Waiting

It is ignorance it self, not to share knowledge

Those who closely guard their knowledge
seldom have anything of use. if they had, they would know to share only increases knowledge

Or...
"There is no happiness in Samsara". ":O}
Samsara is the realm of intelligent beings in Buddistic thought.

I paraphrase Marcus Areilous: (SP?)

If one sets aside all personal preference and bias;
turning steadfastly away from the common pleasures
and focuses ones mind upon the proper performance of duty
So that at any time of day or night one stands ready to answer duties call to it's
performance.
Then no man can put shame upon you. Nor can any in this way surpass you.

For there is no higher station in life than this
"To see our duty done until our end.
For in duty done we come to completion and meet our natural end.

Kinda unfair of me to pounce on what is said in jest.
What can I say? You triggered my fake Guru response! LOL

Hows the family doing K.?

Just so I spelled it right!! LOL

NINE YEARS OLD!!
I was still picturing him crawling across the floor to reach daddy.

Oh Dude your going to get old so fast!! LOL

Tomorrow they both will want keys to your car!
I always asked when there was no one home to say no.
Worst thing, for you that is, I was never caught! Just something you can think about while boarding your next jet to your river of money so you can bring home a bucket or two to live on.

Aristotle is a complete waste of time. Sure he outlined the sciences . But he was pissed at Alexander for not enslaving the world.

"Most men are born slaves."
Aristotle

By which he meant anyone not Greek or Macedonian,

Plato on the other hand advanced Socratic method.
All we know of Socrates we know from Plato.

"All of Western philosophy is but a footnote to Plato."

Socrates was REALLY out there!

At 65 he could walk the very rough streets of Athens
completely unafraid. No one screwed with him.

Once he was reported as having stood barefoot in the snow working out a thought problem.
After three days and nights his face was said to have brighten and he walked home.

I soon tired of most of western thought. I wanted to explore the Mystery and they just wanted to solve it. But I took this turn quite young in life. So most or western thought still lies unexplored by me.

I spent a few years studying the Zen folks, liked most of what I came across.

But by the time I was 18 I was wedded to the I Ching.

By the time I was 35 I entered into a retreat (isolation,seclusion).
And dedicated my self to learning and attempting to embody those teachings.

The first two decades were a season in hell. Everything I wanted to do, there I was standing in my way!!Were the Oracle's patience less than endless I would have been dumped and sent on my way.

One thing to grasp truth
Altogether different undertaking to embody that truth.
As I'm sure you learned from The Gentoo Handbook. ":O}

This is what I learned!
summed up not by the I Ching
But by Kierkegaard A Christian.

"Purity of heart is to will one thing."
Is to always will the good.

Any who wish to can progress and grow in wisdom
by aligning themselves with this great truth.

"Purity of heart is to will one thing."

'I'm sure you marked this passage with a turned down page in your hand book.":O}

I miss you Kaitain. No one has ever ragged on my ass quite as well as you do.":O}

If your smart enough to want to be one of us...You already are.":O }

Kierkegaard was a deeply conflicted man. He saw clearly what most try very hard not to see at all. His father was a minister and rather highly placed in the Church.

He loved these men and saw their worth. But was stricken by the corruption they had allowed to grow.

He waited many years before he published for them to pass in order not to wound those who had raised him.

Yes he might have been braver.

But when it comes to putting together a Christian universe, I believe him to be unsurpassed.

I have not Identified as Christian since I was 17. But I spent a fair amount of time many years ago with Kierkegaard, none of it wasted.

I doubt I would have ever grasped "Purity" and what it might do for one with out him.
It's rather a foundational concept for all my own explorations into what is.

My teacher once put it like this:
"God don't accept no part time lovers."

Same goes for the universe as a whole.
If your born a Cheetah then your 1000% Cheetah
without tears.":O}

While writing this I've been mulling over your question concerning my retreat.

I would and am doing everything I can to never have to do this again! LOL

Without retreating from the social world I think it would be very difficult
to really grasp how far from anything real mankind has gone.

No, that should have been how far from anything real I as a personality had grown.

I suffered for decades because I would not give up on the life I had convinced myself I wanted for the life I would come to know I needed.

But bear in mind I was armed with the I-Ching and I wasn't afraid to abuse it!
(That fear would come later once I came to understand the hearts and minds of the Holy Sages.)

For 40 years I have been told to wait. When it comes to advancing a student progress there are few things that can drive him inwards like BOREDOM.

I was bored to death ten thousand times.
I was bored with me
Bored with my situation.
Bored with everything I thought I knew

Bored with having nothing to do..just wait..

So I waited like a spoiled baby whining all the time.
Complain complain complain.

I had Zero desire to create. I lived a l;loveless life.

The Ching kept telling me that it was storing up energy within me.
To hang in there help was coming...

But it never came. For more than Thirty years I got nowhere.
Until something began of it's own volition to sink in, or rather to rise into my consciousnesses.

There was nowhere to go. So time was not needed to get there. So no need to count the minutes
No need to wait for summer. A new power had arisen within me.

ME! I came to know that nothing within myself was as powerful as I!

If I do not rule chaos ensues. If I rule well all beings within my realm can be made to prosper.

I believed from the beginning that I was pursuing my duty in retreating.

That retreat was also a recognition that I no longer shared in common the common values.

"He does not serve kings and princes,
but set himself higher goals.

He works not for one time or one place
but for all times and all places

by setting incomparable values for the future."

By emulating the sages of the past I have made of myself a man for the future.
A man of the Now.

So what took so long. Two things:
1.Fear
2. Obscurations

No one likes to think of them selves as being at the end of the line. Especially if the line has formed in front of spiritual advancement.
All I would let myself see is that I was doing nothing, I would not allow me to see that nothing was just the thing I needed to stop my world. To silence my opinions and let the air settle.

Obsucuratios are those things you just cannot see even when every one around you does.
Everyone has them even if they are obscured from seeing they have them.":O}

So would I do it again? I would hate to have to on one level but on another I see I'll never have to.
The joy now is part of the pain then. Now I wait in peace as long as I can do so I will never go back to where I still am.":O}

Waiting is.
Waiting is becoming
Waiting is who you are
when waiting has done it's work.

Waiting brings you into the now.

So yes I would not welcome it but I would wait until I did.
I would do it a thousand times over
for this was mine to do. ":O}

So now I don't speak any English just American without tears.":O}