Comments on: The Nothingness of Everything

By: Flat Screen

Flat Screen — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:43:32 +0000

Is The Hitachi 32LD9700 LCD TV Possibly The Best Flat Screen TV Available?…

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By: Garnet

Garnet — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 16:03:56 +0000

Stormwind- I am certainly not certain about the timelessness of the body, but the thought liberates me from the bondage and pain of this temporary state, knowing that with the suffering also comes its opposite, bliss. It’s just we don’t trust and give in to it. Fear locks the door. I am often paralyzed by doubt and fear and anxiety. All the more reason to just “fall” into that emptiness, breathe through it, embrace it. If we are but particles in a wave, we must learn to ride the wave. No one said we wouldn’t get seasick, though.

By: Garnet

Garnet — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:50:24 +0000

Jessamyn- The encouraging guidance offered in your comment is driven by gentleness. Thank you.

Letting the body forget. Letting the mind go. Letting. It’s a kind of forgiveness, and healing. When practicing clarinet I sometimes benefit from time off. Then my playing is restored to its more guttural articulation of spirit. The practicing is there, in me, idealizing, a cocoon.

The complex relationship between letting go and control hounds me. Instead of riding the bike, I want to think about it, posess it with my imagination. Those thoughts are like mosquitoes, babbling at the screen door, waiting to pierce and suck from the soft underbelly of experience. That compulsive leap to meaning, or shaping of it, is daunting, mesmerizing, distracting, filtering. And also vital to refining the spirit. Sometimes those words come from me, but for now I prefer to digest what others say.

I used to read books that changed my life. Even snippets of something would launch me into fruitful activity. I would dip into Emerson, Aristotle, Elliot, or Pop Zen, Richard Bach, Mary Renault, the Dune Series. Each jumped out at me, imbued me, renewed. Now I can barely keep up with the news. The details of life crowd out the bigger picture. Sometimes the words choke me. I agonize. Doubt. Then words like yours come through the clog.

By: Jessamyn

Jessamyn — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:46:14 +0000

Look forward to your return, Garnet. Meanwhile, a thought from my new practice of karate: the body knows, and can do, what the mind forgets and cannot do. When I allow even one moment of mental process, not only do I know–with absolute certainty–that I don’t know the kata or the series of movements, but I also know that I am not strong enough, or my technique isn’t solid enough, to do it. And really, it’s true: I am new at karate, I don’t remember a lot of stuff, I am having to build strength to do what I’m asking of my body because it’s grueling and difficult…but the key is this: when I stay out of the way–empty, mindless, fully present, out of my own way–I DO the things I don’t know and can’t do. With some mistakes, sure, and some limits, but they don’t matter and they lead me forward. Magic? Buddhist principles in action? The power of letting go of self-doubt? Yes and yes… But the point is, I think writing is the same. Once we achieve the basic skills of the craft, it becomes a matter of getting out of the way. I hope your meditation yields emptiness of this kind, and look forward to reading your writing upon your return.

By: One More Reason

One More Reason — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:23:45 +0000

Wish I could say something profound like the others did. “Nothing” comes to my mind
Hope you come back soon.