String Theory for Buddhists

lobster

As we know and gain insight we realise how knotted and convoluted our life thread is. It is as if we are a ball of tangled and conflicting unravellings.
We could die the string or decorate it with baubles and call it a life. What if however, we want to sort it out? Rid the knots that tighten, tease out the tangles . . .
The string is perfect and usable but first we have to allow its straight and malleable nature to emerge. The two ends are certain, it is the bit in the middle that we can tug at or gently expand. As the knotted string expands, many of the apparent knots fall away as mere tangles . . .

federica

....Or we can just cut to the chase like Alexander the Great and hew the problem like the Gordian Knot.

lobster

Indeed, many class this as the Zen solution. Two bits of string, nothing in the middle and possibly all kinds of unresolved strands if you ever leave the moment . . .

federica

The latter is far more expedient, simple and obvious. The former leans towards caution, hesitation and hard work.
Yet this is precisely the way we choose, when seeking to unravel the knot of attachment and illusion.
Aren't we a bunch of sillies....?

lamaramadingdong

A string walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve strings here." The string leaves and walks around the corner where he finds a man standing. He says to the man, "Hey buddy. Would you do me a favor? Unravel my ends and tie me into a bow." The mans does this, and the string returns to the bar.
The bartender says, "Say, aren't you the string that was just in here?"
The string replies, "I'm a frayed knot."

DairyLama

federica said:

....Or we can just cut to the chase like Alexander the Great and hew the problem like the Gordian Knot.

My sword is far too blunt.

federica

Sharp tongued and blunt with it. That's me.....

@lamaramadingdong - that's awful. Not even a ker-ching-boomph, after that one......

Jeffrey

Namo Buddha, self awakened who is peace beginingless without middle, without end. Having awoken wakening the unawakened. Revealing the eternal fearless path. Holder of the vajra sword, the wisdom and compassion, that breaks the walls of doubt concealed in the dark confusion of wrong views. You are the only who cuts the shoots of suffering at their source.

(my sangha liturgy)

lamaramadingdong

federica said:

Sharp tongued and blunt with it. That's me.....

@lamaramadingdong - that's awful. Not even a ker-ching-boomph, after that one......

You think that's bad, did you hear about the two anntenae that got married?


The wedding wasn't much, but the reception was fantastic!

federica

This is edging dangerously close to 'General Banter'......
I could ask you to stick to topic, but you might only tell me to get knotted...... :rolleyes:

@lobster.....
I think much depends on how tight the knot is.
One thing I once learnt was, that in order to loosen a knot in a chain, you should immerse it in oil, and in a cord, to immerse it in water....
the oil lubricates the chain making it easier to slip the tangle, the water expands and lengthens the string, thereby making it looser....

Maybe, in either case, the Dhamma is the lubricant, or the water in which our life flows....
so many metaphors are possible.
Really, what counts is the Effort.

lobster

Part of the reason for using this metaphor is to explain why some people are 'evil'. They just have more knots. The string or life stream is the same as those individuals more open and less tangled.
It also explains how the enlightened can move their unknotted string into loops, movement and apparent tangles but when the end are pulled, the loops and knots are not there . . .

Jeffrey

I feel knots in my subtle body. Not muscle pains is why I say subtle. Sometimes meditation, just like you say, it's like the meditation zooms in to the knot and the fibers expand and relax and there is like a light or color to the area. What was "I don't want that tightness I feel bad" now is transformed into a 'too sensitive' bit of energy. It is 'too sensitive' a mixture of pleasure and pain, but after going through the feeling of that area the rest of my day is more relaxed. So yeah, 'knot' rings a bell for me. I posted something like this in my sangha website a couple of months ago.

lobster

more balls of string . . .
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/edjason/alchemy/string.html

lobster

There was a knot in the link, it had been severed . . . I have tied two ends together
Here is the correct link in the string