Understanding What's happening

Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment.
Whatshappening
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Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:02 pm

Re: Understanding What's happening

Post by Whatshappening »

Bob Michael wrote:
Whatshappening wrote:Thanks and by all means you can ask. Today I'm in the world of the flu...I'd love to explore your comments...once I'm feeling better. Feeling, Gary
Wishing you a speedy recovery, Gary, while eagerly, but patiently, awaiting your return.

Bob M.
Feeling a little better. Good enough for a quick comment. What you described is hard for me to relate too (as you expected).

Since you and I have both been in the trades, is there anyway you can reference your work experience to explain your perspective?

Work
Gary
GodsDaughter1
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Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Understanding What's happening

Post by GodsDaughter1 »

Dennis Mahar wrote:If a nail is swept into the corner of the shed with other sweepings, or sits in a nail bag, or on a shelf in a shop.

Is the possibility of nail expressed?
I would say for nail to be nail it would have to be afixing 2 pieces of wood together.

The true being of a nail is constituted in an Act.

The being of a nail depends on a constructor.

The being of a constructor depends on a project.

If a house is the project, the intricate web of equipment being the possibility of its equipmentness can be seen.
Wood woods.
Nail nails.
plaster plasters.
roof tile roof tiles.
constructor constructs.
house houses.

A house is a gathering of equipment being its possibility as an Act.
The house is the constructor and the constructor is the house.
No separation.

It follows that 'existence' is project.
Looking more deeply it can be seen existence is projection.

Not one piece or part in a project including the constructor is self-established.

Astonishing.
Intricate web of connectivity in causal relationship.
Not seeing the logic of it constitutes equipment failure in human being.
Reason is necessary.
GodsDaughter says: I can certainly relate with this expression, your illustration is putforth well and easy to understand your logic. Never read your work before now, very impressive.
Dennis Mahar
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Re: Understanding What's happening

Post by Dennis Mahar »

Well, it's the intricate web and who could not be astonished.
Take your Act as a writer.
The countless things thinging that come together in that Act.
There's you, your ambition, your wariness about what to write and how to write it, there is your parents who raised you, your schools who taught you, there is language, insight, grammar, pens, ink, keyboards, readers who read it, readers who understand it...the message that's burning to be put out there.
Paper needs trees and trees need climate and climate needs the earth.
The web is a host of causes/conditions as wide as the Universe itself..

All of it dependantly arising.
As your pen poises above the paper to scratch its mark there's an entire Universe poised there with it.
Manifold expression expressing.

It's difficult to express the enormity, the sacredness of it.

So intricately connected are all things in their relationship together, the concept of separation falls away as a plausible assertion.

and the pen, having writ, moves on
moving always
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Bob Michael
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Re: Understanding What's happening

Post by Bob Michael »

Whatshappening wrote:Feeling a little better. Good enough for a quick comment. What you described is hard for me to relate too (as you expected).

Since you and I have both been in the trades, is there anyway you can reference your work experience to explain your perspective?
Hi Gary,

Good to hear you're getting back to par, Gary. A man's vocation matters little. What does matter if a man is concerned about finding reality or enlightenment is that he comes to a point in his life whereby he is thoroughly sick and tired of living in his present reality. And from my own personal experience to the point whereby he comes to see no way out of it and seriously considers death as a far better option than going on living the way he is living, and regardless of how successful or not he may be in his own eyes and/or in the eyes of the world. Then perhaps 'grace' may come upon him and he will come to see a brand new and indescribable reality right before his very eyes. A new and wonderful reality that makes life all worthwhile living. I offer below an article on this 'grace' by the late German theologian Paul Tillich, which I particularly like and had stored in my files for quite some time and only recently rediscovered it while rereading Tillich's book 'The Courage To Be'. Earlier today I gave a copy of it to two friends. Anyway, here's hoping this might shed some more light on things for you. In any case you continue to have my best wishes, Gary.

"We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by that stroke of grace. It happens; or it does not happen. And certainly it does not happen if we try to force it upon ourselves, just as it shall not happen so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it. Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged......It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: 'You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!'......If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance." (Paul Tillich - From one of his most popular sermons 'You are Accepted')
Whatshappening
Posts: 70
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:02 pm

Re: Understanding What's happening

Post by Whatshappening »

Bob Michael wrote:
Whatshappening wrote:Feeling a little better. Good enough for a quick comment. What you described is hard for me to relate too (as you expected).

Since you and I have both been in the trades, is there anyway you can reference your work experience to explain your perspective?
Hi Gary,

Good to hear you're getting back to par, Gary. A man's vocation matters little. What does matter if a man is concerned about finding reality or enlightenment is that he comes to a point in his life whereby he is thoroughly sick and tired of living in his present reality. And from my own personal experience to the point whereby he comes to see no way out of it and seriously considers death as a far better option than going on living the way he is living, and regardless of how successful or not he may be in his own eyes and/or in the eyes of the world. Then perhaps 'grace' may come upon him and he will come to see a brand new and indescribable reality right before his very eyes. A new and wonderful reality that makes life all worthwhile living. I offer below an article on this 'grace' by the late German theologian Paul Tillich, which I particularly like and had stored in my files for quite some time and only recently rediscovered it while rereading Tillich's book 'The Courage To Be'. Earlier today I gave a copy of it to two friends. Anyway, here's hoping this might shed some more light on things for you. In any case you continue to have my best wishes, Gary.

"We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by that stroke of grace. It happens; or it does not happen. And certainly it does not happen if we try to force it upon ourselves, just as it shall not happen so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it. Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged......It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: 'You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!'......If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance." (Paul Tillich - From one of his most popular sermons 'You are Accepted')
Thanks Bob...

I can tell you and I probably won't connect (assumption). That's why I mentioned trades, you and I have that experience in common.

It's the common experience that holds understanding. It's just a matter of recognition and application.

For example, transformation. Humans transform regularly, I've experienced it thousands of times, it's the apprentice's journey.

It's a transcendent journey.

Understanding transformation and transcendence from common experience, that's where it's at (for me).

At
Gary
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Bob Michael
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Re: Understanding What's happening

Post by Bob Michael »

Whatshappening wrote:Thanks Bob...

I can tell you and I probably won't connect (assumption). That's why I mentioned trades, you and I have that experience in common.
You're probably correct that we won't connect, Gary. Thanks for your honesty. And with that I'll offer you my best wishes and be moving along.

Bob M. (A Restless Spirit)
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