RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (Full Version)

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Imenuff -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/7/2007 11:09:11 PM)

Eights-The Need to be Against
Eights impress as strong and mighty. They are capable of imparting feelings of strength and have a second sense for justice and truth, and instinctively know when injustice or dishonesty is at work. Eights like to take the side of the weak and will not put up with high handed authorities.

When eights are in power, those under them often feel oppressed or pushed around. Intimacy for eights is often confrontational intimacy. Because they enjoy struggles, conflict and confrontation, they think it is the same for all. Eights are very competitive and usually do well in sports because they immediately sense the weaknesses of others and will readily take advantage of them. Eights will do anything to avoid any sign of helplessness, weakness, and subordination. They view their opinion as absolutely correct and are completely closed off to other arguments. Eights need control over their own possessions and other people and yet draw clear lines so that they are not dependent.

Nines-The Need to Avoid
Nines are peacemakers, accepting others without prejudice and can make good unbiased arbitrators. Their sense of fairness often makes them committed to peace and justice. They can express harsh truths so calmly and matter of factly that it is easy for others to accept them.

Nines lack the courage of a firm stand and don’t consider themselves important enough to display their talents. They tend to fade in and out of everything without being much noticed. Nines often belittle themselves in their own eyes. In reality, their false modesty often conceals the fear of revealing themselves. They often don’t feel adequate to the many strains and challenges of life and sometimes give the impression of being absent-minded or befuddled. In distressing situations they often withdraw. Nines have problems with taking the initiative, developing projects and perspectives, tackling jobs and carrying them through.

Ennegram helps us to see our strengths and weaknesses and additionally gives us methodologies to live more out of our strengths. It also helps us to develop a greater understanding of those around us and how to deal with them. As Juliana so appropriately said in her post, it reminds us that we all have our weaknesses even though mine might be much different than someone elses.



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/17/2007 3:41:45 PM)

Wabi Sabi   The art of everyday life by Diane Durston

This book is about the ancient japanese concepts of wabi sabi, which have it´s roots in the tea ceremony in the 15 th century. I would like to quote the introduction of the book:

The concepts of Wabi and Sabi
Wabi has been defined variously in English as:tranquil simplicity; austere elegance; unpolished, imperfect, or irregular beauty; rusticity; things in their simplest, most austere, and natural state; a serene, transcendental state of mind.
Likewise , Sabi has been interpreted as the beauty that treasures the passage of time, and with it the lonely sense of impermanence it evokes. I´t has also been defined as the patina that age bestows, or as that which is true to the natural cycle of birth and death. 

This book is really inspiring me at the moment. It is full of quotes to describe the principels of impermanence, imperfection, simplicity, humility, sincerity, harmony, purity, tranquility and contentment. I find it very refreshing.

Love,
Barbara



Imenuff -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/17/2007 7:47:39 PM)

Dear Barbara G Thank you so much for beginning a synopsis of Wabi Sabi. Just reading the introduction makes me want to hear more. Currently, there are five books that I am involved with so please, continue with more of your synopsis as you continue reading it. I am so glad you chose to join our forum. Thank you also for your German greetings to Juliana. My parents both spoke German. We never learned it--just were able to begin putting little pieces of meaning together. It is good to see the language again and at least make a feeble attempt to figure it out.

Blessings on your weekend.



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/21/2007 6:28:36 AM)

Hi Immenuff,

you are a busy reader, I can handle just two books at a time. I´m glad you like German, most non-Germans told me it sounded a bit harsh. [;)]

So I continue with Wabi Sabi:
 
First appearing as poetic references in Japanese literature, both wabi and sabi are closely associated with the tea ceremony, a spiritual practise invented by Zen Buddhist priests in the 15th century. Okakura Kakuzo, who wrote the first Book of Tea in English one hundred years ago, defined the tea ceremony simply as "the art of everyday life."
The tea ceremony is considered a means of achieving enlightenment and peace of mind through the simple, everyday preparation of tea. The focus is on sharing a quiet moment with friends in an atmosphere of mutual respect, in an environment that reflects the quiet beauty of nature. The tea host and her guests reflect on the importance of appreciating each moment as it passes, within the greater flow of our brief and often chaotic lives. Life therefore, becomes art; wabi and sabi are manifestations of both.
Every object in the tea ceremony plays a role. A rustic tea bowl is a reminder that nothing in life is perfect. The empty sweep of space in a scroll painting suggests that incompleteness can inspire the imagination of the beholder. A single flower in a bamboo vase invites you to take time to notice its understated beauty. The pristine finish of an unvarnished cedar box reminds you that wood will always be more beautiful than plastic. The patina that a bronze kettle acquires over time hints that we, too, will change as we pass through time.
 
to be continued...
 
