Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us...
We are imprisoned in our small selves.
thinking only of the comfortable for this small self,
while we destroy our large self.
One day I suddenly saw that the sun is really my heart,
my heart outside of this body.
thinking only of the comfortable for this small self,
while we destroy our large self.
One day I suddenly saw that the sun is really my heart,
my heart outside of this body.
Think and Feel
But primarily Live!
Manifest those ideals
And tell me about them
As I live with you and notice
the choices you live
But primarily Live!
Manifest those ideals
And tell me about them
As I live with you and notice
the choices you live
7 comments:
"think and feel, but primarily live"
what is life if not a succession of perceptions, thoughts and feelings?
what sort of life do you refer to when you say this? :-)
what 'world' is there except for the mental perceptions you have of it?
if everything is in constant flux, constant interdependence and interaction, what truly 'exists'? isn't there just conceptual constructs to designate things, and with the power of imagination, that you project as 'real' and permanently existent?
Great question Boaz!
Nice to hear from you
I wrote
"think and feel
but primarily live"
on two lines
to seperate the thinking and feeling
from the living
I feel alive when i'm engaged, through my senses, with life. this is wind, colour, sunshine, texture, taste, sweet tastes, funny smells, ....
these bodies we're in are to be experienced!
This is the life that i refer to,
Thoughts?
Life, hey?
I'll expound a little bit on what I would consider as the most appropriate depiction of sense-functions, which accords with buddhist psychology, in relation to your comment...
you say "wind, colour, sunshine, texture, taste, sweet tastes, funny smells,..."
let me re-interpet this:
"(wind), (colour), (sunshine), (texture), taste, (sweet tastes), (funny) smells..."
those nouns which are not in brackets are sense-functions. Adding to this we also have sight, hearing, touch and mind (mind, as surprising as it may be, is considered simply as another sense-experience).
There are three elemtents needed for each experience: the organ, the object and the consciousness - this is how our experience arises.
The bracketed nouns and adjectives are relative correspondents of these senses:
wind - an experience of touch, concurrent with a mental perception ('feeling the air as 'wind')
colour - the relative object of sight (that which the eye sees, which can be further divided in colour and shape)
sunshine - sight and touch (colour, form and heat)
texture - touch
sweet tastes - taste and the (mental) perception of sweetness
Let me delve in explanation: what you consider as life, seems to be an 'direct' awareness of these sense-contacts. More than just any 'average' experience, it seems to be the awareness of them, the noticing of them that you notice, which makes you feel alive.
In fact, every moment's experience is filled with such contacts - but your enlivened and invigorated awareness and presence to these particular phenomena which you have described make the difference to how you consider 'being alive'.
You give particular attention to 'the body' - yet if mind is simply another sense-experience (which would much widen the scope of 'our body of experience'), it is to be valued just as much.
I think (though of course I may be wrong in understanding you), you are benefiting from these (referring to wind, etc) 'basic' experiences as a way of deepening your intimacy with yourself. In a way, trying to find life in the accrued awareness that these experiences bring forth in your mind.
am I being mistaken?
yes i think you are mistaken
(not the analysis in and of itself)
but the over anal-izing
the point of this kind of awareness is to move from the analysis to to the experience
to move from the "doing" to "being"
our extremely western conditioning over emphasizes doing, such as analysis (anal)
to the the point of Not Living!
too many, spend to much time on google and face book "learning" (about) stuff rather than just going outside and feeling the sinshine kissing their body
therefore, yes, think and feel
but more importantly, live!
just be in the the moment and taste the raspberry without the analysis which is thinking and therefore doing
rather than just "being" in that moment
since that is all there is...
hmmm...
thanks dirk
I've been thinking (not doing) about how humans need to be involved that's killing the earth. let me explain.
through various means we have comprimised the salmon around the world, and now the pacific north west. Our response? let's pick a few salmon (limited gene pool) and release some in rivers, and keep the others in big pens.
PROBLEM: salmon have flourished for millions of years (literally) and if they get used to living in pens, what are they going to do when humans are gone.
how did we get to think we're so important. The real work for our species might be to re-learn how to be part of, rather than control (domesticate, to colonize)
yes, Dirk, i think you make a fair critique of western anal-izing (i laughed at this!) thanks for that :-)
i think you make a good point about a basic tendency we have (and this certainly includes me) to overthink some things...
i would say too much of anything negates any benefit it could bring, the good ol' unskilfulness of extremes...
yet if there is something i would like to respond to, it's your seemingly materialistic perspectives of 'life - linking 'living' to 'tasting the rasberry', 'going outside' or 'kissing'.
since we have such active mental proliferations and whether we like it or not, most of us are profoundly and constantly involved in mental constructions - so why not attempt to understand and embrace our nature, become sensitive and vibrantly wise about each sphere of our experience?
ignorance is bliss, when it is folly to be wise... if, for financially secure and politically free people, our problems/pains/suffering/difficulties are psychological ones, why not go to the root and cut out the toxic weeds?
Post a Comment