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My Practice allowed me to see that my "Christian" box is a part of a "bigger" box

Last post 06-27-2006, 2:24 PM by towers1209. 2 replies.
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  •  06-23-2006, 11:37 PM 421

    My Practice allowed me to see that my "Christian" box is a part of a "bigger" box

    My practice is continually evolving. I am not sure if my practice is "fully integral" yet.  (That's why I am here.)

    Currently, I do regular daily sitting-down meditation in the morning (and in the evening, if possible) and do my twice-daily 20-minute physical exercise sessions.

    More than a year ago, I had been initiated in a Tao Cultivation practice and my spiritual education and practice had helped me in appreciating, and, in fact, understanding  ( Smile [:)]strange! Surprise [:O]) Ken Wilbur's "Integral Philosophy/ Psychologyy/ Spirituality". 

    I was raised in a Christian environment. But, when I started my quest (in 2024/2002) for expanded spiritual search, I had to abandon my Christian fellowship and became agnostic for a while. Then I got interested in OOBE (Robert Monroe), Tai Chi, Buddhism, Theosophy, and currently Tao Cultivation. 

    In this spiritual quest, I went through the following phase: "The mountain is mountain--> The mountain is not a mountain --> The mountain is a mountain". 

    I meant that, at this stage of my spiritual quest (which, by the way, is not necessarily done and over with...) I have come to appreciate the faith/spritual practice (Christianity) that I grew up with; to the point that I started reading the Bible again.   However, this time, the kind of inspiration that I am getting is quite different in flavor than what I used to have.  This time, I have my eyes open wider.  

    I find that I do not have to throw my
    Christian box away.  I may have to rearrange some of the items in it and look at them with a different set of eyes.  I now see that my Christian box is a part of a bigger box.
    towers1209
    杜 偉 德
    -------------------
    "Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar..."
    [Traveller, there is no path, you create the path as you move forward...]
    Antonio Machado (1875-1939)
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  •  06-25-2006, 5:27 PM 461 in reply to 421

    Re: My Practice allowed me to see that my "Christian" box is a part of a "bigger" box

    Hello my friend - good to read your post here at I-I....

    If your practice is "continually evolving" then your definitely on the inside of the integral track....

    I spent a significant part of my life involved with a number of forms of Christianity - it seems to me the boxes only get "bigger and bigger" until all the boundries that make up the boxes disolve, and then we may see that we were always the architects of the boxes themselves....

    Best Regards,

    Justin

     

    P.S. Can you tell me more about Antonio Machado....
     


    The First And Foremost Wonder in This World Is the Thought, "I Am Different From God!" There Is No Greater Wonder Than This.

    Ramana Marharshi
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  •  06-27-2006, 2:24 PM 559 in reply to 461

    Antonio Machado

    Justin:
    Hello my friend - good to read your post here at I-I....
    ...
    P.S. Can you tell me more about Antonio Machado....

    Hi, Justin,

    Antonio Machado is a recent "discovery" of mine --- less than a month. He is a Castillan poet of the last century. The line that I quoted in my signature file is an answer to a quest that I was in during the last few weeks before I "discovered" him.

    It is from a poem called Proverbios y Cantares (Proverbs and Songs) which is part of a published collection of poems called Campos de Castilla (Fields of Castilla). (See Border of a Dream : Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, an amazon.com link.  I like this translation better than any others that are available.  There are more collected poems for the buck in this book.  Besides, it is bi-lingual.  It helps me in my study of Spanish.)

    During this personal quest that I was in a few weeks ago, something totally unrelated to the news item that was on TV caught my eye.  I was not paying much attention to the news item but when I glanced up to the TV screen, I saw the phrase "You make the road as you walk" below the name of someone who was being interviewed.  I thought it was a song title.  I was intrigued and went on line to find out more about "this song".

    I was sorting through the haystack of my Yahoo! search result pages when I came across an article written by a certain Rodolfo Carrasco.  All his life, he was in search of "someone to come and give me a vision" and "tell me what to do" when one day he came across Machado's poem while he was high on a mountain in Puebla, Mexico.  The poem's line that snapped him out of his lethargy ("My soul was on hold." as he put it.) is the following:

    "Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar..."  
    ["Sojourner there is no road/You make the road as you walk."]

    (http://www.urbanonramps.com/rc/parenting.html). (NOTE: Rodolfo Carrasco's article mis-stated the poem's origin as Mexican).

    I was on a similar search for guidance. Reading his story allowed me to comprehend the weight of the words of the poem.  It really hit the mark of my quest. The uncertainty and hesitation simply vanished. Whatever heaviness there was on my shoulders, it lifted up on that moment of enlightenment.

    The meaning of the poem that was conveyed to my consciousness also reminded of something that I had read not too long ago. I saw in it what the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching was telling me (as I understood it to be from the original Chinese, and, of course, with the help other translations that I have close by):

    道可道,非恆道。
    [The Dao that can be perceived, is not the eternal Dao]

    故, 常: 無欲 以觀其妙; 常, 有欲 以觀其徼。
    (NOTE: This line's translation is my own. Others may have translated this line differently depending on where they put the commas and which characters were grouped together.)
    [Therefore, the eternal (Dao):
    ...(when one is) void of deep-seated desires, is revealed in its essence or true nature;
    ...(when one is) filled with attachments, is perceived as mere empty form.]

    老子 道德經
    - Lao Zi's -Dao De Jing -
    (This Tao Te Ching quote is actually a continuation of the Machado quote in my complete signature file; however, the signature space allocation in this forum is not enough to accomodate the text.Sad [:(] Calling the attention of the system admin).


    I was so "attached" to the "deep-seated desire" on getting it right that I did not see the Way. 

    I will be holding on to the Machado line (... you make the road as you walk...) and the Tao Te Ching translation for quite sometime as I move forward and pave the road before me. 


    towers1209
    杜 偉 德
    -------------------
    "Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar..."
    [Traveller, there is no path, you create the path as you move forward...]
    Antonio Machado (1875-1939)
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    • Report abuse
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