Quotes

[Denis]

"The beginning of Wisdom is the calling of things by their real names."
Chinese proverb

Just 13 words, and the meaning is so powerful. Can I add that it may also mean the beginning of Courage?

Thank you, NewOrleans.

I do not think that Wisdom should be equated with Courage. I think this cool quote from Jackie Chan Adventures explains my POV pretty well:

Jackie: Jade...
Jade: Come on! Just admit! Wasn't I brave?
Jackie: Yes. But you also need wisdom. To know when challenges are too big. Courage without wisdom is foolishness. Understand?

 

[ROEL]

"The beginning of Wisdom is the calling of things by their real names."
Chinese proverb

Just 13 words, and the meaning is so powerful. Can I add that it may also mean the beginning of Courage?

Thank you, NewOrleans.

I do not think that Wisdom should be equated with Courage.

"Also" means "and" here. So what I am saying, Denis, is that calling things by their real names can additionally mean the beginning of courage. Telling it like it is (the calling of things by their real names) will need courage very often. I guess that Gurdjieff was on the money when he said we use the same words but they do not have the same meaning for everyone.

 

[Denis]

"The beginning of Wisdom is the calling of things by their real names."
Chinese proverb

Just 13 words, and the meaning is so powerful. Can I add that it may also mean the beginning of Courage?

Thank you, NewOrleans.

I do not think that Wisdom should be equated with Courage.

"Also" means "and" here. So what I am saying, Denis, is that calling things by their real names can additionally mean the beginning of courage. Telling it like it is (the calling of things by their real names) will need courage very often. I guess that Gurdjieff was on the money when he said we use the same words but they do not have the same meaning for everyone.

Hey ROEL,

it seems I misunderstood you, I thought you were equating wisdom with courage there.
Telling it like it is could be courage, but with wisdom you know when, where, how & to whom "tell it as it is". This is what I wanted to emphasize in my reply to you. As I had already posted before: "Courage without wisdom is foolishness."

I hope it's all clear now. :)

 

[bngenoh]

To awaken is difficult to do, as sapiens is submitted to a cosmic hypnotic influence which is the universal energy of creation; and if this were not enough, each individual, when he does not like the reality of life or is not satisfied with himself, dreams of himself and the world in a manner ideal for himself.

 

[Zadius Sky]

While stubbornness shelters one from reality, open-mindedness reveals all of life's truths.

 

[bngenoh]

Men can live without air a few minutes, without water for about two weeks, without food for about two months, and without a new thought for years on end.

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.

Irons rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

Our job is not to make up anybody's mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of the decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking.

Physiological response to thinking and to pain is the same; and man is not given to hurting himself.

Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.

An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.

Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.

 

[Menna]

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villan."

 

[Zadius Sky]

I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.

- Jonas Salk

 

[Zadius Sky]

To really know who you are, your core self, you need to know who you are pretending to be and who you are not, and the way to heal is the same way to grow in awareness.

- Aleta Edwards, Fear of the Abyss

 

[Buddy]

Quote of the Day

[quote author=SOTT front page]
When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up.

- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoch
[/quote]

Whoa. I really like that!

 

[Denis]

"All those satellites and computers, just to perfect the science of talking to oneself!" - Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: Legend

 

[Voyageur]

Quote of the Day

[quote author=SOTT front page]
When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up.

- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoch

Whoa. I really like that!
[/quote]

Ditto; noticed this on SotT when it was put up..

Trungpa Rinpoch is featured here (was sent this link):

_http://suniemianne.blogspot.ca/2011/07/kalachakra-2011-this-is-not-review.html

also includes a link to a film about him (have not seen it) called 'Crazy Wisdom'. This Rinpoch was not the traditional sort. Alcohol, drugs, sex were much apart of his final days to 1987. As many 'Guru's' seem to do, he maintained sexual student relations outside his marriage.

Being on the Kalachakra path, it say's here (same link):

The kalachakra path in Tibetan Buddhism is one in which the practitioner needs steady teachers because you play with fire. You don't renounce the world in its entirety, you move bravely into it because there is no time to waste. You can be in it but not completely of it as some esoteric traditions say. This requires a mental discipline different from what we normally conceive of as mental discipline. Kalachakra is a part of the yogic tradition -- which means yoking yourself to life in order to learn from it. Mind in Tibetan Buddhism is like a field-- it is I would venture to guess literally the field of our attention. It is where we give and receive impressions and it our original state in a way and our gateway to the world and one another. So understanding that and maintaining clarity in the field ensures receptivity to the world as it is. Not as we might wish it to be.

 

[Tristan]

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it."
-Bruce Lee

 

[Buddy]

Quote of the Day

[quote author=SOTT front page]
When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up.

- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoch

Whoa. I really like that!

Ditto; noticed this on SotT when it was put up..

Trungpa Rinpoch is featured here (was sent this link):

_http://suniemianne.blogspot.ca/2011/07/kalachakra-2011-this-is-not-review.html

also includes a link to a film about him (have not seen it) called 'Crazy Wisdom'. This Rinpoch was not the traditional sort. Alcohol, drugs, sex were much apart of his final days to 1987. As many 'Guru's' seem to do, he maintained sexual student relations outside his marriage.

Being on the Kalachakra path, it say's here (same link):

The kalachakra path in Tibetan Buddhism is one in which the practitioner needs steady teachers because you play with fire. You don't renounce the world in its entirety, you move bravely into it because there is no time to waste. You can be in it but not completely of it as some esoteric traditions say. This requires a mental discipline different from what we normally conceive of as mental discipline. Kalachakra is a part of the yogic tradition -- which means yoking yourself to life in order to learn from it. Mind in Tibetan Buddhism is like a field-- it is I would venture to guess literally the field of our attention. It is where we give and receive impressions and it our original state in a way and our gateway to the world and one another. So understanding that and maintaining clarity in the field ensures receptivity to the world as it is. Not as we might wish it to be.

[/quote]

Wow, that's all new to me. Thanks!

This part:

Mind in Tibetan Buddhism is like a field-- it is I would venture to guess literally the field of our attention. It is where we give and receive impressions and it our original state in a way and our gateway to the world and one another. So understanding that and maintaining clarity in the field ensures receptivity to the world as it is. Not as we might wish it to be.

...is especially interesting considering that "field of our attention" is what I think of, not as my mind, but as Nature's mind that people share on some level (if that makes any sense). Related to this, it has always seemed somehow an important part of survivability in some terms, that no matter what happens, no matter how much pain, anguish or whatever, I must not close my eyes (become unconscious, as it were, since disorientation may be equal to forgetfulness).

 

[snaketracer]

"In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way."