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date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93
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This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his
kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies,
ie. paper copies, are made.
Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire,
Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays,
Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email
[email protected]. Please use email
as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent to Stan Rosenthal
via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in person by myself.
..............................Beginning of file...............................
A TIME OF BLOSSOMING
SUITEKI: ROSENTHAL: WISBEY
THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF BOMPU ZEN: 1975
10 From the seed there grows the shoot, and then the bud appears, a tight
but secure knot, providing its own protection. But the bud does not remain
the bud for ever, for as the plant matures, the bud begins to struggle to
free itself, and with a mighty effort, bursts open to become the flower.
12 From the baby there should grow the child, secure in the environment
which its parents provide. And the baby should grow into the adolescent,
who, through maturation, develops into the self actualized adult, safe and
secure in the knowledge of his or her own being.
14 It would indeed be wonderful if we lived in a society in which
childhood and adolescence were accepted as the time in which the bud appears,
and with the tremendous strength with which youth should be endowed, begins
to blossom into the flower of self being.
16 What a great joy it would be, if in the process of maturation, we
became open to receive experience, just as the blossoming flower receives the
summer dew, and became free to accept ourselves for what we are, which is the
birthright of every being, just as the life giving warmth of the sun is the
right of everything that grows.
18 The society in which we live cannot allow us complete freeedom.
Indeed, the very nature of man prohibits such a society from ever existing.
But this is not to say that we cannot blossom as does the flower. To become
fully alive, to live our lives to the full, complete in our self being,
we should accept as a gift, every moment of life.
20 We should use life for the purpose for which it was intended, for
living. If we choose to use it for that purpose, the whole of life becomes a
time of blossoming.
24 One of the major inhibitors of human blossoming is probably life itself,
for in living our lives to the full, we are required to accept that much
of what we will experience cannot be described (in terms of our 'I'ness)
as either beautiful or enjoyable. Because of this, we might erect barriers
to the reception of experience.
26 One of the experiences which we sometimes deny ourselves is the
experience of love. This denial may easily result from our fear of failure
because we may fear that by becoming worthy of love, we might win love, and
might then become unworthy of it, and thus lose it.
28 Fear of losing love is caused by the fact that we live in a society
which values that which it terms 'success', and condemns that which it calls
'failure'. And yet, it can only breed success at the expense of those whom
it describes as failures. We must learn to live without this fear of failure,
and so allow ourselves to live within our human right .....to live.
30 If we erect barriers to the giving and receiving of love, we may, in
our folly, inhibit both ourselves and those who love us, from blossoming
into true being.
32 We must each look into ourselves, and so find the courage to break
free from those concepts of ourselves, which we have allowed to predetermine
what we are, what we should be, or what we should remain.
34 We should realise that there is no limit to human potential, other
than those limits which we ourselves set, or allow others to set in our
name.
36 When we can accept that there are no limits to our potential, then
we can begin to find that energy which changes the whole of man; for just
as the parting of the petals which form the bud, allows that bud to blossom
into the flower, and thus change the face of the earth, so does the blossoming
of one indiviudal into a self actualized being, change the face of mankind.
40 The flowers and trees have sun and rain to aid their blossoming. As
human beings, we should have love to help us grow into self being.
42 When we live in true being, self being, we gain the ability to love,
for love has many forms. We may gain the ability to change the shape of
things with our hands, and thus change the function of those things. This
may be an act of love.
44 We may gain the ability, by the use of our hands and minds, to produce
things which have beauty, and whose beauty may be shared by those who are
open to accept it. The creation of such a thing as has beauty is an act
of love. The acceptance of the beauty in a thing which a fellow being has
created is an act of love.
46 When we have true being, self being, in which to dwell, then we may
learn to love our fellow beings. When we can see our own imperfections
as readily as we can see the imperfections of others, and when we can allow
those others their imperfections as readily as we ignore our own, then it
may be said that we love our fellow beings.
48 When we can accept others for what they are, rather than try to change
them to what we would have them be, or even wish that they are something
other than they are, then we perform an act of love.
50 When we have true being, self being, instead of 'I', then we have the
ability to become one with our fellow beings. This we may achieve only
by ceasing to consider ourselves as the primary subject, and our fellow
beings merely as objects which are there for us to manipulate. This act,
the act of treating others as we would ourselves wish to be treated, this
act is an act of love.
52 There is the love between brothers and sisters. This form of love may
develop and grow where wise parents do not use one of their offspring as
a goad or spur to the other. Treating our offspring as equals is an act
of love.
54 As parents, if we can see that our offspring are not mere 'objects',
and no less 'subjects' than are we, then we can cease to manipulate them.
Thus, we allow the child to become the adolescent, and the adolescent to
become the adult, to the mutual benefit of all.
56 In parential love, we should place the development of our offspring
before our own wishes, and even before our own self delusion. When, as
parents, we give our offspring the same rights as we give ourselves, and
thus prevent ourselves from inhibiting their development, then our offspring
may grow into adults, secure in their own self being, as a result of our
act of love.
60 Although all acts of love are transcendental in themselves, most are
but minor forms of the greatest act of love, which is therefore the greatest
transcendental act, the act of sharing love. Only when we have true being,
self being, and so no longer need the 'I', then we are ready to take part
in this greatest act of love, for, in sharing love with the one who is our
counterpart, and so helping them to become complete, we may ourselves become
complete.
62 In the act of sharing love all other forms of love are manifest. We
each accept that the other has the same rights as we have ourselves.
64 In the act of sharing love we are not jealous of the achievements or
attainments of the other, but welcome and share them as our own, for they
are the fruits of our love.
66 In the act of sharing love we do not look for the imperfections of
the other, but accept each other for what we are, in our totality. We look
for our own imperfections, and we each ask the other to help us overcome
those imperfections; and thus we help each other to grow. Each of us ceases
to consider our own 'I'ness, and so banish our own needs in subordination
to the needs of the other.
68 In the great transcendental act of sharing love, all other
transcendental acts are also encompassed. In such an act as sharing love we
may change our function from that of satisfying our own needs to that of
satisfying the needs of our counterpart, this is a transcendental act.
70 In such an act as sharing love we may use our bodies to create a beauty
which both may share, and so become a part, this is a transcendental act.
72 In such an act as sharing love we cease to consider ourselves as the
primary subject, and thus may become one with the other with whom we share
our love, this is a transcendental act.
74 In the act of giving love there is no concept of who we are, of what
we should be, or of what we should remain, for only in the act of giving
love may we receive and so share love.
76 In the act of sharing love, there is no subject and no object, for
both are one. This union of the two is a transcendental act.
78 When we give and receive love in the greatest transcendental act of
all, then each of us (who is one) and the universe (which is one) unite
to become the absolute. Then there is no longer even one, for we are part
of it, and it is part of us, all in the now. We thus become free to give
and receive that which only true love can provide, Peace and ecstacy, and
the freedom to grow.
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