(New!) Project Camelot: Bill Wood : Above & Beyond Project Looking Glass

[ROMANWKT]

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)

.....accession to me means dying and moving on and so does the chrysalis-to-butterfly means the same to me.......

yea........ that's the backhanded twist to all this positivity thing that creeps me a tad, too.

I have always been very suspicious from the start, as I was getting more and more information, as in these past 10 years more and more was available, it made me suspicious in a way that when we started to find that they wanted to get rid of a lot of useless people as they put it, this new age teachings started to appear about spirits and incarnation and thing that even I had been writing about here, there seem to be a perpetration, a mental perpetration for people to not resist, but to die without trouble to the new order, to ascend without any resistance to the order, millions of people just ready to die and give up, because fighting is not the spiritual thing to do. Its almost as if we are ready to ascend without a blink of an eye, brainwashed into just passiveness and being no problem, because we know we are spirit and nothing can hurt us, it all could be just a big con, I know of nobody that has come back from the dead, and I mean real dead, not astral flying, a year later and said yes it all OK, its real.

what do you think

regards
roman

[ponda]

Posted by 161803398 (here)
I'd say he likely didn't know her age and he was probably set up.

Exactly.It's important to remember what is behind all of this.It is a higher dimensional negative force.i would assume that everyone involved with this force is set up so as to be able to be controlled.This is one aspect of it.Other ways of being coerced by IT are rituals etc.The break away for Bill came when he decided to not target the 2nd missile at innocent people.IMHO he shook off the negative influence at this point.

[Unified Serenity]

Posted by EnergyGardener (here)

Posted by seeingterra (here)
Hi EnergyGardener,

Not to worry really, if you look at the posting patterns from some of these people it's not really a surprise anyways
Very predictable, very old..

And US jumps on the chance any time to get some negative focus, as usual for all the wrong reasons.. Mostly I just feel sorry for these people..

So, no reason the get excited, for us this is business as usual

To the vast majority of posters on this thread; Thanks for the discussion, it's really cool to see you have found this interview of value, it makes it well worth all the effort!

All the best,

Tommy

Tommy,

I believe US has a great heart and is often a great defender at appropriate times, but does get after it on occasion to the extreme by her own admission.

Thank you for your reassurances of "No Worries." I do feel the need to defend those that (I believe) should be receiving our gratitude rather than ridicule.

And, per your earlier post, I am very much looking forward to upcoming interviews.

Did you or Kerry ever receive the identity or identities of the "Winner" Bill Wood referred to?

Thanks again,

EnergyGardener

Thanks for the comments EG. I have very strong feelings about a 25 yr old man having a sexual relationship with a 16 yr old girl. She's not a woman yet. Few 16 year old American girls are ready to be fully functioning adult women in this country. What would a trained navy seal killing machine have in common with her. It's not like they met at school or in the glee club and hit it off. So, that is a big no no in my book. I remember well what it's like to be 16 and in love. I just didn't date 25 yr old men. Would it matter if he was 35 or 45? I think it's rather sad really the reaction I am seeing some of the reactions on PA over this fact. As for my other views, he was NOT vetted on video in anyway. I did not see anything showing his credentials or a statement to that fact from Kerry. It's not the first time either. We are just supposed to go along and listen.

The statements coming from Bill are just to be accepted and believed at truth when we know nothing of his character, well beyond he likes 16 yr old girls and how he did not like being used like he was by the military. So, I won't rehash my issues, they are there to see. Maybe these points will be discussed in the follow-up. Just remember he's already said it's fictional and he's promoting a fiction book so at this point what is truth and what is fiction?

[jackovesk]

Posted by seeingterra (here)
Hi US,

There has been some checks yes, some verifications, yes.

Stay tuned for further backing up of his story, we are in contact with other people from the military in regards to this story. We are working as hard as we can to get some of these people to come "on-the-record"

Also, feel free to join Tuesdays live Q&A event

All the best,

Tommy

G'Day Tommy,

Request:

You have witnessed the differing views and conjecture surrounding the 'Bill Wood' interview...

Now more than ever its 'Imperative' to address those concerns some Avalonians/Guests/Truthseekers have on the validity of several of 'Bill Woods' claims...

