Coming full circle

wil said:
Its not the destination its the journey....

just a thought...

if you've come full circle....have you?

or have you reached a time of respite and contemplation to prepare yourself for a another trip around?

contemplate two other circles we make...once spin around the core and we reach the same perspective with the sun....do we stop...or go around again?

once around the sun we reach the same relation as well...do we stop, or do we simply acknowledge and head around again.

do either of these two trips change in course each time?? or are we likely to take very similar paths each time?? It seems we are, within a matter of degrees each day on the little circle each year on the big circle we are essentially in the same place physically... but we make the trip again...because it has value...

see ya on the flip side.
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Interesting thought Wil,

However, there is a point applicable to what has been communicated on this thread that in effect has no more journey to go around again since all seeking has stopped and it is realized that there is nothing more to journey for. It was here all along and merely ignored or overlooked. There is no more trip of any kind to take again. That is the beauty of it.

Just another thought for your consideration...

Love and Peace,
JM
 
JosephM said:
Interesting thought Wil,

However, there is a point applicable to what has been communicated on this thread that in effect has no more journey to go around again since all seeking has stopped and it is realized that there is nothing more to journey for. It was here all along and merely ignored or overlooked. There is no more trip of any kind to take again. That is the beauty of it.

Just another thought for your consideration...

Love and Peace,
JM
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not even for the scenery?

If I understand that you are indicating you don't need to go to the mountain, it is all within....I can agree....however my statement while tongue in cheek...still has some application... knowing what is within is most useful outside...
 
JosephM said:
Interesting thought Wil,

However, there is a point applicable to what has been communicated on this thread that in effect has no more journey to go around again since all seeking has stopped and it is realized that there is nothing more to journey for. It was here all along and merely ignored or overlooked. There is no more trip of any kind to take again. That is the beauty of it.

Just another thought for your consideration...

Love and Peace,
JM
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Yeah, like that:p
 
Paladin said:
Yeah, like that:p
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You mean, like this? :p


“Not so long ago, the great patriarch Song Chol Sunim said, "Mountain is mountain, water is water." First we said that mountain is water, water is mountain. Next we went to the place where there is no mountain, no water. Now we say, "mountain is mountain, water is water." This is the place of attaining my true self. So, mountain is just mountain, water is just water. Our true self is like a clear mirror -- a great round mirror. In this clear mirror everything is reflected. Mountain is just mountain reflected; water comes, just water is reflected. If we completely empty our mind it's like a clear mirror. Then everything in our world is reflected in my mind: mountain is reflected, water is reflected, everything is just reflected. We call that "truth like this," the world of truth. We also say that is true form or just truth.
First, we talked about the world of impermanence. Attaining enlightenment is to lose enlightenment. Losing enlightenment is getting enlightenment. Mountain becomes water, water becomes mountain.
Next we went to the world of emptiness. Attainment is emptiness; also, no attainment is emptiness. Mountain is emptiness and water is emptiness. Complete and true emptiness.
Then, taking one more big step from the world of emptiness we come to the world of truth. Here everything is just as it is. Mountain is mountain; water is water. Attaining enlightenment is just attaining enlightenment; losing enlightenment is just losing enlightenment. We call that truth.
Now three different worlds have appeared. Of these three worlds, which one is the correct? Once again: Mountain is water, water is mountain. That's the world of impermanence. Next, no mountain, no water. That's the world of emptiness. And lastly mountain is mountain, water is water -- truth or moment world. If we have time and space, then all things exist. If we transcend time and space, then we come to the world of emptiness. Taking one more step, we come to the world of truth. In the world of truth everything we see, hear, smell, taste and touch is always teaching us. Every moment is truth.”

Zen Master Seung Sahn - Losing It is Getting It - Part I

s.
 
