/~gassho~\
Chere Roxy
Words are mired in duality.
Buddhism transcends and reconciles duality ~ exposing it as impostor [or in Coyote's venacular 'Samsara.'
Gentle admonition,
In your word search, make no one ~ not Thich, Al, Steven ~ your guru or hero [from Sheldon Kopp's Eschatological Laundry List]...
to do so diminishes you.
Also Alan Watts has a cassette of Zen stories [I have forgotten the name] ~ I love the stories, but personally I think old Al was just a wee bit plein de lui-meme.
I can say this cuz I have the same tendency ~ I get more than a bit full of myself
... for Dune fans at times I seek primal nourishment by sucking from my own stillsuit when fresh water is available.
Ask my family!!
LOL
Anyway [forgive digression] they are treasures ~
My favorite story is about a man seeking assistance from an enlightened teacher. He begged, pleaded, tried to cajole. The enlightened teacher stayed in his wall-enclosed monastery and refused to open the stone wall separating him from his would-be disciple.
Finally, in order to communicate his hunger for enlightenment, the desperate student cut off his left arm and tossed it over the wall. The master opened the gate and welcomed him in. I think the master 'got' that the student had a serious commitment.
Please do not take this one example as representative of all Buddhist seekers though, the poor guy probably had 296.6/bipolar ~ I found in him a soul-mate, though I still have both arms this evening
LOL (hey, I just gave you MY #)
It is said if you want enlightenment, you must seek it with the urgency a drowning person seeks air.
And ~ here is the hard, tricky, amazing, frustrating and beautiful part (not in that order)
{This from Stephen Mitchell's absolutely wondrous work of eclectic, cross-all-barriers world spiritual wisdom, "The Enlightened Mind.")
still, this book will not get you there either
~
Mitchell quote:
you will not find enlightenment by seeking,
yet only seekers find it.
[see T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartet's" on going home and knowing it as home for the first time]
or in Kansasparlance:
Oz's & Kansas' Dorothy [Toto too]
"Well, I guess that if I ever go seeking my my heart's desire I don't have to go any further than my own front door."
Of course, Dorothy needed all those nasty monkeys, wicked witches, cocaine-laced poppie~plants and inaccurate-apple-tossing-grumpy trees for her to
'get this.'
(Kansas humor, forgive me]
Go figure.
Rest assured: ain't no short cuts on this journey.
Bestill, welcome the awakening in absolute trust.
As your desire is genuine, it is most certainly upon you.
~
Blessings on your path and journey. Thich has a $10.00 double cassette presentation of the Heart Sutra [price 8 years ago] available through the web site listed.
If you listen to the tape over and over, let his voice tone wash over you, no words, books, teachings can take you there ~ the best they can do is awaken in you a hunger for a knowing that words can't touch.
In this tape Mr. Interbing HimSelf has you look into a piece of notebook paper 'deeply' to see the sun, the rain, the logger who cut the tree, even clouds. Fun if you love poetry ... Also, there is this wonderful bit about a leaf teaching Mr. Interbe that it, the leaf, was the tree's mother. This is knock-your-lights-out stuff.
[Please forgive mild tongue-in-cheekiness ~ I am still a little miffed that ole Thich sold my name to all these New Age journals which actually CUT DOWN THE VERY TREES his teachings taught me to be aware of and thank for my life, breath and heartbeat.
~
But heyyyy, not to worry.
I never live my ideals perfectly either.
And ~ RECENTLY A WONDROUS POSSIBILITY OPENED UP THRU A HOLOBOBEAU~POST ~ since my favorite Irish-Blarney-stone -smoocher in the unvierse knitted me that virtual forgiveness blanet, all I REALLY need to do is go to Plum Village and wrap the little Thich-guy up or make the bed over him. [or not] {and I am taking license here, I do know the correct pronounciation, please Interbeing fans DO NOT GET thiched off at me.)
LOL bagl ~
is any of this useful to you?
I hope so.
Tonight I feel alone, scared, and can't sleep. Forgive any un/intentional inanity [or/not] I promise tomorrow I will show I can do a very short post.
[I hear Louise and an entire covey of rainbow snipe, as well as all brave sojourners who dared follow this ramble to completion breaking out in wails, guffaws, belly laughs, shrieks of laughter and potentially hives]
Hey [off topic] send Dave Barry some Reiki. That guy is repeating himself, today's column seemed as if he was medicationallynoncompliant. He has lost a bit of his prosaic punch.
I do not take my own advice. Dave is my hero. Dave Barry is to me what Buddhism is to Vince.
[see ...
~ yes!!!!!!!!! there is a conclusion to this mess ~
the bottom of this post]
ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BUDDHIST STORY
Disciples were amazed at the Buddha.
1) "Are you a god?
2) "Are you an angel?
3a)"Are you a shoe-in for the 2004 United States Presidential election with lots of chances of acquiring tons, bundles, buckets filled of, oodles, even greasy wads of soft money?
3b) "I mean like wow, Siddhartha, that trick at the Bodhi tree with the goat's milk, buffalo boy grass clippings and using a bit of dirt to defeat Mara, defeating even LUST itSelf. Mannnnnnnnn. And then getting those starving knuckleheads enlightmnt. groupies who wanted to diss you, wind up offering you gentle gassho ... WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW?
3c) "I mean, Budzeeee, that was better the KC's overtime victory over than the Broncos AND THAT WAS WONDER OF WONDER, MIRACLE OF MIRACLES [not my words I am just roof-fiddling around]
3e)Buddha, you 'da MAN!!"
quiet
then, the response:
No, said Buddha-baby, I be awake
[not living in wasted unawareness]
[Please forgive that third question, it might be a bit less than accurate. I do not have the source with me and am relying on my mind [BIG MISTAKE THERE!]
Please forgive this offering. I had to use words to tell you words don't work. I will send you a blank screen tomorrow night as a working metaphor.
Blessings, honor and gentle peace on your journey. There is no more powerful mantra in all of creation than
'to the shore, to the shore, all the way over to the other side ~ "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha."
And last, visit Vince at Reiki Plain and Simple ~ in Buddhism, Vince lives and moves and makes his being.
golden beau
& YES louise, terry and gang beau-man be nap~ward bound
maintenant ~ I am lonely and nervous and can't sleep. Wife forgot to put up security screen. I am reading "The Brave Parrot" to my son's kindergarten class tomorrow. He is bringing ME for his person-of-the-day show-and-tell special something or other.
~ and the dis. ability process has made me feel un peu less than special... I am not quiet up to something special but am up to the 'or other' part
bagl
Why is that when a storyteller NEEDS IT MOST, his confidence 'locks itself in the john' [phrase in quotes shameless stolen from Neil Simon's "The Goodbye Girl" but w/attribution]
gassho, forgiveness blanteting all around. me too.
DAJB