Many here have been let down in the Past with some of the 'Whistleblowers Testimony' and the obvious questions that surface again & again i.e. 'How do we Know they are telling the Truth, should we just take 'Kerry's & the Whisteblowers' word for it..?

In summation:

1. Please try and address as many of the 'Issues' raised both on this thread & the 'Project Looking Glass & the 2 Timelines merging as 'ONE' in 2012' thread...

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...as-ONE-in-2012

&

2. Please give us ample Notice of next Tuesday's Live Q & A with Kerry & Bill Wood (Time), and more importantly (if possible) due to the differing world timezones, could you please provide either a 'You Tube Video &/or a MP3 Podcast' for reference. Allowing those that are intersted to make full use of their 'Discernment' relating to all the 'Issues' raised in this interview.

Thanking you in advance...

Regards,

Jack

[astrid]

http://livestream.com/projectcamelotlive/

Link for Tuesday's show in case its not already posted here..

LIVESTREAM EVENT : BILL WOOD ex-Navy Seal- Q&A TUESDAY NIGHT 7PM PST

[jackovesk]

Posted by Unified Serenity (here)
I'm taking the guy at his word, he blames the military for using it against him, but he never says it was a bad move or even feels badly about it. So, he gives off the impression he knew and it was legal and therefore ok, or he was duped and it's all her fault. Sounds typical of a sociopath to me, but that's just a gut feeling.

There is just (1) 'Key Issue' you are forgettiing Christina...

He did not even have to bring up this information to the surface anyway..!

Why did he do it..?

Because he wanted to lay it all out in there in the public forum and 'Clear a Pathway' to the 'Truth', so it could'nt be used a later date by those who would love nothing more than to 'Discredit' him..!

I repeat...

Can I suggest listening to Tuesdays live Q&A event before going any further...

Your friend...

Jack

[Wind]

Edit: Nevermind, I guess I'm blind.

[another bob]

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)
... it all could be just a big con,,,,what do you think

Laughing now, my Friend!

As you yourself have written, it is "all nonsense". Just so, having discarded everything that is nonsense, what remains?

Of course, if you are honest, and have indeed discarded all nonsense, then you can only say, "I don't know".

Any other answer, when inspected, is nonsense, a hallucination, since whatever appears in consciousness is just that.

Of course, if you were to say otherwise, you wouldn't be able to keep a straight face for long, given that it really is all nonsense, and so we are back to "I don't know".

Now, what's really interesting, is that if you were to just stay with that sense of not knowing, rather than falling victim over and over again to the fraud of pretending to be a knower, then something can happen that is totally beyond your facade of knowing, something quite exceptional.

What that is, you alone will find out, because it comes just for you, if you sincerely persist in your not-knowing to the point of availability.

When you become truly available, a lot can happen, and fast -- even in the blink of an eye!

[SaiphStar]

The most interesting part of the interview for me was Bill's comments on timeline 1 vs. timeline 2.

He painted a picture of timeline 1 being a positive thing for humankind; the analogy of the rebirth of the sleeping chrysalis into a butterfly. A creature understanding its full potential does not mean it's free from its enemies. It just means their enemies are now viewed from a different perspective, they still pose a considerable threat.

If timeline 1 is now inevitable surely a new strategy is being played. The positive element to timeline 1 is the expansion of consciousness - a knowing. However, the chess pieces are surely being reset for the game of timeline 1. We start again from a new perspective but the threat remains.

Knowing everything does not necessarily give humankind the ultimate advantage. What has happened when individuals have known too much in our history? They have been removed from the game! What happens when the masses gain an awareness? Is the outcome the same but played out at a global level with larger scale chaos and destruction? The outcome of the two timelines does not necessarily feel binary to me. We could indeed be in for some very difficult times ahead of us. Ultimately, there is a longer-term reward waiting for humankind in timeline 1 so I am in no way debating which one is the better of the two scenarios. It's just not black and white.

As a student to the wisdom on these Avalon forums, I'd like to ask this question regarding timeline 1. What does happen if we were to transition into this reality?

