Sunday, December 11, 2016

A Minute Meditation



Ten Thousand Flowers in Spring, The Moon in Autumn

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If  your mind  isn't clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

 -- Wu-men --
Chinese  1183-1260
from Art and Nature


All seasons have their own beauty and attractions, in addition to or perhaps separate from the moods or psychological states attributed to them.  


10 comments:

  1. And what are necessary things? Food, water, and shelter? Each must be sought after and obtained: work is involved. Therefore, work is a necessary thing. And what about contemplation of flowers, the moon, breezes, and the snow? Sometimes survival (work) does not permit contemplation. I am reminded of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Perhaps I am perhaps being unfair to the spirit of your posting. Today, however, I am bogged down with other contemplations: truth and God rather than flowers, snow, the moon, and breezes (i.e., see my posting this morning, a poem from Emily Dickinson). Different musings and strokes for different folks.

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    1. R.T.,

      As you say, different strokes. I was reminded of Lao Tzu (think it was he) who said those who were not content with what they have will never be content, or words to that effect.

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  2. "Living" means different things to different people, i suppose... in the zen sense, it's not separable from the flowers, the moon, or the breeze; in this floating world, the individual and his surround waft along the corridors of time like a dry leaf in the whirlwind... or some such...

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    1. Mudpuddle,

      Is the universe alive?

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    2. what's your definition of "alive"?

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    3. Mudpuddle,

      chuckle. . .

      Any dictionary definition will do.

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    4. words, imo, are approximations for reality... but we use them as if they WERE the reality; leading, also imo, to all kinds of misunderstanding and misapprehensions... what's real, as far as we can tell, is what we smell, see, hear, feel, etc. and those sensations are accurate only in our limited human purview; for instance, we can't see atoms or other quanta; we can't hear radio waves; et alia, but that doesn't mean those things don't exist...

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    5. Mudpuddle,

      Agreed. And . . .? I don't know where you are going with this.

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    6. me neither; sometimes my brain has a mind of it's own... sorry, i think sometimes i spend too much time in neverneverland... hard to believe i used to be an auto mechanic(but not a very good one...)

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    7. Mudpuddle,

      I have the same problem. Now that I'm retired, I have more free time so I just go along for the ride and see where all this wandering takes me.

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