daka wrote:
Sounds like you are 'qualified' for communion today!!!!
I was never very good at listening, but I'm trying. recently I came across something that has been called the golden rule of communication and I changed it and now I see the rule as :
everything being said is true , try to imagine what it is true of.
It might be a good rule and since I changed it maybe one day I can get to name it, but first I have to test it to see if it can be of any use. Maybe you can help. I want to apply it to what you wrote above.
What is truthful about what you are saying? First the word "sounds" is a hint that you are not writing about me. You have likely never heard my voice. Maybe some day we did meet as we have travelled in the same circles but today you didn't hear my voice. Maybe you were reading something of mine and you felt that there was a sound there and also a feel of that sound that let you continue with "You are qualified for communion today !!!!" There is nothing about your use of the word "you" that makes me feel or think that I am being addressed other than the part of me that seems to covet things. I mean how would you know what I am qualified for?
Now I try to imagine who you are saying you to. I can't go much further here because I am not seeing things from your point of view but I can use my own point of view as a reference and I know that in my experience that there is a "she" who is qualified.
and since this is a Leonard Cohen forum I'll quote a little poem of his that comes to mind as I write this.
"better than me
are you
kinder than me
are you
sweeter smarter faster
you you you
prettier than me
stronger than me
lonelier than me
I want to get to know you
better and better"
Like Leonard says, you could stop there, Jack
First that is not what Leonard says. He says "stop at the surface"
but it isn't Leonard but rather my intuition that is telling me this.
In the case of Buddhism I seem to sense Buddha telling me this. I like the thought of Buddha. There seems to be a Buddha in the universe and I like the feel of him. I say the word Buddha sometimes in my head and with my mouth and I like it. This Buddha that is there is also telling me to stop at the surface. Who is there to tell me that Buddha isn't telling me this.
What I know of Buddha is that he awoke. I awoke one morning.
He learned something under a tree. I learned something under a tree.
I've written a lot about that day Daka and if it interests you I can send stuff to you.
Probably Buddha awoke a lot more than me but that is ok with me, if I was meant to be awoken more it would have happened. What I like about the amount that I awoke is that I am comfortable with it and what is more is that I am confident that what I experienced can be experienced by anyone, without their having to meditate or take drugs or do anything out of their comfort zone. I am also confident that we can all see the crack in everything together and know what each other is speaking about.
I never before really tried to do it but now in this thread I am trying.
I don't know the context of that eggshell analogy given by Buddha. I highly doubt that he was encouraging people to accept the fate of the trapped chick who cannot see beyond the shell! Especially since he was out of the shell. I believe he was mainly trying to help all of humanity get to the place he had discovered, out of the shell. How kind!
You highly doubt? You think egg shells are traps? You think they should be opened before they are ready? You think it is kind to do so?
Buddha did not say that he was not in the shell with us. He did not say that we should not try to open the shell wider. He was never out of the shell.
If anyone can break out of that eggshell, Jack it is you!!
I ain't breaking any shells. Certainly not intentionally. I think that things are find just the way they are and am only interested in seeing things as they are.
In another thread we have been talking a bit about Herman Hesse. He did a journey to the east that he wrote about in a book called "Journey to the East" and he wrote a book about Buddhism which is called Siddhartha. Both are excellent. He took a pretty good look at the east. Later in life he once made the comment that he thought that Martin Buber was one of the few truly wise men who has ever walked upon the surface of this planet. Martin Buber also liked Buddha and spoke highly of him but also said that we can only go with Buddha so far and then we have to go further.
We can only do that from where we are in the beautiful hard, soft, fluids, solids, curves and lines of what is around us that we were born into.
Maybe someday we can all take a look at that shell and it's crack together and then decide together if is wise to rush things.
Everything being said to you is true; Imagine of what it is true.