodies fall apart; but maybe there is
a spiritual goodie that will not. Still, the spiritual quest is
no
different than the quest for the candy bar. Same old story,
only you have refined the candy bar and made it abstract and
holy and blessed and so on. So it is with the higher self.
The higher self is your same old ego, but you sure hope it is
eternal, indestructable, and all-wise.
Alan Watts
The Way of Liberation
Pages 60-1
posted by ts to Allspirit
by Bob Seal http://advaitatoons.blogspot.com/
What understanding comes
through reading?
I decided not to let books determine
my life, but only whatever helps dissolve
infatuation and sentimental longing.
The shrewdness of innate,
subtle intellect is a fox
who knows what I need.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lalla
Naked Song
posted
by Viorica Weissman to The Power of Silence
"Even though I have a
long way to go,
let me put remorse away,
step by step in precious patience.
Even though I reach for the Milky Way,
and not succeed,
let me put away a remorse that is beyond knowledge.
Again, let my hands and feet return to work.
Even if it is a lonely trail,
the earth and the sky are looking after me.
From the start, leaving behind the habit of resting on someone,
let me walk like a herd boy climbing the mountains.
~~Kyunghoon Sunim
From the book; "Living Peace," published by Iris
International.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972009809/angelinc
posted to Daily Dharma