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Posted by Butch
on 11/11/2008, 8:16 am, in reply to "Re: the metaphysical brat pack"
162.39.191.X
--Previous Message--
: However do you think that you would have
: arrived, for the want of a better word, to
: where you are today, if you had never read a
: goddam book in your life?
:
: ---------------------------
:
: It's a good question, Lian Dao, and gets to
: the matter of how we know what (we think) we
: know.
:
: I see it this way: If you don't already
: sense the metaphysical shit, you won't learn
: it from the printed page. What you sense is
: confirmed by the printed page, or not. The
: Really Really Wise Ancient Dead Ones are
: particularly good at getting us to recognize
: (or 'recall,' as Butch might say) what we
: already know.
:
: Or so it seems.
:
:
:
Lian Dao,
Existence is trying to get our attention any Way she can can. Kind of like shaking ourselves back awake right after we fall asleep. At first the body doesn't respond but if we keep at it we reunite with our body and so our body/mind complex wakes back up. So it is with our mystic heart, the whole of our being. There are methods for waking up those aspects of our being that are asleep. So some of us write books to ourselves and others. "Hey You, Wake Up" and other such titles are found at most bookstores these days.
Personally, and this may an indictment of me but it is the truth, most of my best friends I have met in books. Alan Watts, well actually I met him a couple of times in Berkeley back in the 60's but I was just a snotnosed kid that was more interested in getting high and or laid than the nature of existence. Looking back I realize I was a prodigy, ok, an idiot-savant. I had my nature and that was good enough for me. But all beginnings come to an end and so it is with most if not all extremes. It was only a couple of years later that I read "The Book" and well, that and some Sandoz Samples and I have never been quite the same since. Can you tell? Don't answer that, it is a trick question. You fall into a rabbit hole if you answer it and I don't want that on Steve's conscience. He has enough to worry about what with Corky and his Summa Cum Lately Cult.
Where was I, oh yeah, I read "The Book" while camped out in a tent for thirty days all alone in the mountains during the dead of Winter along the border of then West and East Germany, I was on a secret mission from God--yes I was, and haven't ever really quit reading books since. I have found that most people that write books are being sincere. I like sincere people. Especially those that go to all the trouble of writing a book. Serious I'm not so crazy about, but sincere resonates with me.
If I were stuck on a desert island and could only have three books with me they would be.... boy this is a tuff one...
"The Compleat Angler" by Izaak Walton. Not so much a book about how to catch fish as about how to be thankful that we may catch fish. ..."the very sitting by the river's side is...the quietest and fittest place for contemplation,". "The Compleat Angler" is not so much a book about how to fish as it is about how to be.
Fishing cannot be taught by words but by practice.
Ironically a second book might be Thomas Merton's "No Man is an Island". ..."what we are is to be sought in the invisible depths of our own being, not in our outward reflection in our own acts. We must find our real selves not in the froth stirred up by the impact of our being upon the beings around us, but in our own soul which is the principle of all our acts."
No man is an island, he is a penninsula. Interfused, a part of that which has no parts. If we think about it existence is a conundrum. So maybe we shouldn't think about it so much. Moderation in all things, including moderation. "The whole mechanism of modern life is geared for a flight from God and from the spirit into the wilderness of neurosis. Even our monastaries are not free from the smell and clatter of our world." Amen.
Admittedly a bit of a Fundamentalist and Continental, but still his words speak to my heart. Besides, which of us isn't to a degree the product of our environment. Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.
A third book that might serve a person well on a desert island is "The Wisdom of Solitude", by Jane Dobisz. A student of Seung Sahn. ..."the cure for loneliness is solitude." A kind of modern Thoreau Jane tells about her experiences while living alone in a secluded cabin in the countryside of New England. ... "This is walking meditation. It's difficult not to be "on the way" somewhere while walking. Many meditation teachers say that during walking meditation you should take every step as though it were your first--or your last. That way you will appreciate each step. It's these small moments we take for granted, but these small moments are actually so important. They are the units that compose our life. Zen practice helps us to discover that everything we ever wanted is right here in front of us, if only we can slow down and recognize it."
"The Great Way has no gate."
How do you pass through? Zen Master Seung Sahn
The journey is the destination. Chop wood, carry water.
Butch
114
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"The Tao is basically utterly open. Utter openeness has no substance. It ends in endlessness, begins in beginninglessnes".
-Li Daoqun
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