manitou

I'm pretty sure life Is the pill. It gives us exactly what we need to take us where it wants to take us. We must modify ourselves to find the comfort zone in which to regard and learn from Life.

I guess because we were taught to judge from day one. I agree - one night I was watching Dave Chappelle and he had a hip-hop group on - I was about to flip the channel because hip hop isn't my thing, lol. But I decided to force myself to sit through it and DAMN! It was wonderful! But the pre-judgment almost made me miss it. Not to sound too much like a doper, but smoking a joint, (which brings you totally to the here and now) is an incredible addition to a music listening experience. No doubt you've experienced this...

Plus 100!

Yes, agreed....it is a long term process. And it seems to me that as things clear out of our insides there is more room for Love to move in. That is one of the Sage's treasures.

If the people are constant in their behavior, this would imply that they are task-oriented and not worrying about tomorrow (or 'death') because they would always be in the Here and Now. The idea of execution wouldn't phase them much for two reasons; they would have nothing to fear because they are adhering to the simplicity; also, the fear of the end of their life wouldn't be with them much, for they focus on what's in front of them. What I have a problem with is the second part of this. It seems to be a huge argument in favor of capital punishment, and I'm relatively sure this isn't the right interpretation.

Yes - I agree - doing our thing out in the open raises questions in other people's minds; who knows what happens to that person as a result of their inner question? Maybe not today or tomorrow - but the question will remain. One of my 'practices' is to fully zone out face down on the grass - no thoughts, just meditation. I was doing this in my front yard one day when a car actually stopped and a man ran over asking if I was alright. He saw an old woman laying on the ground and probably thought she was hurt or dead. I do it in the back yard now. Practicing in the open does have its consequences, lol.

yutang has a line that is slightly different: 'When reformed and rising to action, Let it be restrained by the Nameless pristine simplicity.' It seems like everything rotates around the nameless pristine simplicity. This simplicity is at the basis of everything, and when the machinations of man get too far away from this, the Way is that things will be returned to their simple nature, one way or the other. Somewhere I read, 'don't look at the thing itself, look at the idea behind it' to understand it. This seems to follow the above; the idea would be simple; the manifestation of the idea might result in the results being too complicated or twisted as produced through the contorted self; the sage knows to look behind the idea to the Nameless pristine simplicity. By non-action, we are merely letting the nameless pristine simplicity do its thing without interference. Most people will let their fears run away with them, as people tend to project out the most negative thing that can happen, fear it, and do all sorts of things to defend against it. Fear is the motivation for much of what our society does. The sage knows that by standing back, seeing it for what it really is, that sometimes a mere tweak from the sage will 'bend the light', as they say. If changes are made at the very basest level - the level of the idea that the sage sees -then much rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth is avoided. The 10,000 things transform of their own accord if desires are curbed. The world will change of its own accord if desires are curbed. but Western society? It's very difficult to have the Westerners understand this idea - to lose their desires - because our current system is set up as Dog Eat Dog. Maybe this explains the Nazarene's camel/eye of the needle comment. It seems to me that gratitude for what we already have is the answer. To keep piling money up higher and higher just seems silly to me at this point in my life. Of course, I'd probably feel differently about it if I'd actually been able to do it; but I can say with relative assuredness that if I had been able to pile up money, it would be put to great use in my more mature years. So - two sides of the same coin on this too. The idea behind money? My guess is power.

I don't think there's anything out there at all. I think somehow the manifestation is done through us. We are God.

That is a beautiful and shamanic blessing, in addition to the Oneness of the Dao. I am very interested in the Essenes, as wasn't that the tradition in which the Nazarene was brought up? If any of the feats mentioned in the western bible are halfway accurate, a great shamanic understanding could account for this, which it is reputed that the Essenes followed. If he retained the knowledge of the ancients through the Essenes, it is possible that he was able to transcend gravity, as many others have within other traditions. In particular, it seems that a great shamanic understanding of the workings of nature would indeed be 'impressive as all hell' to the elders of the temple - wasn't he supposed to be 12 when that happened? the essenes had particular respect for water as well - in fact, there was even a case when the Nazarene put spit on his fingers to place in the ears of a deaf man (who was then able to hear); we are now scientifically proving that water does indeed have consciousness, and reacts differently to different spoken words. I recently read an Essene gospel, and there is a REALLY strange chapter in there about grass. Not mind-bending grass. Just the normal stuff that grows out of the earth. According to the Essene gospel I read, it says that grass is magic; that it has properties that we can't even imagine, and they considered it tremendously holy. What's that about?? But if you think about it, grass would have been the first vegetation that came out of the earth when it was time for the vegetation to come. Perhaps grass symbolizes the animate coming out of the inanimate! Maybe there's a metaphor there that we need to see and understand; man does follow the ways of the earth, after all. Well, after I read that book I've taken to eating a pinch of grass a day. Chewing it slowly and for quite a while, letting the 'green' go down. Some grass tastes like garlic. Some tastes like onions, I'm discovering. Some is sweet, the young tender shoots - no wonder animals love the young tender stuff. About 20 minutes after I've eaten the grass, I can feel an energetic boost. You can definitely feel it going through your body in some way. I wish I could say it's doing miraculous things for me, I don't really see any change. But it feels good to do it, I ask permission to pull the grass (from the grass, not my husband, lol). I've also noticed that laying face down in the grass and doing a Taoist zone-out is very energizing - the stress will drain down and the energy will come up. Odd, the Essene stuff. That blessing was perfect.

