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Date Posted: 11:26:40 05/04/02 Sat
Author: mvd
Subject: An answer for Bill, if he wants one...

Of course we may laugh out loud at me for continuing to attempt conveyance of ideas that cannot be conveyed, but I think you are very near to understanding all that I am saying and are receptive to such ideas, therefore, let me continue:

You have a problem with the idea of acceptance of bad within us and the world. You also stated that by not focusing on good or bad, we alleviate these problems. This is true, yet you seem hesitant to believe it.

Alan Watts uses this great example: Picture the ocean. There are waves, some big some little, just as their are, necessarily, deep and shallow troughs. Good and evil is the same. It is all One ocean. The fact that we perceive good and evil (waves and troughs) does not affect anything. We may choose to categorize such things, but is the ocean altered more or less? The problem is that if we choose to fight evil, we must necessarily focus upon good. The result is that we focus upon making the waves of good higher, without recognizing that the troughs of evil must grow deeper in relation to them.

The real solution is to realize that there are not waves or troughs, just ocean. Only then can we say, "There are waves and troughs."

The Zen monks put it like this:

The student sees that mountains are mountains. The devoted learns that mountains are not mountains. The Enlightened sees that mountains are mountains.

How's that for nonsense? :)

The fact is, Bill, that humans are not appointed with some divine job to accept or reject anything. All is as it must be, and all that must be is.

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