Elephant In The Room

[Nagual LoneWolf]

I was thinking of how there can be an extremely big event happening in ones life but that a warrior will remain unattached. A warrior sees the next task/job he must do as an adventure not as a problem/roadblock. This big event maybe death or life, change or no change. Using the language or intent of Zen as I see many of you write here I see it as having a elephant in the room and pretending its not there. Perhaps a harder task then dealing with it. Writing this now I realize my description is not the best of what I'm trying to convey. Am I making sense? Anybody have any peanuts?

[Wiseass]

You are more right than you know, Nagual.

[Lunoor]

I don't know Wolf, if you pretend he is not there the elephant may smack you with his trunk. On the other hand if you make an elephant out of a pesky little mouse then you got problems...

[Eilias123]

[Wiseass]

Eilias123 wrote:

[Wei Shan Yang]

Nagual LoneWolf wrote:I was thinking of how there can be an extremely big event happening in ones life but that a warrior will remain unattached. A warrior sees the next task/job he must do as an adventure not as a problem/roadblock. This big event maybe death or life, change or no change. Using the language or intent of Zen as I see many of you write here I see it as having a elephant in the room and pretending its not there. Perhaps a harder task then dealing with it. Writing this now I realize my description is not the best of what I'm trying to convey. Am I making sense? Anybody have any peanuts?Strange you say that, because Buddhism is about unattachment, just as the warrior's way is. I don't perceive the two being at odds in terms of differences, do you?

[SelfHealedMadman]

~



Oh oh....



The Nagual's turning up the heat.



Be careful my good friend, for being so un-attached and un-concerned, the Zennests can get down-right nasty.



Next thing you know they'll be throwing all sorts at you, like.....



If the Naguals Double is in the room and no-one can see him, is he really there??



If there's one hand clapping, do I still have to brush and floss prior to going to bed??



Who's perceiving the perceived if I have no mirror to dip in the river?



If a tree falls in the woods and it was caused by Genero taking a ****, is the mountain no-thing or does it just mean that I should stay out of the woods?



You get my drift...



Tread lightly.



SHM

[Wei Shan Yang]

SHM, lets wait and see what happens. You never know, maybe something new and unexpected.

[Nagual LoneWolf]

Nice. The elephant in the room is so large and doesn't expect to be ignored yet it is when one is refusing to look at where its taking a ****. I am all for evolving, changing, seeing the room is occupied.

[Wei Shan Yang]

"I am all for evolving, changing, seeing the room is occupied."



Yes, this is what I am for too...but remember the unattachment part (of which you agree with), which is the unoccupied as well. One is unattached to the evolving, changing, and occupation. If this sounds Buddhist, its not only that, it's also DJ and Genaro's teachings of not-doing.

[Wei Shan Yang]

Not sure where all this is aimed at because its very indirect at the moment. I have no problem with it becoming more direct though. In my own experience of life, very little anyone says to me bothers me, I see this as an indication of having developed considerable detachment. People can call me names, tell me all the things wrong with me etc...there is nothing anyone can expose that I have not already seen...but hey if there is, it would be good to see it. Sometimes we see something and then later will see it differently, in a truer way perhaps.

[The Fool]

Could we give the elephant the name : Conceit? Which of course he wouldn't recognize being intoxicated through eating up his own ****.

[Wei Shan Yang]

Wouldn't recognize? Are you sure about that? lol



If you ask me, its about recognizing and then letting it go. Laughing at it even. Hopefully one can laugh about it. Guilt, shame and all the other options are only going to bring misery and setbacks.

[The Fool]

Wei Shan Yang said : "Wouldn't recognize? Are you sure about that? lol



If you ask me, its about recognizing and then letting it go. Laughing at it even. Hopefully one can laugh about it. Guilt, shame and all the other options are only going to bring misery and setbacks."



What i mean is that it takes a good dose of sincerity and honesty (and self-examination) to recognize that for a good amount of time what we feel being "awakening" or "knowing the truth" or whatever one wants to call it is just simply vanity in disguise, conceit, or what have been called self-importance. And this goes also for self-pity or shame or guilt or of whatever self-flogging. And for sure when one truly recognizes the masquerade, one takes a good laugh about it!

[snowblind]

Could the elephant in the room be our own inherent enlightenment that we refuse to acknowledge? Our oneness with divinity that keeps us separated and confused? That keeps us from being all that we can be?

[Wei Shan Yang]

When one recognizes non-attachment, one truly laughs. Because no longer is attention directed at a "self", and this is a joyous feeling...to be so undefined



All of life is a masquerade really, all the players all the parts... so laughter is this way is never lonely. I don't even think there's such a thing as lonely laughter.

[Eilias123]

how do we make the elephant in the room undeniable as to it's existence?

[Nagual LoneWolf]

Say you know something is going to happen and its going to be a big change. Even though you know your life is about to change you don't know how it will affect you so until it happens you go on as if nothing is going to happen thus an elephant in the room. Its big, its there but you pretend to not see it. Detachment works to avoid the elephant but it doesn't make the elephant go away. The elephant is a metaphor for an event. It represents the unknown even though one can plainly see it.

My interpretation of my post.

[Wiseass]

The Elephant thinks "I'm in the mood for some ant ****".

[Wei Shan Yang]

"I was thinking of how there can be an extremely big event happening in ones life but that a warrior will remain unattached."-from lead post



"Detachment works to avoid the elephant but it doesn't make the elephant go away."- from post 17



Here now is a contradiction about unattachment (the warrior) and detachment (the Zen practioner).



In the first quote its said a warrior is unattached and this is good, in the last quote its said the Zen or whomever is referred to is detached and avoiding the elephant. But detached and unattached are the same thing, so how can both the warrior and Zen Buddhist be spoken of in the same way and yet the stipulation is they are approaching things differently?

[Blue totem]

Nope, not making any sense Nagual... But its all good, zen is not logical.
There is no elephant, and there is no room.... Only emptiness.

Ommmmm

[Wei Shan Yang]

Eilias123 wrote:
SelfHealedMadman wrote: 
"No self, no problem,” said the Buddhist master when asked to explain the deeper meaning of Buddhism." ~Stillness Speaks thread
The elephant is a perceived self, and something happening to "it" (event). A happening and happener. To acknowledge it causes guilt, shame, happiness, unhappiness, pride, on and on and on depending on the situation.
To know "you" and any event (elephant) are not separate is experience of non-duality, dependent arising, enlightenment.  Hence, nothing is happening here because the sense of happening and happener are not separately perceived.
snowblind has a good response that the elephant is enlightenment. To not realize this makes the elephant appear to be "a problem" because its seen as separate. Then what would follow is attachment to perceived problem and desire to fix it. A mouse on the treadmill of duality.

[Wei Shan Yang]

Stillness speaks...nothing is happening here.

[Gonzo]

You're sitting on the dog.

[snowblind]

Wei Shan Yang wrote:
Should that statue be in the MIDDLE of the room?