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A bit off my feed today, and I can remember doing much the same in the past, but I would like to think there were people who weren't as sluggish and stupid as I was:
Can we get it straight? All religious trappings -- words, temples, incense, devotions, piety, virtue, and fill-in-the-blank -- are lies. I choose the word "lies" for my own purposes but with some care. Call such trappings "invitations" or "encouragements" if you prefer. I prefer "lies" because it inspires a miffed attention.
And it is out of/within those lies that, in spiritual effort, we realize and actualize the truth. We can discuss it until we're blue in the face and puffed up with soulful, compassion-like stares, but the fact remains ... plain as salt, easy as a sunrise.
For those who are not as stupid as I was ... get used to it and get to work.
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I will bite on your preferences, the "lies" you seek to dethrone.
ReplyDeleteThe temple robes, all of that stuff you mention, are a measure of what people value over the long haul. Plus, all stuff, religious forms in no way excepted, is unspeaking, unfeeling and uncaring.
The,"something that shines," over and over and over and over again, for 2500 years or for just one moment, for one person at a time, is found to be within the robe and the temple and the bell and the lie, the "anything" finally chosen.
I choose to sit and listen because the robe and the bell, the temple and the nest of lies, the straight religion and everything else is seen in the long eye. No differently now than in each of the moments of the past 2500 years.
That kind of cummulative discernment(not mine)is very shaky ground for the survival of straight or crooked lies (or truths) but there it is.
Very very tough to get around this human quality of choosing.
I choose, we all choose, because there is no Way. No Doing or Not doing, no Lies and No truth, no smart work or stupid work, no Justice or injustice.
If that is the work you wish others to do, those less or more stupid than your self, rest easily, it is being "done" already.
To wax repetitive:
ReplyDelete"Look! This world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your priest's robe at the sound of the bell?"
-- Ummon