Marsha: Why do I so often mention mindfulness & meditation and "agrees with my experience"? Here is two simple paragraphs from 'Mindfulness in Plain English' that might explain my persistence:
"Vipassana is a form of mental training that will teach you to experience the world in an entirely new way. You will learn for the first time what is truly happening to you, around you and within you. It is a process of self discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them, and as they occur. The practice must be approached with this attitude. "Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudgments and stereotypes. I want to understand the true nature of life. I want to know what this experience of being alive really is. I want to apprehend the true and deepest qualities of life, and I don't want to just accept somebody else's explanation. I want to see it for myself." If you pursue your meditation practice with this attitude, you will succeed. You'll find yourself observing things objectively, exactly as they are -- flowing and changing from moment to moment. Life then takes on an unbelievable richness which cannot be described. It has to be experienced." Marsha: I hope you will forgive the above use of the word 'objectively' and replace it with 'directly'. RMP wrote "Remember that the central reality of the MOQ is not an object or a subject or anything else. It is understood by direct experience only and not by reasoning of any kind." The practice of meditation/mindfulness is the pursuit of Quality, both Dynamic and static, beyond the limitations of language. It does not end the appreciation of language or intellect or static patterns, it actually enhances the wisdom associated the appreciation. Anyways... [Ron] I can forgive the use of the term "objectivly" and replace it with "directly" but the meaning of "objective" still asserts itself in the phrases : "You will learn for the first time what is (truly) happening to you, around you and within you." " I want to understand the (true) nature of life." "You'll find yourself observing things objectively, exactly as they are" It continues to assert an "ultimate truth" that we can experience "exactly" as it "is". Marsha, it just doesent get much more objective. I believe it is this "objective" type of attitude which is causing alot of the conflict. Direct experience is the test of any and all ideas, it is the proving ground and in this way we may only gain a better "greater" understanding of ideas we already posess, but it can not be known as it "is". Our knowledge(understanding) of direct experience is always culturally derived. .I can however, appreciate meditation and prayer as useful in the freeing of thoughts from stuckness and gumption traps. .. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
