XPost: talk.religion.buddhism, alt.zen, alt.philosophy.zen   
   XPost: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy   
   From: firehose@everywhere.com   
      
   Hollywood Lee wrote:   
      
   > On 8/16/2010 9:29 AM, Jigme Dorje wrote:   
   >> On Aug 14, 10:00 pm, brian mitchell  wrote:   
   >>> Jigme Dorje wrote:   
   >>>> You have indicated that you do not accept explanations of my own   
   >>>> experience...   
   >>>   
   >>> No (and I think this matters), I fully accept your explanations of   
   >>> your own experience. How could I do otherwise? It's your experience,   
   >>> your transition, and I'm eager and delighted to hear everything about   
   >>> it. The psyche fascinates me; people's experience of existence   
   >>> enthralls me; and the terms in which they relate these are of endless   
   >>> interest to me.   
   >>>   
   >>> What I do object to is the tendency to universalise one's individual   
   >>> experience, insights, perceptions or what-have-you and make them the   
   >>> Rule, the Truth. When this is done, everyone else becomes invisible   
   >>> except to the extent that their confessions conform and agree. That   
   >>> which is really true in them, which is their unique responsivity, is   
   >>> disregarded. This is the destructiveness of the supposed   
   >>> teacher-student relationship; the One Who Knows and the one who   
   >>> doesn't; the authority.   
   >>   
   >> I just wanted to address this point.  When you "universalise one's   
   >> individual experience, insights, perceptions or what-have-you and make   
   >> them the Rule, the Truth" this is the mind at work, interpeting and   
   >> making an experience conform to an opinion.  This was not my purpose at   
   >> all; in fact, just the opposite. Rather than universalizing the   
   >> individual, the idea is to individualize the universal - to attempt to   
   >> capture it in words that are evocative, not definative.   
   >   
   > That assumes that there is a universal to individualize - another bit of   
   > boxing up and categorizing, perhaps?  Compare this to how Tang nicely   
   > describes the internal nature of awakening:   
   >   
   > "Mental culture is purely internal knowledge, and it is about how to   
   > handle yourself, so it is like repairing a ship in plain sea, to borrow   
   > from Neurath. You have to be intimately familiar with yourself, and you   
   > have to be swift in the handling of your own state (mood, feeling,   
   > etc.). This is where mindfulness comes in. When you realise that you are   
   > angry and upset, you grab yourself, calm yourself, and move yourself to   
   > serenity."   
   >   
   > No universals in sight.   
      
      
   Such a small mindfulness.   
      
   --   
   Firehose should be filtered out as well as those who talk to him regularly   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)