Comments on: Fast-acting AND long-lasting http://punctum-saliens.org/2007/07/17/fast-acting-and-long-lasting/ Leaping Point: Take a flying leap and see where you land Wed, 16 May 2012 12:41:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ken http://punctum-saliens.org/2007/07/17/fast-acting-and-long-lasting/comment-page-1/#comment-1805 Ken Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:26:28 +0000 http://ifyouregonnadothatyougotta.org/2007/07/17/fast-acting-and-long-lasting/#comment-1805 Valerie, I found this in Suzuki's <i>Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist</i>. Not sure what it has to do with the post but it talks about Blake, whom you mention. (A footnote says that <i>sono-mama</i> is "in the 'as-it-is-ness' of things.") "Living in the light of eternity" is to get into the oneness and allness of things and to live with it. This is what the Japanese call "seeing things <i>sono-mama</i>" in their suchness, which in William Blake's terms is to "hold infinity in the palm, of your hand, and eternity is an hour." To see things as God sees them, according to Spinoza, is to see them under the aspect of eternity. All human evaluation is, however, conditioned by time and relativity. It is ordinarily difficult for us humans "to see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower." To our senses, a grain of sand is not the whole world, nor is a wild flower in a corner of the field a heaven. We live in a world of discrimination and our enthusiasm rises from the considerations of particulars. We fail to see them "evenly" or "uniformly" as Meister Eckhart tells us to do, which is also Spinoza's way. Tennyson must have been in a similar frame of consciousness when he plucked a wild flower out of the crannied wall and held it in his hand and contemplated it. Valerie, I found this in Suzuki’s Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist. Not sure what it has to do with the post but it talks about Blake, whom you mention. (A footnote says that sono-mama is “in the ‘as-it-is-ness’ of things.”)

“Living in the light of eternity” is to get into the oneness and allness of things and to live with it. This is what the Japanese call “seeing things sono-mama” in their suchness, which in William Blake’s terms is to “hold infinity in the palm, of your hand, and eternity is an hour.”

To see things as God sees them, according to Spinoza, is to see them under the aspect of eternity. All human evaluation is, however, conditioned by time and relativity. It is ordinarily difficult for us humans “to see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.” To our senses, a grain of sand is not the whole world, nor is a wild flower in a corner of the field a heaven. We live in a world of discrimination and our enthusiasm rises from the considerations of particulars. We fail to see them “evenly” or “uniformly” as Meister Eckhart tells us to do, which is also Spinoza’s way. Tennyson must have been in a similar frame of consciousness when he plucked a wild flower out of the crannied wall and held it in his hand and contemplated it.

]]> By: Valerie http://punctum-saliens.org/2007/07/17/fast-acting-and-long-lasting/comment-page-1/#comment-1126 Valerie Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:10:05 +0000 http://ifyouregonnadothatyougotta.org/2007/07/17/fast-acting-and-long-lasting/#comment-1126 Is it possible that our being “drug” kicking and screaming (an experience I’m familiar with) because it’s toward someone else’s belief system? Perhaps those who are so easily drawn to Fundamentalism in any religion (and any ‘packaged deal, so to speak) are unthinking folks who are willing to trade their spiritual or intellectual effort for a type of superficial mental security. I believe the allowing is easy but not because the process is simple (just look at the choices in operating a washing machine, easy but not simple). Didn’t the poet William Blake say “to see the universe in a grain of sand”. I don’t hear the struggle in that. And the beat goes on, and the search goes on… I’d be blessed with one Eureka in a lifetime! Is it possible that our being “drug” kicking and screaming (an experience I’m familiar with) because it’s toward someone else’s belief system? Perhaps those who are so easily drawn to Fundamentalism in any religion (and any ‘packaged deal, so to speak) are unthinking folks who are willing to trade their spiritual or intellectual effort for a type of superficial mental security. I believe the allowing is easy but not because the process is simple (just look at the choices in operating a washing machine, easy but not simple). Didn’t the poet William Blake say “to see the universe in a grain of sand”. I don’t hear the struggle in that. And the beat goes on, and the search goes on… I’d be blessed with one Eureka in a lifetime!

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