to the mirror of life and death..........

[Guest guest]

" It is like an image reflected in a mirror, it is seen but it is not

real; the one Mind seen as a duality by the ignorant when it is

reflected in the mirror constructed by our memory... the existence of

the entire universe is due to memory that has accumulated since the

beginningless past but wrongly interpreted. " (Lankavatara Sutra)

 

The typical entry into the world for many of us. To the hospital

staff it is another birth. To the child it is a death. One moment

there is the paradise womb, a soft floating security, and the next

moment there is an heroic struggle to move through a tiny

constricting birth canal. Suddenly there are blinding lights, the

pungent smell of antiseptic, a frightful noise, cold and an alien

alien rubber hand holding him upside down in the new and dreadful

gravity so that the blood rushes to his head flooding the delicate

brain. To complete the trauma he receives a sudden painful smack on

his buttocks to help take that first panic gulp of oxygen. Then comes

the severance of all ties with the old life as the umbilical cord is

cut.

And this is only the first step in a long line of programs which are

thought to be good for him.

We are like the little Chinese girls who had their feet bound at

birth. The fact that the poor children couldn't walk was hardly

compensated by their feet being highly prized as status symbols.

 

..bob