Yeah Snoopy, I think Zen comes the closest to being able to articulate something that changes once it is put into words. I think Suzuki Roshi mentions this in his talks on the Sandokai. Something about Ji becomes Ri when you talk about it, and this idea is echoed in the Tao Te Ching as well.
Right now it seems appropriate to just let everything be what it is and only see to my own little affairs. I have no idea what God is, or enlightenment or even if such things are since they are both words and not that which is. So I think it prudent right now to simply pay attention and let that which is speak to me as much as I have the capacity to listen.
 
How the vinegar on that salad for lunch? Sour, bitter, or sweet? ;)

284d1159337566-how-connected-is-tao-with-3vinegartasters.jpg
 
While I've always been drawn to circles as 1 of the deepest symbols of "sacred geometry," (the zen enso still touches something deep inside of me beyond the conceptual), in terms of my life, it seems that the spiral may be more apt. It seems to portray cycles that with each turn reveal something deeper about the position we occupied just 1 moment before. As we spiral, we may find that we alternately look and find, grasp and let go, rest in now doing "nothing" and then the next moment we feel an energy moving us along the path to who knows where. I do not look for whether the path "moves or does not," motionless, linear, circular, or spiral, I just honor the moment. It's just I tend to agree with that great American sage of baseball, Yogi Berra, who said "it ain't over until it's over." Who knows what the next moment might bring. So, I'll simply stay tuned.:D earl
 
seattlegal said:
**peeks in, sees all the old farts hanging out, and wonders what to do about keeping them sharp...**

Hey, guys! What's the best thing for lunch?

{If that doesn't do it, I don't know what will...}:D
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:D
GOOD SPIRITUAL FOOD matthew 24;45-47
 
Paladin said:
Well, it has been a long time coming, but it's finally here. After many years of study and practice in everything from philosophy to Christianity, to Buddhism and several other diciplines I think I have arrived at the spot where I have no clue whatsoever about anything.
Oh, I still know why an engine works, and how to check the torque specs on a ****** cover, and even how to cook dinner, but as far as reality, ultimate truth, or enlightenment is concerned I know absolutely nothing.
There are some advantages to becoming stupid in this way I think, for example I can't really know for sure if someone else's ideas are right or wrong as long as no one is harmed. Oh, and I really like trees, and watching clouds makes me feel happy, but that isn't really knowledge is it?
I listen to poetry with the same intensity that I used to reserve for dharma talks, and stories and movies about the human condition make me pause as if there might be something there I need to hear.
AA meetings are interesting, people there are dealing with life as it is and trying their damndest to cope.

So I guess my question is, has anyone here become an idiot as well, or is it just me? :):eek::rolleyes:
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I've got a membership card and everything :D

“I don’t have any Dharma for you to practice here! And there isn’t any doctrine to be confirmed. Just eat and drink. Everyone can do that. Don’t harbour doubt. It’s the same every place!
Just recognise that Shakyamuni was an ordinary old fellow. You must see for yourself. Don’t spend your life trying to win some competitive trophy, blindly misleading other blind people, all of you marching right into hell, floundering in duality! I’ve nothing more to say.”
​
- Danxia Tianran.​
 
Snoopy said:
I've got a membership card and everything :D

“I don’t have any Dharma for you to practice here! And there isn’t any doctrine to be confirmed. Just eat and drink. Everyone can do that. Don’t harbour doubt. It’s the same every place!
Just recognise that Shakyamuni was an ordinary old fellow. You must see for yourself. Don’t spend your life trying to win some competitive trophy, blindly misleading other blind people, all of you marching right into hell, floundering in duality! I’ve nothing more to say.”


- Danxia Tianran.​
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Brilliant, sums up the entire thread!
 
I always return to an idea I got reading about monks making a meditation out of their menial chores like sweeping or washing dishes. I want to make my work and play an active meditation. I'm a cabinet maker and high-end finish carpenter. Sometimes, especially lately, on a gorgeous day when I'm working alone, everything settles into a gentle groove and I become aware of my body working efficiently away, cutting perfect lines in accordance with its innate senses of straight and square. All the while my mind is working on multiple levels with no perceptible effort at focus on my part. The observer in me becomes a happy spectator just along for the ride, hanging it's head out the window like a happy dog. It's a cool experience!

