Random Dharma

Very clear-- I like that. Thanks, Chris.

Perhaps particularly appropriate, given all the rightness and wrongness being discussed lately...


The Place Where We Are Right

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.

— Yehuda Amichai  (Translated from the original Hebrew)

Hmm.

andy wrote: The Place Where We Are Right

Nice. I'll note that the particular term for "never" in line two also means "to the world."

An alternate translation could be:

From the place where we are right
There won't grow into the world
Flowers in spring

Tom Otvos wrote: As some have already noticed (upon request) the Heidegger discussion has been moved to another thread , except for the teaser video above. Also, a bunch of unRandom Dharma has been moved to a quiet location, with some minor tweaking to preserve topic continuity.

Thank you. Totally love the teaser video.

The movie "Her" (2013) by Spike Jonze , is pretty amazing.

pretty darn funny--

www.elephantjournal.com/2014/10/how-to-b...tra-spiritual-video/

Your post reminded me of one of my favorite David Lynch projects ever here:

interviewproject.davidlynch.com/www/#/all-episodes

This is a fascinating project where hundreds of ordinary people are interviewed about their lives. I remember the first time I saw this I was just in awe with the feeling of connection to each person. Time to go watch these again.

Philosophy and technology...

existentialcomics.com/comic/51

A good conversation between Sam Harris and Joseph Goldstien:

www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-path-and-the-goal

Of particular interest was their discussion comparing Dzogchen and mature Vipassina practice. (A very 3rd to 4th Path discussion).

that is awesome...gonna repost to dho

It is a surprisingly good conversation-- Goldstein is a good counterweight to Harris; and when Harris isn't going on about religion in his usual myopic culture-bound way, he has some interesting things to say. The contrast between 'the old hand' and the charged-up 'newbie' is amusing and instructive.

The happiness which comes from staring at a rock.....nice...we've all totally done that.....earth Kasina to the happiness jhanas....

Tom Otvos wrote:

Kate Gowen wrote: It is a surprisingly good conversation-- Goldstein is a good counterweight to Harris; and when Harris isn't going on about religion in his usual myopic culture-bound way, he has some interesting things to say. The contrast between 'the old hand' and the charged-up 'newbie' is amusing and instructive.

I think I mentioned this in another thread where I talked about a Goldstein book, and that was that I had always tended (unfairly) to lump him in with the other IMS folks that present a watered down dharma practice for the masses. Not so with that book, and definitely not so in this interview. I really like this guy.

Yeah, JG just seems to exude practice fruits, non-defensive, great sense of humor, flexible, open minded. He's been criticized on KFD for being slow to attain Paths. I was taken aback to hear his guess that he didn't get a subsequent major path until 1984. I did a 3 month retreat with him in 1981 when he seems to say he "only" had 1st Path. But he had years of intensive, dedicated practice experience under his belt with a highly regarded Mahasi teacher.. (And if you go for a traditional Buddhist perspective) who knows how much practice he'd done before this life time? In fairness to PD critics, I've wondered if maybe JG's personal experience made it hard for him to be receptive to PD claims of attaining advanced paths? Maybe my take away is that the Path metric isn't adequate for getting the measure of someone's practice, or teaching abilities. [Edit. could have spent that time sitting rather than blathering.]

I'm lately of a mind that those fruits of practice you mention are the only part that matters.

Riddle in the Garden

My mind is intact, but the shapes
of the world change, the peach
has released the bough and at last
makes full confession, its pudeur
had departed like peach-fuzz wiped off, and

We now know how the hot sweet-
ness of flesh and the juice-dark hug
the rough peach-pit, we know its most
suicidal yearnings, it wants
to suffer extremely, it

Loves God, and I warn you, do not
touch that plum, it will burn you, a blister
will be on your finger, and you will
put the finger to your lips for relief—oh, do
be careful not to break that soft

Gray bulge of blister like fruit-skin, for
exposing that inwardness will
increase your pain, for you
are part of this world. You think
I am speaking in riddles. But I am not, for

The world means only itself.

--Robert Penn Warren