Nice, Steve. the whole thing, but this word picture is wonderful.

Excellent question. My best conjecture would be the one who has developed the three treasures: Love, never too much, never be the first. As to what qualities they wouldn't be, I would probably try to hammer them organizationally within the above three categories.

Yes - agreed. There certainly is a point of Aaaargh, Enough Already, lol. The recovering alkie then just works Step 11 daily, which is Continuing to take personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitting it. It just keeps the doorstep swept off daily, that's all. If stuff is allowed to pile up, then it's too easy for the alkie to say 'poor me...poor me....pour me a drink....' But over the years it just becomes second nature to do this - you don't even think about it.

I don't know where I come in on the enlightenment scale either, but I do know that if I remember that I have a beautiful aura projecting love around me during the day, the awareness does stay.

I've read and meditated upon the TTC for many years. My interpretation of it is to develop the qualities of the sage.

To fall in love with the process. How beautiful. I think this truly says it all. Once the process has started, there's no going back.

The 'sometimes' thing I guess I just threw in because it sounds a little friendlier. You're right. It doesn't need to be there. The reason I have had personal experience with the buttons thing is because of Alcoholics Anonymous. I had to file the buttons down to stay sober - that's the way the 12 steps work. But the steps brought me to this place, wherever it is, here with you. (along with plenty of reading). Both the inner and outer dynamic in tandem. The steps are a rough but quick way to get in. that's only my personal experience, Kate. I'm just glad to be here in such good company, regardless of the painful clearning out process.

As to being the observer of the weirdness, this reminds me of waking up into a dream in the morning - floating along with the dream for a while, thinking it makes perfect sense. Then, when you decide to open your eyes and actually get up, you realize 'Damn! - that was one weird dream!' It's like there's this separate reality in dreams where causation is entirely omitted, and yet at some level we fully understand what the dream is doing. Our waking self apparently requires the cause and effect-ness of our daily understanding. The dream is happening all Here, all Now. I've heard it said that although it seems that dreams may involve a long span of 'time' (to our sleeping perception), they actually occur in a very short time. Somehow our dreaming mind is not respectful of the laws of time or space or gravity.

Interesting.

Whoa. I love this. Particularly the artificial intellect part. I hear the men separating from the boys.

"I accept" the fact that your word choice is a much better one than mine, lol. Thanks for the nudge toward the sun. I read a book once that said 'I alone am muddled and nebulous'. Different side of the same coin, I guess....

Just to go in a slightly different direction with, the word Enlightenment, just as a word, seems to connotate that we become enlightened OF something. Like our journey is lighter because we no longer have the baggage to carry around. On the front cover of one of Castaneda's book, there is a man walking away from the viewer, not walking on a path but being a couple of feet above it, in the air. He was also radiant, perhaps a more traditional view of enlightenment. But it occurred to me one day, after seeing that cover many times, that he was hovering above the path because he was lighter. Lighter? Enlightened? Enlightened of what? Of structure of any religion? Of illusion that time is one day after the other? Of the illusion that we are separate? Might be all three.

Yes, we are the catalyst of our own outcome. I didn't mean 'not care' in a calloused heart way. I meant it in a 'leaving the outcome of our catalyzation to the wind' way, to give up control.

An accompanying thought is "I don't care". The outcome is not of our making.

Sometimes other people irritate us because they cross the very same thing in ourselves. I think the trick is to file down the buttons that we wear on our chest for people to push. When there are no buttons left, they can push all they want and it doesn't phase us.