Anthony, I read the passages but don't understand your question about 'other ways of enlightenment'. What 'way of enlightenment' do you think these passages show? You say a 'Buddhist way', but I don't see a lot of Buddhism in these passages...Bill!
--- In [email protected], Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote: > > I have extracted an episode from the Three Pillars of Zen, by Philip Kapleau. > The author is a 'Canadian housewife', who is said to be Kapleau's wife. I > would call the article a Buddhist way of enlightenment. It implies the > existence of karma and rebirth Are there other ways of enlightenment? I don't > know. Please show me. > Â > A Canadian housewife had the following ârevealedâ to her: > Â > 1)Â Â Â Â Â The world as apprehended by the senses is the least true (in the > sense of complete), the least dynamic (in the sense of the eternal movement), > and the least important in a vast âgeometry of existenceâ of unspeakable > profundity, whose rate of vibration, whose intensity and subtlety are beyond > verbal descripton. > 2)Â Â Â Â Â Words are cumbersome and primitive-almost useless in trying to > suggest the true multidimensional workings of an indescribable vast complex > of dynamic force, to contact which one must abandon oneâs normal level of > consciousness. > 3)Â Â Â Â Â The least act, such as eating or scratching an arm, is not at > all simple. It is merely a visible moment in a network of causes and effects > reaching forward into Unknowingness and back into an infinity of Silence, > where individual consciousness cannot even enter. There is truly nothing to > know, nothing that can be known. > 4)Â Â Â Â Â The physical world is an infinity of movement, of > Time-Existence. But simultaneously it is an infinity of Silence and Voidness. > Each object is thus transparent. Everything has its own special character, > its own karma of âlife in timeâ, but at the same time there is no place > where there is emptiness, where one object does not flow into another. > 5)Â Â Â Â Â The least expression of wheather variation, a soft rain or a > gentle breeze, touches me as a-what can I say?-miracle of unmatched wonder, > beauty and goodness. There is nothing to do; just to be is a supremely total > act. > 6)Â Â Â Â Â Looking into faces, I see something of the long chain of their > past existence, and sometimes something of the future. The past ones recede > behind the outer face like ever-finer tissues, yet are at the same time > impregnated in it. > 7)Â Â Â Â Â When I am in solitude I can hear a âsongâ coming forth from > everything. Each and everything has its own song; even moods, thoughts, and > feelings have their finer songs. Yet beneath this variety they intermingle in > one inexpressibly vast unity. > 8)Â Â Â Â Â I feel a love which, without object, is best called lovingness. > But my old emotional reactions still coarsely interfere with the expressions > of this supremely gentle and effortless lovingness. > 9)Â Â Â Â Â I feel a consciousness which is neither myself nor not myself, > which is protecting or leading me into directions helpful to my proper growth > and maturity, and propelling me away from that which is against that growth. > It is like a stream into which I have flowed and, joyously, which is carrying > me beyond myself. > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
