RE: re: The Map

[Guest guest]

Enjoyed your reflections. Thanks for playing Carol. ) -

re: The Map

Dear ,

You wrote:

>> " If you experience it, it's the truth. "

OK, then applying logic, the truth is what you experience. When can I have

an experience? Now; I have never experienced something in the future or

past, therefore when I experience something in the present, that's the

truth.<<

Except for one thing: the concept of " now " is already a " then. "

>> " The same thing believed is a lie. "

If I take an experience of truth, which occurs in the present moment, and

reduce it to a belief, which occurs as a concept in my mind, I have created

a lie. All concepts are false. . . because they only represent the truth,

they do not contain it. The map is not the territory.<<

Yeah, we can only wrap our thinking brains around a relative truth, not the

Truth (I think!). puts it this way: " Everything I say is a lie. " It

took me awhile to hear that because I cling so hard to the desire to " know. "

And the paradox is, the teacher says blablabla...she's the finger pointing

the

way, but not the way...and eventually you come to see that there is no

finger

and no way. That leaves you, and is there a you? Oy.

>> " In life, understanding is the booby prize. "

I get the image of a carnival barker. " OK son, thanks for playing. Just so

you don't feel so bad about loosing, (wasting your money (attention)) here's

a worthless piece of crap for you to take with you. " You could have had and

experience of the truth (presence) and instead you traded it for

understanding (a body of concepts). Thanks for playing. " <<

LOL! So we blew it? It's all a shell game? We could have been present?

We're *not* present? Is it true?

Seems to me that presence could be the reward for noticing that we've won

the

booby prize no? (And that's just a concept too. Another thing says

is, " It can't be told. " )

>>And here I sit, a man who has sought to validate and liberate his

existence

through understanding, offering concepts, pointing to presence, hoping that

you find your way there and then come back for me and show me the way.<<

H-O-P-E-L-E-S-S in one sense, of course, since no one can show you the way.

And I so identify with you, . I'm a real (malfunctioning) computer

sometimes, seeking to process everything rather than to be with it. Which

is fine,

that's why The Work appeals to me so much, it's a brainiac's dream...and

perhaps one day the computer just ups and dies and that's presence.

Until that time...4 questions and a turnaround!

Love, Carol