 

Love,
Barbara

 
 



Imenuff -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/22/2007 1:46:21 PM)

Barbara G Thank you so much for continuing. Your new summary post contains enough for one to spend a very long time contemplating.
quote:

quiet time; life as art; mutual respect; nothing is perfect; incompleteness; understated beauty; change through passage of time.
What powerful food for the soul to reflect upon and the mind to journal on.[;)][;)] Blessings on you for gifting all of us with this "Thanksgiving nourishment for the soul." I look forward to your next post.

NAMASTE!![:)]



buttington -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/22/2007 1:52:11 PM)

Barbar G
That is fascinating stuff!! Thank you for charing it.

It reminds me a bit of a walking meditation, where you reflect on each footstep and everything connected to it.
Jude



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/26/2007 10:34:15 AM)

Imenuff and Jude: Glad you like it. It´s really a form of everyday meditation as you pointed out Jude as I think about it.
 
 
Wabi Sabi:
 
To Sen no Rikyu, the man who brought the Way of Tea to the height of refinement in the 16th century, the ceremony is nothing more (or less) than this: 
 
Make a delicious bowl of tea; lay charcoal so it heats the water;
arrange flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest coolness,
in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give to those with whom you find yourself every consideration.
 
"How hard can this be?" one of his students asked, to which Rikyu replied, "Well, if you can master that, you can teach me."
 
Wabi and Sabi reflect this mindful approach to everyday life. Over time, multi-layered and heavily nuanced meanings overlapped and converged until they became almost interchangeable. Based on shared assumptions about the nature of art and life, wabi and sabi are widely accepted concepts in Japan. With both aesthetic and philosophical meanings, they are perceived as too vast to explain or define precisely.
Today´s interpretation of wabi sabi as a unified concept was eloquently defined in English by Leonard Koren more than a decade ago as the "beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete...a beauty of things modest and humble...a beauty of things unconventional."
The deeply human feelings about art and life that inform wabi sabi are universal, from teahouse to 21st-century design, the concepts continue to evolve and inspire.
 
 
Wabi
 
Wabi is a brushwood gate,
      And for a lock,
This snail.
 
          The Woodpecker
         Keeps on in the same place;
                       Day is closing.
 
Winter desolation;
 In the rain water tub,
           Sparrows are walking.            
 
                                               -Alan Watts
 
Instead of just grumbling about one´s dire straits, detesting one´s poverty, or even struggling to free oneself of this want, to conversely take such extremes of material hardship and not to be constricted by the material side, transforming it all the more into a new-found realm of spiritual freedom, to not get caught up in worldly values, but to enjoy a tranquility beyond the everyday world, this is the life of the true devotee to wabi.
               - Haga Koshiro.
 
   
To be continued...

Love,
Barbara



J1937 -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/26/2007 11:02:14 AM)

Liebe Barbara, kannst Du Dir vorstellen, wie mich Dein Beitrag freut? 1.) war ich lange allein hier als Deutschsprachige, 2.) liebe ich die Teezeremonie und die dahinter stehende Spiritualität seit meiner Jugend, und 3.) hab ich diesen "thread" gestartet. Wenn er fruchtbar bleibt, so freut mich das ganz besonders. [:)][:D][;)] Ich bin erst jetzt zurück von meiner Kur  in Oberösterreich, dort konnte ich nur im Internetcafé ein schnelles mail schreiben. Nun freu ich mich, wieder zu Hause und bei meinen cyber friends zu sein! Bleib hier bei uns! Hast Du das Buch auf Englisch oder Deutsch gelesen? Kannst Du bitte Titel und Verlag angeben? Danke!

