Will your anchor hold?

[ayar415]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

Just in a perception of what enlightenment might be and therefore calling into question how another reacts to circumstances. Some of the actions of zen masters often appear a bit way out!

You are a zen master. I can see the koi fish coming for your feed.

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

upon reaching the "further shore" you can dispense with the raft.

The raft is my mind in my view. I do quite well without it.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by ayar415

You are a zen master. I can see the koi fish coming for your feed.

"It's not me who tweaks people's noses."

(I made the connection with the "Author's Note" in Thomas Merton's "Zen and the Birds of Appetite":-

Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while in the place where it is thought to be. But they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the “nothing,” the “no-body” that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey.)

[Miss Hepburn]

Funny, when talking with people that simply can not get out of their misery over calamities in their life
and get mad at me talking about a diff perspective or detachment, wisdom or 'seeing',
I will use the example:
Picture you walk out to your car and someone has dented it and run off ...You stand there screaming,
maybe swearing revenge, even.
Or you get mad at God and the Universe for this...mad for a week.

Now, picture a practicing Buddhist. He sees it, looks up, smiles and says - ''What a beautiful cloud.''
Think about his head space; frame of mind.
YOU can also be in that very same head space, I tell them.

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

There is no body to be found.

or

There is nobody to be found.

[sky]

Originally Posted by ayar415

You are a newbie with 10 posts. And yet, you are summoning up a storm !

What storm ?

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Picture you walk out to your car and someone has dented it and run off ...You stand there screaming,
maybe swearing revenge,

You reminded me of when I was 16 with a 1969 MGB Roadster Convertible with Dual Carbs and my bad friends, Mark and Lenard raced each other to get into the shotgun seat and one of them kicked my side panel and put a huge dent in it. I did not scream or swear revenge but I sure felt sad that cherried out classic car now had a huge dent in the door.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

get mad at me talking about a diff perspective or detachment,

that sure is common, some people get so furious if you interrupt or question their tales of woe.
some people do need sympathy and have actual sorrows, others invent them out of thin air.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

if given a wife, children, job and mortgage, would be hard pressed to maintain any degree of equanimity; in fact, would their anchor hold?

Nice username.

You'd probably find that most enlightened ones are married with children and have jobs and mortgages. I think in spirituality a certain image of the enlightened one is projected, but there's no reason to believe such allusions are accurate. It's clear for me that such images and expectations are figments of my imagination. We have those stories about a master and his student where the student says something and master makes up some cryptic nonsense which we are supposed to be, like, 'Oh, so wise'. Take a step back and it's all theatrics.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Funny, when talking with people that simply can not get out of their misery over calamities in their life
and get mad at me talking about a diff perspective or detachment, wisdom or 'seeing',
I will use the example:
Picture you walk out to your car and someone has dented it and run off ...You stand there screaming,
maybe swearing revenge, even.
Or you get mad at God and the Universe for this...mad for a week.

Now, picture a practicing Buddhist. He sees it, looks up, smiles and says - ''What a beautiful cloud.''
Think about his head space; frame of mind.
YOU can also be in that very same head space, I tell them.

For me it comes down to acceptance. Which can be seen as passive but can prove dynamic and transformative. My own path (if such a stumbling often bemused life can be deemed a path) is Pure Land. Or at least based upon it. Saying the nembutsu has morphed over time into just saying thank you, being grateful in all circumstances. It has to be "all" otherwise it does not work.

For those with preferences, the opening of the Hsin Hsin Ming:-

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for, or against, anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.