Ignorance is not bliss

[Jeff]

7 hours ago, Aaron said:

Chapter 19 

 

DROP wisdom, abandon cleverness,
And the people will be benefited a hundredfold.

Drop humanity, abandon justice,
And the people will return to their natural affections.

Drop shrewdness, abandon sharpness,
And robbers and thieves will cease to be.

These three are the criss-cross of Tao,
And are not sufficient in themselves.
Therefore, they should be subordinated
To a Higher principle:
See the Simple and embrace the Primal,
Diminish the self and curb the desires!

 

Tao Te Ching- Tr. John C. H. Wu 

 

Clear away the obstructions and a Sage simply knows...

 

CHAPTER 50  (SFH)

Between birth and death, men live their lives in different ways. Some are followers of the Dao. Some are followers of the ways of mankind. Some are followers of greed and lust. Some are followers of evil. Why is this?  

Because man has sought to change things and interfere; so he has upset the balance within himself and others.  

The Sage knows this and rejects that. He knows of the ways of the Ten Thousand Things as well as man.  Thus he can live in harmony with all things and all men. The tiger will not attack him, men will not seek to wound him and so he makes no room for death to enter.  

[dwai]

On 7/12/2017 at 7:23 AM, kāvēri said:

 

Knowledge does not bring happiness, but knowledge is inevitable.  The child cannot remain a child.  To grow up in the world, the child has to go through some kind of learning process.

 

Perhaps later the knowledge that does not serve can be unlearned or discarded.

Just to clarify. Knowledge (jnAna) in this case is referring to knowledge of the Self. This is not like phenomenal knowledge that we use in the regular world. Unfortunately syntax makes it difficult for us to articulate that which can only be alluded to in metaphors and similes 

[dwai]

15 hours ago, thelerner said:

I wonder if

Worrying about what we can't influence is hell? 

Suffering in this samsara is hell

 

[Marblehead]

27 minutes ago, dwai said:

Suffering in this samsara is hell

 

You are suffering in hell and smiling?  Are you holding back on us?

 

[dwai]

Just now, Marblehead said:

You are suffering in hell and smiling?  Are you holding back on us?

 

The suffering is not real. It's a dream and we mistakenly consider the dream to be real

[Marblehead]

Just now, dwai said:

The suffering is not real. It's a dream and we mistakenly consider the dream to be real

If suffering is not real then there is no need for a hell to suffer in.  All that's left is life.

 

 

[allinone]

when you want to feel hell, do a horse stance. Your legs are patala.

 

that incessant feeling, that feeling is like an atmosphere you breath in all the time, the time slows down. Maybe we need hell to slow down us so we start see more.

[Marblehead]

I don't do horse stance often any more.

 

I used to be able to do Kim Chee squat perfectly in my younger years.

 

 

[lifeaftercheckmate]

On 7/12/2017 at 0:34 AM, Aaron said:

Lao Tzu would disagree I think. Knowledge does not bring happiness, in most cases. The less you know, the happier you will be. This is why a child can be in the middle of war zone and be thrilled with finding a red ball, they don't know of death or hardship yet, only the red ball and how much fun they can have with it. Three days later, in the same war zone, that child can find that ball, but because of the experiences they've had, they find no joy, it is only a ball, nothing more. Ignorance breeds possibilities that knowledge does not.

 

I heard Zen teacher Adyashanti say once that Awakening is not a process of learning like we do in school. We don't learn fundamentals and build on them. Awakening is like starting at a PhD and working backwards to Kindergarten.