- I just wanted to quickly add that given the choice to remain in this current reality or choose to transition to timeline 1, I would take the latter.

[norman]

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)

I have always been very suspicious from the start, as I was getting more and more information, as in these past 10 years more and more was available, it made me suspicious in a way that when we started to find that they wanted to get rid of a lot of useless people as they put it, this new age teachings started to appear about spirits and incarnation and thing that even I had been writing about here, there seem to be a perpetration, a mental perpetration for people to not resist, but to die without trouble to the new order, to ascend without any resistance to the order, millions of people just ready to die and give up, because fighting is not the spiritual thing to do. Its almost as if we are ready to ascend without a blink of an eye, brainwashed into just passiveness and being no problem, because we know we are spirit and nothing can hurt us, it all could be just a big con, I know of nobody that has come back from the dead, and I mean real dead, not astral flying, a year later and said yes it all OK, its real.

what do you think

regards
roman

I think your mind works very much like mine does, on this issue.

There is only one group of people that represent a 'problem' for the planners. That's the group that intend to fight for information, and fight back with that information, and win.

All other categories are variously nobbled and don't present a threat, as far as the planners are concerned.

[sygh]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
-------

Hi, All:

Having followed the Looking Glass saga closely with Dan Burisch, Bill Hamilton, David Wilcock, Henry Deacon and others, I was intrigued and struck by this interview. It may be important.

http://projectcamelot.org/project_looking_glass.html

I enjoyed Bill Wood's Chess Grandmaster analogy: that well before most of the audience will be aware, both Grandmasters will know that Black will inevitably be checkmated in seven moves -- as long as White doesn't make a silly mistake. Whatever Black does, there's no escape.

Charles once told me something very interesting (in November-December 2010): that one reason why nothing specially bad had happened yet, so to speak, was because using their AI forecasting technology, whatever the controllers did would not work out as they wished. That rang true when I heard it: Bill Wood is saying exactly the same thing.

Note: I believe we need to be a little careful with his 'ascension' reference. He's specifically referring to this as a chrysalis-to-butterfly expansion of consciousness in which there cannot be any more secrets kept, and everything that's been done to the human race to try to control and subjugate it is out in the open. I'll vote for that.

I'll vote for that too. Here's the thing ...(I think) we've already reached the tipping point -not just one tipping point but many, many, many, many, many tipping points, and we teeter on the brink of all of them. Truely, we are converging, the affects of this are everywhere, like a monolith. If we don't take that seriously, that could be our silly move. We've made so many silly moves, and now, at the end of this span of existence where what we have done with the times, and the half times not only does the silly escalate because there are so many more of us doing silly stuff, silly is stacking up on top of itself long, high, and deep, like an island of stryrafoam floating out on the Pacific riding a wave. Let's just say that was a collective choice. On a very large scale, I would love to see our collective silly stop. Cause right now, all I hear are tiny little voices pleading for mercy; mercy for the wolf, the tiger, the dolphin, the whale, woodpeckers, the bear, the bees, the pelicans, the turtles, the gorilias, the elephants, the fish, the trees, the water, mercy for Africa, squeak, squeak... little tiny voices saying won't you care? Won't YOU give a damn? Send a buck so we can try to keep what'z left until such a time as we... as we what, care?

And here's the point: where's the personally responsible collective voice for any of them???? Where is the overwhelming "I get that it is man who has been so thoughtlessly destructive"? Distructive to the point where he cannot stop his/her collective self from over-fishing the waters, over stripping the forests, etc, etc, etc... Where is the I won't stand for humanity to destroy all the earth's natural resources any longer in some blind leading the blind fashion because I'm not blind any more to what any of us are doing? And where are our leaders voiceing this opinion without getting laughed off stage by the audience?

Yes, we are more than we've been lead to believe -literally. Great! We have an analogy: check mate in 7. And now it boils down to two choices, just two choices. Don't you find that more than a little interesting? Doesn't it always boil down to two choices?

Its either we do or, we don't. Oh, we should but will we? Either we are in this totally (the 100th monkey), or we just let the status be quo. Are we supposed to believe that a few people are gonna pull a wand out of their collective fairy pocket and dob us on our collective third eye where upon all will be right with the world?

