11 Jul 07
Originally posted by vistesdYou have reminded me of an experience I remember as a child. It's very difficult to describe. It's more of a memory of a mind set. Before I actually knew anything. It's like a profound sense of peace and well being. Everything seemed to be in harmony. I think it was an awareness of the pure reality that eventually became buried by the confusion.
Reality, as it is, is before our conceptualizations of it. I do not think we can get behind our own perceptions (how our brain interprets the sense data it receives), but we can experience the “Real” before our ideas, concepts, words. (And, then again, perhaps I have not yet gotten deep enough.)
That is, for me, the bedrock—whether “Zen” or not.
Fran ...[text shortened]... experience that is, for me, the measure of whatever truth there may be in various speculations.
11 Jul 07
Originally posted by vistesdAh, sounds like good times.
I have a wonderful story about the night we went to the Snyder reading—my (future at the time) wife “beached” her Geo Metro on a curb in the parking lot, and a buddy of mine and I had to leave the auditorium to rescue it. Just made it back in time for the reading.
I asked Snyder to read his poem about repairing the ‘55 Willys (I can’t recall the proper title), but he said it was too long.
11 Jul 07
Originally posted by josephwYep.
You have reminded me of an experience I remember as a child. It's very difficult to describe. It's more of a memory of a mind set. Before I actually knew anything. It's like a profound sense of peace and well being. Everything seemed to be in harmony. I think it was an awareness of the pure reality that eventually became buried by the confusion.
11 Jul 07
Originally posted by josephwThose who are miserable and looking for someone to save them often will grasp at anything they are offered.
It has been said that in order to get someone saved you have to first get them lost. No one can be saved unless they have had the experience of knowing they were in need of the saviour.
So, get lost! Then you too can have the experience of knowing you have eternal life. 🙂
11 Jul 07
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Originally posted by LemonJelloHave you read his account of a sesshin at Shokoko-ji? I have a reference if you want. (Seriously, I think I have just about everything between bindings by Snyder up to The Practice of the Wild. Also, a good bit of Merwin, who is/was also into Zen—and who is my odds-up for poet between the two: I am always more into the lyricist, as opposed to the imagist, though Snyder bridges the two.)
I know it. I read a book that chronicled the Zen appreciation and development of both Snyder and Kerouac. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I cannot recall the title off the top of my head.
Am a bit shot tonight, so forgive my egoistic reminiscing.
After all, as Hafiz said, the poets are the “lifeboats.”
EDIT: Have you read Kerouac's On the Road? "Japhy Ryder" in that book is Gary Snyder.
11 Jul 07
Originally posted by vistesdJesus is like a lifeboat. He can keep you from drowning.
Have you read his account of a sesshin at Shokoko-ji? I have a reference if you want. (Seriously, I think I have just about everything between bindings by Snyder up to The Practice of the Wild. Also, a good bit of Merwin, who is/was also into Zen—and who is my odds-up for poet between the two: I am always more into the lyricist, as opposed to the i ...[text shortened]... ave you read Kerouac's On the Road? "Japhy Ryder" in that book is Gary Snyder.