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GREG:

What I know of Wei Wu Wei is partly hearsay. Born Terence Gray (1895-1986)
in Ireland to landed gentry. He was involved with the wine business. Went
to the Far East in the late 50's/early 60's. Most of his books were
published by Hong Kong University Press. I have a photo from Inner
Directions Journal with him, Douglas Harding and Robert Powell. He had
white hair, a white goatee, was wearing a linen suit and a Panama hat.
Looked kind of like Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. He
liked Madhyamika, the advaita of Krishna Menon, and preferred the crusty
Ch'an of the old Chinese masters to the formalized Zen of Japan. Others
may know more.
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MIGUEL-ANGEL:

Gloria spoke of her fear of death, of leaving
everybody, etc. I understand that. I'm not particularly
afraid of death itself, of dying. In fact, I often
think of my own death. In a way it sort of validates
and strengthens my believes.
It's a very powerful thought, death.
It makes you go to the point, leave all nonsense
aside. But I also understand the sorrow of losing one's
dear ones for ever. I feel it myself. And here it
serves no purpose saying "those who fear death have
never really lived life, or are sublimating a fear of
life". That's trying to invalidate an emotion with an
argument. Perhaps the answer might rather be to see the
positive sides of death, as a liberation that will
luckily come to all, whether they deserve it or not;
and also as a reunion. After all, death is what will
eventually unite us all in our source, free at last of
all misery, bondage, limitations...

One of my best friends is dying of cancer. He's mainly
concerned about his family. Of course it doesn't enter
my mind telling him things like I have just said (he's
an atheist). How can one help? Just by silent company,
I think.


DAVID:

It's a powerful thought to maintain the possible presence
of death as a reality, as a means of reminding one:
what life is
how short a time we have to accomplish.... the dream?


When you die, do you loose those dear ones? You loose nothing!
You can't loose what you don't have. The sorrow is part of the
existing dream, when "others" die. It's not easy, that's sure,
but it's part of the walk. When you really see what this "dream"
is, sorrow and pain speak. When you know where they come from,
they fill you like a pristine valley view in sunlight, and motivate
you as they should.

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TIM shares some Q & A from Jean Klein:

Q: I am 35 and dying of AIDS. How can I face up to this seemingly
unacceptable fact?

JK: When you say it is not acceptable see in one moment what you mean by
"not acceptable."

Q: Not just unacceptable for me but also for my family.

JK: See the illness objectively, as if in front of you so that you are not
lost in it. Look at your body as if it belonged to another. Then you will
have a glimpse of freedom from the burden of it, a moment of psychological
space. Become interested in this feeling of freedom, and it will be
effortlessly sustained. It is only from this free perspective that you can
act most correctly. You are not the body, neither the healthy nor the
unhealthy body. So your illness is a gift to come more quickly to realize
what you are not. This attitude, which is not an attitude because it comes
from wholeness, from Life, will stimulate your surroundings, your family
and friends. It will stimulate the Life in them. Knowingly or unknowingly
they will share Life with you and neither you nor they will feel isolated.
This feeling of Life will remain after the disappearance of what you are
not, the physical body. Life is eternal and in it all are in oneness.

There is no illness. Illness is nothing but an accident. In reality there
is only health. The very word, the idea of illness already predisposes you
to being ill, creates it even. As soon as we classify our sensations into
categories so as to name them, our imagination, charged with emotivity,
already very vivid in this field, feeds what we could call a malfunction.

You should never name this malfunction, for this only feeds the imagination
and confirms your illness. This in itself prolongs the malfunction. In my
view, malfunction is a signpost.

(...)

Q: Is illness often psychological?

JK: Yes, often. I would say as long as we continue to believe the person
exists, we will encounter psychological problems which produce physical
reactions. The person shuts itself in a stronghold of aggression and
self-defense. This structure is nothing but fear, desire and anxiety. It
is an intricate barrier to the natural flow of life within us. This
natural flow of life can take care of itself perfectly well, it does not
need the person.

Illness, malfunction, result from this opposition.

Q: Does the body heal itself?

JK: A cell became a cell through health. If the cell had no memory of this
state of health, it could not cure itself. It knows itself when healthy
and there is no need to intervene.

One must help the cell to recuperate. The first step is acceptance of the
actual state of the cell, the body. Acceptance means objectifying the
sensation, not trying to escape it, dominate it or suppress it. In this
total acceptance the body regains its health for it already knows health.

...Jean Klein
From "I AM"
(C) Jean Klein, 1989 (Third Millennium Publications)

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MICHAEL:

I Like this guy!

http://www.wie.org/j15/turner.html

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LARRY:
Here's a very good article on letting go in meditation by Ajahn
Brahmavamso in the Thai "forrest tradition" speaking from Perth. He
takes it from the beginning all the way into jhana. I'm sure you will
find something you recognize.
http://www.saigon.com/%7Eanson/ebud/ebmed035.htm

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from BOB ROSE:
Hi - just thought youse (Philly-talk for Y'all) might enjoy these
additions to the Words of Wisdom section of the Meditation Society of
America's web site, Meditation Station

http://www.meditationsociety.com

Although the author is unnamed, I'm pretty sure they can be
attributed
to Kir Li Molari.

http://www.meditationsociety.com/words.html

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MIGUEL had written in response to Tim's question,

" If you could really get across one major point
to everyone on the list, what would it be?":

That we are not separate entities, individual
substances.
That all personalities, all body-minds, are mere masks,
roles in a play, characters in a film, figures in a
dream.
That's what I tried to convey with my litlle story The
Theatre.


GENE:

Agreed. Do you also see that some of the players are aware that they
are players, and that others are not?

That while some players point to the play as being 'an illusion',
that the aware players, play deliberately? Or alternatively, that
some of the aware players simply stop playing, as a choice?

That while "the play" is not the only play in town, it is where we
stash our chips?

And that when the aware player goes for broke, and loses, that it is
a perfect time to win?

Writing as not just a nobody, but as THE NOBODY

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