Its no longer a matter of whether Bill Wood is telling the truth (and I think he's trying to do a darned good job of it), its a matter of whether or not we are telling the truth. Where do we stand with Bill?

[jaybee]

Posted by sygh (here)
-------

Where do we stand with Bill?

which Bill ?


You know...if Bill Wood is a pseudonym...why oh why did he have to use Bill as a first name?

I forsee some confusion ahead. Not here but on other forums where Camelot/Avalon are under the cosh.



.

[sygh]

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)

.....accession to me means dying and moving on and so does the chrysalis-to-butterfly means the same to me.......

yea........ that's the backhanded twist to all this positivity thing that creeps me a tad, too.

And what if it did mean exactly that? We wouldn't care.

At any rate, I'm not being negative when I say, with enlightenment, one sees one own ****e and it becomes apparant as to what we have to do. I could be wrong, I usually am. Could it be that simple? Once a certain number ascend, the kinetic energy will grow.

[sygh]

Posted by jaybee (here)

Posted by sygh (here)
-------

Where do we stand with Bill?

which Bill ?


You know...if Bill Wood is a pseudonym...why oh why did he have to use Bill as a first name?

I forsee some confusion ahead. Not here but on other forums where Camelot/Avalon are under the cosh.



.

Hee, Hee. Stand with the truth sayers. More than stand with them -speak in terms of being overwhelmingly willing to face ourselves. Be the sort of person (people) who can tell the truth and therefore, handle the truth and thus, be able to handle something like a zero-point generator. Electromagnetics, as we have found, have special traits.

Be willing to live. Be responsible. Stand together across the world for longer than the attention span of a fish in a bowl.

[ROMANWKT]

Posted by another bob (here)

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)
... it all could be just a big con,,,,what do you think

Laughing now, my Friend!

As you yourself have written, it is "all nonsense". Just so, having discarded everything that is nonsense, what remains?

Of course, if you are honest, and have indeed discarded all nonsense, then you can only say, "I don't know".

Any other answer, when inspected, is nonsense, a hallucination, since whatever appears in consciousness is just that.

Of course, if you were to say otherwise, you wouldn't be able to keep a straight face for long, given that it really is all nonsense, and so we are back to "I don't know".

Now, what's really interesting, is that if you were to just stay with that sense of not knowing, rather than falling victim over and over again to the fraud of pretending to be a knower, then something can happen that is totally beyond your facade of knowing, something quite exceptional.

What that is, you alone will find out, because it comes just for you, if you sincerely persist in your not-knowing to the point of availability.

When you become truly available, a lot can happen, and fast -- even in the blink of an eye!

Thank you Bob for your comment and direction, Firstly I have always stated with all people that I had contact with and also in part 2 of its all nonsense that these are the things that I have LEARNT AND READ and offer this information for people to do as they wish with it, Psychology is my approach to this information, as I have placed myself in the middle looking both ways, trying very hard to to explain the mechanics of spiritualism and materialism, I have always studied the mechanics of our existence, but have not committed myself to any order or doctrine as both are and can be created by the mechanics of the mind, therefore is it real, is it reality, is it an illusion, any 3 can come to be a some sort of belief system that humanity is plagued with. I could literally write and book about this and get absolutely nowhere. I have been able to marry the two end of our reality in my mind as to the full potential of our human origin, which to me means that while you are here expand yourself to full potential through understanding of the mechanics of spiritual and material, hence this being said in this thread because Bill Wood stated that as a fact and has himself moved on further that that of his military training.

All Is hypothetical until proven otherwise. there are a few people that are as gifted as yourself here in Avalon, and have and should put their understanding fully on the table, there are many here that will hear and many that wont, though our perspective is our own, and only our own, the mechanics are the same once understood.

Warmest wishes to you Bob as ever
roman

[mahalall]

Thankyou and well done,

Listening with the heart one sees the Sadhu in Bill Wood.

With much metta to you all.

