Tongue: Mute at The Menu

Column A	Column B
Tao	Jim Clatfelter's Headless Tao -- a non-dualitic version
this space intentionally left blank	Words and names are not the way They can't define the absolute It's better that you look within Hold your tongue and just be mute Look within and look out too You will not find a separation Out there you see appearance Within you see origination Look within with wonder At emptiness and bliss For wonder names totality Where nothing is amiss The space within is always there If you can moderate desire A place of utter emptiness And possibility entire

For a Tao Te Ching that might hit the spot with you, see the Taoism Information Page

Appetite: Uncontrolled

Self2: Learning Detachment

Found on The Mystic Missal:

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. "Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her over the mud. Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself.

"We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

Works: Gummed By Rationalization

From Richard Rose's list of obstacles to transcendental efforts -- Forms of Rationalization (177):

• That we will be able to do the thing better at a later date. Procrastination.
• That we will ride the tide of humanity into heaven.
• That the social services or "good works" have spiritual gain.
• That the gods have ears. Salvation through prayers.
• That the gods have noses and eyes. Incense and displays.
• That positive thinking will make gods of us or lead us to liberation.
• That the guru will save us.
• That faith will save us.
• That spiritual paths may be evaluated by their popularity.
• That we can "feel" our way alone. Intuition alone.
• That we can do it with our omnipotent reason.
• That God, (or Mr. X) will take care of everything. This is a variation of the "Knight on the white horse" rationalization.
• That our present belief shall be our final evalutation of Truth.
• That everything is hopeless or useless.

Rose, Richard. The Albigen Papers. 3rd ed. Benwood: The Pyramid Press, 1973

"Awareness": Chock Full

Understanding? Awareness? Hah!

What did your work for Nestlé look like?
It was really to tell them, for example, that the Japanese don't have a first imprint of coffee. What first imprint they have is tea. And so when you go into this category, in what we call taxonomy, mental taxonomy, it's like a mental category they have, and you cannot compete with this category. So you have to create the category. And so we started, for example, with a dessert for children with a taste of coffee. We created an imprint of the taste of coffee. And then we acknowledge the Japanese want to do one thing at a time, and the Swiss understood that very well. They start with this kind of a product. They start selling coffee, but through dessert, things that were sweet, get the people accustomed to the taste of coffee, and after that they followed the generations. And when they were teenagers they start selling coffee, and first there was coffee with milk at the beginning, and then they went to coffee, and now they have a big market for coffee in Japan.

From an interview with Clotaire Rapaille

on the Frontline report, The Persuaders.

Let s/he who is without external conditioning cast the first claim to free will.

Presence: Enmeshed in the Robot Matrix

Howard Finch character's soliloquy from movie Network:

"We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true. But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube. You eat like the tube. You raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness -- you maniacs! In God's name you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.
"So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I am speaking to you now. Turn them off!!"

Legs: Dancing

From Osho:

Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create meaning. Meaning has not to be discovered: it has to be created. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is not lying there somewhere behind the bushes, so you can go and you search a little bit and find it. It is not there like a rock that you will find. It is a poetry to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.

Perspective: Focusing

From the Weekly Wisdom Journal of ShantiMayi, #26, November 5, 2004:

Divisive thoughts do not separate us from truth. . .
in the same way that a spider's thread does not divide space. . .
dedication to "Truth" reveals "Truth"
as it really is

Brain: War of the Many

From today's Daily Dig from The Bruderhof Communities:

Before the Genuine Can Appear
Hans Scholl

This war (like all major wars) is fundamentally spiritual. I sometimes feel as if my puny brain is the battleground for all these battles. I can’t remain aloof because there’s no happiness for me in so doing, because there’s no happiness without truth—and this war is essentially a war about truth. Every false throne must first crack and splinter, that’s the distressing thing, before the genuine can appear in unadulterated form. I mean that personally and spiritually, not politically.

Hans Scholl was beheaded in Munich on February 22, 1943, for his involvement in anti-Nazi activities. He was 24.

Intention: To Vote

A pre-Election Day story:

Two Wolves

An grandfather said to his grandson who came to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice, "Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times."

He continued...

"It is as if there are two wolves inside me; One is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. He saves all his energy for the right fight.

But the other wolf, ahhh!

He is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing. Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."

The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked...

"Which one wins, Grandfather?"

The Grandfather smiled and quietly said...

"The one I feed."

Source: unknown - often attributed as "Native American story".