tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9885290.post5130736384416023167..comments2023-09-29T19:49:18.346+08:00Comments on Malc's Blog: Malcolmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18156162412655551672noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9885290.post-59837100642365564662011-04-14T12:32:20.210+08:002011-04-14T12:32:20.210+08:00Mimi: As far as I can know from reading, the exper...Mimi: As far as I can know from reading, the experience of others seeking enlightenment is very varied. Some, like Eckhart Tolle or <a href="http://www.theopensecret.com/" rel="nofollow">Tony Parsons</a>, achieve it apparently permanently in one fell swoop, others in instalments, as it were. However, it nevertheless is not a gradual process, there is no path you can take to get nearer and nearer; you are there or you are not. Maybe you are there, then you are not; or it becomes, by degrees, easier to get there when you are not; but it not a case of nearer or further.<br />I am reminded while writing this of the writings of Teresa of Avila, who compared prayer to watering a garden; you can read much of it online <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=E-ifkHW_UpkC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=Teresa_of_%C3%81vila+watering+a+garden&source=bl&ots=nYRVV1mUho&sig=KseXLL8Ot3f9XlLEf-b-5z5Nl14&hl=en&ei=5m-mTdyFCIW0vgO07ZCECg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">here</a>, and it might seem from this that there are degrees of nearness; I'm not sure how to reconcile this, but I still think she is talking about the same thing.Malcolmhttp://clamsblog.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9885290.post-46242944163534265372011-04-14T11:17:21.515+08:002011-04-14T11:17:21.515+08:00As a wayward student of A Course in Miracles and s...As a wayward student of A Course in Miracles and submissive woman, this passage struck a deep chord within me:<br /><br />"Ego should be our servant, but it is our master instead. I see submission to another human as a metaphor for the longing to lose ourselves, lose our egos, with which we identify and believe to be our selves. When we break the ego's control there is a sudden realization - "enlightenment" in Buddhist terms - that we are not our egos." <br /><br />I have had glimpses of breaking the ego's control both in the joy of submitting to a Dominant, and in my own meditations, but frustratingly, it is never permanent. <br /><br />But then it seems to me that a permanent dropping of the ego is what it means to be an enlightened being and no longer of this world.<br /><br />MimiMimihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17539529561187263347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9885290.post-12301952966748961702011-04-10T08:12:09.418+08:002011-04-10T08:12:09.418+08:00Steel Rose, your comments are interesting and I sh...Steel Rose, your comments are interesting and I shall turn over what you say in my mind. You probably have something to teach me.<br /><br />I am not sure that there is an "ultimate goal" that should apply to everyone. I think we choose our goals, and our choices are influenced by what we read and experience. My goals have changed during my life, and still are changing. I like to hear what thoughtful people such as yourself express.<br />Another point:I am not sure about the synthesis of body, mind and soul. Perhaps the distinction between these three is entirely artificial, they are already one and we have divided them to make things more interesting?Malcolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18156162412655551672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9885290.post-91886938033033789582011-04-09T23:42:51.518+08:002011-04-09T23:42:51.518+08:00I hope you weren't offended! I certainly wasn&...I hope you weren't offended! I certainly wasn't intending to knock all spirituality (just the ritual that goes into organised religion). I just think it interesting that the closer I am to the physical, in terms of human connection and also connection to nature, the more deeply I feel fulfilled in a "spiritual" way. <br /><br />I was also challenging the vocabulary used. For instance, we talk about Buddhist <i>Spirituality</i> vs. Christian Protestant <i>Spirituality</i> (what I was raised with) using the same term, but they are vastly different. Buddhism is atheistic (not in the western secular sense, but in the sense of being literally "without god") whereas Christianity is, of course, monotheistic.<br /><br />I like what you are saying about "it" taking over. That makes sense to me, but I am not there yet. I suppose I should clarify that I do not think the physical (taste, touch, smell, see) are the sum total of reality, but I think we have to ground ourselves in the physical to begin to appreciate the spiritual. I do believe in energies that we define as spiritual (for lack of a better term), but I do not believe in God (that is, a conscious, omnipotent being creating and manipulating reality).<br /><br />Here is a quote from the Prashna Upanishad which has been reverberating in my mind ever since I first read it in college:<br /><br />"When mind is lost in the light of the Self, it dreams no more; still in the body it is lost in happiness.'<br /><br />The synthesis of body, mind and soul is the ultimate goal, yes?Steel Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15501111107529740327noreply@blogger.com