Chris
 
China Cat Sunflower said:
I always return to an idea I got reading about monks making a meditation out of their menial chores like sweeping or washing dishes. I want to make my work and play an active meditation. I'm a cabinet maker and high-end finish carpenter. Sometimes, especially lately, on a gorgeous day when I'm working alone, everything settles into a gentle groove and I become aware of my body working efficiently away, cutting perfect lines in accordance with its innate senses of straight and square. All the while my mind is working on multiple levels with no perceptible effort at focus on my part. The observer in me becomes a happy spectator just along for the ride, hanging it's head out the window like a happy dog. It's a cool experience!

Chris
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Awesome, the fact that it isn't a menial chore, yet one that requires skill and attentiveness is incredible, in the zone man! Reminds me of the sculptors quote, "I just cut out everything that isn't an angel"
 
Thats awesome Chris, somedays work is like that for me too. Days when I don't have to be in a hurry, the work gets done quite quickly and accurately. I love work on those days, it is a pleasure to be of service to the world if only one bit of ductwork at a time.
 
Sometimes, especially lately, on a gorgeous day when I'm working alone, everything settles into a gentle groove and I become aware of my body working efficiently away, cutting perfect lines in accordance with its innate senses of straight and square. All the while my mind is working on multiple levels with no perceptible effort at focus on my part.
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Chris,

I really envy you! That's the state called "Flow" and I understand someone wrote an entire book about it (which I haven't read). I haven't been there nearly enough lately--or if I have I've been unaware of it.

--Linda
 
This thread reminded me of this Cab Calloway song.

Everybody Eats When They Come To My House Lyrics

Have a banana, Hannah,
Try the salami, Tommy,
Give with the gravy, Davy,
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

Try a tomato, Plato,
Here's cacciatore, Dorie,
Taste the baloney, Tony,
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

I fix your favorite dishes,
Hopin' this good food fills ya!
Work my hands to the bone in the kitchen alone,
You better eat if it kills ya!

Pass me a pancake, Mandrake,
Have an hors-d'oeuvre-y, Irvy,
Look in the fendel (?), Mendel,
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

Hannah! Davy! Tommy! Dora! Mandrake!
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

Pastafazoola, Talullah!
Oh, do have a bagel, Fagel,
Now, don't be so bashful, Nashville,
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

Hey, this is a party, Marty,
Here, you get the cherry, Jerry,
Now, look, don't be so picky, Micky,
'Cause everybody eats when they come to my house!

All of my friends are welcome,
Don't make me coax you, moax you,
Eat the tables, the chairs, the napkins, who cares?
You gotta eat if it chokes you!

Oh, do have a knish, Nishia,
Pass me the latke, Macky,
Chile con carne for Barney,
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

Face! Buster! Chair! Chops! Fump!
Everybody eats when they come to my house!

cliff
 
Wow, I am so glad I signed up for this site! I, too, feel that I am coming to the place where I can finally admit that I know nothing. Growing up I was taught, and believed, such definite and absolute things about life. I thinks it's a sign of maturity for someone to admit that they really are, as you put it, an idiot. It is so liberating, as a reformed church lady, to just listen to somebody and not be planning a way to convert them. To genuinely consider all possible answers to life's great questions, and not have to choose one of them. I feel free to be myself, but mostly to allow others to be themselves. Strangely enough, this release of religious thought has, I believe, shown me more about the love that God has for people than any church could have taught me. I see people as more than just numbers; more than possible converts. This release of religious thought has brought me closer to God. It has left me very critical of organized religions, especially the one I come from. It has made me a better friend, since my judgemental tendencies are wearing off. Greetings to you all; I look forward to great discussions! :)
 
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