Quote:
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Originally Posted by shiningstars
davidsun,
If you say so and so it will be for you then. I don't mind whatsoever. Be well.
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And so it is! LOL
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Hear ye, hear ye … I speak [of] truth:
Answers/conclusions logically ‘follow’ from
the way one
chooses to ‘frame’ an issue. Though one’s logic may be airtight, one’s conclusions may nevertheless be ‘wrong’ or only partially ‘right’ if significantly relevant details are excluded from the truth-picture one
articulates, i.e. if they are ‘framed’
out of ‘view’.
Verbal representations being ‘linear’,
no de
scription or
logical argument can possibly be all-truth inclusive, including anything I say of course. But let me use one of
shiningstars erudite posts to illustrate what I mean in the above regard.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by shiningstars
"In the end" you say.
I believe that most people are not at the end, or even at the beginning.
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This omits from ‘view’ the fact that anyone’s Life is operationally inseparable from the ‘web’ that it is part of. To imaginatively see it as
a ‘thread’ or journey along a ‘path’ which may ‘begin’ some when/where and reach and ‘end’ therefore ‘hides’ from ‘view’ that it
always just
is what it
is and en
acts what it
is wherever it
is when it is ‘there’. Expanding on the idea of a ‘circle’ having
no ‘beginning’ and [/u]no ‘end’, a soul’s Life at any ‘point’ may also be imaginatively envisioned as being a ‘point’ on an
ever-widening,
ever-ascending ‘spiral’, such that the ‘view’
from any ‘point’ (in terms of ‘movement’ from where one has been to where one is or may be going) is always
the same. The idea of ‘arriving’ and forever after ‘living’
at some ‘point’, meaning some final developmental ‘state’ is
illogical if (anyone’s and everyone’s) Life’s progression, or trajectory, is metaphorically ‘framed’ as a ‘spiral’.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by shiningstars
The Buddha said his teachings are a raft to get to the other (metaphorical) shore. … The Saints and Teachers have not taught for naught but because there is often a system of thought that helps students study and learn the way of non-attachment, ultimately, even to the teachings themselves.
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This ‘frames’ anyone’s/everyone’s ‘journey’, or the most ‘crucial’ part of it, as somehow being ‘completed’ when ‘non-attachment’ is ‘finally’ actualized/realized, at least so I think.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by shiningstars
To forgo the raft when one is not at destination seems premature and is another easy spiritual trap to fall into.
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Such logic cannot be refuted if one completely accepts/embraces the premise of ‘non-attachment’ as being
the ‘destination’. And Gautama’s teachings, among others, strike me as being superb ‘rafts’ for learning to ‘get’ to
that ‘point’.
But what if there are destinations of equal or maybe of even greater ‘value’ in terms of expanding and/or progressing ‘further’ and ‘higher’ on Life’s metaphorical ‘spiral’? What if the ‘shore’ metaphor used by shiningstars (and presumably the ‘teacher’ or ‘teachers’ he has learned
from) ‘fails’ to take these into account and so ‘eclipses’ awareness and consideration of them?
Even using a climbing to the ‘top’ of a ‘mountain’ metaphor, which has the same limitations as the ‘far’ shore metaphor IMO, can serve to ‘hide’ the fact that if one doesn’t take the time and trouble necessary to seriously look at and scope out the mountain from every sides/angle one may mistakenly think, feel and believe that a promontory that one has come across and found both meaningfully impressive is
the ‘top’ Cat’s Meeow!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by shiningstars
Picking and choosing teachings is not the most effectual, pending destination.
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I also warn against being a ‘dilettant’ for what I assume are obvious (to readers here) reasons, but IMO this cautionary ‘assessment’ of
shiningstars has the same flaw as advice
not to visit and contemplate what one experiences while traveling through multiple ‘foreign’ countries would have if taken seriously by people who haven’t as yet traveled all around and fully appreciated
all of the major features of their ‘homeland’ would have. I would suggest that such travel will actually help ‘spiritual travelers’ get obtain a greater appreciation of
both the assets and deficiencies (liabilities) of whatever their present ‘doctrinal’ belief-system may be. Exposure to what’s ‘abroad’ is bound to be ‘broadening’, in most cases at least, I think. Beware any tendency in yourself to just reify (as ‘best’) what you are presently most familiar with and are presently ‘devoted’ because of ‘loyalty’ and comfort/security-satisfaction seeking.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by shiningstars
Agree that spirituality can also become another ego trap, …
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There’s a lot more to what and why I see as being most important in terms of Life and its growth/evolution of course. Let me just close here by saying that my ‘gut’ feeling, based on how he has or rather hasn’t related to
my statements in thread to this point, that I think, feel and believe that this is descriptive
shiningstars ‘spiritual’ stance.
Caveat: the above comment
may just be a delusional outward projection of my own ‘sin’ in this regard. Belief-
systems if and as adopted and adhered to have a way resulting in people’s feeling ‘smug’ about them. My main point in regards this, as with anything/everything else you happen to come across, is to make the best sense of it as you can
after looking at it from as many ‘angles’ as possible.
Who?
Linear Mode
