Steve Taylor, PhD, is author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, including Back to Sanity and The Calm Center. His books have been translated into 19 languages. Taylor has been included in Mind, Body, Spirit magazine’s list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People. His work has been described by Eckhart Tolle as "an important contribution to the shift in consciousness happening on our planet." stevenmtaylor.com
"Living beings and their environment are not separate. They are dependent on one another. We are able to change our own life condition by practicing the true Law, and this brings about the transformation of our environment. This concept is called the “oneness of life and its environment” (esho funi).
This signifies that life (a sentient being) and its environment (the external, insentient world where the sentient being lives) are not two, but one, contained in a single life-moment. Both life and its environment are the resultant manifestation of karmic causes accumulated from past existences."
The sea sighed with pleasure as the wind caressed and stroked her and then the wave was born.
The wave came from the sea and was always a part of the sea.
But soon after he was created he watched himself, as he began to rise saw his own smooth and graceful motion, the perfect arc of his forward roll, the beautiful bubbling foam which sprayed around him and fell in love with himself.
He started to believe that he was his own master that it was his own strength that was propelling him that he was directing his own flow and could change direction if he wanted.
The wave forgot the ocean, and saw himself as separate - a self-sufficient, sealess wave who felt proud of his power, exhilarated by his autonomy as he rolled faster and rose higher.
But then he looked around, and saw the other waves who had already peaked and crashed and were beginning to dip and to disperse and the others who were already dissolving, disappearing. He felt alone, as he sensed the empty space around him, the distance between him and them. And he felt afraid, realising that his form was temporary that his speed and power would ebb away and soon he would dissolve and disappear as well.
The wave resisted and rebelled - he tried to build up more momentum, to collect more water, to roll more smoothly, to foam more spectacularly to make himself so powerful that he could never dissolve away to make his form so perfect that he could escape decay.
But soon the wave realised he had no choice that he had less control than he thought, less strength than he thought that he couldn’t interfere with the forces that had made him and the natural laws that shaped the process of his life.
So he stopped grasping and pushing and felt the relief of letting go and the freedom of no longer trying. And after the majestic foaming rush, the glorious crescendo of his breaking he gave himself up to his ebbing, fading flow to the ease of his descent and was filled with the joy of acceptance.
He allowed his boundaries to soften and felt his connection to every other wave then his oneness with the whole of the sea and then he felt the vastness of the sea within his own being, then as his own being.
And then the wave dipped, slowed down and began to dissipate, and then quietly and serenely, without any fear or resistance he gave himself to the tide, and became the sea again knowing that he had never been anything else.
The Shugden protesters are members of the NKT (New Kadampa Tradition.) Just to mention you've been to a NKT centre can exclude you from visiting other Traditions centres.
At the moment I'm studying at the Kagyu Ling centre here in Manchester, I find it more interesting than New Kadampa where I've spent a lot of time of the last few years. Of course like many others I've become disillusion with the ongoing troubles between the Kadampa's and the Dali Lama.
Never heard of a Buddha before Buddha Shakyamuni in my teachings, but when you consider he gave 84,000 teachings I'm sure he must be rated as one of the greatest ever teachers. It was Atisha 1500 years later who collected all the teachings and presented them in a way we could understand and follow. Know as the path of Dharma,(Lamrim,) Atisha's work paved the way for modern Buddhism. Atisha is considered to be a reincarnation of Buddha Shakyamuni.
It's a pity that so many people miss the true meaning of this story. A story written in metaphors, not to be taken literally, so the type of fruit eaten is irrelevant. It's cryptic insight into our true nature and has been told many times, mainly in Eastern philosophy, the first recorded being over a thousand years before the Christian 'Adam and Eve' story appeared.
It's a story written with much wisdom, look beyond the 'details' and you may find it.
Some members who have been here for a long time might remember my very good friend Trish123. She posted often, her strong and informed opinions, especially about religion and in particular the Catholic church always sparked heated discussion. Sadly she was banned from posting in the forums for one week. That was back in Feb 2011, but although she's still a member on here, she's still not allowed to post....ADMIN PLEASE TAKE NOTE, five years?
This thread helps me reflect on the fact that whatever worldly possessions, (attachments) I may have, including family and friends, I am bound to lose them all at some point.
I find it good practice to ponder on this from time to time.
What you imagine in your mind exists within your mind, what you can't imagine in your mind doesn't exist in your mind. But, how can anything exist outside your mind....including your self...which is an illusion anyway.
Lindsy, 'emptiness' can't be explained in snappy soundbites, it can take years of practice to get even close to it. Dualistic thinking will never find the true nature of things, and that's part of the true nature of things.
We see and perceive things from two sides, our side and the side of the things we perceive. This is a mistaken way of thinking according to Budhist teachings. Everything we perceive exists only in the mind of the perceiver, it's called emptiness, the true nature of things.
bodleing2 Forum Posts (6,132)
RE: Say Anything...the saga continues.....
Her?It was a guy...