Re: Amen Amen
Posted by Scot on 05/18/2008 07:48:19
In reply to Amen Amen posted by john the younger on 05/17/2008 16:00:58
Hey JTY,
There are many ways to conceptualize and then express what we are
identifying here as the "Is". (Please, no Bill Clinton jokes, lol!)
Interestingly, I remembered to employ this concept in my response to
Eddie's recent post: "Teaching Each Other How to "Be" Love Better" from
one of your posts from many months ago.
It seems to me that at that time our discussion centered around what it
means to be "stuck" in difficult emotional circumstances. I was
impressed when you pointed out that (rough paraphrase and out of
context) "...there is no stuck, there just 'IS'!" I understood this to
mean that the actual conditions of reality are present and are readily
available (or to once again quote Coach; "obvious and apparent") to all
if we are choose to be 'awake' enough just to get out of our own way
(i.e.,awareness of the slippery slope of personality) and move to a
point of higher resolution through 'acceptance'.
I'm not a practitioner of Buddhism, but I do appreciate the concepts
and I think that one of them is salient, meaningful and applicable to
this current disscussion. "Suchness" refers to the realization of an
understanding of the true nature of reality; or specific to the point
of our discussion, the non-dualistic 'IS'.
A quote from Fritjof Capra's compelling book on the intersection of
science and mysticism "The Tao of Physics" seems pertinent here: "As
always in Eastern mysticism, the intellect is seen merely as a means to
clear the way for the direct mystical experience, which Buddhists call
the 'awakening'. The essence of this experience is to pass beyond the
world of intellectual distinctions and opposites to reach the world of
acintya, the unthinkable, where reality appears as undivided and
undifferentiated 'suchness' ".
So, the irony is that only through an intellectual explanation from our
minds (use of language in the form of text on a page) and the added
shadings of our personalities and egos we can begin to 'know' what "IS"
means. But, authentic 'understanding' of the true nature of reality or
what we are attempting to identify here as the "IS" only comes through
the actual experience of an authentic awareness practice.
Best,
Scot