Hi Chris, I received your post, sorry I didn't respond earlier as things are pretty hectic lately that I have not been able to reply with a sufficiently clear mind.
Btw, often this forum's posts go to spam folder (including my own). If you don't receive responses as expected, perhaps they do to your spam folder by accident. Life is pretty good, I should not complain. The thing is, I have never thought of my life as being surrounded by demons or boddhisatvas. My previous statement was trying to say that I wish whoever or whatever is around, I can be in peace with it. If it is good now (and it is), which means that I'm surrounded by boddhisatvas, then it's good. But then I should be feeling just as good when life is not good, when I'm surrounded by demons. It does not mean I'm currently surrounded by demons. But then again, life IS suffering. It is a matter of whether there is *I* who suffer. In essence, there is no *I*. As you said, actions are selfless. But when I look into myself, I always have this sense of centred-ness, sense of I, I'd call it, which is illusory, but it's there. Until this is gone, my actions are never really selfless. They are driven by this sense of centredness. Or perhaps it's just me. When I said I like the way Bill put it, I didn't mean the story. I like the story too, but I copy paste below which one I was referring to: ---------- 'Doing Kindness' If you're doing kindness to make yourself fell good, then you have missed the mark. If you're doing kindness to make others feel good, then you have missed the mark. If you're doing kindness, you are closer but still have missed the mark. If you're just doing, then you're close to the mark. If life just unfolds around you, then you're very close to the mark. If Just THIS!, Bullseye! ---------- All that represents what I have in mind. All except 'If Just THIS!', not because I think the last part is not right, but because I didn't really have that in mind when jumping into this discussion. Still I like the above as a whole. Have a good weekend, Siska -----Original Message----- From: ChrisAustinLane <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:14:05 To: Chris Austin-Lane<[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected]<[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Zen] Fwd: Re: [Zen Living] Supreme Vehicle I am resending this email as an experiment. This post showed up on the web page but never was delivered to my mail reader, and I never saw a response. It keeps happening that I send emails and get less response than I expect and don't get my own copy back. So if you got the below email and now this email, please let me know. On Thursday, September 15, 2011, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Which are you referring as my initial complaint? As far as I remember, I did > not complain about anything. You wrote earlier: >It's easy to be happy when all the >boddhisatvas are around. I wanna >be in peace whether it is boddhisatvas or > devils or demons that surround me. So I assumed you do not find yourself surrounded by 10,000 helping bodhisattvas but by demons. The rest of my response was based on that assumption. Both that there is some suffering in your moments and that around you are things you perceive as demons rather than bodhisattvas. >But perhaps I've said something that >made you think so. > >> You only perform selfless acts. Perhaps you then add on to then some mental >> activity, but the action itself is selfless. > > I guess this is another way of putting it. So putting it the way you did for > what I've been trying to say ~ everyone (or at least I can speak for myself), > always add some mental activity on to their actions. With that, the actions > are no longer purely selfless actions. The actions are still there. The food I eat is offered by life, the thoughts of the many people involved in that giving are not so important. > > Bill just described what I wanted to say in much better way. I like the story but I find it hard to let the judgments of missing the mark or not stand without some questioning about why we are so busy judging all this thinking. It is just thinking, you can't let that ruin a moment. > > Siska > ________________________________ > From: ChrisAustinLane <[email protected]> > Sender: [email protected] > Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:13:35 -0700 > To:[email protected]<[email protected]> > ReplyTo: [email protected] > Cc:[email protected]<[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Zen] Fwd: Re: [Zen Living] Supreme Vehicle > > > Thanks, > Chris Austin-Lane > Sent from a cell phone > > On Sep 14, 2011, at 6:41,[email protected] <siska_cen%40yahoo.com> wrote: > >> rather, what is the difference between cruelty and good? > > To get a bit sophistical on you, same as the difference between being > surrounded by bodhisattvas or being surrounded by demons, the latter > situation being your initial complaint. > > Some moments are easier than others, what can I say. > > I have to disagree with your claim that you never perform selfless acts > yourself. You only perform selfless acts. Perhaps you then add on to then > some mental activity, but the action itself is selfless. How else? > > -- Thanks, --Chris [email protected] +1-301-270-6524 Thanks, Chris Austin-Lane Sent from a cell phone
