Behind The Veil

Enlightenment - that magnificent escape from anguish and ignorance - never happens by accident. It results from the brave and sometimes lonely battle of one person against his own weaknesses.

Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano
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Hello Kate
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The older I get and the more I try to grasp and understand the things that are the most important to me, the more I realize that they are easily within my reach. So then why is it I don't have universal wisdom safely tucked into my back pack?

Nyanasobhano, who is an American born, Dartmouth educated, former actor, Buddhist, says it is because of my weaknesses. I ponder that and I can't identify my weakness itself, but I can see the effects of it. Principally it is the common human desire to find easy explanations for things, to try to accept things as they only appear to be, to avoid the fearful task of looking for the reality behind the masquerade. Nyanasobhano implies in his writings that if we really understood the Nature that we take for granted we could find a universe of peace and beauty hiding there. But, in fact, it isn't hiding. It is just that we have put up veils in front of it.

It was veils that hid from the Israelites the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and allowed only the high priest to enter.

It was a veil that hid the face of Moses from his followers because his skin shown from his own understanding of truth and reality. And it frightened them.

Veils hide the faces of beautiful Arab women, and it was veils that Salome cast off of herself when she danced for Herod.

It was the veil of the Temple that was torn in half when Jesus was crucified.

What's with these veils?

A veil is nothing, it has no power, no intelligence. It's just used to hide things. We all have our own veils. What we see, hear, feel, etc., the senses are our veils. The geologist is staring at a chunk of moon rock. Is it just a rock, or is it a path, a journey to knowledge and then to understanding and maybe then to wisdom, enlightenment? A man can make a silly, ugly noise vibrating his lips together. But when he does it into the mouth piece of a horn out the other end comes a beautiful tone. What is that tone? What does it mean in the overall cosmic scheme of things? Is it just a tone, or is it a journey? Is Nature explaining it's true self to us in a language we can't understand because we don't look past what we think it is?

My ignorance resides in my avoiding the brave and lonely battle with my weakness, with my failure to look beyond the veil, to dare, to question, to imagine, even to plead for the real truth of things.

DB - The Original Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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AUTUMN QUESTION

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

Autumn is moving along.
Only 5 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answers.
DB
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