Rather i would further add, lose self in service, and then eventually you will completely and fully know the truths of these.   Not many within the Earth have done this Blink and far too many Eastern teachers have been placed on pedestals of complete enlightenment wherein perhaps they shouldn't have been.   This is something i believe Recoverer knows all too well from deep personal experience.   

  I would say it is far better and constructive to be in active loving service to others, than to passively meditate and try to foster 'no mind' whatever that is.   Yet there is a necessary balance, and we must also tap into the passive, receptive, meditative yin energy as well, so that we can act and serve from our centers in the 'outer' world. 

  Unfortunately though, the East and its ways, tends to be too imbalanced to the passive, void, yin aspect of the All that Is.  Like attracts, likes, consciously perceives, and begets like, and so those who align more to one over the other in self, concentrate on, like, perceive, and agree more so with that half of the truth. 
Yeah, ultimately its all 'divine', and all works towards that end, and yet at the same time there are differences, this is because BOTH  the reality of Oneness, and completely unique individuality are eternal co existing, but different and paradoxical truths.  If one doesn't have this balance and merging within to some conscious extent, via like attracts and begets like energy reaction/law, then they will have a hard time perceiving this in an 'outward' manner as well.

  There is nothing wrong, or destructive with mentally, intellectually understanding in a logical manner what one feels and knows to be truth in a right brain way, the point is to merge them.    The above post and teaching seems to be saying to me, "cut out the left brain, only the right brain will lead you to truth." same old eastern, particularly Zen stuff perpetuated down the centuries.  There is beauty and truth within that teaching you posted (and i enjoyed that aspect of it), but its incomplete, imbalanced, and overly Zen in my sometimes humble and other times not so humble perception. 

SO, in this excessively passive and non-interactive environment, we can call for the monk with the stick to come and whack us a few good ones to wake us up. The point of "bodhi" is literally "wakefulness", although to me this is carrying things a mite too far. And as for self-mutilation in the service of bodhi, I am reminded of my old psychoanalyst profs telling the class to be aware of insanity in service of the ego. An hysterical trait that most of us would label differently. It might be too much right brain, or too much left brain. or perhaps too much fussing with the brain, which is my own estimation.

Most of Japan favors the Shin approach in which we are viewed as essentially incapable of perfection at the level required to become enlightened, and thus must rely upon the grace of the Buddha to save us. Thus, in the eyes of the Shin priest, there are no living buddhas, and we await the Savior Buddha, Maitreya, to come and rescue us. Seems to me that we've heard that song sung in other tongues in other lands. It certainly fits the Hinayana philosophy of perpetual improvement by slow degrees, and doesn't do too badly in comparison with St John of the Cross and "The Dark Night of the Soul".

However, there remains the tradition, observed at every "tea ceremony" that if one can make a good cup of tea, one has arrived. (I like that idea, together with its various ramifications. Aside from substituting coffee for tea, it works for me.)

d

dave_a_mbs wrote on Oct 11^th, 2007 at 2:26pm:


  One of the issues i have with Zen modes and teachings relates to the belief they seem to hold that by thinking or  rather nonthinking in a certain manner, they will become enlightened.   To me, Zen is primarily a practice of learning how to become receptive and still, so that one can change belief systems and gain a clarity and balance on the emotional and mental levels, and in that sense, i consider it a very worthwhile practice.   Any meditational practice, i consider worthwhile and perhaps even completely necessary.   But, changing belief systems in and of itself, will not lead to complete enlightenment, which is actually what it means, to become full of and completely light personaified.  No one will become "enlightened" by meditating on a Koan, or by being whacked over the head with a wooden baton!  Utter illusion.  When this (complete enlightenment) happens, certain outer and inner things become obvious to the individual who has completed this.   No linear space/time limitations, and no so called "natural" aging or illness (though plenty of gurus have made excuses for showing signs of one or both), for example. 

