Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Thank you Jundo. I needed this today.
Roaming around Dogen’s texts—
I often feel confused.
His words make logic and reason useless—
but I must remember,
there is no place to get lost.
--Rehn
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Thank you Jundo! :D
gassho, L.
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Thank you for this !
Gassho
Ensho
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Go with the flow and learn to surf!
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Swimming is an art, and yet, it is a natural aspect of human life. When we are young, we need an instructor to help us learn to hold our breathe underwater. Yet, as we gain experience, we learn, by ourselves, that we can not only hold our breathe, but we can also open our eyes underwater!
What a wonderful experience that is! We can now maneuver and play games like swimming underneath an inflatable raft, or swimming between a sibling's outstretched legs, or picking up mussels (or rocks) from the bottom!
So much more we are capable of when we learn to swim. And yes! The entire world disappears when we swim for the island (or sandbar) and we have that one goal in mind. But we know that there is more than the island, we know that this is simply a stepping-stone along our path of becoming who we are.
Yet, we don't know who we will be or if reaching the island will have any significance whatsoever! It's just something we do. Then we do something else. And something else.
And so is life. We always do "something else" but "do" we ever "do" what we are doing right now?
-Jim
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Other than the somewhat groan-worthy pun, I like this :)
Reminds me of lyrics to two Meat Puppets songs:
"Swimming Ground"
The best place I ever found
Wasn’t close to any town
Was a little swimming ground
Everything just floating around
"Up On the Sun"
Up on the sun where it never rains or snows
There’s an ocean with a wind that never blows
And if you see it closer, then the finer points will show
I used to spend a lot of time chasing after "deep" experiences, and, similarly, "intense" experiences. I still enjoy both, but my will to truth eventually forced me to confront the fact that no one seemed to be able to escape the boring, tedious, sad, etc., aspects of daily life to some wonderful transcendent place... that no one had ever actually been "raptured," that everyone talking about Heaven or profound truth or enlightenment all were speaking from lives of piss and shit and cornflakes, personal foibles and occasional bouts of delusional grandiosity.
And I realized, if I was looking for "truth," or something "absolute," how could it be anywhere other than here? Robert Thurman gave a great talk on this once, I'll have to go look it up on YouTube, in which he pointed out that if the nature of the Absolute is that it is not relative to anything else, how could the Absolute be separate from everything else? How could it not be right here? I don't know what it is that is in the deep end, but it's not truth, at least not in the sense that it's any more or less present in the deep than in the shallow end...
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Quote:
And I realized, if I was looking for "truth," or something "absolute," how could it be anywhere other than here?
Yup! Life is just this. You know it, I know it, now everybody knows it.
What more is there but "this"?
-Jim
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Jim,
Thank you for joining. You wrote...
Quote:
Yup! Life is just this. You know it, I know it, now everybody knows it.
Precisely, Jim. Coming from" I know" mind, the statement is pretty dull and closed.
Experience in your flesh and blood "life is just this" coming from "I don't know" mind, and it is a different story. A complete different taste.
Up to you. Easy peasy. Just forget the self.
gassho
Taigu
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Zen - the freedom from pretending to know.
Chet
Re: The Swimming Whole ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by disastermouse
Zen - the freedom from pretending to know.
Thanks Chet. Ever have a moment where everything just opens up and says ahhh? I had one when I read this definintion of zen. Coming from a southern protestant background where we pretend to know all the answers, have all the solutions, are right in everything we say and do...phew! BULLSHIIIIITTTTT!!! It's good to say the truth. We don't have to pretend to know. We don't have to pretend to be good. We don't have to pretend that we're not afraid at times. WE DON'T HAVE TO PRETEND. That's called being a real human being. And somehow that makes everything alright. When we stop trying to know, then a real intuitive knowing arises. When we stop trying to be good, then a genuine, compassionate goodness arises in our heart. When we stop pretending, we reveal the face we had before we were born.
gassho
ghop