The elderly, gray-haired Lo Zu was sitting — as he often tended to do — on a large boulder in nature… his wooden meandering cane leaning against him. Some youth saw him from a distance and they curiously journeyed over to where he was sitting. Then they asked him what he was doing. Lo Zu replied… “Doing nothing… being nowhere and existing as nothingness.” One of the youth queried, “What do you mean by ‘existing as nothingness?'”
After a long, meditative pause, Lo Zu replied, “When the ego is transcended, the mind is often mysteriously beyond its contents; then there is a beautiful nothingness that is blissfully beyond ordinary experience, sensation, space, and time; that emptiness is beyond the ‘known.’ But most people are afraid of being beyond the known. They are afraid of having their cup empty. Each one desperately wants their cup to be filled (with something). Their cups are full of stale theories, secondhand ideas, flat beliefs, antiquated traditions, divisive religions, corrosive fears, greedy desires, banal suppositions, learned superstitions, limited so-called organized systems, dead images, and shallow words from so-called leaders. But it may be that their fullness is the real poverty; it may be that real richness is in transcending the psychological self (that is an illusory troublemaker). Profound love is beyond the dilation of self.”
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
You know Tom I think simply being with our bodies, letting the animal lead brings us to this place where nothing is everything –
I agree with this… I think we are just another animal, no better or worse, with minds that are complex in a different way perhaps. A part of nature. And once we completely realise that, we can be as accepting of life as any animal.
Yes, Harini, we are just another type of animal… with a lot of cognition going on (that is often unnecessary).
Yes – so much rubbish being churned around all the time!
“Rubbish” is a very good way of putting it! 😊
Sara, i don’t know what you mean by “letting the animal lead.” But i do not agree with the first sentence. What is it that is being with the body?… that seems like just another form of identification. 😉
Let me clarify – what I mean by letting the animal lead is that I feel my way rather than think my way through my life – at least that’s what I want to do … thinking keeps me stuck in my head… when I allow myself to sense and feel I am living through my body, often then thought ceases, or takes a back seat to mind. Does that help? And By the way at the Pari Center in Italy they are doing presentations on Bohm’s work and beyond. It is not expensive to participate but I am so low income couldn’t swing it – but they gave me a scholarship…. my thought is that you might enjoy these presentations… you’ve missed too but if you join you will receive a free recording of all – you might want to check this out? I know that you are interested in Bohm’s work. And The Pari Center began as a result of this kind of thinking…. here I am talking about being in the body and now suggesting more thinking! Funny!!!!
OK, Sara, the “letting the animal lead” is understood better now. Still, even here, we have to be careful and very cautious with this. This can still lead to supporting and boosting a false center, an image of self that is a delusion. For instance, it’s not “my body”… it’s the body of the world.
It’s so cool about the Pari Center Bohm thing. Thanks much for letting me know. I’ll look into it. 😊 I’ll have to go see the Oppenheimer movie currently coming out in theaters. Oppenheimer was Bohm’s mentor (as was Einstein). Bohm refused to testify against Oppenheimer during the McCarthyism trials. Oppenheimer, behind Bohm’s back, got other physicists to try to find flaws in Bohm’s hidden variables theory (at the time). When they couldn’t find flaws in Bohm’s proposal, Oppenheimer talked other physicists into ostracizing Bohm… which seemed so much like back-stabbing (by Oppenheimer).
Ah, I’m glad we agree about letting the animal lead – you are right – we can end up in the same place….I am confused by your example though because each of us is in Bohm’s way of thinking is also the body of the world .. no separation – waves –
Yikes haven’t heard about Oppenheimer’s movie – would like to see it but I’d have to go to some city – not here. And yes, like so many of our brilliant maverick scientists Bohm was Ostracized – same thing happened to Sheldrake ( who was actually shot for giving a talk on anima telepathy in Texas – after he wrote “dogs who know their owners are coming home”) and gosh there are a number of these out of the box thinkers who were way ahead of their time. Einstein was fortunate – but look how he treated his family – ugh.
thanks Tom…it has resonance inside me…love it. 🙂
Much appreciated! 😉
🙂
It is good to let your brain breathe, let it air out. I set out to the Park with my mind a blank canvas, trying to wipe out what I’ve heard on the news that morning (usually mind-boggling or horrific … take your pick) and putting what is irritating me (sometimes a litany of items – sometimes just a couple) on the back burner. Then I fill my mind with good stuff and return home. I like your green blade of grass or leaves with the droplet of water – very nice Tom.
Yes, it is good for the brain to be beyond the load of society’s garbage. 😉 And that garbage exists way deeper than most suspect.
Thanks much about that droplet of water picture!
How many times I wish I was born in earlier and simpler era Tom. At least once a day….maybe more.
Yes, one understands but people years ago were very disorderly and violent too. 😮
Well that’s true but maybe we all respected each other a little more?
Yes, but (back then, and even now) that depended on which ethnic group you happened to be in (among a myriad of other things).
Tom, I’m thinking about you because I am attending ( scholarship) “Beyond Bohm” a series offered by The Pari Center in Italy via zoom…. Please check this out!
Awesome! Thanks, Sara!