Utterly Profound Writings

It could be a reference to paradox. The less attached you are to anything, the more you find yourself sharing it or giving it away or letting go of it or not stressing over the loss of it. If you experience life and what comes with it as something that doesn't belong to you, you suffer less (or to a lesser degree) than if you experienced everything with a sense of entitlement.

Buddhism tends to look at the broader meaning of words. I don't have answers for you, just what I take it to mean for me.

 

my understanding of non-attachment in Buddhism is twofold--non attachment to things and non attachment to ego, the latter of which can be a much more confounding and elusive (and also illusive) concept
but I studied Buddhism most seriously when I was 18 so it's been a while since I thought of things in exactly those terms
(regardless, commie pinko stuff for sure Sarita)
now I am more intrigued by the sound of one hand clapping

 

Good reminder to accept our human limitations.

 

One hand clapping has a different meaning for me since I flirted with total deafness.

 

i can do all things through christ. many christians repeat this verse and take it to mean that anything is possible for them. i take it to mean that if i am in the will of god i can do those things that are good; those things that are pure; those things that are kind; those things that are holy; those things that have eternal consequences.

 

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche

 

I like that one, Amberini. When confronted with the abyss, that does affect one's outlook.

 

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
E. B. White

 

;D


Be obscure clearly.
E. B. White

 

E B's day planning sounds like he doesn't know whether to s--t or wind his watch, which is profound in an obscure sort of way.

 

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."

~Socrates

 

"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge."

~Socrates

 

so true

 

bravo!

 

Thanks Perses. And I will add the natural corrolary:

"One can never know the extent to which one does not know."

Anonimous

 

good one as well

i always say - the higher the education I received the less I realized I knew...however in my junior year of college I realized that a little bit of knowledge is most dangerous - knowing more than the average of a subject but less than needed - made me a very dangerous person... - thank the good LOrd I didn't hurt anyone too badly with my brilliance - haha

 

.

 

You've said this on more than one occasion but I don't understand what you mean by it.
I've never associated knowledge with being dangerous (unless you build a bomb and hurt people).
Why would one stop at addition and subtraction when you can learn more and explore the wonders of physics or chemistry with the help of advanced math? Think of all the beautiful things in the universe you could get to know.

Or reading. Why stop at basic literacy and limit yourself to early readers when you could learn more and enjoy the wit and humor of Shakespeare?

Are you saying your personality is such that when you learn something it turns you into a person you wish you were not?
That's not knowledge or learning or education then....it sounds like it has something to do with you personally.

I've always wanted to ask you what you mean when you say this. Can you explain it further? I've read how you word your experiences in books. It takes education to do that.....yet you seem to look down upon it. I don't understand.

You seem to like the sayings of Socrates. Here is one that a friend of mine has on his desk....What a person has knowledge of, they can give an account of (explanation or definition in words).

 

Sometimes a little knowledge can make one believe they know more than they do. In which case, one might venture to tackle more than he or she is qualified to take on. That can make him or her dangerous.

 

OK. Makes sense. All the more of an incentive to take it to another level. The only danger I see in 'a little knowledge' is limiting oneself from exploring potential....like doing a little bit of painting or a little bit of singing or a little bit of writing when you could open the cages and soar.