--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> > wrote: > > > > > > Again, I think we're back to the issue of you not valuing > > > > > > "I don't know" and both Curtis and I valuing it a lot. We > > > > > > find some of our inspiration *in* not knowing. You seem to > > > > > > be more inspired by the belief that you *do* know certain > > > > > > things. > > > > > > > > > > A surprising, interesting and initially frustrating thing > > > > > for me was taking some retreats with SSRS -- and his ample > > > > > use of the phrase "I don't know". Coming from the TMO, > > > > > "home of all knowledge" view, SSRS was "shocking", at > > > > > first. But he gets very exited about the Mystery > > > > > of It All. And that bewildered awe is a perfectly > > > > > acceptable, appropriate response. > > > > > > > > > > He also says "So What!?" a lot. Which if used in ones own > > > > > personal affairs, can be quite cleansing. To both "good" > > > > > and "bad" events. > > > > > > > > > > I Don't Know. But So What! > > > > > > > > SSRS is a fake, no ? > > > > > > I don't know. So what? > > > > > > This is one of my all-time favorite jokes. One person asks > > > the other: "What do you think is worse in our society today, > > > the general level of ignorance, or rather the pervading > > > disinterest." > > > The other person answers: "I don't know, and I don't care." > > > > Ah, "ignorance." > > > > As opposed to...uh...what? "Knowledge?" > > Barry, could it be that you are just a bit over-interpreting? > This is just a joke, its not invented by me, I am just retelling, > translating from memory from German. Thats the problem I have > currently with you: I am just saying something quite innocently, > and all the red lights go on ... Its a joke! Can't you laugh? > Didn't you say you prefer masters with a sense of humor? You > are so much projecting at this point, that I find you useful > exchange virtually impossible at the moment.
Um...Michael...did you miss that my reply *was* a joke? > If the question in the joke above had been > asked of the Buddha, he might have replied > the same way. Master Chao-chou might have > replied (as he did to the question, 'Does > a dog have Buddha-nature?'), "Mu." > > Both answers are really a way of saying, > "Thank you for inviting me to play this odd > game with you, but I'd rather not. I'm on > my way to the beach volleyball tournament > right now. Maybe some other time." (The > Buddha was a big fan of beach volleyball.) I was just having fun riffing on your joke. Or did you think that I was serious about the Buddha being a big fan of beach volleyball? After riffing on the joke, as I am wont to do, I just rapped a bit about the magic of still being able to say "I don't know." It seems to me that you may have heard something in that rap...again...that wasn't there -- a criticism of you. > Maybe go out, have a life - I'll go jogging now. Hope it helps. Just in case it doesn't, here another joke for you. I consider it a very Zen joke, one that makes some very important spiritual points, but I'll warn those who are offended by off-color language that there might also be a little language in this joke of that color: A man is sitting and reading when his young son walks up and stands right in front of him and says, "Dad, I know what I want for my sixth birthday next week." The man puts down his magazine and looks at the boy and says, "What's that, son?" "I want a tricycle, Dad. That red one we saw at Woolworths yesterday." The man looks at him long and hard and finally says, "Son...is your dick long enough to touch your ass?" The kid looks kinda shocked. He thinks about it for a moment and then says, "No father, it isn't." The man says, "Come back and ask again when it is," and goes back to his reading. The kid slinks away, defeated. Some years later, the father again sitting and reading when his son walks up to him and says, "Dad, I'm going to be twelve next week. And you know what I want? I want that cool 10-speed racing bike I saw in the window at the bike shop." The father stops reading and looks at him and says, "Son...I have just one question...is your dick long enough to touch your ass?" It's déja vu all over again. The boy, crestfallen, says, "No Dad, it still isn't." "Well, come back and ask again when it is." Again the kid slinks away. But this time he's thinking about it. And over the next few years, he quietly and privately starts working out. He starts light, just pulling on the little sucker as often as he can. But in time, he's tying 25-pound weights to it and letting it dangle in the breeze. He's doing curls with it. And one day, he looks in the mirror and practices what has now become a daily ritual for him, and looks up, surprised. He smiles at himself in the mirror and goes downstairs to find his father. Dad's still sitting there, still reading. The young man waits patiently and respectfully for him to finish. At last the father says, "What can I do for you, son?" "Dad, I'm going to be eighteen next week. I'll get my driver's license and everything. And you know how we've been talking about me getting a car of my own? Well, that's what I want for my birthday, Dad...a car." The father stares at him through the 3D glasses for almost a full minute. Finally, he says, "Well, son... you know the question...is your dick long enough to touch your ass?" The young man straightens himself and says proudly, "Yeah, Dad...it finally is." "That's great, son," says the father, "So go fuck yourself." [ Now comes the part where I segue from the joke to talking about something else, something spiritual and, in my mind, related to the joke. I just wanted to let you know, because you missed it last time. ] I love this joke because it's *just* like the process of seeking enlightenment. We go to some teacher, and ask politely for enlightenment, and he says, "Can you do X?" And we say, "No," disappointed. So we spend years, possibly decades practicing X, knowing that when we can finally do X, enlightenment will be ours. And one day we find that we *can* do X. So we go back to the spiritual teacher, ready to show off our ability to do X and receive our "Enlightened" lapel button, and he watches us do X and says, "That's great...so go fuck yourself." Enlightenment never had anything to do with being able to do X. X was just something that the teacher told us to do to keep us busy, or to send us away so we'd stop bothering him. If the kid in the joke were happening, he would have realized his enlightenment when he heard the punchline. If he weren't, and was just another bothersome student longing for a teacher to tell him what to do, he probably wouldn't. That's the koan of the day...which do you think the kid in the story did? Ponder it, oh Grasshopper, and get back to me when you think you've got the answer. :-)
