XPost: alt.philosophy.zen, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.taoism   
   From: wudao@wuji.net   
      
   Tang kindly wrote in to a.p.t. with:   
   > Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >> {:-]))) ...   
   >   
   >>> If you found what you were looking for,   
   >>> how would you know it?   
   >   
   >> Such a thorny bush.   
   >>   
   >> With certain kinds of knowing also come knowing that you know.   
   >>   
   >> Then there is relative knowing which allows for the possibility that   
   >> you  might be wrong, or that somebody else's idea might be correct.   
   >>   
   >> And absolute knowing which confers obnoxious but necessary rights and   
   >> duties towards others, as ISIS can tell you.   
   >>   
   >> Finally, there is the student who must know which teacher can teach   
   >> him what he needs to know.   
   >>   
   >> But there is no way out of it.  We will all end up knowing something   
   >> or other.  The question you should answer then, is what would you like   
   >> to know?  It is also possible to not answer that question.   
      
   I've noticed how some people don't answer questions asked of them.   
      
   I'd like to know many things. Here are two.   
   Does one's consciousness survive death of the physical body?   
   Is there an Akashic Record?   
      
   I imagine those questions will be answered, eventually.   
   Except, then there might be no telling at that time.   
   I might try. And some might get the message.   
   Others would then say, no Way!   
      
   My path has yielded anecdotal evidence, which is fine.   
   Yet the scientist in me would like more evidence, to be sure.   
      
   Why can't paranormal activity be replicated in a lab?   
   That's a good one. Assuming siddhis exist. Etc.   
   I can imagine an answer.   
      
   Then, if there is a paradigm shift, a quantum level-up,   
   so to speak, will more people actually levitate, physically?   
   I know of only two who have walked on water.   
      
   Yet, others may say, epistemologically,   
   such a knowing isn't really knowing   
   for a Real Scotsman.   
      
   People have been known to be in two places at once.   
   Both while alive and after they have shed their skin.   
   I find that a wonderful tale to tell. I might question   
   and be skeptical of many things at times.   
   Oar with faith at other times.   
   When up a creek.   
      
   >>  That does   
   >> not mean that you won't end up knowing anything.  Only that you didn't   
   >> choose what it would be.   
   >   
   >Mental culture can be understood more easily   
   >if one looks at those who have failed it and who   
   >are worse off than the sinners in the street who   
   >have never heard of mental culture.   
      
   I've heard of it, but the gestalt has yet to gel.   
      
   > They are   
   >hysterically defensive, and their defence is   
   >against themselves primarily, and only   
   >secondarily against others.   
      
   Sometimes I ask a question, and the one to whom   
   I ask the question spins out and begins to rant a bit.   
      
   " Defense mechanisms vary."   
      
   And so, a question arises. Why?   
   Why are some people insecure?   
   Was it their childhood trauma?   
      
   I can dig that.   
      
   >To me, mental culture is to break through the   
   >cocoon that one grows to envelop and protect   
   >oneself. It often is called the defence wall, and   
   >the best known parts of it are the Freudian   
   >defence mechanisms. If one is open to oneself   
   >and honest to oneself, one is already half-way   
   >to the ending of suffering. On top of that, if one   
   >keeps opening up oneself to oneself all the   
   >way, one gets awakened. But there is no way   
   >to know a priori what that state is like, because   
   >all a priori knowledge is intimately associated   
   >with defence, and here all defence is dropped.   
   >It is pure openness, rather than any content.   
   >   
   >Tang Huyen   
      
   Some people take enlightenment very seriously.   
   And so, one might say to them, buckle down   
   and buckle up, cuz it could be a very long slow   
   sleigh ride and bumps along the Way may be.   
      
   And then, I might begin to wander off and talk   
   about a one horse and how open sleighs slay me.   
   And the Buddha is cole slaw on a silver platter.   
      
   Stuff like that there. And pass the kool aid kid around   
   the next bend in the Road looking out for the cliff.   
      
   Now serving. Word Salad, party of three.   
   Your table is ready.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)