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#1527 - Monday, August 18, 2003 - Editor: Jerry
Gill Eardley
AllspiritInspiration
great void
You no sooner attain the great void
Than body and mind are lost together.
Heaven and Hell - a straw.
The Buddha-realm, Pandemonium - shambles.
Listen: a nightingale strains her voice, serenading the snow.
Look: a tortoise wearing a sword climbs the lampstand.
Should you desire the great tranquillity,
Prepare to sweat white beads.
~Hakuin
'The Penguin Book of Zen Poetry'
Edited and Translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto
Lorraine
Talking Stick Wisdom
Let Go Of The Rage
We're living our lives with so much rage deep inside,
it's part of us at times, we feel we must hide
So we leave it hidden deep down in our soul
Trying to forget about it not realizing the toll
The toll that it's taken is you've got a hard heart
There's a lot less there than you had at the start
You've let life get to you and it's ripping you apart
Try to let go of some of that rage
Try to let go so you can begin a new stage
A new stage in life that will let you see
The rage that you hide deep in your soul
Is what is driving you, it has your control
Let people know what you think and how you feel
I know at times it can be a bitter pill
Hard to swallow but once its gone down
The relationship you have will be much more profound
The rage that you store will eat you alive
Don't let it become part of your drive
Reach deep in your heart and you'll find that small part
The part that will win out over the rage
Letting you begin on a fresh clean page
Don't keep things bottled up deep in your soul
Let letting go be part of a new goal
Soon you will see your back in control
So try to stay in control each and every day
And the rage will subside finally going away.
written by Lynda Cox
A push to map the mystical.
As researchers study how
spiritual experiences happen inside the brain, theologians
question the
point. Sister Constance Fitzgerald of the Carmelite Monastery in
Towson
can't describe Unio Mystica, the direct and immediate experience
of God
that Christian mystics seek through contemplative prayer. All she
can
say is that it's a gift from God -- achieved through a lifetime
of
fidelity. But is it also a gift of human brain biology? Mario
Beauregard, a University of Montreal neuroscientist, wants to
find out
exactly what's going on during this most intimate of religious
experiences. http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-
te.theology18aug18,0,5789331.story?coll=bal-news-nation
(paste the entire URL into the locator bar. May no longer be
active.)
Nina
Also from the above article:
At the Carmelite monastery in Towson, Fitzgerald said she is
wary of
science diminishing traditional religious practice.
"I think we have not begun to tap the possibilities
inherent in
contemplative prayer for the transformation of people,"
Fitzgerald
said. "We don't have faith that a life of profound prayer
really could
affect the human race."
Beauregard, meanwhile, is seeking Carmelite nuns in Canada who
are
willing to participate in his study. Some are interested, he
said, but
others worry that he is trying to prove Unio Mystica is merely an
illusion of the brain.
He and other spiritual researchers deny that motive. "The
last thing I
would want to do is have our scientists going around in their
research
with respect to their subjects and somehow remove their sense of
spirituality," said Solomon Katz, head investigator at the
Metanexus
Institute in Philadelphia.
(End of excerpt)
It is interesting to contemplate the difference between
spending a
lifetime, if one is so inclined for so long a stretch, in
contemplative
prayer vs. going to an outpatient service designed to immediately
connect a person to 'God'. Is it the connection to 'God' or the
lifetime of practice that will 'save the world'? Does it matter
if a
person loses their prescribed sense of spirituality if they are
able to
instantaneously connect to 'God' and get a 'God recharge' anytime
they
want one? Very interesting article and potentialities. --Nina
Freyja
Yes, interesting article, and what you say is interesting, too.
In this seemingly accelerated global information age, with
things
happening so fast, practicing on one's feet is pretty much a
given.
The days of secluded monastic life are largely over. We are,
as
Caroline Myss says, "monks without monasteries".
Instantaneous connection for the masses to 'God' sounds pretty good!
Wonder if it will be marketed like broadband connection? Come
to think
of it, maybe in some ways it already is.
