tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post3721645705024097487..comments2024-03-09T08:58:57.961-05:00Comments on Everything is Interesting: Trivial mattersJulie H. Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-77043958914679901042011-10-24T21:33:53.433-04:002011-10-24T21:33:53.433-04:00Eh, most of the teachers probably can't tell i...Eh, most of the teachers probably can't tell if something is analyzed well, either, imho.Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-6268950929294878832011-10-24T21:30:34.508-04:002011-10-24T21:30:34.508-04:00When I was in school and turned in any kind of wri...When I was in school and turned in any kind of writing assignment, I always felt like the teacher/professor was going to call me out for how poorly I analyzed the information that we were supposed to go over. <br /><br />I still haven't figured out how to do this well.Jtownshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16508069384740686419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-40997467133531063302010-10-22T19:07:41.310-04:002010-10-22T19:07:41.310-04:00Oh - as to "exacting standards" - I basi...Oh - as to "exacting standards" - I basically always feel "I do not know" or "not deep enough." Some of this is just inarticulateness, coming, I realize, from years of practicing alone and without a teacher. There's a disconnect between my intuitive understanding and my ability to communicate what I know I know. Very frustrating!<br /><br />I did mean to write "what I know I know." :-)Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-50197262248771186632010-10-22T19:01:24.322-04:002010-10-22T19:01:24.322-04:00Very interesting, Jaime! I didn't think you me...Very interesting, Jaime! I didn't think you meant "wrong" in the moral sense. I, too, feel that talking about my koan work is too personal to write about. Obviously, I enjoy processing out loud, but there are lines that I draw - that's one of them.<br /><br />I should hope where you are now is not where you'll be in the future. Do you suppose there's a time when you'll have such certainty that you can look into the future and imagine that you won't change how your understand in some way? I should hope not. <br /><br />I relate to much of what you wrote. Thanks for sharing it (and I do not mean that snarkily!) Huh - "snarkily" is not a word.Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-80237490268562910152010-10-22T15:45:55.812-04:002010-10-22T15:45:55.812-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.jmcleod76https://www.blogger.com/profile/17756115118582961551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-7147298156335854142010-10-22T15:45:33.290-04:002010-10-22T15:45:33.290-04:00I mean blogging about it. I don't think it'...I mean blogging about it. I don't think it's "wrong" in a moral sense, or anything like that. Other folks can blog away all they want and I don't mind. I'll probably even read it. It just feels wrong for me because I'm a pretty private person, and I don't like letting other people in on my process of figuring things out. It feels too personal. I make some exceptions to that rule - I've processed "out loud" in emails to you probably dozens of times - but I like to have a sense of my audience first. That probably makes me sound disingenuous, and maybe I am. It's the Libra in me. I tend to look for common ground and do better in dialogue when I'm responding, rather than pontificating. Also, as far as Buddhism goes, I'm still sorting it out for myself, and I feel pretty certain that where I am now, in terms of understanding, is not where I'll be a week or a year or five years from now. I think that's why daisan happens in private. So much of koan work, for instance, is so very individual. We all have our different "stuck places." <br /><br />I'm interested to hear more about you "exacting" standards for yourself in daisan. I feel that I can become very self-satisfied, and it appears all the worse because I never ask questions. It's not because I'm too proud, or think I have all of the answers. It's just that so few of my questions can be articulated verbally, and besides, I have a deep trust that the answers will either become apparent or they don't matter. I don't feel a real burning need for answers. Questions are good enough. <br /><br />As for "conventional reality," I guess I just mean the collective reality we agree upon and create together. The one in which five pieces of green paper will get you a sandwich, electrical pulses filtered through a red piece of glass cause us to hit the brakes in our cars, and the seemingly random symbols D-O-G, when placed together in that order, refer a domesticated furry animal descended distantly from wolves.jmcleod76https://www.blogger.com/profile/17756115118582961551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-51458972741587414562010-10-22T09:07:14.280-04:002010-10-22T09:07:14.280-04:00Excuse the "as to the what you describe"...Excuse the "as to the what you describe" above. Bleary morning - typos go by the wayside. . .Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-56134213458694326092010-10-22T09:05:30.382-04:002010-10-22T09:05:30.382-04:00Thanks for your comment, Jaime. I keep telling mys...Thanks for your comment, Jaime. I keep telling myself "you have to say something" (thanks, Katagiri-roshi!).<br /><br />You wrote "it feels wrong." Do you mean that blogging about it feels wrong, or that "It's never quite the truth"?<br /><br />I have no aim to be a "Buddhist blogger", but there's some things I feel like putting out there. When it comes to Buddhism, I apply the same standards, if you will, as I do for daisan, and they are rigorous. Everything misses the mark. <br /><br />Heh - maybe I should rename this blog "Everything misses the mark."<br /><br />As to the what you describe about the drawers of notecards and their reorganizing sounds more than a bit OCD-like. I gave up that practice years ago, but I suspect my brain has taken over the task. Some of the drawers have ceased opening, and others are never shut, overflowing.<br /><br />Conventional reality - what is that?Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-2960373565329067862010-10-22T08:51:47.017-04:002010-10-22T08:51:47.017-04:00I write for a living, but I have trouble writing a...I write for a living, but I have trouble writing about anything "important," too. I don't trust my thoughts. It's one thing to blurt something out in Heart Sutra class - I'm just thinking out loud, and happy to be contradicted, if need be. To put something down in writing though, feels like a sacrilege. There it is, ossified in black and white for all to see, divorced from who I actually am or what I actually think now. I used to read, and interact in the comments section with, hundreds of Buddhist bloggers. They all asked me "why don't you blog?" I can't write about Buddhism. It feels wrong. Maybe that's even part of why I'm a Buddhist. Yes, "you have to say something," but we do so with the constant realization that it's never quite the truth. <br /><br />Have you ever read the book "Lila" by Robert Pirsig ("Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" guy)? I don't think it's a great book (apologies to anyone who disagrees). I've tried to read it three times now, and never gotten much past the first few chapters. But the protagonist - a thinly veiled rendering of Pirsig, himself - does much what you did with the Geronimo notes. He's trying to put together a philosophy of "quality," so he keeps drawers and drawers of little notecards, organizing them and reorganizing them over and over again while he wrestles with the question. I'm not sure whether that ever worked out for him, since, as I mentioned, I've never finished the book.<br /><br />I suspect some minds just see too much to be able to comply with the half-assed way most mental categorization and distillation gets done. In many ways, this is a gift, but it does make it difficult, sometimes, to navigate conventional reality.jmcleod76https://www.blogger.com/profile/17756115118582961551noreply@blogger.com