tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post600910475051831086..comments2024-02-06T22:19:13.028-08:00Comments on Mining Aśvaghoṣa's Gold: SAUNDARANANDA 16.69: Constructive Prescription for the IndividualMike Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-1370315031241250742011-12-09T09:32:37.792-08:002011-12-09T09:32:37.792-08:00The last word of this verse is buddhaḥ -- it is no...The last word of this verse is buddhaḥ -- it is nominative singular masculine buddhaḥ, and not vocative buddha (as I misread it when transcribing the verse).Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-53197434945203396382009-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:002009-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:00Thanks Raymond.
Interesting question. The Alexand...Thanks Raymond.<br /><br />Interesting question. The Alexander teacher Marjory Barlow advised: “Do whatever you want, as long as you know you are doing it -- then you can stop.” I think that is the point. Drive a gold rolls-royce, or dress up in women’s clothes, or sing Christian hymns at the top of your voice, or express views that are totally politically uncorrect, or join the US marine corps, or skulk off to a quiet corner and have a good old metaphysical abstract think... whatever it is that you really want to do, and to hell with tofu-eating pacifist compassion-preaching Buddhists, or true practical non-intellectual Buddhists, who are liable to judge you as not conforming to their norms. <br /><br />Having said that, inherent in the practice of sitting, as learning the backward step of turning light and shining, is the dropping off of everything but the simple action of sitting. So it may be better to confine one’s abstract thinking, as far as possible, along with cross-dressing, plotting the annihilation of enemies of the US state, et cetera, to times other than the time set aside for learning the backward step. <br /><br />Master Dogen cautions against being led by abstract thinking into the gap between how one thinks one is and how one actually is. <br /><br /> To pull one’s chin back and down into one’s neck, thinking that this bit of nonsense is helping one to maintain the correct sitting posture, is just to be a victim of abstract thinking. But people engage in this stupidity in the belief that it is a means to “cut off thinking.” What they are doing is cutting off awareness, and thinking that it is the oneness of practice and enlightenment. <br /><br />Do people ever really change? Did FM Alexander change in 1954? Did Master Kodo Sawaki change in 1965? If you like abstract thinking, as I do, I recommend you to read Frank Lambert’s articles on the 2nd law of thermodynamics. It may give you some insight into the problems of aging, sickness, and other inevitabilities. <br /><br />All the best,<br /><br />MikeMike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-87527032060860408562009-04-22T05:35:00.000-07:002009-04-22T05:35:00.000-07:00Mike,
Very good post. Your line "do WHATEVER it ...Mike, <br /><br />Very good post. Your line "do WHATEVER it is.." is refreshing. If one is naturally inclined to abstract, metaphysical thinking, is trying to "cut off thinking" disenguous - maybe actually be removing us farther from our "original features"? Do we ever really change? <br /><br />RaymondRaymondnoreply@blogger.com