XPost: alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy   
   From: wudao@wuji.net   
      
   niunian wrote:   
   > {:-]))) wrote:   
   >> niunian wrote:   
   >>> Tang Huyen wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Your translation is not "word for word", as the hou (simplified ?,   
   >>>> traditional ?) means late, behind, posterior, as opposed to qian ?,   
   >>>> which means ahead, prior, in advance. See   
   >>>   
   >>>Here in this context, it's about the thought in the mind. The thought in   
   >>>the mind either comes from the front of the mind which is the world, or   
   >>>comes from the back of the mind which is within oneself.   
   >>   
   >> Sometimes there are what are called figures of speech. Idioms. Sayings.   
   >>   
   >> These need not be taken literally.   
   >> They might actually be metaphors.   
   >   
   >I doubt that. The Sixth Patriarch speaks with assurance and certainty.   
   >And the issue is an important one for Buddhist practice. I don't think it   
   >has anything to do with metaphor.   
      
   Where is the mind?   
      
   Is the mind the same as the brain?   
   Is the mind in the head?   
   Within the body?   
      
   Some thoughts appear to me, on this screen,   
   to have simply flowed out of my fingers.   
   As if my fingers had a mind or minds   
   of there own that I don't own.   
      
   If the front of the mind is, literally, the world,   
   does that mean the mind is separate from the body?   
      
   Is one's body the world?   
      
   Literally?   
      
   In Chinese languages, I have heard and read   
   that what is translated as mind is also heart.   
      
   Is there a front and back of the heart/mind?   
      
   Does the word, hsin/xin, literally mean, heart?   
      
   If someone said, "Show me your heart"   
   does that mean one would literally open up   
   one's chest to show one's heart, as being restless?   
      
   At times a figure of speech, even a metaphor,   
   is able to transmit a meaning of a spirit,   
   far beyond that of literal meanings   
   of words as they skate.   
      
   In the center of my heart/mind is peace.   
   My heart, itself, continues to function.   
   My mind continues to reflect.   
   It's a mirror.   
      
   The front of the mirror-mind.   
   The back of the mirror-mind.   
   One side is more clear   
   then the utter.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)