TzuJanLi

Greetings.. The new Zen student was asked this question.. he pondered it all night, and when pressed for the answer the next day.. his incorrect reply was rewarded with a stern, "No!", and a slap to the side of the face.. after a few days of incorrect answers, the new student was asked again, and.. the student slapped the teacher.. well done, said the teacher.. There was a famous master of a celibate Zen monastery, where all the monks renounced any contact with the opposite sex for fear of distraction from their 'clarity'.. well, the master and some of his students were walking along the bank of a stream, in quiet contemplation, when, they heard the sobbing of a young woman.. the master approached the young woman and ask why she was sobbing.. she replied, "the water is too fast and deep for me to cross, and i will be late for my performance in the play".. the master picked-up the young woman and carried her across the stream.. she hugged him in sincere gratitude and hurried off to her play.. a while later, one of the puzzled students asked the master, "Master, why did you break your vows and make contact with that young woman?........ What was the master's reply? Be well..

An old Zen proverb: A garden is never finished...

In the spaces, in the absence, there is potential and possibility.. The same absence fills many rooms, and intention resolves potential.. The same air fills many rooms, some vibrating with the sounds of love.. sounds of struggle, sounds of Life, sounds of silence.. Absence is the opportunity for intention to evolve.. That's not really a Haiku, but it could be if it was...

Bliss happens or it doesn't, for the seeker of clarity there is no concern about bliss.. with clarity the 'way' is clear, even in all its mystery the 'way' is clear..

Generally, we see through the lens of our own attachments and beliefs.. the still mind 'sees' what is, the active mind looks for what it believes..

It is my understanding that emotions are messages from the 'non-local' aspect of our wholeness.. unfortunately, many people struggle to discern emotions from thoughts 'about' emotions..

We bagan a Saturday workshop at 7:30am with Sifu handing us each 25 pound sand bags, with the instruction that we could not set them down. We could set them in our laps, but we had to keep them in our personal control all day, even during physical training that normally required both hands: we got creative. That afternoon, around 4:30, Sifu said okay, put the sandbags over there, and he just walked away. So there we were, 6 or seven of us yammering away trying to figure out what the lesson was, but each of us so very happy to have put the bags down, and the next days soreness reinforced the lesson we would soon learn. After about 20 minutes, Sifu came back and started a familiar Taiji form with no mention of the sandbags, so me playing my usual role as the crash-test-dummy asked the question: 'what was the sand bag thing about'?.. 'all we did was carry them all day'! so, and i'll paraphrase, Sifu said: What!, you didn't like carrying the sand bags?.. Did you realize you were carrying the bag, did it seem to get heavier?.. (heck yes it did, it felt like a hunderd pounds at the end of the day).. how did it feel when you set it down?, he asked.. i said: it was a real relief, it felt great to put the bag down, but all we did was carry them around and all they did was get in the way, and all you said was 'you'll see'.. so, he said: now you see, you see how easy it is to just let go of useless baggage and how heavy and burdensome it can be.. all day your balance was off, your efforts were exaggerated, and you complained.. the lesson is that it's much easier to let go of your mind's baggage than it is to hold on, but.. pay attention to what you are holding onto, and ask yourself why.. each of you have stuff to let go of.. It was one of his best lessons...

Pretending that there are no 'selfs' to absolve the pretender of the guilt of complicity, is the same absurdity as blaming the victim for the crime..

This is my understanding of the relationship of Consciousness with existence: There is the principle of self-organization, order emerging from chaos, recurrent patterns.. Source.. There is the capacity for recognizing those patterns and the differences between them, for memory and recall.. Consciousness There is the ability to organize information for a purpose.. Intelligence There is the ability to perceive, to feel, events, objects, thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns, the vehicle through which experience and information and experience is made known to the experiencer/consciousness... Awareness..

Corporations, including the US Government Corp., use people's trust in the potential of Spiritual Awareness to create problems so they can make a profit selling cures.. stop buying the problems, and you won't have to by the cure (which is usually another problem)..

I do know what is suffering.. i have endured great pain, and i have caused great pain.. Judging others based on your own beliefs seldom finds common ground for understanding.. Would you be so kind as to describe what you mean when you use the words 'suffering' and 'discipline', i am hoping to reply in a way that is consistent with your understanding..

Suffering is a self-referential value, assigned by the observer based on their beliefs about what is actually happening.. it's interesting to have a discussion with a Buddhist and when you explain that you're not suffering, they tell you are but you just don't realize it.. mostly, it's a misunderstanding of what is meant by the term 'suffering', there's the common meaning that most people use, 'enduring pain', and then the conceptual structured model used by Buddhists.. it is worth noting, that simply because i don't identify with someone's model does not equate to suffering on my part..

