mike...what are you trying to tell bill!?...elaborate please..merle
Bill!, Now now. I know you're doing the best with what you have, but I'm sure one day you will come around to realise I'm right. I really have your best interests at heart. I really, really do. ; ) Mike >I sometimes feel you display a balanced, patronizing relativism that may serve >to reinforce your illusion of compassion, but in practice falls woefully short. Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone ________________________________ Mike, There are not two sides of the coin. There is only one. What you perceive as the 'other side' is a dualistic - an illusion. The illusion of 'being human' and believing that to be 'special' or 'unique' is no different from the illusion of self. Both these illusions (all illusions really) only server to create an illusory distinction from what you then perceive is 'everything else'. Duality is this two-sided coin you have created. Of course I suffer. I do so because I get sucked into (attach) to illusion the same as everyone else. Even after attaching to illusion and when the attachment fades enough I then do remember that this is all illusion; and yes it does ameliorate the immediate suffering and eventually dissolves it entirely. I would certainly comfort someone who is suffering. I would try to assure them that things will get better. BUT, even in their time of greatest sorrow if they asked me IN ALL EARNESTNESS (as is the litany in most koans) how to alleviate the suffering I would tell them the truth. Suffering is caused by attachment to illusions. I would actually not just tell them this but would suggest they sit (zazen) because just telling someone something is not really effective. They must experience it for themselves. I personally don't believe misleading someone is helpful to bring them to this experience. I sometimes feel you display a balanced, patronizing relativism that may serve to reinforce your illusion of compassion, but in practice falls woefully short. The koan HYAKUJO AND THE FOX was indeed about the percieved interplay between absolutism and relativism. The warning however was not just about absolutism, it included relativism also. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > Bill!,<br/><br/>As I see it, you are correct but only from one side of the > coin (the Absolute). But this denies what it is to be human. We also operate > from the relative, even those of us who are awake to the illusion of a self. > Can you honestly say that you wouldn't suffer in the event of a personal > tragedy involving a loved one (God forbid)? Does knowing that suffering is an > illusion do anything other than slightly ameliorate the suffering (by not > wallowing in the hurt, perhaps)? Imagine saying to a mother who has list a > child that the suffering she feels is an just an illusion. Is that > compassionate, even though it is true in the absolute sense? That pain is > very much "real" because it *is* experienced in the relative. Time and again > Zen masters have warned against operating from the absolute only (Hyakujo's > Fox). I sometimes feel you display a kind of unbalanced, macho > realist/absolutism that misses the mark of what Compassion truly is. > <br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/><br/>Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone >
