Bagginses don't go adventuring... it's considered disreputable behavior and generally frowned upon. Unless one has a very powerful wizard kicking your butt out the door...
Come to think of it; all my life's big changes I was pretty much dragged into kicking and screaming. Metaphorically speaking. All my planned changes have been relatively methodical and boring. My current epiphany explains the usefulness of marriage in the success of the family. Each partner encourages and motivates the other into activities and goals they might not have otherwise pursued on their own. Acting as each others own bullying wizard. Have we as a society made it far too easy to raise ones kids on ones own? Ok, now I'm descending into do do, Sorry. dj On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 4:03 AM, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > > There's a lot of interesting stuff here, Orn, imo, some very good > observations. A few short comments: > > One approach which I find useful is the question: "Freedom from what?" > - and the implication, freedom for what? > > Regrettably, Wallace occasionally wanders into the (false) dichotomy > free/not-free, although I appreciate that it's difficult not to when > trying to make arguments in this context. That said, his basic intent > seems to be to go beyond this dialectic. This problem arises > frequently in many presentations of Buddhist teaching when people work > with the image of not-enlightened/enlightened - although I think that > this has more to do with the difficulty of expressing some ideas in > clear language/argument. > > I find the ideas he develops from the concept of Vajrayana > interesting. Although (as most of those who have been around here for > longer know) I definitely do not describe myself as a Christian, I > find it similar to the Christian concept of "Eschatology" in the sense > in which more creative theologians work this out in the idea of the > contemporaneous interaction of the "now" and the "not yet." > > All of this can be put in a general context of various thought/idea > models, which can help us move on a bit farther and need not > necessarily be put into direct opposition to each other (a bit like > the blind men and the elephant). From my personal stand-point, I find > various thought-models which focus on "becoming" more useful - at this > particular point in my own story. For that reason, I'm inclined to use > images/metaphors like "journey", "adventure", "vector", (perhaps even > "pilgrimage", although this term has some problematic connotations). > This gives a picture of life as a journey into depth, experiencing > more wonder and beauty, discovering simultaneously more complexity and > simplicity, moving from less freedom to more freedom, from less > enlightenment to more enlightenment, from ignorance to more wisdom, > etc. Growth, with all that involves. Not that this journey is > continually linearly progressive, like most ways it takes all kind of > twists and turns and like any good adventure sometimes takes side- > tracks or even goes backwards for a while. But all that goes to make > up the story, the personal artistic masterpiece that is every > individual life. I'm reminded of Bilbo's dangerous road, starting > right outside your front door ... > > Francis > > On 25 Okt., 08:58, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote: >> I guess I was also looking for criticism, analysis, opinions, etc. >> about this too...In other words: >> >> What do you think? >> >> On Oct 24, 4:53 pm, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> >> > "B. Alan Wallace addresses the topic of free will: how Buddhism >> > focuses on how we may achieve greater freedom in the choices we make, >> > rather than struggling with the metaphysical issue of whether we >> > already have free will. >> > Central to the question of free will is the nature of human identity, >> > and it is in this regard that the Buddhist view of emptiness and >> > interdependence is truly revolutionary..." >> >> > A new article by Alan, the entirety of which can be read at: >> >> >http://www.sbinstitute.com/readinglibrary.html >> >> > (the first link on the page) > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