In English now for you, my English-speaking friends. It makes me happy to find a native speaker of German on this forum, who has such valuable contributions to make. I have loved the tea ceremony with its spirituality since my youth, and I am eager to get the book. It also makes me happy to see that the thread I started is flourishing. Love to everybody! [:)]

Juliana
______________________________
"Speak Peace in aWorld of Conflict"



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/26/2007 11:30:32 AM)

Liebe Juliana,

Freu mich auch, dass ich nicht allein hier als Deutschsprachige bin, [:D] es ist schon etwas anstrengend alles auf Englisch zu schreiben, zumal man seine Persönlichkeit und seine Anliegen nicht ganz so rüberbringen kann.
Toll, dass du auch von der Teezeremonie begeistert bist und dieser thread ist sowieso Gold wert- Klasse Idee! [:)] Bin halt auch ein Bücherwürmchen...[:D] Ich hab dieses Buch auf Englisch "Wabi Sabi, The Art of Everyday Life" von Diane Durston Storey Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1-58017-628-6, dann hab ich noch eins, dass ich davor gelesen habe, etwas wissenschaftlicher, aber auch sehr gut "Wabi-sabi für Künstler, Architekten und Designer" (fürchterlicher Titel, aber lass Dich nicht abschrecken ;) ) von Leonard Koren im Wasmuth Verlag erschienen ISBN: 3 8030 3064 1. Beide Bücher kann ich Dir empfehlen.
Klar bleib ich da, wo hier so liebe Leute einschliesslich Dir ihr cyberhome haben. [:)]
Stöhn, jetzt muß ich den ganzen Krempel auch noch aus Höflichkeit übersetzen...[;)][:D]

Alles Liebe,
Barbara

translation:

Dear Juliana,

I´m glad also that I´m not the only German-speaking person around, it´s a bit hard to express myself fully in English. The thread is worth gold and I´m happy you are interested in the tea-ceremony too. I´ve read this book in English (title see above) and the book of Leonard Koren "Wabi-sabi for artists, architects and designers" in German. I can recommend both.
Sure, I would like to stay around since so many lovely people have their cyberhome here.
Then I´m complaining in German that I have to translate everything now. [:D]




J1937 -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/26/2007 11:57:06 AM)

Thank you for the info, Barbara! You know, people here are so tolerant, even of a foreign language. Moreover, Betty, as you may have read, loves puzzling over German, which her grandparents spoke! [;)]
Juliana



Imenuff -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/26/2007 7:47:14 PM)

Juliana,not quite that far removed. Both my parents spoke German. It was their way of having private conversations in front of us. Barbara G, please don't get too frustrated with us and your having to translate into English. I truly appreciate both you and Juliana writing your replies in German and then translating them. Just comparing both paragraphs allows and assists me in beginning to learn the meanings of the German words. Sadly, even though both parents spoke it, we only learned bits and pieces of it by overhearing their conversations. I truly appreciate your putting forth the effort to synopsize Wabi Sabi in English and applaud you for doing it. It would be completely impossible for me to synopsize anything in any lauguage but English. Wabi Sabi truly sounds like a fascinating book with much to teach all of us. Thank you!

Namaste to both of you!



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/27/2007 4:13:47 PM)

Hi Imenuff,

I don´t really mind to translate my German, it´s just a bit easier for me the other way around. [;)]
Since the Wabi-Sabi book I synopsize is written in English I don´t have that much of a problem.

Love,
Barbara




Imenuff -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/28/2007 8:41:19 PM)

Barbara G I really appreciate your doing it. You barely started posting and I ended up asking you to synposize a book. You were most kind to do so.



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/29/2007 8:06:52 AM)

Imenuff: It´s my pleasure. [:)]

Sabi:

When the mood of the moment is solitary and quiet, it is called sabi.
Sabi is loneliness in the sense of Buddhist detachment, as seeing all things as happening "by themselves" in miraculous spontaneity.
 
                                                                           -Alan Watts
 
Sabi...is a poetic mood vaguely pointing toward a certain view of life. This view of life is called wabi. Wabi originally meant "sadness of poverty". But graduallly it came to mean an attitude toward life, with which one tried to resign himself to straitened living and to find peace and serenity of mind even under such circumstances. Sabi, primarily an aesthetic concept, is closely related to wabi, a philosophical idea.
                                                                           -Makoto Ueda
 
 
 
Love,
Barbara



J1937 -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/29/2007 11:44:08 AM)

Thank you, Barbara G., for the added information on this interesting topic.
Thank you, Betty, for the wealth of the 9 Enneagramm types. As I missed their appearing, one after the other, I will now work through your descriptions of them, enjoying the synopsis in English (my Enneagramm books are all in German).

