Intimate conversation in a conference call is difficult. \u00c2\u00a0Perhaps by next fall I’ll have a computer that works with a microphone. \u00c2\u00a0I think that fits the format or our classes better and allows Jack to weave a tapestry that include our responses like threads of different colors. \u00c2\u00a0Today, when Jack said “no one else seems to be commenting (on the practice), so I will”, I took it as an opportunity–like the blind man sticking his white cane out all the better to see his environment–to contribute one. \u00c2\u00a0Then I felt that I had actually interrupted Jack in mid-thought and wished that I had kept quiet.<\/p>\n
But perhaps that’s an ambiguity inherent in TSK. \u00c2\u00a0Intimacy is promised but here we are mostly acting in the dark. \u00c2\u00a0I found it quite fascinating that Rinpoche refers to the “master” in one of nine phases of intimacy. \u00c2\u00a0The term seems so uncharacteristic of the overall sweep of TSK. \u00c2\u00a0 I’m not sure how to take it. \u00c2\u00a0Is it similar to the use of the term “Being” at the end of the original TSK book? \u00c2\u00a0I wonder if this gives a clue to what an alternative to the “self” might be. \u00c2\u00a0When Time, Space, and Knowledge are presented as the higher beingness which our ordinary mind blocks out, it can feel like we are still alone in the universe, short of accomplishing the daunting task of rising above our ordinary plane. \u00c2\u00a0The world’s religions offer intermediaries (such as Christ dying for our sins) that is hard to find in TSK. \u00c2\u00a0It might be a relief to find a higher Being, even if she doesn’t have a white beard. \u00c2\u00a0Perhaps we can find it in each other? \u00c2\u00a0But the telephone is such a narrow channel for the senses as they reveal our world. \u00c2\u00a0I only have a shadow of facelessness for most of you. \u00c2\u00a0Hope everyone has a good summer, as we put our best faces forward.-Michael<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Intimate conversation in a conference call is difficult. \u00c2\u00a0Perhaps by next fall I’ll have a computer that works with a microphone. \u00c2\u00a0I think that fits the format or our classes better and allows Jack to weave a tapestry that include … Continue reading