Mike,
Yow; definitely the clincher.
There are some lovely statements by masters, or others just awakened, about the
beauty of the world, calling it the Pure Land, and etc.
Some I like in particular speak of the "moonlight" of Wisdom, and of the
mountains and rivers of the great earth, "flowing like brocade".
My teachers were patient with me when I told them about everything looking
clean and brightly color-saturated, as if "wetted", and everything emitting
light. Sometimes as if all is made of white candle wax, and as if Roses are
made of eons old sleepy ashes. Blacks are definitely too black, and, as I walk
about or stand still, shadows are more amazing than the chiaroscuro paintings
of Italian renaissance old masters. The unity of things, all things
participating and together essentially expounding the Dharma, is a very
friendly phenomenon, and we are intimate with everything because we are one
with that web, the jewel net of Indra.
As I walked the streets of New York City while the soybean hung on my forehead,
I could also see in people the places where their energy was blocked-up, where
they were deformed internally and externally, and where they held tightness and
tension in themselves. As a martial- artist, I could thus also see now exactly
where they would be most vulnerable if I had to exert a defensive effort. At
this point, I met a Tai Chi teacher, Master Da Liu, and became his student in
that art, and never practiced the hard form again, which had been Tiger Paw
k'ung fu. All of Hatha Yoga also made much more sense. ;-)
Practice has had its ups and downs. I think this is good, because, for someone
who has vowed to teach people, it's good for oneself to be a beginner (quite) a
number of times over, and to find out what is valuable at different phases of
life, or when certain physical or mental fixations as a householder are
predominant distractions or obstacles, or simply must be borne and shared
within one's practice-life. And then, to see the effects of practice on all
this.
I feel I've been re-born many times already Mike, in this one life.
OK, how about a Joke:
Hindu to Christian: "How many TIMES have you been born again?"
Best,
--Joe
> mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote:
>
> Kris,
>
> Well, ultimately, of course, you're quite right - there is nothing lacking
> nor are there 'others' to convince [snip]
> But then again, maybe that's just because I like bright and shiny things ; )
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