random queries

genkaku

FWIW:

1. -- How do you suppose things would change if you stopped explaining them?
How do you suppose they'd change if you didn't?
Either way, I imagine kindness would be important.

2. -- Suppose you discovered a wise hermit living in a faraway cave.
Would he still be wise without your discovery?
Ikkyu Sojun was once reported to have said: "I am not a Buddha. I am just an ordinary fellow who understands things."

federica

could you pass the salt?

taiyaki

change is only relevant to a mind that connects reference points.
from a suffering being change brings more suffering.
to a liberated being change brings traceless liberation.

in a way infinite kindness and compassion is possible because of this.

wisdom is only relevant to a mind.
just as a doctor gives medicine to the sick. both a doctor and sick person and medicine is needed. what is a doctor without a patient and medicine. all is dependent on each other.

more stuff to think about.

godbless.

federica

(buys me thinking time.....)

1. -- How do you suppose things would change if you stopped explaining them?
How do you suppose they'd change if you didn't?
Either way, I imagine kindness would be important.

I think they'd stay the same, but be passed on differently....others would be sure to pick up the baton.....

2. -- Suppose you discovered a wise hermit living in a faraway cave.
Would he still be wise without your discovery?

how would he be thought of as wise, without discovery?
Like 'what was Bob the Builder known as, after redundancy?
- Bob.
a hermit is wise once discovered, not before.

Ikkyu Sojun was once reported to have said: "I am not a Buddha. I am just an ordinary fellow who understands things."

I wish I could say the same. I am not a Buddha and I'm an ordinary fellow(ess) who understands very little.....

Zero

Hmmmm...

1) Are you asking whether the nature of somethign changes when it is observed? Physics would suggest so... I suppose by explaining it, you give it form which limits it - without explanation it has greater potential

2) Wise enough to know he knows nothing!! I suppose someone is wise when theyre perceived as wiser than you!! Without a subject to grade wisdom, can anyone be wise?

genkaku

I guess I was thinking a little of all the people anyone knows whom they might designate as "wise" ... or "heroic" or whatever other designation. Does the person so designated think of things that way? If not, what does that say about the one applying the designation?

federica

My Qi Gong master hates being referred to as anyone's Qi Gong Master. He insists he's just a teacher.
I, in front of other students - clarified:
"You may not wish to refer to yourself as that. You may even feel uncomfortable with us referring to you in that way. but we claim it as our privilege to refer to you that way."
they all agreed, and he seemed flattered, but embarassed....

even the Dalai Lama keeps referring to himself as a 'simple monk'....

it's respectful as far as the 'observer' is concerned..... a recognition of the effort of that person....

weighted

I was going to say something similar to what @federica did: I think labeling people and placing them into classifications - e.g. "bad" or "good" or "pupil"/"master" - is the wrong way to think about them. We have the capacity to be like them if we follow the teachings just as they did. We shouldn't think of labels as boundaries that mark us as different from others; this only separates us from them instead of allowing us to relate to them and be fair to ourselves and others.

Iktomi

1. -- How do you suppose things would change if you stopped explaining them?

Chaos would ensue.

How do you suppose they'd change if you didn't?

One things for sure, there would be a double negative.

Either way, I imagine kindness would be important.

Not at the expense of truth and The Way.

2. -- Suppose you discovered a wise hermit living in a faraway cave.
Would he still be wise without your discovery?

Yes, providing he did not make a sound.

genkaku

@iktomi -- Does chaos ensue when you sneeze?

Iktomi

@iktomi -- Does chaos ensue when you sneeze?

If you had ever witnessed me sneeze you wouldn't even ask.

genkaku

@iktomi -- Does chaos ensue when you sneeze?

If you had ever witnessed me sneeze you wouldn't even ask.

@iktomi -- Are you saying you don't sneeze? Or that you sneeze so thunderously as to create chaos around you? I'm not understanding the response.

Maybe my question was unclear: You said that if you stopped explaining things, chaos would ensue.

When you sneeze (assuming you do), it's really quite interesting what happens to hope, belief, explanations, deities, philosophies and, I would say, anything else you hold near and dear. Where are they when you are sneezing? Can you find them, hold them, assert them, adorn yourself with them? Is this what you mean by "chaos?" Clearly the rest of the world doesn't agree that chaos results from a sneeze since a sneeze is a minor matter, hardly likely to result in chaos, and yet quite capable of utterly obliterating explanations ... at least for the moment.

Or am I misunderstanding?