In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Dancer and the Dance

Years ago at an offsite emptiness retreat on Vashon Island, my first Teacher described our involvement with the objects we see as being like a dancer and their dance: There is no dance without the dancer. There is no object without a mind perceiving the object. "It takes two to tango," as the expression goes : )
You could riff on other variations of this idea:
* No music without the musician
* No magic without the magician
* No love without the lover ... it's a (co)dependent relationship : )

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful way of putting it. I remember him saying this and have duly stolen it for my blog ;-)

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  2. Oh good - I'm glad someone else can confirm this, because I haven't heard it since then.
    Steal away - you will only make it better.

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