(Maitreya (Metteyya in Pāli) is derived from the Sanskrit word maitrī (Pāli: mettā) meaning "loving-kindness", which is in turn derived from the noun mitra (Pāli: mitta) in the sense of "friend")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya

[BMJ]

Posted by SaiphStar (here)
As a student to the wisdom on these Avalon forums, I'd like to ask this question regarding timeline 1. What does happen if we were to transition into this reality?

I believe the veil between the different timelines is thining and this leads me to believe that there is a possiblity that our souls that reside in these various timelines will merge into one.
There was also another thread recently discussing a youtube video by a Japanese princesses talking about 3 days of darkness during december 21 -24, could that be a physical darkness as a result of an eclipse, or could it be a metaphor for the confusion / disorientation we will be experience during these days when the merging begins?

[Wiremu2011]

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)

.....accession to me means dying and moving on and so does the chrysalis-to-butterfly means the same to me.......

yea........ that's the backhanded twist to all this positivity thing that creeps me a tad, too.

I have always been very suspicious from the start, as I was getting more and more information, as in these past 10 years more and more was available, it made me suspicious in a way that when we started to find that they wanted to get rid of a lot of useless people as they put it, this new age teachings started to appear about spirits and incarnation and thing that even I had been writing about here, there seem to be a perpetration, a mental perpetration for people to not resist, but to die without trouble to the new order, to ascend without any resistance to the order, millions of people just ready to die and give up, because fighting is not the spiritual thing to do. Its almost as if we are ready to ascend without a blink of an eye, brainwashed into just passiveness and being no problem, because we know we are spirit and nothing can hurt us, it all could be just a big con, I know of nobody that has come back from the dead, and I mean real dead, not astral flying, a year later and said yes it all OK, its real.

what do you think

regards
roman

Great synopsis mate. Well said, I loved it

[another bob]

Posted by ROMANWKT (here)
... though our perspective is our own, and only our own, the mechanics are the same once understood.

Hello my Good Friend, and Thank You for your comments!

I appreciate what you are getting at, and I am just exploring another view with you, which is complementary, but which speaks more directly to our immediate situation, rather than dwelling so much on speculative issues. In my research today, I was able to find a series of letters written by a Korean Zen Master to a student, delving into the mind of "not knowing" that I referenced earlier. It speaks directly to my point. Here it is for your review:


Dear Patricia,

Thank you for your letter. How are you?

You said in your letter that you have read many books about Zen. That’s good, but if you are thinking, you can’t understand Zen. Anything that can be written, anything that can be said – all this is thinking. If you are thinking, all Zen books, all Buddhist sutras, and all Bibles are demons’ words. But if you read with a mind that has cut off all thinking, then Zen books, sutras, and Bibles are all the truth. So is the barking of a dog or the crowing of a rooster. All things are teaching you at every moment, and these sounds are even better teaching than Zen books. So Zen is keeping the mind which is before thinking. Sciences and academic studies are after thinking. We must return to before thinking. Then we will attain our true self.

You said in your letter that your practice has been counting exhalations to ten. This method is not good, not bad. It is possible to practice in this way when you are sitting. But when you are driving, when you are talking, when you are watching television, when you are playing tennis, how is it possible to count your breaths then? Sitting is only a small part of practicing Zen. The true meaning of sitting Zen is to cut off all thinking and keep not-moving mind. So I ask you: what are you? You don’t know; there is only “I don’t know.” Always keep this don’t know mind. When this don’t know mind becomes clear, then you will understand. So if you keep it when you are talking, this is talking Zen. If you keep it when you are watching television, this is television Zen. You must keep don’t know mind always and everywhere. This is the true practice of Zen.


The Great Way is not difficult
if you don’t make distinctions.
Only throw away likes and dislikes
and everything will be perfectly clear.

So throw away all opinions, all likes and dislikes, and only keep the mind that doesn’t know. This is very important. Don’t know mind is the mind that cuts off all thinking. When all thinking has been cut off, you become empty mind. This is before thinking. Your before thinking mind, my before thinking mind, all people’s before thinking minds are the same. This is your substance. Your substance, my substance, and the substance of the whole universe become one. So the tree, the mountain, the cloud and you become one. Then I ask you: Are the mountain and you the same or different? If you say “the same,” I will hit you thirty times. If you say “different,” I will still hit you thirty times. Why?

