What did you find inspiring, interesting, controversial, or curious about tonight’s talk?
I seem to recall with how the talk unfolded (which, as is usually the case with Bob, it did as much at a rapid and somewhat increasing pace, casting wide nets) that the topic/theme of the lecture/day’s lessons (Separateness and Unity) wasn’t introduced until it was suggested as a cognitive framing by which to address some sort of problem, a conventional and relatable issue that either seemed atypical of modern practitioners in the throes of working programs/retreats such as the very one we’ve been participating in here, or was simply more general…my memory unfortunately fails me on the specifics of that aspect of it…
He used the very paradigms for the sake of pragmatic problem solving, and did as such in such a manner as to suggest that you could somehow address any issue by looking at it in terms of separateness and unity and skillfully working those two polarities towards some sort of vision which more accurately reflects, through a lens which is both comprehensive and effective, reality as it is. To understand it is to be the Source of it in a manner that is beyond concepts/explanation… to see it in terms of Source and engage that which is substantiating all phenomena by the mundane and normal acts available to your hands, in turn acting “skillfully”…
That’s a very powerful approach to the notion of what the notion of Separateness and Unity can do. He regarded it as a boundless vehicle, and it certainly seemed to behave as such… all ideas and sets of paradigms probably work like that?
Also too, a lot of the problematic expressions of “separateness” suggested over the course of the talk seemed inherently preposterous, which reflects the mechanics of universe as they seem to be defined in Oriental spirituality…but also seems to be a sign of the times? I’m still pretty young, and it perhaps can be attributed simply to perspective, but I seem to recall a social world 15 years ago in which the individual’s capacity for problematic ignorance was significantly higher… we seem to be hurdling towards something very positive as a people across time…