tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606508531452049469.post1503471775253065005..comments2022-11-30T07:20:36.413-08:00Comments on Rocks and Streams: 8th Day of 12th Monthmatt.kitterman@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12687253984989060722noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606508531452049469.post-4615472666235358292013-03-04T23:00:36.846-08:002013-03-04T23:00:36.846-08:00Plums! The perfect Palouse fruit: requiring little...Plums! The perfect Palouse fruit: requiring little care, hardy, generous. Once prunes were a major crop around here. You can still find pockets of abandoned orchard, home to magpies and mourning doves, plum jungles crossed by game trails, littered with an occasional pile of bottles and cans from decades ago, once garbage, now archeology. We plant trees and take out the trash and 75 years later that is what remains of our time here. What a great proposition.matt.kitterman@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12687253984989060722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-606508531452049469.post-75497357997181558482013-03-02T11:06:04.829-08:002013-03-02T11:06:04.829-08:00PZC Scribe’s Report, Saturday, March 2, 2013, Intr...PZC Scribe’s Report, Saturday, March 2, 2013, Introduction to The Record of Transmitting the Light<br /><br />We begin by discussing the introduction (paraphrasing here): consequently traditional geneaologies are not “true” – there are other ways … myth is a form of truth that has no historical basis – resonates with our discussion last week between the literalists “who insist [myth] is nonsense because it never happened” and those who have a problem with “myth is truth” – there is pragmatic use-value in myth (useful for expressing ideas). “Truth” is too loaded; let’s talk about “propositional claims” and what we do with them. The geneaology, the conferring of authority, how we rely on these texts to help guide or practice. A Dharma teacher is someone whose been there before you: fiath in them, and the “truthfulness” of their claims, legitimacy of the transmissions, of their authority, have very real consequences. We want to believe – it makes life easier. Comfort we find in authority vs. danger of authority, but someone has to take it. “If someone says he knows the answers, run.” Do we need to have faith in this practice? Or what guides one, brings one back to the cushion? Pain & Suffering. Think about the first verse of the Dhammapada, “mind precedes phenomena” (Wallis translation) – state of my mind will determine the quality of my phenomenal experience; here we have the kernel of practice. But what if you don’t know how you mind works, yet your use your mind to figure out the world. … Okay, not connecting these things, because they are two related/tangled threads, but to clarify what we are discussing: Straightforward logical approach to articulating ideas vs. myth and other forms. Are both valid/useful; just different ways of thinking through, different journeys to take. Truth is what our brains make, for better or worse, but in practice we come back to the breath, without words. Myth as skillful means. What if our “truths” are working, and we’re happy? Are we alive if we’re not in crisis? We’re potatoes in boiling water, rubbing dirt off one another. <br />Next week: Case 2.<br />Linda Russohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08941140227843883150noreply@blogger.com