From: jc (jcpryor@nccn.net)
Date: Sat Aug 06 2005 - 20:45:00 BST
At 3:11 AM -0700 8/2/05, Kevin Perez wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>
>
>I signed on to this list about a week ago after
>stumbling onto the moq.org website. I just
>finished my third or fourth read of ZMM and am now in the middle of
>my second read of Lila. I first read ZMM back
>in 1987 and Lila in the Fall of 1992.
>
Hello Kevin,
I'm pretty new myself and somehow I missed your
reply for while. Thanks for taking up the
dialogue.
>[jc]
>
>>Ok Scott. What's the second step?
>
[Kevin]
>
>Choose a) to recognize that one is part of the
>problem, to change and to contribute to
>dynamic quality or b) to not change and to contribute to static quality.
[jc]
Abraham Lincoln said the question was not whether
God was on Abe's side but whether Abe was on
God's. What can I do about dynamic quality to
improve it? It seems all I can do is be open to
it by holding my static patterns lightly - as
easily dropped possessions of use at the moment.
[jc]
>
>
>>Then when or how does one know the inward work is done and it's time
>
>>the outward work begun?
>
[Kevin]
>
>Oneís knowledge of when and how to act
>authentically is not based on objective,
>empirical evidence of any sort. The source of
>this knowledge comes from within.
> The following may help. It is attributed to Mother Teresa.
>
Ok Kevin, sorry, but I never did quite get the
mother teresa thing. Maybe its childhood
prejudice but I was taught from birth that one
day the catholics were going to round up my
people and start a big bonfire. Yeah, weird, I
know. But anyway, Mother Teresa was a large
social icon, still is I guess, but there are many
examples in the world of self-sacrificing service
to the unlovely that never had the benefit of a
big publicity machine. And I often wonder why
the whole world acts so agog over someone who did
nothing more than take Christ literally.
Socially, I can see worshipping and promoting
self-sacrifice. But that seems to me to be stuck
on the one level of static quality and ramping it
up a bit.
I'd give more credit to the dyanmic community in
the silicon valley that started a new age of
information that makes it possible for the indian
people and government to generate solutions out
of the cycles of poverty and disease.
[jc]
>
>>If it is also true,
>
>>
>
>>"A tribe can only change it's values person by person and someone
>
>>has to be first."
>
>>
>
>>then who will be second, third, ....?
>
>
>
>Change happens when people act with courage and authenticity to ask the tough
>questions and then seek the difficult answers.
[jc]
sigh. There is a real conflict/dilemma in my
mind in the realm of personal and relational
growth. It always seems a copout to me to
advocate more private contemplation as a
univerals panacea to all the world's ills. In my
view, most of the people who act in the world
should spend more time contemplating and most of
the contemplaters should start acting.
Now I'm an inveterate contemplater so I don't
need any advice on how to do more of the same.
Seen my navel. All the way through. It's
interesting, yeah, but it doesn't bake the bread.
Real change is social. The balanced individual
sees the imbalance in the world and ought to want
to do something about it. In a way they are
doing nothing but acting out of their own
harmonic balance, but in another way they change
everything.
It's completely impossible to do nothing. The
whole point of Zen is to get you to realize that.
The whole thing about striving to do nothing is
just a silly trick. There. I said it. I
spilled the beans. Deal with it.
[Kevin]
>Don't give up on Christ. And be careful. To
>seek changes on the outside without also
>making the necessary inward changes is dangerous. It's been my
>experience that this often leads to failure.
[jc]
It's been my experience that failure leads to
success. My dad used to bark on the jobsite, "DO
SOMEthing, Even if it's wrong!" And it's true.
Nothing is worse than a worker that stands around
and asks what to do next. Whereas at least when
you do something wrong, you are learning a great
deal.
And to my mind, seeking change on the outer
without the inner isn't dangerous so much as
impossible. I never seek change. Sometime
something needs to change. I change it. No big
deal.
[Kevin]
>
>
>We exist and we don't. It's a matter of
>perspective. Sometimes what we seek is hiding
>in plain sight.
Well... "We exist and we don't" isn't very
logical . Clear thinking needs clear language.
We exist. What hides in plain sight is not
hidden, it's ignored. And matters of perspective
depend on how you look at them. (yeah, logically
tautological but I said it ironically so at least
it was half-assed rhetorically interesting)
whimsically,
jc
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