I have been thinking of presenting another book which I consider very interesting: "THE DAWN OF THE MYSTICAL AGE. An Invitation to Enlightenment", by Frank X. Tuoti. Does this ring a bell with anybody?

Juliana
__________________________________
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (11/30/2007 8:10:28 AM)

Juliana: I´ve never heard of that book, but I would enjoy to read about it more, if you were so kind to synopsize it. [:)]

Love,
Barbara



J1937 -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (12/1/2007 10:00:12 AM)

This time, synopsizing "The Dawn of the Mystical Age" by Frank X. Tuoti will be easy for me, as in 1999 I wrote a review about it for "Merton Annual 12", (which I had corrected by a native speaker of English - so this time I can feel secure! [;)]) Observing what has been going on and changing spiritually in our time, I am often reminded of what Tuoti says in his book.

In 42 brief chapters he surveys the "reality, promises, and characteristics of the developing Mystical Age". Drawing on insights of several "see-ers" of the future, both from the West and the East,  he offers his own thoughts and conjectures on the "new mutation of consciousness that will become the revolutionary /evolutionary  experience of humankind such as has not occurred in the last twenty-five hundred years". He argues "Humankind is on the path to enlightenment."  Unreasonable as such a message, received on the rational level, might at first seem to most people, we may discover that it meets our deepest longing if we are ready to listen to our inner intuitive voice. Don´t we - in our heart of hearts - agree with Tuoti that "Life should not be conducted like a business. Life should flow like poetry"? Or with what he says in another place: "Life ... is not a problem to be figured out, but a mystery to be lived? Don´t modern men and women, tired of so much superficiality and meaninglessness, if only unconsciously, yearn for the sacred, the numinous, to take root in their lives?

To be continued.

Juliana
_____________________________
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict



buttington -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (12/1/2007 1:42:19 PM)

quote:

"Life ... is not a problem to be figured out, but a mystery to be lived? Don´t modern men and women, tired of so much superficiality and meaninglessness, if only unconsciously, yearn for the sacred, the numinous, to take root in their lives?


Juliana, I really like that, and totally agree with it.  Jude



Imenuff -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (12/2/2007 6:50:43 AM)

Barbara G and Juliana Thank you both for continuing to give all of us "food for the spirit" from what initially might seem two different perspectives. It really struck me when I read
quote:

Sabi...is a poetic mood vaguely pointing toward a certain view of life.
in Barbara G's last post on Wabi Sabi and then read
quote:

Life should flow like poetry"?
in Juliana's post. Maybe the Holy One is attempting to make us all more aware of the Master Poet's dreams for our lives.[;)]

Have a blessed Sunday.[;)]



Audur -> RE: BOOKS for which I am grateful... (12/2/2007 11:01:19 AM)

Juliana: That is very inspiring to me. I wish I could live the questions in my life more, instead of insisting on answers. ( free interpretation of a Rilke quote) I have real problems with insecurities. [&:]

That leads me to Wabi Sabi:

Impermanence  

Nothing is secure but life,
transition, the energizing
spirit...People wish to be
settled; only so far as they
are unsettled is there any
hope for them.                                              -Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
 
The Young Monk
 
In the quiet frost of daybreak, a young monk swishes the last leaves of autumn from the stone path-into a pile of smoldering dreams. Every last one goes up in a spindle of smoke, twisting and writhing through tall pines to freedom in the morning sky.
How he envies the unfettered ascent of leaves becoming air. He´s been up since 4 A.M., his frozen pink toes pretending not to ache in straw sandals. The chanting of monks, echoes down the empty streets of Kyoto, "Ho-o-o-o...Ho-o-o-o..."
Early-rising housewives prepare their offerings to drop into beggars´bowls.
A shaved head, dark robes, and today´s lessons in selflessness-a difficult path for a restless young man who just inherited his familys´country temple. He´s been sent to train at Nanzenji, a famous Zen monastry at the eastern edge of the city of Kyoto.
Each day he begs for alms, polishes the wooden corridors of the temple, and rakes leaves in the courtyard-all before breakfast. He ponders this Zen riddle: Is not change the only thing that is changeless?
 
 
Love,
Barbara
 





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