
Posted by gar on 1/25/2008, 7:20 am, in reply to "Enlightenment without love is not enlightenment."
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:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Greetings All,
:
: Today, I heard the saying, "same but
: different". When i first heard these
: words, oh so many years ago, it reminded me
: of the days when i could just see the
: difference, or the commonality of things.
: So, when i ask myself, gar, what is
: enlightenment i think back to the time when,
: 'this and that dissolved into a state where
: duality is lost.
:
: Reality now appeares to me through three
: eyes, one eye fo this, another eye for that,
: and a third eye for neither, this or that.
:
: in peace,
: gar
:
: gar,
:
: I am reminded of a chapter from the New
: Testament.
:
: "If I speak in the tongues of men and
: of angels, but have not love, I am only a
: resounding gong or a clanging cymbol. If I
: have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
: mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a
: faith that can move mountains, but have not
: love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess
: to the poor and surrender my body to the
: flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not
: envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It
: is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is
: not easily angered, it keeps no record of
: wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but
: rejoices with the truth. It always protects,
: always trusts, always hopes, always
: perseveres. Love never fails. But where
: there are prophesies, they will cease; where
: there are tongues, they will be stilled;
: where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
: For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
: but when perfection comes, the imperfect
: disappears. When I was a child, I talked
: like a child, I reasoned like a child. When
: I became a man, I put childish ways behind
: me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a
: mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now
: I know in part; then I shall know fully,
: even as I am fully known. And now these
: three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the
: greatest of these is love."
:
: 1 Corinthians 13, NIV. The Love Chapter.
:
: I believe what Paul is saying is the same
: but different from what many of the great
: sages, East and West, have said one way or
: another about what is truly essential. It
: does not matter what a person believes if
: they do not have love in their heart. Love
: is the gravity of metaphysics. As Rumi the
: Sufi mystic and poet noted, "The
: Love/Religion has no code or doctrine. Only
: Love."
:
: True love, love that is whole, is
: unconditionally open. Love is the essence of
: the eternal Tao.
:
: Butch
:
:Greetings Butch,
It seems to me, Butch, that in the realm of neither this nor that, lies the mother of love.
"I" like to think that in the essence of all things resides the kindred spirit that makes us one.
in peace,
gar
| 41 |
"The Tao is basically utterly open. Utter openeness has no substance. It ends in endlessness, begins in beginninglessnes".
-Li Daoqun
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