The mind that becomes one with the universe is before thinking. Before thinking there are no words. “Same” and “different” are opposite words; they are from the mind that separates all things. That is why I will hit you if you say either one. So what would be a good answer? If you don’t understand, only keep don’t know mind for a while, and you will soon have a good answer. If you do, please send it to me.

You asked why I use words to teach, if understanding through words is impossible. Words are not necessary. But they are very necessary. If you are attached to words, you cannot return to your true self. If you are not attached to words, soon you will attain enlightenment. So if you are thinking, words are very bad. But if you are not thinking, all words and all things that you can see or hear or smell or taste or touch will help you. So it is very important for you to cut off your thinking and your attachments to words.

Here is a poem for you:


Buddha said all things have Buddha-nature.
Joju said the dog has no Buddha-nature.
Which one is correct?
If you open your mouth, you fall into hell.
Why?
KATZ!!!
Clouds float up to the sky;
rainfalls down to the ground.

Sincerely yours,

Seung Sahn

_______________

Dear Patricia,

Thank you for your letter. You say that keeping don’t know mind is difficult. If you examine your thinking mind, then it is difficult. You mustn’t examine your thinking mind. Thinking is okay; don’t worry about it. If you are not upset by your thinking, then it is not difficult to keep don’t know mind. At first you will be able to keep it only for a short time. But if you practice with sincerity, it will keep growing by itself.

Your mind is like the sea. When the wind comes, there are very big waves. When the wind dies down, the waves become smaller and smaller, until finally the wind disappears altogether and the sea is like a clear mirror. Then mountains, trees and all things are reflected on the surface of the sea. There are many thought-waves in your mind. But if you continue to practice don’t know mind, this thinking will become gradually smaller, until finally your mind will always be clear. When the mind becomes clear, it is like a mirror: red comes and the mirror is red; yellow comes and the mirror is yellow; a mountain comes and the mirror is a mountain. Your mind is the mountain; the mountain is your mind. They are not two. So it is very important not to be attached either to thinking or to not thinking. You mustn’t be upset by anything that goes on in your mind. Only don’t worry and keep don’t know mind.

You say that in the beginning you were enthusiastic and now you are discouraged. Both extremes are no good. It is like a guitar string; if you make it too tight, it will be out of tune and will soon snap; if you make it too loose, it will still be out of tune and will not play. You must make it just right. Too enthusiastic is no good, too discouraged is also no good. Zen mind is everyday mind. You must keep this mind during every action, eating, talking, playing tennis, watching television, always keep don’t know mind. What is most important is how you keep your mind at this very moment. “Just now mind.” If you have free time, it is good to sit. If you don’t have free time, then just do action Zen.

But be very careful about wanting enlightenment. This is a bad Zen sickness. When you keep a clear mind, the whole universe is you, you are the universe. So you have already attained enlightenment. Wanting enlightenment is only thinking. It is something extra, like painting legs on the picture of a snake. Already the snake is complete as it is. Already the truth is right before your eyes.

It is very true that contact with other Zen students will help your practice. Together action is very important for Zen students. Bowing together, chanting together, sitting together, eating together, this means that your own situation, your condition, and your opinions can disappear much more easily. Zen work is becoming empty mind. Becoming empty mind means having all my opinions fall away. Then you will experience true emptiness. When you experience true emptiness, you will attain your true situation, your true condition, and your true opinions. I hope that you will come often to the Zen Center, do hard training, soon attain enlightenment, and save all people from suffering.

Sincerely yours,

Seung Sahn
________________

Dear Patricia,

Thank you for your letter. You said that I have helped your practice. This is very good. Zen practice is of the greatest importance. You must decide to practice and very strongly keep this decision. This requires great faith, great courage, and great questioning.

What is great faith? Great faith means that at all times you keep the mind which decided to practice no matter what. It is like a hen sitting on her eggs. She sits on them constantly, caring for them and giving them warmth, so that they will hatch. If she becomes careless or negligent the eggs will not hatch and will not become chicks. So Zen mind means always and everywhere believing in myself. I vow to become Buddha and save all people.

