tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post8364908545697245597..comments2023-10-28T04:53:32.505-07:00Comments on View From The Northern Wall: A Fool's Grin On My Facechristopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201537517464996231noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-43932085905574972212011-01-09T10:56:26.452-08:002011-01-09T10:56:26.452-08:00Lilith, you are not alone in valuing Buddhism for...Lilith, you are not alone in valuing Buddhism for the qualities you identify. I share with you your admiration for Buddhist psychology. However, my place in the spirit calls me to a self that does not disappear as is asserted in the Buddhist (and for that matter in most of the east). Whether this is a phase in an eons long journey or is a settled truth in my eternal spirit, I cannot hold my place in the journey without at least this much of the Judaeo-Christian view of personal souls, not in this lifetime I can't. <br /><br />In fact I hold a view that magnifies ensoulment as a manifestation of spiritual power and a view of God as lonely for companionship with co-creators who share with Him the burdens and the joys of the largest cosmos, whatever it is, whether or not we yet sense its scope at all. That to me is the long journey we are on whether it is a myth useful for my development for now or the actual truth of the eternal spiritual walk.<br /><br />I have written here before of my vision of an "argument with God" in my personal presence on the planet. I am here to "prove" something, to witness it and report from within creation about it. I am here by permission to this purpose, though not necessarily to God's purpose for me over the long haul. My life could easily be an interregnum in the long journey. I hold a sense that I am currently in a kind of rebellion. I am convinced that is my lot in some spiritual sense.christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04201537517464996231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-50858383971491777552011-01-09T08:00:27.574-08:002011-01-09T08:00:27.574-08:00What I like about Buddhism is that it acknowledges...What I like about Buddhism is that it acknowledges that we are all connected and encourages us to be compassionate and to look within ourselves. To me it is a fusion of psychology and religion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-50998691410632717782011-01-09T01:37:58.010-08:002011-01-09T01:37:58.010-08:00Jozien, my very good friend. I hope you continue ...Jozien, my very good friend. I hope you continue to walk a path with depth and weight and it gives you great happiness along the way. If you leave the blogs behind that will be fine, though I would miss you terribly.<br /><br />Lilith, I am more Hindu than Buddhist in my personal taste, and I spent a few decades engaged in a practice closer to Taoism. I tried to be Unitarian for ten years (1995-2005) but it didn't take, though I like the Universalist strain in the latest iteration of Unitarian-Universalism. I find it deeply commpatible with the Bodhisattva ideal and that part of Buddhism I keep in my heart if it makes any sense to lift it out of Buddhism. I think it does.<br /><br />I am more Hindu because I am compatible with divinities. Buddhism says they are not necessary but my heart says that for me they are necessary. This is a matter of destiny.<br /><br />I say it this way...I enlist God's help and with His help and at His call then I do my part to assist in the Bodhisattva ideal (which is also Universalism) - we either ALL go to heaven or we don't. Some of us become gatekeepers and offer spiritual aid that the rest go on. I will not actually achieve Bodhisattva by practice in this life. There is no way for me to do this without the Grace of God or Goddess. So I pray. I pray. I pray.christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04201537517464996231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-14821680543607562932011-01-08T22:09:10.776-08:002011-01-08T22:09:10.776-08:00I think the Dalia Lama rocks and Buddhism suits me...I think the Dalia Lama rocks and Buddhism suits me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-33961023968803551842011-01-08T21:29:53.563-08:002011-01-08T21:29:53.563-08:00Christopher, these days i do not have much interes...Christopher, these days i do not have much interest in reading blogs, but i do like to read your poems. <br />And this one, in my own madness, suits me well.<br />It's okay to be crazy, i only need to convince myself :) thanksjozienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10212900310477832041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-58595593866898054572011-01-08T15:57:37.024-08:002011-01-08T15:57:37.024-08:00I thought briefly of keeping my earlier writing, b...I thought briefly of keeping my earlier writing, but I think I took the power out of it by the abandonment. Because I spent a few hours only, there was not much lost. If it is worthy, I can write it again in another way.<br /><br />Basically I said that Buddhism is a real practice and there are others, that Buddhism has a specially egalitarian quality that permits anyone to enter and begin the journey to enlightenment, while other paths may be less egalitarian and require a calling to begin. A calling helps in Buddhism too. I said that all paths traverse the same spiritual terrain but may describe it differently and that anyone who enters the terrain will be deeply changed by it as well as walk it.<br /><br />I started by pointing out that the Buddhist starting point on all this is as expressed so clearly by the Dalai Lama in the quote I posted, that all Buddhist schools would agree that the quote is written as a variant on the list of the Four Noble Truths and so is basic to all the schools.<br /><br />That is the outline.christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04201537517464996231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-43111668964814729192011-01-08T13:55:14.185-08:002011-01-08T13:55:14.185-08:00And so instead of trying to practice my mind, you ...And so instead of trying to practice my mind, you have given me the gift of seeing you ridiculous, and I smile.<br /><br />This makes me think of how it is with my children. I can work and work and do a thousand different things, real WORK with sweat and everything, but it is when I let go and I am foolish that they see my love.<br /><br />Often I wonder at the earlier part that you wrote, at why I am always trying to do better. I wonder at myself lately and think, aren't you going to tire and just throw it in like you used do? Think meanly, be crude, judge, sit back and be lazy? And I realize that my laziness doesn't serve me. Only my trying to be better, serve others better, serves me. In servicing others better, in being compasionate or empathetic, I serve myself better. I don't know where this newness came from but I am good with it. I don't do it for the next life, or even for this life, but because it is who I am supposed to be, or that is how I feel.<br /><br />I laugh, word verification: cycle.<br /><br />love you, Christopher.<br /><br />trying, trying, failing, trying.<br /><br />xo<br />erinWoman in a Windowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14747858840088922077noreply@blogger.com