From: Tagi@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Questions on Experience  (long)
Date: 16 Apr 92 23:45:58 GMT
Organization: ----


Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The word of Sin is Restriction.


Mr. Wheeler asks great questions!  My thoughts:


1. What form of meditation do you utilize?


Response:

I think it is called 'presentness' or 'mindfulness'.
It essentially consists of focus on every level.  Sitting
(zazen) gives a booster to this practice.  However, like
trying to fly without much experience, mindfulness is difficult
without a guide.  I have and do not have such a guide.


Wheeler:

2. What is your actual experience in meditation? 


Response:

The meditation gets harder when I am experiencing pain and deep
emotional trauma.  Sometimes I don't always find out how difficult
it was until months down the road.  I get lost, regroup, and come
back, same as in traditional zazen.  I often feel like I'm failing
miserably, but this gradually fades as I realize how focussed I can
be over time.


Wheeler:

3. How would you describe your experiences in relation to what you 
   consider to be a fully enlightened state?


Response:

I'm not sure how to answer this one.  It sounds like one which you asked
previously.  All I can say here is that the Tao is the ordinary mind.  There
is no real difference between enlightenment and nonenlightenment.  We just
think there is.


Wheeler:

4. If you feel your current experience does not match your vision of full
   enlightenment, how do you account for this? 


Response:

I am deluded, I guess.  I am ignorant.  I sin.  I'm just dumb, naive,
innocent.  I'm learning, though, so I give myself some credit.
   

Wh:
       	
A. You have not found right kind of meditation to bring you
to the goal


Response:

It is not the KIND of meditation, but the effort applied to it that
will bring me to the goal (a continual one, I'd add).

 	
Wh:

B. You have found the right meditation, but you are still
learning how to apply it, or perhaps you are not applying
it in the best way


Response:

I'm learning AS I apply it.  I'm perfect as I am, and I have alot to
learn.
	

Wh:

C. You have the right meditation and you are applying it correctly,
but it's just going to take time to reach the goal


Response:

No, it takes no time to reach the goal.  The goal is reached in every
moment.  Perhaps I bypass the opportunity to let go and accept the goal
of every moment in my ignorance.  There is no 'correct' about it excepting
each person's individual path.
        

Wh:

D. You haven't found the right teacher


Response:

Absolutely correct, but most people haven't.  The 'right teacher' is the
Buddha; the Inner Guru; the Christ within.  I may have caught glimpses of
this teacher, but I haven't caught up with Hir yet.  She is VERY FAST! :>
	

Wh:

E. You don't have any real experience with meditation, but you like
to read books and pursue spirituality as an intellectual hobby 


Response:

What?  Is the intellectual a realm in which meditation can't take place?
I think that reading, especially nonfiction and/or mystical texts, is
a meditation all itself.
	

Wh:

F. Other 


Response:

It is not yet time for such an experience.  If it were, I'd have it.



Wh:

5. Honestly assessing your responses above, and in the light of your current
   level of experience and understanding, do you think you will realize
   enlightenment? If so, when? 


Response:

Enlightenment is not realized, it is destroyed.  The more I yearn for it,
the more I seek it, the more I do not have it.  In some ways I am better off
just forgetting all this stuff.  In others I am better off engaging it and
working through my attachments.  When?  Now!  I am!   So there.  :>



Invoke me under my stars!   Love is the law, love under will.


Yours in exhaltation,

Nigris, O'
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern