Kris, >> Maybe some have also wasted their time in this..
Ha! Not so much a question of "Who are you?", but "Who the hell do you think you are?". So I'm wasting my time because I'm not listening to you? Really? Well, thanks awfully for the concern, but I'll continue wasting my time sticking with Vipassana, thanks. >>now realized none other than the other [shore] they had sought[snip]. ... >>[snip]are you not always where when you began? Thanks for the recap of Buddhism 101. If you'd been paying attention to what I've previously written, then you would have read that I've said the same thing many times. It's not undiscovered territory. Zen is the simplest and most direct tradition for pointing to ultimate reality, but this simplicity/obviousness, I believe, is also what makes it the most difficult. We've all had our moments where only the mountain remains, but how long is it before we find ourselves back to the duality of sitting on it and looking at it once more? My path is to penetrate into how this happens. It no doubt involves methods and ways of looking that are different to yours. Why is this difference so difficult for you? The precepts and the sutras can no doubt be interpetated at many different levels, but sometimes they are helpful, even at a fundamental level, as a guide and a reminder of how to live our lives. But as the wisdom of the practice develops it'll eventually make the precepts/teachings, not exactly unnecessary, just perfectly obvious. It's a work in progress even though ultimately the starting point and finish are the same place. That's why there are 10 ox-herding pictures and not one. But you already knew that, right? Mike ________________________________ From: Kristopher Grey <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, 10 August 2012, 16:26 Subject: Re: [Zen] Mirror, mirror, on the wall - who's the greatest Master (bater) of them all? On 8/10/2012 4:46 AM, mike brown wrote: > > >Anyway, I'm glad that we've wasted god knows how many posts to condense it >down to this - my attachment to the sutras. This I assume then, applies to >every other student of the Buddhist sutras? No, only to the grave robbers. Maybe some have also wasted their time in this. Or did you think this was just between you and me? Some appear to decide whether they pick the bones, whether they build them into a raft, whether they launch it over the horizon, whether they paddle or drift. They cannot decide whether they get turned about in the tumult and returned to the same shore - now realized none other than the other they had sought. 'The undiscovered country' never not here. Some abandon the raft, some set it ablaze as a beacon - calling to those adrift, warning those contemplating such a crossing, offering it's warmth to all who would sit by it. Some go on to build temples and places to keep the dead bones... Some appear to realize this in an instant, simply looking at a piece of charred driftwood. Just more dead bones. Some remain at sea, never seeking safe harbor, neither lost nor found. Flotsam and jetsam pass in the passing. Such is our conversation. Two ships passing in the night. Sorry that I haven't gotten that far yet. > "Is that so?" "Don't know" Those who think they can know where they are not, trust the maps too much. When you lift your head from the page, and rise from the cushion, are you not always where when you began? Without destination, one is never lost. We all wander here. "Don't know" Or as 'The Most Interesting Man in the World' ® says: "Stay thirsty my friend." KG
