From: mw@ki.fht-mannheim.de (Marc Wachowitz)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: quotes from talk.religion.newage
Date: 24 Jul 92 09:18:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Jul24.122854.14787
Organization: ----

Recently a collection of pieces from past articles appeared in
talk.religion.newage (the article is named "quotes on talk.religion.newage",
by Mark W. Haefner); a few of them below, to encourage going beyond fences :-)

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Even the desire to be non-violent, when one is violent, is itself violence with
what is.
                                         - Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage

---

Go beyond reason to love - it is safe. It is the only safety. Love all you can,
and when you are ready all will be shown to you. The state of mind that most
needs enlightenment is the one that sees human beings as *needing* to be guided
or enlightened. The sin that most needs to be loved and forgiven is the state
of mind that sees human beings as sinners.
                    - Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"

---

How soon will you realize that the only thing you don't have is the direct
experience that there's nothing you need that you don't have?
                              - Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"

---

In Buddhism there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing
special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you're tired go
and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.
                                                                      - Lin-chi

---

I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, "You shall be my
     disciple."
I looked at him and said, "Who was Buddha's teacher?"
He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter
     and handed me a piece of clover.
                                     - Alan Watts in "OM: Creative Meditations"

---

Joshu is my favorite Zen Master. It is said that a monk once asked him, "To be
holy - what is it like?"
     Joshu replied, "To dump a mountain of shit on a clean plain." In Zen
language that means if we do not divide the world into "holy" and "unholy,"
there is nothing to stain it.
                                      - Disk Sutphen in Master of Life magazine

---

Oh, oh, I just hurt that person by what I said. I must control my behavior
better in the future. Whoops, there, I did it again. Hmmm, my behavior seems
to come from my thoughts/feelings, so if I control them, then I won't have to
worry about controlling my behavior. Uh, oh, there goes a bad thought. I'll
replace it with a good one. Whoops, gotta bad feeling. Lessee now, which good
one should I replace it with? Hmmm, the problem is that by the time I know I
have a bad thought or feeling, it's already happened. How can I control
something that I don't even know is coming? Wait a minute, why do I want to
control my thoughts/feelings? Isn't the desire for control itself a feeling?
Where does it come from? I seem to want control in order to avoid
seeing/thinking/feeling certain things. Somehow, these things are threatening
to me. In what way do these things threaten me? Somehow, I perceive them as
being "alien" and "not me". But how do I know what is "me" and "not me"? Who
is deciding this? Perhaps the boundary needs to be examined. Who created the
boundary, and who is going to examine it?
                                         - Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage

---

Relationship... is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without
relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence.
You exist only in relationship; otherwise you do not exist; existence has no
meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You
exist because you are related; and it is the lack of understanding of
relationship that causes conflict.
                                                                 - Krishnamurti

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Self-improvement is a dangerous form of vanity.
                                                                   - Alan Watts

---

To understand a problem obviously requires a certain intelligence, and that
intelligence cannot be derived from or cultivated through specialization. It
comes into being only when we are passively aware of the whole process of our
consciousness, which is to be aware of ourselves without choice, without
choosing what is right and what is wrong. When you are passively aware, you
will see that out of that passivity - which is not idleness, which is not
sleep, but extreme alertness - the problem has quite a different significance;
which means there is no longer identification with the problem and therefore
there is no judgement and hence the problem begins to reveal its content. If
you are able to do that constantly, continuously, then every problem can be
solved fundamentally, not superficially.- Krishnamurti

---

The meaning of here and now is beautifully illustrated by a Zen story of a monk
who was being chased by two tigers. He came to the edge of a cliff. He looked
back - the tigers were almost upon him. Noticing a vine leading over the cliff,
he quickly crawled over the edge and began to let himself down the vine. Then
as he checked below, he saw two tigers waiting for him at the bottom of the
cliff. He looked up and observed that two mice were knawing away at the vine.
Just then, he saw a beautiful strawberry within arm's reach. He picked it and
enjoyed the best tasting strawberry in his whole life!
                              - Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"

----

We have all probably gone through periods of belief system house-cleaning, with
the feeling of being in control and taking charge of our lives, success, and
all of that. What I'm suggesting is that there is a basic illusion underlying
this appearance, which is the feeling that "I" am doing this. If I choose to
change a belief for whatever reason, then who has chosen the new belief? Me,
or the reason for the choice? Choosing to change one's belief system is a good
way to avoid looking at one's relationship to belief systems per se. We are
motivated by pain, or uncomfortableness, and rather than understand our
relationship to those feelings, we seek to change them by adopting new belief
systems, finding new lovers, moving to different cities, changing jobs, ... We
always try to "fix" what is perceived as being outside of us, rather than
trying to understand the motivation to fix.
                                         - Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage

---

You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him to find it within
himself.
                                                                      - Galileo

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Marc Wachowitz, mw@gandalf.ki.fht-mannheim.de, 75742@novell1.rz.fht-mannheim.de
  *  wonder everyday    *    nothing in particular    *    all is special  *
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern