I’ve been reading your site for a short time now, and I’ve got a question. I havn’t yet found anywhere on this site any real description of what enlightenment is. So, what is enlightenment? What the hell is this thing everyone seems to be looking for?
You tend to speak in such a confusing manner and no one really understands. But the listeners somehow believe it to be heavy or deep because they can’t understand it. Stop being so damn circuitous and tell these people something that might actually benefit them! It doesn’t have to be so difficult.
There are no other people. No one to bring you hurt, no one to leave a scar. If one hurts you with a word, where does it leave its mark? And who is responsible for the so-called pain?
Welcome 2009.
While I can’t say it is a new beginning, it will still be great to interact with you all again, for the first time.
And it is always the first time.
I hope you all continue to be well.
Akiko and I are heading off to Toyama for the New Year. We leave on the 29th and return around the 5th. Perhaps THIS TIME I’ll be able to get a few photos of the mountains. (The area is constantly cloudy)
A few highlights: eating at my favorite local curry restaurant, viewing a Francis Bacon painting, and walking the dog in the snow.
What are YOU doing for the New Year?
In the last two posts, Fundamental Decency – Part One and Part Two, I used pictures of my nephew and niece. But I have two nieces, and it seemed unfair for me to leave one of them out, so I decided to post a video of her from my last trip to Toyama.
Sakura likes to do magic. But she always makes us close our eyes whenever she performs, so I left the camera recording in secret to find out why.
Akiko is sitting to the right, and if you listen you can hear her translating into English.
If I am religious, and I question the existence of god, my beliefs may rise to answer the question. But that is not an answer. That is not even seeing. I am only perceiving with knowledge that has been handed to me by someone else. I am seeing as a second-hand human being.
Some 17 years ago I was involved in a rather bad car accident, and a certain back injury re-occurs at irregular intervals because of it. Now is one of those irregular intervals. It is very difficult to get around at the moment, and pain is a constant companion. But it is interesting to sit with the pain and greet it without resistance. That does not mean the pain goes away; it just ceases to be painful.
It is not enough to say that you know it. Knowing is very solid and permanent. It is always the same, although the contents may shift around a bit. Belief in the knowing is the personification of security. But knowing is completely impotent in the presence of being. Knowledge cannot touch it, cannot move it in any way.
If I know enlightenment; the stored up ideas, the rights and the wrongs, the yes’s and the no’s; and I have it all at my fingertips ready to fire like a bullet, then what the hell am I doing? “I am a being that knows all about enlightenment, and I am the fire that will ignite their candle.” This is the same old nonsense, dressed in different clothes. And isn’t it about time we finally admit the Emperor has no clothes?
Found (or Lost) Love
I found this note while on my daily walk. It was folded neatly at the top of a bridge.
I am curious to know the ending of this story.