XPost: alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.philosophy.zen   
   From: wudao@wuji.net   
      
   noname wrote:   
   > Ummmmmmm wrote:   
   >> {:-]))) wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Every body has a center   
   >>> of gravity. But it isn't serious. Every one has   
   >>> a center of balance, which one might lose at times.   
   >>   
   >> One might drift off the centre of balance, certainly - but the centre   
   >> always remains, exactly where it was. The trick is to know how to get   
   >> back to it as quickly as possible.   
   >   
   >There's no hurry, no need to get back "as quickly as possible".   
      
   Reminds me of the white rabbit.   
   And the Airplane.   
      
   > No   
   >stopwatch is necessary.  The world isn't going anyplace, when you're ready   
   >to meet it as you truly are, that's the time.  Measuring time is simply not   
   >useful, once you've measured time you have a number, not the time you've   
   >wasted time measuring in order to get a number you can point at to convince   
   >yourself you know what's going on.   
   >   
   >What I have observed is that when you reside in harmony with Tao, time   
   >adjusts itself to your needs.  For example if it is winter and the   
   >generator is broken and must be repaired, it's easy to get all frantic and   
   >screw things up worse than they were to begin with.  "Ohmygawd if this   
   >doesn't get fixed we're all gonna die" might actually be a correct   
   >perception, but if you get caught up in it, you'd probably be better off   
   >taking a nap in the cold before you start working on the manifestation of   
   >the problem.  Because that's all it is, the non-working generator isn't the   
   >problem, it's only a manifestation of the problem, a symptom.  Until you   
   >see through the manifestation to the problem that is manifesting, you're   
   >going through the motions without making any real change; the problem, the   
   >real problem, the root of the malfunction, is not mechanical.   
      
   One might wonder what the real problem was.   
   Fear of death, perhaps.   
      
   > On the other   
   >hand, if you simply work the wrenches, falling into harmony as you go, that   
   >keeps your fake-self, the exterior-self that others can see, the work keeps   
   >that self busy and out of your face while your true-self ponders the real   
   >problem.   
      
   As if there were a real problem.   
   Sometimes a broken leg on a horse-power-generator is just that.   
      
   >>>> It's beyond thought, and beyond imagination - and it's very, very real.   
   >>>   
   >>> That might be what Tang says all spiritual masters say.   
   >>> Or maybe he is pointing to something else. Some other Way.   
   >>   
   >> I'm not talking about a Way. A "Way" implies a journey. Not liking where   
   >> one is, one wishes to be somewhere else.   
   >> I'm talking about being where one is.   
   >   
   >Being where you are is a journey of-itself.   
      
   Some people hurry to get back the center.   
   Of the hotel room. Or where ever-they left it.   
   To get back to it, as if Murphy left some round tuits.   
      
   >>> To say one has a true self is something some say.   
   >>> If so, one may wonder who or what is it that has it.   
   >>   
   >> Just word-juggling. Some may say the bird is the yolk, some may say the   
   >> bird is the white. You can smash as many eggs as you like, you won't   
   >> find out. But if you keep it warm & let it hatch, it may sing to you.   
      
   It may sing in traffic. It might hammer in the morning.   
   If it had a bell, it might ring it in the evening.   
      
   >>>> Because it's in everyone, it can be known by anyone.   
   >>>   
   >>> If it's in everyone, then no one is it.   
   >>> It's different from everyone. If so, then who or what one is   
   >>> might be a question that could be asked of one who knows   
   >>> how one has a true self that is within one and everyone.   
   >>   
   >> Don't prevaricate :-) Are you asking the question or not?   
      
   How deep one's wonder might be under   
   standing in one's center of wonder one mite be.   
      
   ... snip a bunch of words weren't snipped ...   
      
   >>>>> Unless, the one that has a true self   
   >>>>> is not the true self but something else.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Something that has but not is.   
   >>>   
   >>> If someone had a net, it might be full of holes.   
   >>   
   >> How about we forget "some" and "someone" and "everyone" - they're a   
   >> noisy lot & they tend to all shout at once.   
   >   
   >They have to.  It's their only defense against accepting what they know is   
   >true.   
      
   Between we and they, over there, yonder, one mite went   
   or have gone, if it did, when it did, to see what it could see.   
      
   >> Unless another joins the conversation, let's whisper in a crowded room.   
   >>   
   >> I'm the same as you. You're the same as me. We're both human beings.   
   >> Inside us we have all the treasures of wisdom and understanding that all   
   >> human beings are provided with at birth.   
   >>   
   >> Whether one "is" or "has" a self is just wordplay. What wakes up in the   
   >> morning - the entity that is reading these words - that's your self.   
   >   
   >Maybe not so much "just wordplay".  Wordplay comes from somewhere.   
      
   When Tang awakens and disclaims his disclaimers   
   to think Tang doesn't KNOW as he whisks his ninja stars   
   casting his mere words to the wind, a mite might think in all thought.   
      
   >> Inner peace and tranquillity are stalking you through the labyrinths of   
   >> your history and your storehouses of ideas. Be still for a while. Let   
   >> them find you. They're not scary. Happiness isn't a trap.   
   >> Be still and listen. You may hear the wind between the stars, or the   
   >> rain on the golden flower. Or cicadas in a grove of summer pines.   
   >> The audible signature of approaching wisdom.   
   >>   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >   
   >Racing forward to achieve "happiness" is a common trope, but not one that   
   >seems to be more often useful than not.  I tried racing toward happiness,   
   >and it didn't work.   
      
   The scars are on display in the museum.   
      
   >Giving up on happiness, accepting whatever basket of   
   >crap I've been dumped into and seeing "now what", that works.   
      
   A broke rope, caught in traffic, the world is full of problems   
   within problems in the back of the problems one finds finding them.   
      
   >  Why does   
   >that work when racing madly toward what we believe, or at least have been   
   >taught, will provide happiness does not work?  It works because happiness   
   >is closely related to how well our understandings match the particularities   
   >of our actuality.  A make-believe happiness simply is not, it's a delusion,   
   >and it will eventually dissolve away leaving reality right in your face.   
      
   In Ummmmmmm's face is what a mite called Sat Chit Ananda.   
      
   In another's face is the Self in the eyes of each empty pupil   
   which allows the light of the Sun to enter within.   
      
   If the pupil were not empty, the lens would not matter.   
   No matter how much the lens bends the light, there'd be no colors.   
   Nor even, oddly, even black nor white.   
      
   >I think that when you have finally gotten past the wordplay and puns which   
   >hope to constrain your fears that not-knowing will destroy you, what is   
   >there to be found is not a harsh reality that's out to kill you, but what   
   >one might call very-tough-love, like a parent raising a child.   
      
   Sometimes people use the word, you, and mean, Ummmmmmm.   
      
   At other times, they mean, themselves. They're speaking in terms   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)