"Just
try this some time. Take into your mind an image––somebody that you
care for, some image that you would care to contemplate––and try to hold
this image still in your mind. You will find that you are immediately
thinking of other images, associated with the first; for the mind
continues spontaneously to move. Yoga is the intentional stopping of
this spontaneous activity of the 'mind-stuff.' It is an intentional
bringing to rest of this continuous action.
"But why should one wish to do this?
"A
favorite simile used in Indian discussions of this subject is that of
the surface of a pond with its waves in action––a wind blowing over the
pond and the waves moving. If you look at the surface of the pond moving
in this way you will see the many reflections––many broken forms;
nothing will be perfect, nothing complete; you will have only broken
images before you. But if the wind dies down and the waters become
perfectly still and clear, suddenly the whole perspective shifts and you
are not seeing a lot of broken images, reflecting things round about.
You are looking down through the clear water to the lovely sandy bottom,
and perhaps you will see fish in the water. The whole perspective
changes and you behold, not a multitude of broken images, but a single,
still, unmoving image.
"This
is the idea of yoga. The notion is that what we see when we look
around, like this, are the broken images of a perfect form. And what is
the form? It is the form of a divine reality, which appears to us only
in broken images when our mind-stuff is in action. Or, to state the case
another way: we are all, as we sit here and stand here, the broken
images, the broken reflections, of a single divine perfection; but all
that we ever see when we look around with our mind-stuff in its usual
state of spontaneous activity, is the broken rainbow-reflection of this
perfect image of divine light."
-- Joseph Campbell, Baksheesh and Brahman
(courtesy of the Joseph Campbell Foundation)
-------------- THEOLOGY --------------
Theology: the study of God and of God's relation to the world. Does this sound familiar?
-------------- QUICK FIXES --------------
Applying Quick Fixes only Delays the Work Necessary to Resolve Long
Standing Issues. Fix Things so the next Generation Doesn't have to Clean
Up Your Messes.
(or any other messes created by the quick fixes of previous generations.)
-------------- FORTITUDE --------------
"The
person with fortitude is one who perseveres in doing
what his
conscience tells him he ought to.
He does not measure
the value of a
task exclusively
by the benefit he derives from it,
but rather by the
service he renders to others."
- Saint Josemaria Escriva
-------------- HUMOR --------------
-------------- ACTION-LESS --------------
An Inoperative Speculation is A Pregnant Pause Whose Significance Invariably Diminishes with Time.
-------------- ESOTERIC BRIDGE --------------
FYI - Just in case you didn't know...
The Building Better Builders Series of Uncommon Masonic Education Books and Videos can be found here: http://www.coach.net/BuildingBuilders.htm
I need to add to the picture "A Brother Asks!" and "The Craft Perfected!"
-------------- THE MORE YOU KNOW --------------
Under the Heading: THE MORE YOU KNOW
Ancient Anglo-Saxons noticed that mistletoe often grows where birds leave droppings, which is how mistletoe got its name: In Anglo-Saxon, “mistel” means “dung” and “tan” means “twig,” hence, “dung-on-a-twig” or more specifically "dung twig".
You're welcome.
-------------- UNCRACK? --------------
I: Is initiation permanent?* R: Can one undo an egg once cracked?
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