  It's how you live in relation to others and to the rest of Creation, which brings that full enlightenment, and of course, conscious belief systems have an influence in this process, but aren't the end all or be all.



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  Right brain, left brain, these are arbitrary labels.   When i speak of these, i'm not primarily talking about the physical brain, but rather the Archetypal, eternal Polarity contained within the Creator and Creation, and from which in a polarized, densified and projected world (physical Earth for one), patterns such an 'object' known as the brain with its two main, different but connecting hemispheres.      When i speak of left and right brain, i'm also addressing the balance and interaction of Yin and Yang, of Feminine to Masculine in a broader sense.  Stillness and expansion.   The Hemispheres of the brain, have the 'job' to perceive these different aspects of Creation which are really One in essence, but because we find ourselves in a polarized temporal reality, seem like two different and paradoxical things.

  Most things in this world, generally fall into the category of seeming "separation" between these two, which is really just based not on real separation, but rather imbalance ratios.   And yes, i very much believe the East in general, as a toto, has been too imbalanced to Yin.   The opposite with the West and Yang.  Isn't it funny how so many westerners have over idealized Eastern teachings, teachers, and gurus, and now so many easterners are over idealizing the western ways of living and thinking...    Sad, ironic mess, and yet its come about through searching for the perfect balance and merging, it just hasn't had all the 'kinks' worked out yet.   It will though.  They need each other, and are compliments. 


 

Agreed, Orlando.  And as I look at the people participating in this forum I see many in various states of enlightenment, and being enlightened in various different ways. Enlightenment, or bodhi, thus being viewed as a process that leads ultimately back to the Initial Point, and is potentially infinite in extent. But if we view people as being more or less enlightened, we are viewing bodhi to that extent, and thus we have a world populated entirely by buddhas, all in different stages of hatching -  even as thee and I, although I still can't walk on water unless the temperature is very low.

Perhaps the proper thing to do at this point is to have a cookie with our tea - or coffee if you prefer.

d

Hi Blink, i very much believe in concentrating on the solution, or on the 'real', but does that mean that there is no error to grow out of in the first place, or that understanding the problem and how it came about isn't necessary at all? 

   In the ultimate sense (from the Creator's point of view), the "wall" doesn't exist, but sorry, we're the ones who imagined up the wall to begin with, and we don't transcend the wall by 'seeing it not there', but by living, and concentrating on what is real.   It's not purely a mental, belief system thing, but whole being thing.

  Either way, in the end, i will listen only completely to those who have transcended the wall, and not to those who are still very much immersed in the dream.  Only the pure White Light ones know the way truly.  And in my experience and listening, they teach a different perspective than many earthly limited teachers have and do whether eastern or western in origin.

  Bruce teaches something which i very much agree with.  He essentially says that the more a person lives, practices, concentrates on, etc. PUL in relation to the rest of Creation, in every moment of their life, the more their perception opens up on all levels--there is a direct connection of sorts.  I would say that those who are pure PUL incarnate, are pure perception incarnate as well, and thus have the full understanding from all perspectives and angles of reasoning.   

   The important question to always ask in relation to anothers info, beliefs, or teachings, is, for example "Osho" PUL  incarnate and thus does he have the whole enchilada, the whole perception and understanding?

Sometimes, AaSoLaoTsuAhhOmmra, concentrating on the problem and how it came about is necessary, of course. Change does not come about by doing or thinking the same thing over and over. And change is sometimes necessary, for the increased happiness and peace of all beings...but does not always happen.

I do not say the wall does not exist. The wall exists, but by making the sacrifice -- there is the tea, there is the clarity, there is the reward. Suddenly the wall begins to look like a shelter. Suddenly the wall begins to look like a friend. Suddenly we realize that we chose this wall, when we sat down to contemplate it.

But the wall is not our friend. It is the tea that is our friend, the tea that has given us new life. This true friend helps us see every wall differently.

love, blink

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  Completely agree, and very well said!