Notes on Apapb
Table of contents
No headersFirst, a quote shared by Eos:
"If the meditator is able to use whatever occurs in his life as the Path, his body becomes a retreat hut."
-Jigme Lingpa
From Email re a thread on metaphor:
In fact, you could say that everything is Being, and when not
recognized as such, becomes hidden as a metaphor.
Something glorious appears, and hits us in an instant, in its naked thereness.
Then we call it a bird, thereby dressing it up in a concept, a kind of metaphor.
We shift from the Isness of the situation to the packaging.
Appreciating the Presence of Appearance as such is an exploration of what
it can be like to live without (i.e. see through the spell of) metaphors.
-Pema
When first hearing "Appreciate the presence of appearance as a presentation of/by Being", what sprung to mind was:
I hear and behold God in every object. . .
Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty four,
and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the
glass.
I find letters from God dropped in the street - and every one is signed by
God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come
forever and ever. A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns,
moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
All distances, however wide,
All distances of time - all inanimate forms,
All Souls - all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in
different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes - the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women - me also,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe or any globe,
All lives and deaths - all of past, present and future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spanned, and shall forever
span them, and compactly hold them.
- Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Sessions (the following is actually Pema and Maxine, on dreams):
10-12-11
From the Song of Enlightenment:
Not supposing something is the Tathagata.
This is truly called Kwan-Yin, the Bodhisattva who sees freely.
When awakened we find karmic hindrances fundamentally empty.
But when not awakened, we must repay all our debts.