Great post. In Zen Buddhism they have the 10 Ox Herding Pictures, so the seeker goes through stages to master his own mind and then returns to the 'market place'
or ordinary world as it were to live or conduct business etc. I recognise the 'I' that you speak about and that in itself is an astonishing realisation, the one constant.
Problem probably has been that somehow our realisation is not deep enough yet and we seek material compensation somehow,
some kind of reimbursement for our spiritual efforts even. This is how it has been for me at times. There have been plenty of 'Patterns' that emerged in terms of synchronicities,
and the supernatural but there has never been very clear patterns of worldly success, although i may fail to recognise them and value them tbh. Worth pondering.
I think I've had problems separating out the material side of life and the spiritual, not that they have needed separating, its only now after a long journey that I think i've got a handle on it.
An example of synchronicity that seemed unrelated to my bank account was when I once was involved in converting a Courthouse into a Tibetan Buddhist Centre.
I was cleaning one of the holding cells upstairs, cleaning paint off the walls and admiring the graffiti left by high level prisoners, IRA prisoners and top English Gangsters like the Krays.
I turned to a friend who was next to me and realised that he was a nephew of a detective who had arrested someone very close to me for a very serious crime back in Ireland,
(long story because i had known him for a few years) we were now in London, cleaning up a prison cell to make it habitable for Buddhists
At that moment a Buddhist nun knocked
on the door of the cell she was a chaplain to prisoners in Canada. Of course where the Judge Sat in the main Court Room they placed a 15 foot stature of the Buddha
..So that was a kind of prison pattern. But there have been a few of these patterns with different themes.
Anyway thanks for your post I find it inspiring and I'd like to revisit the marketplace with fresh eyes. :) Joe.
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