over and over and over again

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Elsewhere, someone quoted what was described as The Phena Sutra -- a bit of the Buddhist canon as compiled in the Tripitaka:

Rahula, develop a mind similar to space, when you develop a mind similar to space arisen contacts of like and dislike do not take hold of your mind and stay. Rahula, space does not settle anywhere. In the same manner develop a mind similar to space. When you develop a mind similar to space, arisen contacts of like and dislike do not take hold of the mind and stay.

And I could feel my impatience rising: C'mon, Gautama -- you don't have to say it over and over and over again!

But of course we do have to say it over and over and over again. Like clay, the message gets reworked and reworked and reworked ... repeated and repeated and repeated on behalf of those who have not yet made their minds up to act.

In the old days, there were no books and no TV and no internet. There was an oral tradition that benefited from repetition. But the repetition is just as necessary in the day of books and TV and the internet: Listeners may nod sagely and say "I understand" and pay homage to one thing or another ... but they are not listening in a way that betokens action. They are listening in a way that betokens belief.

This is not a criticism. It is just an observation. I have heard the latest Dalai Lama, a good expositor of Dharma teachings, do precisely the same thing ... over and over and over again. Ditto Zen teachers I have encountered ... over and over and over again: Same shit, different day.

I guess as the willingness to take action -- to investigate and find out for yourself -- gains some footing, the need for belief-talk tends to dwindle. And likewise we can gauge our own position -- GPS-fashion -- by the affection we have for belief-talk.

Sometimes belief-talk is OK.

Sometimes it just fouls the air.

Your life, your choice.
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