[MD] Reifying carrots

[David Thomas]

On 9/11/10 9:21 AM, "MarshaV" <valkyr at att.net> wrote:
[Dave]
The problem is that you have a propensity to shut down conversation with
statements similar to this:

> That I am anti-intellectual is pure
> calumny, an accusation made by a small mind.

Or your favorite:

>Not this, not that.

When all I was trying to do is to point to is that:

> I also love the unpatterned,,,a lot.

According to the continuation videos by Scott is the very thing you are
studying, your doing-reification. That is what it appears you to have done
with of the concept "unpatterned". The Zen Oxherding pictures and poems as
originally written stopped at eight.

> 8 / Both horse and self Forgotten / All delusive feeling have perished and
> ideas of holiness too have vanished. He lingers not in [the state of ³I am a]
> Great Father² and passes quickly on through [ the stage of ³ And now I have
> purged myself of the proud feeling ŒI am] not the Great Father.² Even the
> thousand eyes [ of five hundred Great Fathers and patriarchs] can discern in
> him no specific quality. If hundreds of birds were now to strew flowers about
> his teepee, he could not but feel ashamed of himself.
> 
> Whip, rope, Horse and man alike belong to Emptiness.
> So vast and infinite the azure sky
>     that no concept of any sort can reach it.
> Over a blazing fire a snowflake cannot survive.
> When this state of mind is realized.
>     comes at last comprehension
>     of the spirit of the ancient patriarchs.

Which was meant to represent "enlightenment." Been there, done that, all is
perfect in the world and life.
Later nine and ten were added to say what Scott is saying in both of "Is
thought bad" and "Deconstructing Concepts" videos. Something to the effect
that if you are reifying eight you are not at eight yet let alone at nine or
ten. Only when you get past that do you have a chance of "going all the
way."

That is all I was trying to convey.

Dave

PS: Don't let the words like "horse" and "teepee" throw you. Years ago I
converted the ten pictures to a Western theme to kind of tune it to RMP
Montana stint. I also grabbed some Western Art off the web and tried
correlate the images to the verse. But because of copyright issues it has to
remain a private thingy.