Generic Big Idea conversation

[Uh, I'm kinda out of the thread, but my comment got too long to include as a comment. interested parties can link to the original thread here.]


Hi, Griffindeva! I haven't been around much lately, so we haven't talked much, but any friend of Wilford's... actually, anybody who's diggin' the Avanoo experience I'm down to count as a friend.

So, friend, I think you're absolutely right that the atmosphere here inspires people to share right out of the essence of themselves. I think Wilford's point is less about how different aspects of our expression "separate out" than it is about using language in a way that is considerate of all those who might like to share in what we have goin' here.

For example, I don't much enjoy the use of the word "spiritual" when it's used to describe some reality or some aspect of reality that is anything other than what we all experience from day to day. It is abundantly clear to me that what I am, what I express and what I experience are all, in fact, a single, continuous reality. And just like matter can be described in terms of energy--and it is sometimes very useful to do so--the worldly can be described in terms of the spiritual. Conversely, it is sometimes quite useful to describe what we know to be energetic processes as material entities or events.

So what determines the appropriateness of one perspective or another? Well, if I recall correctly, when asked where one might find the Tao, Laotze (if such a dude there was), pointed out that the Tao is "in the piss and the dung." The fact that such a question was even asked suggests pretty strongly that some have a hard time identifying, let alone identifying with, the Tao. On the other hand, everyone from the Dalai Lama to your average three-year old can identify and identify with pee and poop.

Knowing the Tao, if one speaks of pee and poop, it is certain that she is speaking also of the Tao, because to know the Tao is to know that there is nothing else. But how can one speak of the Tao to one who doesn't know the Tao? How is it that we find ourselves speaking of "the Tao" at all when we know the truth of It is beyond naming? Blah, blah, blah.

I think the long and the short of it is that we do what we must, which might sound like resignation, and maybe it is. But it's also a contemplation on the magnificently paradoxical reality that I am, that you are, that humanity and the universe it enfolds and unfolds in are. That said, There are some who don't necessarily want to contemplate all that right now who would, nevertheless, have much of interest and value to add to our little "Global Hometown." Something as simple as a word can be the trigger to begin a very involved contemplative experience. It's pretty much what words are for.

The "spiritual" is a pretty big schtick. We do well to watch how we swing it.

What if the whole world stopped doing everything for 1 day with the intention to collectively get still and listen, not with physical ears but with inner receptivity to what is calling us?