Ritual and Mysticism, Eco-Diversity
Michael,
One other reason larger animals don't change as much from one valley to the
next is that their life expectancy and time needed to reach maturity and
breed are all much greater, orders of magnitude greater in some cases, then
the smaller animals.
Andrew Behan,
>Tim Torres objects to Mysticism being incompatible with Ceremony. This is
because Mysticism, both Christian and Eastern, afaik is incompatible with
ritual and received knowledge.<
Sorry, but this assertion is not just inaccurate, it's absurd. Ritual has
true power in mysticism. And mysticism is how received knowledge is
recognized short of a Giant Hand From God clubbing the prophet on the head.
Whether Sufi, Taosist, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Jewish, etc., mystics
acknowledge the value of ritual when done properly and with prudent
understanding of ritual's shortcomings. Frex, the Zen Buddhist "Chop Wood,
Carry Water," T'ai Ch'i, Sufi Circle Dances, and Gregorian chants (pun
intended). I'm not saying ritual is essential to mysticism. I'm saying it
can and does help. Ritual is a channel by which the less "talented" mystic
penetrates the Cloud of Unknowing to discover universal truth. When Gautamma
sat under thattree before "discovering" his Four Truths he was engaged in his
own personal ritual. Ritual is not essential; it helps.
Tim Torres
"How to construct a building has thousands of years of history behind it . .
. Many people must have been crushed when they tried to build a structure
withut central columns and it collapsed. People must have sacrificed their
lives until a model was developed that worked" (Chogyam Trungpa, "Shambhala:
The Sacred path of the Warrior).
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