My understanding of Taoist intention, is clarity.. through which, resonant appropriateness, sometimes known as natural harmony, is revealed.. peace and contentment are by-products of clarity..

Authenticity...

Yep...

What's interesting is that Wang Ni knows enough about what he doesn't think he knows how to know, to think he knows not to know, and that's a bunch of thinking and knowing.. seems like it could be more plainly said, more simply..

When the mind falls silent and still, 'you' integrate with the happening as it happens, that is 'who you are'.. and, you are the collective experiences organized into the mindscape that realizes that.. 'you' are the totality, fast/slow, high/low, one/many.. experienced in accordance with where you choose to place your awareness..

There is no 'good/bad', only consequences and arbitrary assignments of desirability..

It's interesting to watch the LOA advocate be abusive to others then be all upset when the same energy comes back to them..

Build it, whatever it is, in the mind, that's where manifestations originate, that's where the manifested computer you're reading this on originated. Build it in the exact detail that you choose to be manifested, in every detail necessary for the manifestation to be real. Be grateful for a process that allows for this to happen. Trust completely that the idea will manifest, and conduct your life as if it is already done, as if you will actually manifest the constructed idea. Now, just do it. Faith, without works, is dead. ideas bouncing around in your head, are not manifested. Do it, 'works' make it happen. Do not sit around thinking it will magically appear, it won't. Each doubt, each non-doing-it moment, alters the manifestation materially and the timing of the manifestation.

Awareness is not 'something' you find, it is a quality of consciousness.. your awareness found illusion and you are fond of your preferred illusions, believing them to be real.. this too shall pass, all things do.. from stillness, openness, emptiness what is seen/experienced is without the distortion of attachments to beliefs.. it is those attachments and beliefs that interrupt the experiencer's awareness of the fluid dynamism of creation happening.. let go, be still and know.. Likewise, good luck..

I bet you love some of the special effects in the movies, they create amazing illusions.. I've heard it all, and i've been present when the people making claims like this couldn't make it happen.. i've had 'masters' try to move me with 'ling kong jing', and when it failed their reasoning was because 'i didn't believe', when.. in fact i was eager to feel that sort of mastery, hopeful that someone could reveal that level of clarity/mastery.. I have played with skilled Taiji players whose skills were so well refined and whose clarity and ting jing so sensitive that their integration with the experience happening could be perceived as 'magical' by an untrained or inexperienced participant or observer.. There are the common believers that really want to believe the myths and stories, and who will embellish those stories to add the appearance validity.. often because a 'teacher' tells them they can do it, too, if they train hard enough, believe strong enough, and pay enough.. If the claim is not self-evident, or if it requires that the experiencer 'believe in order to receive', be skeptical.. 'that which is', is self-evident and present even if there is no belief.. the still mind's awareness has no beliefs, rituals, no "must be's/can't be's", it is still, alert, unconditionally sincere, and genuinely curious.. it speaks plainly, clearly, simply, in the language of the common person's understanding, rather than specialized linguistics with coded terminologies that set the believers apart from those less 'achieved'.. There are myriad excuses as to why someone can't do what they say they can.. no excuses needed by those that simply do what they do, without the embellished self-image performances..

Hi MH: I'm not going to say it ca't be done, as physics would suggest otherwise, so i'll leave that option open, but.. there is no credible or valid evidence of it ever happening, none.. and wishful thinking or LOA will not make it happen.. the reality is that a bunch of wannabe gurus cobbled together some stories about physics and myths and religions, and are peddling it as if it were doable with a wish and positive thinking.. people imagine the new-age stories they hear are true, then they believe those stories, then they try to explain normal Life with abnormal beliefs and stories.. and, it's largely imagined mind-play, an escape from taking responsibility for what is actually happening and doing the hard work of fixing it.. Simplify.. just look at Life happening with the clarity of a still mind's awareness, rather than the woo woo stories distorting that elegant simplicity..

That which changes and that which doesn't change are the same, they are your ideas/beliefs about that which is actually happening.. still the mind, and 'vanities' vanish, and clarity emerges..

Be still and know.. Let go of beliefs, knowings, realizations.. allow 'that which is' to reveal itself, free from the mind's influences and distortions.. There is nothing that blinds the experiencer more than that which the experiencer believes they 'know', let it go.. freedom from the known is liberation.. history is littered with the corpses of false truths and dead beliefs, the graveyard of each generation's certainty that they know the truth.. Be willing to see/experience everything for the first time, again, and again.. it's amazing what can be seen when you're not looking 'for something', when you allow what 'is' to reveal itself..