XPost: alt.support.depression, alt.support.schizophrenia, alt.bu   
   dha.short.fat.guy   
   XPost: alt.philosophy.taoism   
   From: slider@anashram.com   
      
   On Sun, 18 Aug 2024 12:17:46 +0100, one  wrote:   
      
   > slider wrote:   
   >> one wrote:   
   >   
   >>> Sounds like an evangelism failure.   
   >>   
   >> ### - well that's exactly what the frog said too lol, and closed the   
   >> door?   
   >   
   > Not in the tale I've read.   
      
   ### - i know, i know... i changed the story to put a different spin on it   
   so you could 'see' what i was saying/suggesting... and so now there are 2   
   version of the frog-story and neither is correct because that's all just   
   words and words are not the measure of truth, they only have the meanings   
   we give them :)   
      
      
      
   >> will tell you one last story then, it's kinda true but am telling it in   
   >> my   
   >> own, flowery/exaggerated way, so don't take anything 'too' literally,   
   >> ok?   
   >> ya have to read it between the lines kinda thing ;)   
   >>   
   >> i.e., back in the time of the buddha not long after he'd gathered his   
   >> first few students, rumours spread around locally that something weird   
   >> was   
   >> going-on up at this buddha-dudes camp, strange smiling people with   
   >> shining   
   >> eyes seen wandering around and coming and going from the place   
   >>   
   >> eventually, a local reporter got onto the story and decided to go and   
   >> investigate, and walked into this camp looking for an interview with   
   >> this   
   >> buddha-cat, to ask him what's going on here...   
   >>   
   >> sure enough and true to the reports going around, there's a whole bunch   
   >> of   
   >> odd people wandering around in this camp with beatific, idiotic smiles   
   >> on   
   >> their faces, talking to themselves and laughing and pointing at quite   
   >> ordinary things and then staring at them in awe like they've seen them   
   >> before??   
   >>   
   >> our reporter asks everyone he passes where he can find this buddha-chap   
   >> but none of them responds to him like they can't hear him or don't know   
   >> what he's saying, they just stare and laugh insanely and continue with   
   >> what they were doing...   
   >>   
   >> eventually, he comes to a little clearing and finds some old guy sitting   
   >> by a pool dipping his hand into the water and letting it run out again   
   >> through his fingers, and somehow he knows that this is the dude he was   
   >> looking for whose running the place, and asks him what the hell is going   
   >> on here and why the hell is everyone acting so strangely??   
   >>   
   >> and without answering him, the buddha just points to a pure white lotus   
   >> flower blooming vividly above the cesspit it has its roots in and is   
   >> growing up out of... and something strange happens to our reporter as it   
   >> slowly dawns on him what the buddha is saying/suggesting...   
   >>   
   >> and then 20 minutes later he too is wandering around the place laughing   
   >> and joking and smiling at everything and everybody, just like he'd never   
   >> seen any of it ever before ;)   
   >>   
   >> the end. :)   
   >   
   > A transformative experience, at the ashram.   
   >   
   > Returning from the mountain, taking a form   
   > of bliss back to a city, trying to tell so-called   
   > others who don't care and have, important   
   > matters that have captivated their attention,   
   > an evangelist might fail and it may suggest   
   > the experience was not complete and total.   
      
   ### - smile, buddha was famous for hardly ever speaking, there were even   
   riots at one ashram where he was asked to give a speech to all the other   
   holy men who'd come to this important mela/celebration, a celebration that   
   only happens every 33 years, everyone gave great speeches and were   
   applauded and when it was his turn buddha got up on the stage and the   
   crowd fell silent, buddha was very famous by then and everyone wanted to   
   hear what he going to say, well he looked at the crowd for 15 minutes   
   saying nothing and then got down again haha, everyone went crazy lol...   
   his 'silent' speech saying more (and traveling farther) than all the other   
   holymen speakers before him haha (true story btw)   
      
   iow: in many instances just the silent 'vibe' alone of an enlightened   
   person is enough to affect everyone around them, people begin to get high   
   just from their presence alone...   
      
   and yet words are important sometimes, if only to catch people's attention   
   )   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)