What is it? Perhaps...Shawn

[Guest guest]

Hi Shawn:

 

It was great to see your work and read your messages. This group has

some people I like to use as references for information on just about

every topic under the spiritual sun. Ask and someone will know or

take a stab at it.

 

:

> To complicate

> matters, there are plenty of would-be `teachers' in the world who

> will try to tell us that `they' have somehow come to the end of this

> imaginary search, that they are now `shepherds' and we are lambs in

> their green pastures, and if we would only enter into some kind of

> master/disciple association with them, and wear their tinkling bells

> around our necks, well - we can be free too!

> ===================================

> Shawn: Hi b,

> Are you saying there is no Help? That there is no-one who needs

help? That

> may be some sort of ultimate truth but it also denies the very real

> suffering that is experienced by those not yet awakened to their

true

> Position! Are you saying that all teachers are not really

authentic, that

> they all are charletons? What of Maharshi?

>

> ====================================

 

I agree that there are charletans and bonafides. This non-dual forum

is good for discussions on them, their strengths and weaknesses.

> b.

> Thus ensues another

> variation on the cult of knowing and separation, and the insidious

> part of it is that these folks often sprinkle in little crumbs

> of `truth' along the way, and these crumbs are laced with the

> hypnosis ingredient, until we become convinced that we now need

> to `end the search', and, by hanging with this or that guy, somehow

> we just might finally `get it'.

>

> ========================

>

> I understand and "sense" the Truth from the not truth. And

though I know

> you mean well, I feel there is much to gain from those who seem to

have a

> special gift of teaching. Truely the "guru" is a function and not

the

> automatic outcome of enlightenment. The truth has shakti and feeds

my

> "soul." Let's not forget that those who hear the truth that Samsara

and

> Nirvana are the same are not at all the same as those who SEE this.

>

> The un-enlightened quickly turn ultimate truths such as "there is

nothing to

> attain," into ridiculous notions that since that is true then what

is the

> point of following, doing, contemplating anything!

> Take the case of Alan Watts. People are still following him and

treat him

> as an enlightened Zen master when it is clear from his own mouth,

he only

> understood it mentally and was himself bereft of any first-hand

groking.

> Remember that word?

 

Effort rightly placed prepares one for grace is the way I see it.

Watts introduuced me to the East so his mental understanding was

sufficient for the place I was at at the time. I went from there to

Philip Kapleau and the Three Pillars of Zen and then to India. That

would be from '68 to '72.

It would be nice to know some of your story.

>

> Who know where that word came from (not in the ultimate sense.?)

 

Grok came from the book "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert

Heinlein.

 

I greatly enjoyed your website. Beautiful paintings with a good

wholesome attitude. They speak well for you as an individual.

Painting is a great way to meditate in the real world. To me

Impressionism is to art is like Existentialism is to philosophy and

relativity is to physics. It was passed by way too soon by the avant

garde and still has a lot to give by way of personal and universal

expression.

>

> grounded firmly in the world of opposites, Shawn

 

Harsha likes to joke around. Big Bob seems to fit because I live in

rural East Texas. I usually sign off as...

 

Love

Bobby G.