Next, what is great courage? This means bringing all your energy to one point. It is like a cat hunting a mouse. The mouse has retreated into its hole, but the cat waits outside the hole for hours on end without the slightest movement. It is totally concentrated on the mouse hole. This is Zen mind cutting off all thinking and directing all your energy to one point.

Next, great questioning. This is like a child who thinks only of its mother, or a man dying of thirst who thinks only of water. It is called one mind. If you question with great sincerity, there will only be don’t know mind.

If you keep these three, great faith, great courage, and great questioning, you will soon attain enlightenment. You said in your letter that practice is difficult. This is thinking. Zen is not difficult. If you say it is difficult, that means you have been examining yourself, examining your situation, your condition, your opinions. So you say Zen is difficult. And it is not easy. The truth is only like this. Don’t make difficult, don’t make easy. Just practice.

You said that the Zen books which you read shattered your beliefs. That’s very good. But shattered is not shattered. Before, your view was a deluded view. Now it is a correct view. What you believed before was like wanting to hold the rainbow. But the rainbow soon disappears. It never really existed. All things are like this. Before, you believed that all things existed. But now you understand that all things are emptiness. Even so, you must take one step further. Believing or not believing, shattered or not shattered, this is still the area of opposites. You must throw all these opposites away. Then the truth will be only like this. You said that everything was shattered. But this “shattered” is still an attachment to name and form. Originally, there is only emptiness. There is neither shattered nor not shattered. This is the area of the absolute. The absolute is true emptiness. True emptiness is before thinking. Before thinking is like this. Form is form, emptiness is emptiness. So your don’t know mind is true emptiness, is before thinking, is the absolute, is your true self.

The names are all different, but they are all names for clear mind. Originally clear mind has no name and no form. There are no words for it. So if you open your mouth, you are wrong. This is why whenever Zen Master Lin-chi was asked a question, he only shouted, “KATZ!” Dok Sahn would answer only by hitting the questioner. Kuji would just hold up one finger. If you are not attached to KATZ or HIT or one finger, then you will understand that the meaning behind these actions is clear mind. The different actions are just different styles of pointing to clear mind. It is impossible to explain clear mind in words, so the Zen Masters used shouting and hitting and holding up one finger to explain. You must put it down! KATZ is only KATZ, HIT is only HIT, one finger is only one finger. You must understand this. When you say, “I know I don’t know,” this is no good. Don’t examine your don’t know mind.

Life is Zen. But some people say that life is suffering. How are these different? If you make “my life is Zen,” then your life becomes Zen. If somebody else makes “my life is suffering,” then that person’s life becomes suffering. So it all depends on how you are keeping your mind just now, at this very moment! This just-now mind continues and becomes your life, as one point continues and becomes a straight line.

You like Zen, so your life has become Zen. Now you think that the world is wonderful. Your mind is wonderful, so the whole world is wonderful. If you attain enlightenment, you will understand that all people are suffering greatly, so your mind also will be suffering. This is big suffering. So you must enter the great bodhisattva way and save all people from their suffering. I hope that you only keep don’t know mind, always and everywhere. Then you will soon attain enlightenment and save all beings.

Here is a question for you: Somebody once asked the great Zen Master Dong Sahn, “What is Buddha?” Dong Sahn answered, “Three pounds of flax.” What does this mean?

I will wait for a good answer.

Sincerely yours,

Seung Sahn

[araucaria]

We have known the ‘limits’ to unerring looking-glass technology for quite some time now.

In ancient Greece, King Laius was told by the Delphic oracle that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. Accordingly, Laius took evasive action, or so he thought. He ordered Oedipus killed, but he was left on a mountainside to die, where he was adopted by some shepherds.

Later consulting the same oracle, Oedipus was told he would kill his father and marry his mother. Accordingly, Oedipus took evasive action, or so he thought. He left his adoptive father and went and killed his real father, and married his mother. The oracle was twice thwarted, and was still right.

Today’s oracle says that the negative forces will be crushed. Regardless of how many initiatives those negative forces initiate to thwart the oracle, it will prevail.