[MD] mythological reflections on star wars

[MarshaV]

At 01:27 PM 6/20/2007, you wrote:
>      [Marsha]
> > I don't understand your non-thinking versus not
> > thinking.  Thinking is experience too, is it not?
>Do you think
> > thinking is a poor substitute to direct experience?
>Isn't thinking
> > just another form of direct experience?  What do you
>think?



>      [SA]
>I agree, thinking is another form of direct
>experience, and I like it.  Huineng, the 6th
>patriarch, would say getting rid of thoughts is to
>lose ones way into what Zen is.
>      This is from the 'The Treasure of the Law' the
>sutra by Huineng, the 6th patriarch, as follows:
>
>      "Learned Audience, when you hear me talk about
>the void, do not at once fall into the idea of
>vacuity, (because this involves the heresy of the
>doctrine of annihilation)."
>
>      Huineng discusses a Void/Nothingness that is
>grounded and involves content - not annihilation.
>      He is another quote from the same sutra as
>follows:
>
>      "Learned Audience, what the ignorant merely talk
>about, wise men put into actual practice with their
>mind. There is also a class of foolish people who sit
>quietly and try to keep their mind blank. They refrain
>from thinking of anything and call themselves 'great'.
>On account of their heretical view we can hardly talk
>to them."
>
>      To get stuck on thinking and not realize social
>and organic levels, etc... is not helpful too.  To
>watch and be alert of ones thinking, but to not get
>stuck and to not annihilate is to veer away from what
>happens and to try the impossible.  So, I agree that
>thinking is an experience of direct experience.  This
>has been called by some non-thinking which is
>different from not-thinking.  I find non-thinking and
>not-thinking to be confusing and not very helpful in
>trying to get across what's happening.  I will refrain
>from using these words in comparison for now on.  They
>do not contrast very well.  I hope what I explained
>above does a better job at what I'm saying.
>
>burned in the garden area today,

I like your explanation.  'Yes, no & all of the above' is a strategy 
to keep my mind open.  If I know something to well, I may miss an 
opportunity to discover something new.   And nothing is as incomplete 
as my previous conclusion.

Marsha