--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I love good writing. When I don't agree with you or Curtis, > (and several other good writers here whom I am too lazy to > list) I still read the entire post -- that's good writing.
I completely agree. I find that with some posters, I will read every word of every post they write, just because they've established a track record of either being good writers or consistently having something interesting to say, or both. Then there are the posts I read reluctantly, with my finger poised over the Next key at all times, for the same "track record" reason. Suffice it to say that your posts are in the former category. > To me, posting here HAS to be about creativity. It doesn't *have* to be, cf. most of Usenet. :-) > I just have too deep a certainty about my own confusions to > pose as a teacher -- though indeed, most jyotishis told me > I was destined to be one. Same here, on both fronts. Plus, I've spent too much of my life being a teacher while feeling this way to ever want to do it again. If I have anything of value to say, it'll be in my writing. You ain't gonna ever find me giving darshan any- where. :-) > I read the writings of the world class brains out there in > the real world, and I'm panting to keep up. Try reading > Thomas Aquinas about consciousness....it'll test you as > much as that Science of Being and Art of Living chapter > about "when consciousness becomes conscious." And, as much > as I could get an A+ on my Advaita final exam, I just > don't have the intellectual chops to produce something > that's bankable guru spew. Given what's become of many who do have those chops, you might consider yourself fortunate. :-) > But I do have the ability to sing of my perspectives, and > that's a valid and authoritative and legitimate expression, > cuz, who else is inside my head, eh? So that's my field of > expertise -- I'm the expert on the hilarity of Edg's lack > of ability to do anything extremely well. LOL. I can identify fully. I once got tasked with writing a book about my adventures with a particular spiritual teacher, and the result was writer's block that lasted almost a decade. What finally broke it was realizing that the only way I could do justice to the task of writing about what it's like to study with an interesting spiritual teacher is to *not* write about him, to make it a "seeker's tale," very subjective -- *my* experience along the Way. > Oh, read Ramana Maharshi or Nisargadatta. Those two guys > covered it all with such simple statements. What more could > anyone do? Don't look at me! Comparatively, I'm the kid in > the back of the class shooting spit wads and burping when > the teacher is writing on the blackboard. I was the kid in English class ignoring what the teacher said and writing my own stories. > I'm only having funzies. I don't have serious goals when > all the knowledge is really right there in the books. Or inside each of us, as close as closing our eyes and opening our minds. > Sigh. In India, they say, "Knowledge in the books stays > in the books." > > And if ever there was a place where horses were brought > to drink but refuse to do so, it's here, and so teaching > anyone or converting anyone or even just slightly > influencing anyone posting here is purdy durned nigh on > to impossible. Not to mention none of my damned business. Like you, I just throw out ideas to play with them, like you throw spaghetti against the wall to see if it's "done" yet. > The readers here are very practiced and bristling, and I > don't have the desire to get into a fist fight here, so > I'm a trollish gadfly to some extent in that I'm just > getting my ego's hunger for attention assuaged. Or just having fun. Which may be the same thing. :-) > I just haven't wanted to correct anyone's mistakes -- > not when I'd have to throw a stone from my glass > house at them. Not to mention that to "correct someone's mistake," one has to assume that one is in a state of conscious- ness from which one can tell what is a mistake. :-) > That's one of the best things about FFlife: you can be > sure that only a certain low level of bullshit can get > past the eyes here, otherwise one is crisped in short > order. I barely escaped alive from telling you folks > about paying for a soldier's meal -- it was so ladened > with my own hubris, so I'm ducking and weaving, and it > keeps me honest enough to have a modicum of integrity > when I write. Yup. But it was a good story, and told with style. > All my life I've been mostly a guarded personality that > took only known risks, but here, I've been letting myself > laugh at me for all the ridiculousness, and it's been > freeing to just be honest instead of creating a very > clever mask. Indeed. I suspect that only those who never drop their masks tend to see those who are just having fun with their writing as wearing one. > Not that I'm not wearing a mask all the time, but that > the one I wear nowadays seems to be more form fitting > to my skin. For me, it's amazing to admit I am screwy, > cuz, I gotta tell ya, when my ego sees me ratting me > out, the little creep does a jig while having a fit, > and it's just so comical. Yup. Well said. It's so much fun to tease the little sucker. :-)