Jan Barendrecht
The study of researchers regarding the brain in the process of
"spiritual" experiences is similar to the scientist
studying a falling
apple: at best, some properties are discovered, enabling a better
understanding of what happens, in a way that the observed
phenomena can
be put to a greater use. Ascribing something as "a gift of
God" surely
has to be interesting for Buddhists, equipped too with a similar
brain
as the sister from the Carmelite monastery. Such descriptions are
in
the "edge of the flat earth" class as such a
description suggests it is
final and doesn't tolerate further investigations. The scientist
wanting to know the neurological sequence of events on the other
hand
thinks that the sequence of events is the "explanation"
whereas it but
is the biochemical story, only the mystic effectively knows.
Yet such experiences can be termed worthless as what matters
are the
transients, arising as the secondary effects of the irreversible
changes: the apperception event happens only once and so does the
"nirvana with substratum" event: unpredictable
regarding the "when" by
the "enjoyer" hence out of reach for the knowledge
hungry scientists.
Once suffering gone, it lasts but the scientists still have to
find a
way to measure what for the mystic is factual.
Anyone familiar with the requirements / codes of conduct
involved with
the "nirvana with substratum" event will know it's next
to impossible
to realize that while at a 21 century full-time job and will see
the
old-fashioned Indian style ashram as the blessing of a safe-haven
where
even a Buddhist could behave like "God-intoxicated
fool" without
getting diagnosed as "mentally ill for life" and
subsequently encaged
in funny farm, for life on drugs.
Thomas Murphy
See What Is
Consciousness of Phenomena
Phenomenal manifestation
is an intimacy
between prime matter
and consciousness
conceiving what-is.
Without prime matter
consciousness
lacks content.
Without consciousness
prime matter
lacks manifestation.
So what is prime matter?
It is the unformed substrate
of collective (un)consciousness.
Prime matter underlies
perceiver and perceived.
Consciousness and prime matter
are conjoined in perceiving.
Prime matter is semen;
consciousness is ovum;
perception is offspring.
tomas
17aug03
cwutiz
Gummuluru Murthy
Advaitin
1. Enlightenment is *not* the result of whether we want or do
not
want enlightenment.
2. Studying the texts does not lead to enlightenment. It is the
result of our wants getting dropped which is the
result of
cittashuddhi and sAdhana catuShTayam that result in
spiritual
maturity.
The texts point to this fact; yet, it is only the
jnAnam
that is enlightenment.
3. shri madathil asks jan " .... Till, then why don't you
let the
talking game be played? Does that harm
anyone? .."
The game has to be played, but the important part of
the game
is it has to be recognized by the players that it is
a game.
Either writing to the Lists, or living the life
itself - as
long as it is recognized that it is a game and the
game is
played, that is jnAnam itself.
But sometime, we forget it is a game and get
ourselves seriously
involved and that is saMsAra.
Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
Daily Dharma
"Others will always show you exactly where you are stuck.
They say or do something and you automatically get hooked into a
familiar way of reacting—shutting down, speeding up, or
getting all
worked up.
When you react in the habitual way, with anger, greed, and so
forth, it gives you a chance to see your patterns and work with
them
honestly and compassionately.
Without others provoking you, you remain ignorant of your painful
habits and cannot train in transforming them into a path of
awakening."
~Pema Chodron
From the article, "Don't Give Up," in the September
2003 Shambala Sun Magazine.
Burning Man:Imaginations Fired Up in the Desert
There's no shortage of beautiful work to photograph. Oracles,
art
installations, dance clubs, foam domes and fluorescent gardens
spring
up out of truck beds and erupt from RVs. Incredibly, there is an
organized cohesiveness and a common creed of responsibility
expressed
by all participants: Be expressive, be respectful and leave no
trace.
Every year, the Burning Man organizing team takes on a new art
theme to
shape their new city. This year's challenge to go “Beyond
Belief”
encourages pilgrims to explore and reshape the experience of
spirituality.
Leslie Diamond seems eager to push through the mysterious
bounds as she
prepares her shipment for the cross-country container. She says
she
first made the trip to BRC in 2001 because “it sounded like
something
that was missing from my life, something I needed to do.”
Leslie looks
like she could be at home in the boardrooms or in the clubs of
Boston,
but she is making the trek this year as an opportunity to push
herself
and “rejuvenate my soul.”
Complete story: http://www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/4346.aspx
(paste URL into locator bar. May no longer be active.)