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KOANS
Gary Zukav writes in The Dancing Wu Li Masters (pp. 223-224):
Zen Buddhists have developed a technique called the koan which, along with meditation, produces changes in our perceptions and understanding. A koan is a puzzle which cannot be answered in ordinary ways because it is paradoxical. "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" is a Zen koan. Zen students are told to think unceasingly about a particular koan until they know the answer. There is no single correct answer to a koan. It depends on the psychological state of the student.
Paradoxes are common in Buddhist literature. Paradoxes are the places where our rational mind bumps into its own limitations. According to eastern philosophy in general, opposites, such as good-bad, beautiful-ugly, birth-death, and so on, are "false distinctions". One cannot exist without the other. They are mental structures which we have created. These self-made and self-maintained illusions are the sole cause of paradoxes. To escape the bond of conceptual limitation is to hear the sound of one hand clapping.
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Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based on our perceptions. What we perceive depends on what we look for. What we look for depends on what we think. What we think depends on what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.
~Gary Zukav |
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A New World
I see the potential for a new world being born in front of me and all around me, and I feel the only way to bring that potential into being is to know myself.
~Gary Zukav
The only event in the history of our species that compares with this one is Genesis. And this is a new kind of Genesis, the Genesis of our species into conscious awareness.
~Gary Zukav
The only event in the history of our species that compares with this one is Genesis. And this is a new kind of Genesis, the Genesis of our species into conscious awareness.
~Gary Zukav
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INTRODUCTION TO SPIRITUAL PARTNERSHIP
A spiritual partnership is a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth. Spiritual partners use spirituality information from their inner sources, such as their emotions and intuition. They also learn to choose their intentions consciously and how to develop trust in the Universe. Spiritual partnership is a new relationship dynamic in the human experience. It exists for a new multisensory humanity that is being born – a humanity that is not confined to the limitations of what can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled. You are likely a candidate for creating spiritual partnerships, or you would not be drawn to these words.
Spiritual partnerships are not exclusively for couples in marriage or relationships; they can be created in families, between friends, in the workplace, on sports teams, at school – anywhere two or more individuals decide to create a relationship as equals in order to grow spiritually. For example, among co-workers, even if one is the boss, another is the manager, and others are hourly employees, the commitment of each is to his or her own spiritual growth, although co-workers of different job levels have different responsibilities in the workplace. Their intention to grow spiritually with every interaction rather than blame or judge each other when reactions occur becomes the defining point of their relationship.
http://www.seatofthesoul.com/sp_intro.html
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A Complaint Free World
While watching an Oprah show Linda and I discovered a project that immediately resonated with us. A small church in Missouri offered without charge a purple bracelet to any individual who committed to stop complaining, along with directions for using the bracelet: the recipient puts the bracelet on a wrist and keeps it on that wrist unless she complains – about anything. If that happens, she moves the bracelet to the other wrist and wears it there unless she complains again. Then she must move it to the original wrist, etc. The objective is to develop enough awareness and make enough responsible choices (not to complain) to be able to keep the bracelet on the same wrist for twenty-one consecutive days. The program is called A Complaint Free World. By the time I visited its website, over four million people had requested the bracelet.
The Complaint Free World program resonates with me so deeply because the only way to create a complaint-free world is to begin the work of not complaining, and you can only do that work for yourself. No one can prevent you from complaining and you cannot prevent anyone else from complaining. If you try, you will need to move your bracelet to your other wrist. In other words, the responsibility for creating a complaint-free world rests with you. If you complain that others are complaining, you must move your bracelet again. If you complain that your efforts are insignificant in a world that is too brutal to care, you must move the bracelet again. If you complain that anything you do is insignificant, you must move it yet again. The only way to keep the bracelet on the same wrist is to stop complaining, and here is the connection that is dear to me.
The inner work that you must do in order to stop complaining is how you begin to create an authentically powerful life. Beneath every complaint is an impulse to express dissatisfaction and beneath that impulse are uncomfortable, and sometimes painful, physical sensations, often in the vicinity of your chest, solar plexus, throat, and other places. If you would like to see if this is true for you, the next time you feel the impulse to complain (or anything else that you habitually do), STOP and put your attention in our stomach, chest, and throat areas and see what sensations you can detect. With practice, you will discover many.
Each time you have complained (or over eaten, or bought something you didn’t need), an impulse came up in you that you didn’t notice or challenge. You simply complained (or ate another cookie, or bought something else on sale). Your intention to keep the bracelet on the same wrist requires noticing the impulse to complain (eat, shop, etc.) when it comes up in you and NOT ACT ON IT. When you replace an unconscious reaction with a conscious response you take a huge step toward mastery in your life. You inject consciousness – your own – into the flow of your life. The more steps you take, the more mastery you develop. In fact, once you learn how to bring your awareness into your life and to respond to your circumstances instead of react to them, you can challenge any reaction when it comes up in you. The possibilities are limitless and so is your creative capacity.
Why use it complaining?
Love,
Gary
http://www.seatofthesoul.com/message.html
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