Watchful musical
Whooshing - the potter crafts
ever so beautiful imperfect
warbled edges
earth and water
spinning unspinning
holding and emptying
fire
Whooshing - the potter crafts
ever so beautiful imperfect
warbled edges
earth and water
spinning unspinning
holding and emptying
fire
then coolness
from clay to tea
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I’m certainly no philosopher, have no interest in being a conversationalist, nor a debater, and have even less interest in making a point about anything, proving my point, nor defending my stance, but I have been reading so much tripe (and not so much tripe) about enlightenment lately, I just have to say: There is no such thing as enlightenment. There. That is my .02 cents. And if that parrots’ Brad Warner’s words, than so be it. It also happens to be my experience. All the words that are enlisted to explicate enlightenment are of no use. You either have the experience of being in the world lock-stock-and-barrel, or you don’t. And it does take practice to develop awareness, and to not walk around asleep all the time. Justin’s Ordinary Extraordinary blog has a nice entry today: ‘So we end up with a picture of all these creatures walking around an entirely physical universe, but with little subjective bubble-worlds in their heads (or above them or somewhere else or nowhere at all).’
It is utterly ridiculous that the non-dualitic teachings of Buddhism would set up a have-and have-not situation. I suppose there-in lies the lovely paradox and the power of the philosophy: we are all enlightened and yet we are not because we don’t know we are! Hee! Hee!
I’ll let someone else who knows what they are doing express this far, far better. My pal G sent me the excerpt from Thomas Merton, and it about says it all:
"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation, or of my monastic life: but the conception of "separation from the world" that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion .... [W]e are in the same world as everybody else, the world of the bomb, the world of race hatred, the world of technology, the world of mass media, big business, revolution, and all the rest .... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud .... To think that for sixteen or seventeen years I have been taking seriously this pure illusion that is implicit in so much of our monastic thinking .... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun."
-Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 1966
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…………………………………………………
I’m certainly no philosopher, have no interest in being a conversationalist, nor a debater, and have even less interest in making a point about anything, proving my point, nor defending my stance, but I have been reading so much tripe (and not so much tripe) about enlightenment lately, I just have to say: There is no such thing as enlightenment. There. That is my .02 cents. And if that parrots’ Brad Warner’s words, than so be it. It also happens to be my experience. All the words that are enlisted to explicate enlightenment are of no use. You either have the experience of being in the world lock-stock-and-barrel, or you don’t. And it does take practice to develop awareness, and to not walk around asleep all the time. Justin’s Ordinary Extraordinary blog has a nice entry today: ‘So we end up with a picture of all these creatures walking around an entirely physical universe, but with little subjective bubble-worlds in their heads (or above them or somewhere else or nowhere at all).’
It is utterly ridiculous that the non-dualitic teachings of Buddhism would set up a have-and have-not situation. I suppose there-in lies the lovely paradox and the power of the philosophy: we are all enlightened and yet we are not because we don’t know we are! Hee! Hee!
I’ll let someone else who knows what they are doing express this far, far better. My pal G sent me the excerpt from Thomas Merton, and it about says it all:
"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation, or of my monastic life: but the conception of "separation from the world" that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion .... [W]e are in the same world as everybody else, the world of the bomb, the world of race hatred, the world of technology, the world of mass media, big business, revolution, and all the rest .... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud .... To think that for sixteen or seventeen years I have been taking seriously this pure illusion that is implicit in so much of our monastic thinking .... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun."
-Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 1966
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Have discovered the delight of kale. Who woulda thunk?
Navy bean soup all day in the crockpot.
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Oblique Strategy of the week: What to increase? What to reduce? What to maintain?
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Practice. Still taking it easy vocally, but things seem to be generally fine.
Coaching went really great today. No vox problems and some movement fun. Herr R loved the lyrics I showed him for our budding opera idea. Found out Ms RA just bought a house that has a room with fab acoustics large enough for chamber concerts! Hooray!
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Power Walk at M Park w/D. Brisk and dusky- There are some wondrous early spring trees blooming!
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Pale, pale, scarce and palest gradients of azure
Almost purpling deep line of clouds dropping
Her curtain just shy of the city trees
Cottony dreadlocks twirled entwining the very very only only only !
Cottony dreadlocks twirled entwining the very very only only only !
Tiny slenderlings of indigo-ing down
Increments creeping from one barely blueness to the next
And where they break before the leaves, all illuminated light and and and ! White pinkpink peeks and dazzles
Last moments sighing over the day
Sleepy Sun has kept longer hours than I
Increments creeping from one barely blueness to the next
And where they break before the leaves, all illuminated light and and and ! White pinkpink peeks and dazzles
Last moments sighing over the day
Sleepy Sun has kept longer hours than I
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