Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
#3131 - Wednesday, April
9, 2008 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"I gained nothing at
all from supreme enlightenment,
it is for that very reason it is called supreme
enlightenment"
--The Buddha
posted by Tom
McFerran
Buddha the Baker
Buddha was not interested in
the elements comprising human beings, nor in metaphysical
theories of existence. He was more concerned about how he himself
existed in this moment. That was his point. Bread is made from
flour. How flour becomes bread when put in the oven was for
Buddha the most important thing. How we become enlightened was
his main interest. The enlightened person is some perfect,
desirable character, for himself and for others. Buddha wanted to
find out how human beings develop this ideal character--how
various sages in the past became sages. In order to find out how
dough became perfect bread, he made it over and over again, until
he became quite successful.
That was his practice.
--Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
From 'The Heart of the
Buddha's Teaching'
Thich Nhat Hanh
Relatively speaking, there are right views and there are wrong
views. But if we look more deeply, we see that all views are
wrong views. No view can ever be the truth. It is just from one
point; that is why it is called a "point of view." If
we go to another point, we will see things differently and
realize that our first view was not entirely right. Buddhism is
not a collection of views. It is a practice to help us eliminate
wrong views. The quality of our views can always be improved.
From the viewpoint of ultimate reality, Right View is the absence
of all views. When
we begin the practice, our view is a vague idea about the
teachings. But conceptual knowledge is never enough. The seeds of
Right View, the seed of Buddhahood, are in us, but they are
obscured by so many layers of ignorance, sorrow, and
disappointment. We have to put our views into practice. In the
process of learning, reflecting, and practicing, our view becomes
increasingly wise, based on our real experience. When we practice
Right Mindfulness, we see the seed of Buddhahood in everyone,
including ourselves. This is Right View. Sometimes it is
described as the Mother of All Buddhas (prajna paramita), the
energy of love and understanding that has the power to free us.
When we practice mindful living, our Right View will blossom, and
all the other elements of the path in us will flower, also.
--gill
www.allspirit.co.uk
posted to Wisdom-l by Mark
Scorelle
We may argue about everything except Truth. Even the very best argument can produce only another thought at the end. For Truth can be expressed in words, spoken or written, only by bringing it down to the level of intellect, whereas on its own level as being knowledge of the Real it transcends intellect. Any thought of the Real merely makes an object of it, one among a multitude of other objects, and hence fails to arrive at it.
-- Paul Brunton
—
Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2: Our Relation To
the Absolute > # 1
posted to Wisdom-l by
Mark Scorelle
"Tranquility is
stillness; Flowing is wisdom.
We practice meditation to calm the mind
and make it still; then it can flow."
-- Ajahn Chah
From the book, "Everything is Teaching Us,"
published by Vimokkharam Forest Hermitage,
posted to DailyDharma
Hi Gloria,
For the first time I want to recommend a book to you and your colleagues and indeed to every one who reads and is interested in understanding life as it is. The title is, rather absurdly, " The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World " by Andy Merrifield. I stumbled upon this while browsing in the new books section of our library.
Despite a rather cute title, this is an absorbing book written by a man of great depth of knowledge in philosophy, music and the importance of sheer being. He is the only author I have encountered who actually make Heidegger almost intelligible to us.
Merrifield is a Brit from the working class who amazingly got through Oxford and later taught geography ( of all things ) in various British and American universities. He is now retired from teaching ( though only 48 ) and living in the Auvergne region of France with his wife and daughter.
This book is truly a work of wisdom. There are few books that have attained this level of communication without being ponderous or pretentious.
Donkeys are usually thought of as sort of fun figures, I think, who seem to evoke smiles wherever they appear, as even the author concedes. He goes on an extended walking tour with his rented donkey which is the foundation of this book. He is no fool, however, and despite his title he does not paint his donkey in an anthropomorphic or jokey way.
I believe that the great depths of this book will have a real impact upon anyone who reads it. It is lucid, easy to read, and it never lectures or hectors us. But it does inform us. For example, he speaks of the folly of setting goals believing their attainment will bring happiness. Having seen that, he settles happily in a spot where he was " cast by accident " and which he makes no demands of, and of course is truly happy.
I don't want to impose further on your time so I leave you with the strong suggestion that you expand and delight yourself by reading this triumph. Publishing being what it is you are unlikely to hear elsewhere of this little work.
Earl
McHugh
http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Donkeys-Finding-Tranquility-Chaotic/dp/0802715931
from Amazon review:
“The demon of speed is
often associated with forgetting, with avoidance…and
slowness with memory and confronting,” observes Milan
Kundera in his novel Slowness. With that purpose in mind—a
search for slowness and tranquility—Andy Merrifield set out
on a journey of the soul with a friend’s donkey, to walk
amid the ruins and spectacular vistas of southern France’s
Haute-Auvergne. The purposeful pace of the journey and the
understated nobility of Gribouille, his humble donkey companion,
allowed him to confront himself as well as to consider the larger
mysteries of life—insight he now shares in his enchanting
book, The Wisdom of Donkeys. As Merrifield contemplates
literature, science, truth and beauty, and the universality of
nature amid the French countryside, Gribouille surprises him with
his subtle wisdom, reminding him time and again that
enlightenment is all around us if we but seek it. Traveling with
Andy Merrifield and Gribouille, we’re reminded of the
contemplative and exquisite benefits of nature, passive
adventuring, and wild spaces.
Kabir poem set with photo montage by Bob O'Hearn
"The inward and the
outward are become as
one sky, the Infinite
and the finite are
united."
http://www.pbase.com/1heart/mansion_of_the_sky