Posted on 06/20/2018 4:08:50 PM PDT by poconopundit
Sailing is the most peaceful endeavor I have ever experienced.
Thanks. Yes, the title was exactly taken from the Motorcycle Maintenance work.
Agree. It's a wonderful teacher of Nature and man's relationship to Nature. And when a sudden fierce wind arrives, it can also be among the least peaceful endeavors.
The self is an object of thinking. It's as fake as a CNN news story. No Self. Nada. No self was born, no self will die. Nothing happens to self. "No eyes no ears no tongue no body no mind no suffering no origination no stopping no path no cognition no attainment and nothing to attain."
I always love the title of one of Alan Watts' books, "Your are IT". In three short words, he sums up the notion that we are all connected beyond individual selves.
I (or IT) thinks that eyes, ears, tongues, etc. do exist, but the self behind them is an illusion. When we say "me" we really are referring to a reference point in space. The reality is there is no sharp dividing line between you and me, the rocks and animate creatures.
When we refer to New York City, what do we mean exactly? Every living thing on Manhattan island will be gone in 120 years. And yet the City will live on.
Same goes for the human body. We see a continuous existence over decades, and yet scientists tell use the actual cells in the body have a very limited life span. In a few years, all the original cells are gone.
The rocks are a locus of some basic form of intelligence, otherwise how can remain solid. Dogs and cats are walking plants, a more survivable creature because they can forage for food on their own and not rely on favorable sun and water at a fixed point.
The irony is that we need language to even talk about these things. And the notion of a self is important to our training. We learn this concept as a child and it becomes our raft to adulthood. Hard to let that raft go...
As a teen we had a guy in the hood who would give free yoga lessons and afterwards lead us into a meditation session. Once done I would come out of it with a great calm. What it taught me was to free my mind, clear it of all thoughts. It didn’t lead me to any revelations it just taught me how to put all thoughts away for small periods of time. That little interlude I call peace. I do not need to do yoga or meditation to do it now a days I just calm myself and free my mind. Peace, it’s a beautiful and fleeting thing:-)
I wish I could learn that. You’re very fortunate.
Yeah - it's a different kind of 'hard' though. It's TRICKY. And it requires concentration, because as soon as you stop concentrating, the old hypnosis of 'there is a self and it is me and I must protect and guard it and seek out things to attach to it.'
That's NOT a bad thing by the way. Without it, you could not calculate 'your' way to the grocery store to feed yourself. It's there to keep you alive. It's the Darwin part. You NEED it to live. But if you are attached to it, you will live in SOME version of Hell. It's no different from 'The World.' It's WHY 'Heaven is already around, in and amongst you.'
But TRICKY and takes practice and concentration to HOLD this mind that experiences the truth of no self.
You said "no divisions"
I say "no divisions because nothing to divide."
I teacher once said to me "it's not that nothing exists, it's that nothing exists really"
The Buddha didn't want to teach. He thought no one would get it.
He said "The Dharma is SUBTLE."
It IS. It is very very very very subtle, because you have to un-hypnotize yourself. How do you do that? The first step is realizing that you are in a dream. It's not that nothing is real, it's that 'it's real as a dream'. Then you have to understand that you can not know reality. It's not necessary to know reality. It's only necessary to NOT think what you think is reality is reality. It's only necessary to NOT be attached to 'this' 'that' 'me' 'my' 'I' 'good' 'bad'.
The curse in the garden wasn't 'good and evil'. It was KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. This is a difficult point. 'good and evil' at the most basic level do not exist. They DO exist in that ignorance causes suffering. But even suffering is only 'just like this.'
It is very very VERY f'ing subtly, so very very VERY subtle, that language can't touch it. (That's why the Tao Te Ching says 'The Toa that can be named is not the True Toa.'
But once you see it ... (you actually never see 'it' ... once you UNsee everything -> you will laugh laugh laugh like the Buddha!"
OK end of unedited turbo typing from work! Must go watch Argentina crush Croatia!
Great. Maybe getting this training early in life is good for us.
As we get older, we’ve lived through tragedies and tight spots enough that we’re naturally calmer about the turmoil around us.
Peace is indeed an beautiful and fleeting thing.
Alan Watts is where I learn about Indian philosophies and religions. The guy gave scores of lectures and all of them are easily understood and many are peppered with humor.
He held a class with young students and asked them, "What is a thing?"
And a bright girl raised her hand and said, "It's a noun."
And that's true: the root origin of "thing" is a "think" -- a speech convenience for identifying a cut-out from a unified world that we don't want to label.
So perhaps we should revise your teacher's phrase to:
"it's not that nothing exists, it's that no thing exists really"
Which fantasying disconnection from reality and objective Truth is akin to drugs or is cultic, and can open the door to types of demonic deception, such as Eastern religions or Roy Master's meditation does, only to find Hell as a reality in death.
What is needed is repentant humble faith in the risen Lord Jesus for forgiveness and being born again, and surrender to Him, and and appreciation of and meditation in who the Lord is and what He did as manifested in so great salvation
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:1-2)
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:6)
I know both but am trying to only be the latter.
There is no self. No one to take seriously in the first place. The self is an object of thinking. It's as fake as a CNN news story. No Self. Nada. No self was born, no self will die.
Every thought is not necessarily wrong, but every thought IS wrong if you think it is the truth. So 'what color is 2 + 2 = 4' is equally as insane.
It is not in conflict with Christianity
[poconopundit ] I (or IT) thinks that eyes, ears, tongues, etc. do exist, but the self behind them is an illusion.
[poconopundit ] The rocks are a locus of some basic form of intelligence,
Reading such delusional one might think he was in a forum on the Democratic Underground" or the like.
But it's late and i am sleepy, so I am just going to post a couple links to articles exposing such.
Zen and the Art of Not Knowing God - Christian Research Institute
The Theology of Zen Buddhism | John Ankerberg Show - John ...
This wasn't a personal experience with Zen, but it was quite profound for me:
My husband and I were helping friends bring to Florida a sailboat they had bought in Tortola, BVI. One of the longest legs of the trip was a four day, non-stop trek from Fajardo, Puerto Rico to the Turks and Caicos islands, Being that there were only the four of us, a wonky compass, troubled steering and no working autohelm - which meant hand steering, it was grueling four hour watches for each of us - two on, two off. About the second night while on my watch, it was a moonless, dark, clear starlit sky and we were at depths in the thousands. You couldn't really tell where the sky stopped and the sea started. I started thinking we were hundreds of miles from any land and then panicked as I realized we could go down here and NO ONE would ever find any trace of us. But no sooner had I started to be fearful, a passage of Scripture came to my mind:
My fear vanished and I began to delight in the peace and majesty of my surroundings. That was God speaking to me and was how I realized God while literally sailing a boat.
Oh, but you could have fantasied that you were "one with the universe” and dismissed objective reality.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9
Death solves ALL of them.
There’s no place like home...
John 14:27 NIV
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
“Would love to hear comments from mediators and others who have had interesting religious or transcendental experiences.”
I don’t know, or want to know, what a “mediator” is, but my “interesting religious ... experience” is accepting Christ as my Savior in 1956. True peace comes from Christ. Chanting, mantras, and similar “vain repetitions” are not from Above.
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