and that can be hell...merle
Hell Merle, mind is in the mind! *L*
KG
On 8/27/2012 1:42 AM, Merle Lester wrote:
> glenn..hell is in the mind..merle
>
>Hi, Joe,
>
>I resonate with your answer to the koan.
>
>I used to say that if god wanted to send me to
hell, he would make me move for eternity (I'm
glad to be in a home I plan to live in for
many years; and yet, everything is impermanent
. . .) Hell is a difficult thing for me to
talk about; it still has too much Christian
residue sticking to it. There's plenty of hell
on earth; no need for one in the here-after,
whatever that is. And yes, a bodhisattva
chooses to enter that hell every day because
s/he accepts whatever the universe brings that
day, which may be blessed (heaven), suffering
(hell) and/or neutral.
>
>Glenn
>
>--- In [email protected], "Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote:
>>
>> Glenn,
>>
>> It might be "a sin to say", from one
perspective, but ...some have even vowed to go
to hell, for the good it may do for OTHERS,
there.
>>
>> Of course, this -- or these -- is/are the
Buddhist Hell(s), not the Christian one. But
the Buddhist hells don't sound very cushy and
comfortable, either. Knife-mountains, where
everyone must climb these hills covered in
razor-sharp blades. Etc.
>>
>> The one that most made me squirm, as an
adolescent, was the made-up
"Buddhist-Hell-of-Perpetual-Dentistry". Ouch.
Nightmare stuff. ;-[
>> We don't find this one in the Sutras,
though, fortunately. ;-)
>>
>> Some Buddhist bodhisattvas vow not only
to put off their own final and complete
enlightenment, but to "do time" in hell to
comfort others, where "time" means Eternity.
But what's eternity compared to just a couple
of kalpas?
>>
>> In my best moments, I too have vowed to
go to hell, feeling that I've known enough of
pain and pleasure to be done with both of
them, and just in order to help and comfort
others, and help them to practice.
>>
>> Well, we'll see about the final (?)
disposition of my spirit (?).
>>
>> Yes, is there a spirit? And anything
which survives this life?
>>
>> Maybe "survives" is not the operative
concept. Is there any residue? I think, "Yes".
It is the original stuff, of which we are only
differentiated piles of.
>>
>> Old Alan Watts had a beautiful phrase I
loved. He spoke about the Absolute, or about
original nature. He called it, "The WHICH than
which there is no whicher." Puts a smile on my
face to this day, 40 years after. But that's a
short time, in the scheme of things.
>>
>> "The Ten Thousand Things return to the
One; but what does the One return to?"
>>
>> Why, to the Ten Thousand Things, I say.
That's what's so friendly about It.
>>
>> (but that's "my" answer to the koan; not
yours) ;-)
>>
>> --Joe
>>
>> > "Glenn Rogers" <rgthiessen@>
wrote:
>> >
>> > Thanks for this, Joe. I forget that
it wasn't too long ago that I struggled
between the poles of the revealed and mystical
traditions.
>>
>
>
>
>
