Comment by Forrest Curo on 3rd mo. 8, 2010 at 12:25am

redlotus.pdf

(Handout from a similar thing last year:
Everything is Quaker; nothing is Quaker.

The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout
souls are everywhere of one religion; and when death
has taken off the mask they will know one another
though the divers liveries they wear here makes them
strangers. William Penn

Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural impulses
and everything will fall into place.
Tao Te Ching

If you’re not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,
and sleep.
Rumi via Coleman Barks

If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you.
Jesus, Gospel of Thomas

While it is not something we can do in our own power, we do not
need to; we open to it, when we feel that we need and want to
respond to God’s continuing invitation.
Brian Drayton

Mentally listen inwardly as though you were waiting to hear a message. This is a
simple practice, yet it does require practice and discipline. Gently call out to the
universe, God, mentally--into the vastness of your own quiet mind--and then simply
listen for a response. Listen as though you had called a note into the Grand Canyon
and were waiting for the echoing response as reply. Simply be effortlessly attentive.
Erich Schiffmann

The universe is a hairy teacher--It’ll hint
at first, and if you don’t follow the hint
it’ll hit you with a cattle-prod.
Stephen Gaskin

Meditation is very difficult. It forces us to look at
things we have invested a lot of energy in not seeing.
We will inevitably reach the point where our
resistence to this process will become so great we
will want to quit. The support of others is crucial at
such times. There have been many times when my
own meditation has led me to such difficult moments
that I would have gotten up and left the room if I
hadn’t been too embarrassed to do so in front of
others. Moreover, one of the states we are most
interested in leaving behind is the exaggerated sense
of self--the delusion that we are discrete, isolated
entities--that afflicts so many of us. Sitting in meditation
with others--breathing the same air, hearing
the same sounds, thoughts rising and falling in the
same patterns--we experience ourselves to be deeply
connected to one another, the constituents of a
single, interpenetrating whole, and this sense of
things is perhaps the most significant leave-taking
we can make. Alan Lew

Every experience and every event has a voice,
if only I keep my receiver in range. The blind
man in an airport can be my teacher as well as
Johnathan Omer-man or Reb Zalman or Eve
Ilsen--and how I play Scrabble can be as profound
as how I daven, if I truly listen and learn from
every person and every event. Then I will meet
Elijah everywhere and in everyone.
Rodger Kamenetz

You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say
this, but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of
Light and hast walked in the Light, and what thou
speakest is it inwardly from God?
Margaret Fell quoting George Fox"

Comment by John F. Hickey on 3rd mo. 14, 2010 at 10:41pm

I think you are on the right track in being inside your not-knowing. I just ran across a passage at http://www.oxherding.com/my_weblog/2009/04/korean-zen-seung-sahn-do..., which cites several cultural affirmations of the value of remembering that we don’t know. (I can’t find the exct passage referred to on Socrates, but it certainly is true to the spirit of what I have read):

Korean Zen: Seung Sahn & Don't Know

One time, Zen Master Seung Sahn said:

I don't teach Korean or Mahayana or Zen. I don't even teach Buddhism. I only teach don't know. Fifty years here and there teaching only don't know. So only don't know, okay?

This don't know forms the core of all Buddhist teaching. Don't know is a rendering of prajna, the Sanskrit term that we usually translate as "wisdom." Literally, prajna means "before thinking" (pra=before; jna=thought).

The Greek philosopher Socrates used to teach, "You must understand your true self." One time someone asked Socrates, "Teacher, do you understand your true self?" Socrates replied, "I don't know. But I also understand this don't know."

Similarly, when the Indian monk Bodhidharma came to China, he was brought before Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty for an interview. As the interview proceeded, the emperor became increasingly irritated with Bodhidharma and finally challenged him. "Who are you?" he shouted at Bodhidharma. The monk simply said, "Don't know" and ended the interview.

Socrates' don't know, Bodhidharma's don't know, and Seung Sahn's don't know - are they the same or different?

For many years, Zen Master Seung Sahn carried on an extensive correspondence with students around the world. He ended each of his letters with these words, summarizing his entire teaching:

I hope from moment to moment you only go straight, don't know, which is clear like space, try, try, try for ten thousand years, non-stop, get enlightenment, and save all beings from suffering.

What could be more important?

Comment by Mary Linda on 3rd mo. 17, 2010 at 9:37am

Girlfriend, just speak from your experience. Don't try to think it through logically--speak from where Spirit rises in you. Tell about your journey and be as nitty-gritty as you need to be. This is YOUR life you'll be talking about, YOUR connection with the Divine. Share what you own. Share what is true for you. Cry if you need to--or laugh. Nobody in this world, particularly spiritual seekers, needs another hosed down version of anything. People are starving for authenticity, sincerity and real connection. Give them the gift of you in 7 minutes.
Mary Linda

Comment by John F. Hickey on 3rd mo. 17, 2010 at 9:55am

I think what Mary Linda says is great advice.

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