balam
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Your Daily Dose of DharmaExcerpts from
The Truth by Amitabha Buddha
Dharma the truth has always existed.
Dharma exists moment to moment.
It existed in the past. It will exist in the future.
It is in existence now.
The Buddha comes in so many eons to point to Dharma.
Don't get struck by looking for the Buddha -
When you just look for the Buddha with faith rather than
knowing, the Dharma may just disappear.
Look for the Dharma in everyday life.
Look at the Dharma, you will surely find the Buddha.
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balam
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EVERYTHING
IS AN
ILLUSION
Everything is like a mirage.
You think it is real.
But when you look at it up close, it is not.
It is not what you think it is.
In fact, it is empty.
Form is empty.
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ogershok
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I just adore Jenna Elfman.
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balam
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| ogershok wrote: | | I just adore Jenna Elfman. |
I'm with you on that one. Loved that show... still do.
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lizmotobike
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yeah that was a fun show.
please don't wipe your karma on my carpet.
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balam
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DHARMA
THA WHICH IS NOT
AN ILLUSION.
Everything that is seen in form is an illusion.
Dharma, the truth, can only be experienced, not
seen. What is experienced lasts for only a brief
moment. Just a conscious moment is about 1/10 -12
of a second, and it is gone.
By the time we are aware of that moment of
consciousness, the Dharma, the truth, is gone.
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Celeste
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Love it, balam -- keep 'em coming!
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balam
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DHARMA
HAS ALWAYS BEEN
AND IS PRESENT ALWAYS.
"Right Now" has passed by the time one finishes
saying, "Right Now."
That's why, to truly experience Dharma, one must
learn to "anticipate," to experience it at all times, so
that one can be "in time" to experience it as it
(Dharma) happens, and not later.
To anticipate itself is not experiencing Dharma yet.
True Dharma is the experiencing of what happens at
that moment, not before, not after.
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ogershok
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It parallels the philosophy that one cannot cross the same stream twice. A stream or river only exists in a fleeting moment and in the next moment it's a different one. I think it's all various ways to say, "Pay attention to the world around you. You'll never experience it again."
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balam
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| ogershok wrote: | | It parallels the philosophy that one cannot cross the same stream twice. A stream or river only exists in a fleeting moment and in the next moment it's a different one. I think it's all various ways to say, "Pay attention to the world around you. You'll never experience it again." |
You've got that right.
Though some of you might have already read it, Siddhartha is a very interesting read (for those of you that haven't).
Great excerpt from it:
"Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”"
I think there is actually a mention right along the lines of what Ogershok just mentioned. (read it  )
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balam
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DHARMA IS NOWHERE
AND YET
EVERYWHERE.
By the time one thinks of the Dharma it has
happened; it is gone.
Therefore, it's "nowhere."
But there is still a lot of Dharma moments to come.
Therefore, it is "everywhere."
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Celeste
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Kind of like quantum superposition...
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ogershok
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| Celeste wrote: | | Kind of like quantum superposition... |
Well, I'll tell you what, your new icon of Emma Peel resonates with a time period I'll never experience again, regardless of how the probabilities are multiplied. And I mean that in a good way. 
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lizmotobike
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i do have a copy of the Siddhartha. i know should spend some time with it. i have just finished crime and punishment so maybe next.
dianne rigg was great! her replacement that king girl was blah.
the prisoner was another fav.
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Celeste
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Diana Rigg was my idol growing up. She was the first woman I ever saw use martial arts on TV.
Loved her one-piece zip-up-the-front skintight outfits, too!
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ogershok
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| Celeste wrote: | Diana Rigg was my idol growing up. She was the first woman I ever saw use martial arts on TV.
Loved her one-piece zip-up-the-front skintight outfits, too! |
She was the precursor to Aeon Flux.
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balam
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DHARMA IS NOT IN THE PAST
IT'S NOT IN THE FUTURE
IT'S IN THE PRESENT
Dharma can't be looked for in the past.
Dharma can't be seen in the future.
It is what happens at this moment in time,
the present.
Experience the Dharma in the present.
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balam
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DHARMA
IS THE TRUTH-
FOR THE MOMENT.
Dharma, The Truth, exists only for the moment.
It does not exist for two moments.
Dharma may be transmitted from moment to
moment, but no two Dharma moments are identical.
What is the Truth for the moment, based on the
conditions for that moment, can't possibly be
replicated exactly with all the same conditions causing
the Truth.
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balam
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DHARMA
HAS ONLY ONE TASTE:
FREEDOM.
He who experiences Dharma,
tastes freedom for the moment.
He who experiences Dharma,
Is a free person for the moment.
The more one is familiar with the Dharma,
the more one is free.
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ogershok
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balam
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::lol:: 
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balam
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DHARMA IS NOT BASED ON
CONVENTIONS NOR ON
SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY.
Dharma can't be bound by convention.
Whatever happens for the moment happens
regardless of conditions.
Whatever happens can't possibly follow spiritual
authority.
Whatever happens is due to all the conditions tat
are there for the moment.
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balam
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DHARMA CAN'T BE CHANGED,
CAN'T BE TRANSFERED,
CAN'T BE IMPROVED UPON.
Dharma is "as is".
It is experienced "as is" by only one person
"as is" at that moment.
What a person experiences as Dharma at that
moment is possibly NOT the same as another person
who experiences Dharma at the same moment,
unless these two persons are on identical levels of
spiritual enlightenment.
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balam
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DHARMA IS NOT SINGULAR
NOR IS IT PLURAL.
IT IS BOTH, IN UNITY.
Dharma is not one.
It is NOT many.
It is The One for that moment.
Within The One
there may be just one or there may be many.
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balam
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TRUE DHARMA
CAN'T BE POSSESSED;
DHARMA IS LIVED FROM
MOMENT TO MOMENT.
Once a person experiences Dharma for the moment,
that Dharma can't be kept or possessed.
One continues to learn and to practice and so
experience more of Dharma from moment to
moment.
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Celeste
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In some branches of physics, you cannot observe something without affecting it. Simultaneously, you are yourself affected by observing something. And your experience of a thing is filtered through perceptions moulded out of your past experiences. (But that may just be simple brain chemistry...)
And my all-time favorite: "zero" or "the void" are just different words for "infinite potential"... Emptiness waiting to be filled. Eastern mystical traditions have five elements: chi (earth), sui (water), ka (fire), fu (wind), and ku ("the void"). The cool thing about ku in the martial arts, is that by emptying ourselves of "expectations" (our "filters" and preconceptions), we create space for that "infinite potential", which allows us to flow naturally into a more "natural" response to any situation.
I've been driving a friend to bible study classes lately (since her car got repossessed a few months ago), and the teacher has been talking about some really cool stuff about "God" willing the universe into existence because for something ["God"] to *be* "Love", it must have something *to* love. It's kind of like us "creating" our own universes. According to some Buddhist philosophies, our universes don't really exist except as creations in our own minds. And then there's all that parallel Quabbalistic stuff about "potential" and "will" uniting to create "fulfillment/joy/ecstasy" (that whole parallel mother+father=child "trinity" thing again...)
It's interesting how the same themes show up time and time again in radically different places. I figure truth is truth... Peace out!
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ogershok
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| Celeste wrote: | | In some branches of physics, you cannot observe something without affecting it. |
Doesn't Schrödinger's Cat belong in "bone things?" 
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balam
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It is in fact interesting how we all want "to reach that mountain top", just "taking different paths".
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