tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post8226974126608241322..comments2023-09-28T10:08:44.827+02:00Comments on Gwynt: "Know Thyself!" - Part 2 of 2Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-26157596479323581322014-02-05T23:02:07.597+01:002014-02-05T23:02:07.597+01:00Bruce; How could I possibly be offended? That is ...Bruce; How could I possibly be offended? That is lovely, and humbling. My thanks.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-91762528356876585692014-02-05T21:27:52.723+01:002014-02-05T21:27:52.723+01:00Tom, while searching for information on Rumi, the ...Tom, while searching for information on Rumi, the Persian poet, I ran across an excerpt from one of his poems that cried out your name and your search. I hope you will not be offended if I copy it here.<br /><br />"Why should I seek? I am the same as<br />He. His essence speaks through me.<br />I have been looking for myself!"Catalysthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03804837416104556928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-5705844589740969462014-02-05T20:23:54.248+01:002014-02-05T20:23:54.248+01:00Natalie; I do not know what the 'something won...Natalie; I do not know what the 'something wonderful' is as yet, but there are hints in the experience that I described in, "Into the Eternal". I hope you stay around long enough, so that when it comes we can share some thoughts on the experience.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-86612392680990711202014-02-05T19:32:16.273+01:002014-02-05T19:32:16.273+01:00Tom, the 'something wonderful beckoning' i...Tom, the 'something wonderful beckoning' is what I'm most looking forward to hearing about although your past journey, how you got to where you are, is certainly interesting and worth documenting.Natalie d'Arbeloffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07757081405040926647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-76035724155084759542014-02-04T18:47:25.194+01:002014-02-04T18:47:25.194+01:00Halle; Nice to say "Hullo".Halle; Nice to say "Hullo".Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-68592072129479395102014-02-04T17:31:15.732+01:002014-02-04T17:31:15.732+01:00Just stopping by for a very quick Thank You! to yo...Just stopping by for a very quick Thank You! to you Tom, and to your amazing commentators here. <br /><br />I am agog and feel so blessed to have been drawn here.Hallehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03847654451426257182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-31669951780182010132014-02-04T11:39:57.602+01:002014-02-04T11:39:57.602+01:00Susan; To begin with, I always enjoy it when you s...Susan; To begin with, I always enjoy it when you share your thoughts and experiences with me.<br /><br />There is certainly a strong element of 'not wishing this traumatic experience on anyone' in my thinking. Yet I feel that out of that whole experience of living with someone else's disease of alcoholism, I have been greatly blessed, and yes, privileged, to pass through my own Dark Night into new ways of seeing. <br /><br />It is a sad, perhaps, part of being a human being that we need to pass through trauma before we are prepared to address our selves and wake up to a new reality. Carrying a dysfunctional ego is such a heavy burden to bear, but until we are ground down by that entity we cannot apparently be awakened to <br />something real, alive and divine.<br />Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-69441731343055001452014-02-04T11:25:04.280+01:002014-02-04T11:25:04.280+01:00Vincent; I will move on, soon, to the next stage, ...Vincent; I will move on, soon, to the next stage, but for the moment I need time for recollection. It's a little like wading through treacle. Thereafter, I will try to deal with the matter of the mantra.<br /><br />I agree with you when you say that I like what Fr. Rohr says, but only because he gives expression to what I have experienced. For me there is no 'but only' and all that that might imply. I long ago discovered that, for example, a passage in a book really only had meaning if I had previously experienced what that passage was discussing. For this reason, if for no other, it is necessary to live an experience before insights can be gained. Insights and enlightenment come from some form of active involvement. Afterwards? Well we can always decide to discontinue that path, or continue to follow it, as our inner promptings lead us.<br /><br />Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-78024137525052968472014-02-04T02:30:22.101+01:002014-02-04T02:30:22.101+01:00I've mentioned Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj to you...I've mentioned Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj to you previously. What you've said here reminded me of a quote I re-read recently in his 1970 book I Am That. I hope you don't mind me sharing it now:<br /><br />'To know itself the self must be faced with its opposite the not-self. Desire leads to experience. Experience leads to discrimination, detachment, self-knowledge liberation. And what is liberation after all? To know that you are beyond birth and death. By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream.' <br /><br />Although I'd been interested in spiritual matters from an early age it wasn't until I went through a long period of emotional trauma that made a serious exploration essential for me. That kind of turmoil isn't something I'd wish for anyone, but in my case there were several times when I experienced the most extraordinary overlay of the numinous on everyday reality, and even though these events took just seconds, their timelessness calmed my misery.<br /><br />I'm sure something wonderful beckons all of us, Tom.<br />susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16747450215034568033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-69662151885069286452014-02-03T20:39:18.982+01:002014-02-03T20:39:18.982+01:00Agog for the next. Keep on please. Meanwhile I'...Agog for the next. Keep on please. Meanwhile I'm trying to compose something in partial reply and partially inspired by your series. Painfully slow and not sure if it's possible. But the process is what matters and not a tangible end-product, as you obviously know.<br /><br />I'm especially interested in where you reach with this line of questioning "Am I my body? Am I not my body?"<br /><br />——It's something to be pursued with an open mind, for who can know himself but himself? For example, I like what Father Rohr says, but only because he gives expression to what I have experienced, and not been able to say as briefly. "That art thou" says the Upanishad, but I have to taste "that" and "thou" and begin to observe them coalesce.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-10446032507629372542014-02-03T10:35:14.423+01:002014-02-03T10:35:14.423+01:00Geo; An interesting comment. I had always though...Geo; An interesting comment. I had always thought Billy Budd to be innocent to the point of being naive, and that is worth pondering on. And there is certainly something in your final thought, that one is impelled to be stubbornly good sometimes.<br /><br />One thought, I doubt that I would shout, "God bless Captain Vere!" :) Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-11376369058385493742014-02-03T07:12:56.148+01:002014-02-03T07:12:56.148+01:00Your calm inquiry into existence fascinates me. I&...Your calm inquiry into existence fascinates me. I'm reminded here of Billy Budd, the fictional character central to a sea-going Passion Play. It was his hope simply to be useful. I suspect the theological concept of Judgement is similarly rooted in whether one is useful to the universe or not --a cold equation, certainly, but one that impels us to be stubbornly good sometimes.Geo.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16221314320558128986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-27657430964198108072014-02-02T17:57:28.379+01:002014-02-02T17:57:28.379+01:00I have always believed that whether or not a spiri...I have always believed that whether or not a spiritual conclusion is logical, rational or even perhaps reasonable, it should always be consistent with the rest of the body of experience. Not knowing much about Buddhist thought, I am pleased that my conclusion is substantiated. The ground under my feet is that little bit firmer.<br /><br />As for your second point, I must give that some thought. I can well imagine that that is a mind bender.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-39838095882163311062014-02-02T16:31:51.996+01:002014-02-02T16:31:51.996+01:00Your conclusion is consistent with buddhist though...Your conclusion is consistent with buddhist thought, which posits that there is a relative truth—i.e. that experienced by the ego while we dwell in the standard world of samsara (the suffering world), and an absolute truth that transcends that. <br /><br />At the far mystical end of that philosophy there is said to be the realization that both the relative truth and the absolute truth are the same thing—that Nirvahna and samsara are essentially the same luminous emptiness. Now THAT's a mind bender. The Geezershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12132213545989946724noreply@blogger.com