^ Reminds me also of a very recent David Berman bit:Purple Mountains wrote:You got storyline fever, storyline fluIt's filtering how everything looks to youDon't you reckon it's affecting your attitude?Storyline fever got its hooks in youStoryline fever got its hooks in you

Thanks, Tim. This has comforted me and given me things to think/work on, which is already helping. tmidgett wrote:Our perception is that there's some particular path we're on. Or that our lives are guided in some way. That's our experience, and we try to talk ourselves into that, certainly, many of us. But I think reality is far more chaotic and unmanaged than we experience it as being.Reminds me of a great Bill Callahan bit:Is life a ride to ride, or a story to shape and confide?Or chaos, neatly denied?

NewDarkAge wrote:Thanks, Tim. This has comforted me and given me things to think/work on, which is already helping.Oh, great.Reminds me of a great Bill Callahan bit:Is life a ride to ride, or a story to shape and confide?Or chaos, neatly denied?Yeah, it's a ride, and it's chaos.We experience life as a story. A path. Because we have two eyes, two ears, two hands. A nose and mouth. All of which have limited reach. But our ability to shape "our path" is laughable, and how we suffer, trying to do so. Suffering is 100% tied to attachment. I find I appreciate that more as time passes. And the more I appreciate it, the less acutely I experience suffering. Of course suffering gets old, and of course it's great when it passes. But living with it is OK too. As we must, as long as we cling to ideas about how things should be. If we can give up those ideas, not just intellectually but emotionally, deep down, then we can get past suffering. But that's a tall order, and there's no need to be disappointed that we still suffer. It's a defining characteristic of being human for most of us.

IANTMOAJ but I'll chip in to say The Buddhist Teaching of Totality by Garma C.C Chang and Thomas Cleary's translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra are particularly worth reading if you're coming from Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty like I was.

IANTM, but I did pick up the Aitken book on Tim's recommendation years ago, and found it tremendously helpful. I will also flip through the FM Andrew B. Cohen Deep Dharma website from time to time.

Angus Jung wrote:IANTM, but Sid Gautama had this all figured out a long time back. Check it out. "Google it."Yeah man, some of the things Tim said brought to mind Buddhism. I ve never undertaken a proper study (I think always put off by awful ˜Western Buddhism represented in my environment) but maybe now is the time. You got any particular recommended reading?

tmidgett wrote:New Dark Age wrote:You got any particular recommended reading?That said...Taking the Path of Zen by Robert AitkenNothing Special by Charlotte Joko BeckZen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu SuzukiAll stripped-down and cleanly written.besttim

Angus Jung wrote:IANTM, but Sid Gautama had this all figured out a long time back. Check it out. "Google it."hahaha!dingof course. "go read a book" seemed less useful New Dark Age wrote:You got any particular recommended reading?That said...Taking the Path of Zen by Robert AitkenNothing Special by Charlotte Joko BeckZen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu SuzukiAll stripped-down and cleanly written.besttim