{"id":806,"date":"2005-11-06T21:56:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-06T21:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/life-3-of-3-spasms-growth-tradition-beyond\/"},"modified":"2005-11-06T21:56:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-06T21:56:00","slug":"life-3-of-3-spasms-growth-tradition-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2005\/11\/life-3-of-3-spasms-growth-tradition-beyond.html","title":{"rendered":"Life: (3 of 3) spasms & growth, tradition & beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I think I\u2019m in the midst of some kind of intellectual spasms at the moment. I had been chained and confined (my energy channeled) in academia for the last 5 years, and now, my dissertation completed and taking only two graduate courses, I feel a certain intellectual openness<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Of course, that is not necessarily a good thing. I could just flounder, absorbing bits and pieces from a dozen different perspectives without understanding them as whole systems, and fade out into obscurantism.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s moments like these that the stillness and repose of the Japanese flute, Zen poems, and herbal tea hit me like a brick wall.<\/p>\n

Be still.
Sit.
Breathe.<\/p>\n

Quit ravishing new information like the mad man in the (spiritual) marketplace. Sip it, savor it, swallow it, feel <\/span>it.<\/p>\n

Be still.
Sit.
Breathe.<\/p>\n

Wild mind, monkey mind, discursive thought, speculative metaphysics. Let them go<\/span>. You cannot claw your way to the empty <\/span>center which is Truth.<\/p>\n

Be still.
Sit.
Breathe.<\/p>\n

And as it is, so let it be. Now. Forever.
Spasms subside, growth ensues.
Tradition points the way, it is up to us to look beyond the finger.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I\u2019m in the midst of some kind of intellectual spasms at the moment. I had been chained and confined (my energy channeled) in academia for the last 5 years, and now, my dissertation completed and taking only two graduate courses, I feel a certain intellectual openness. Of course, that is not necessarily a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLife: (3 of 3) spasms & growth, tradition & beyond<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I think I'm in the midst of some kind of intellectual spasms at the moment. 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