Literary Discussions

Shankarachariya of the 9th century CE said that "thoughts flow into the mind (from outside it) like molten metal into a mold."  The Vedas say something similar "may noble thoughts come to us from all directions."  Rupert Sheldrake in his "morphic resonance" says the same thing. It is the vritti or vibrations of which Pantanjali spoke.  When I write certain things (but not all things) it is as though it comes from outside and I am simply a conduit. Dreams seem to come from something other than our own cognition/volition.  Sometimes I search for something on the Internet and it brings me something I wrote a few years ago, and it takes me a while to remember that I wrote it. If you have two tuning forks alike and you strike one then the other will begin to sound in resonance. There is something called "the unstruck bell" which I should google. === Ekanath Easwaren wrote "The Unstruck Bell", about prayer/mantra

traditions in every religion. The "unstruck" bell is the sound of

the external "struck" bell which we have internalized, which becomes

part of us.

There is something within us which "resonates" in response to

something internal, as a tuning fork which has not been struck will

resonate sympathetically with another tuning fork which HAS been

struck, sounded.

On page 163,164 of Sarvapali Radhakrisnan's book "An Idealist View of

Life", we read:

... If the spirit were not within us, we would not have thrilled with

joy when face to face with great works of art, religion, science. We

claim their intensities of significance, splendors of heroism,

visions of rapture as our own. The rythms of the poet find

correspondence in the condition of our soul; their words an authentic

echo in our speech. The gleam haunting our whole life is

suddenly "recollected" in Plato's sense. Any voice which speaks from

the depths of one's heart liberates at the same time thousands of

silent voices. The poet's words are claimed by us as our native

speech. The philosopher's ideas are accepted by us as our highest

thoughts. The saint's perfection is felt as something to which we may

aspire and obtain for our own.

We understand an object only when there is something within us which

is akin to it.......

We cannot understand Plato if we have not the spirit of Plato. To

understand Christ, we must have the mind of Christ.

As for what Buddha would say, or Zen Masters... we all have Buddha nature, ... all beings...  but we do not REALIZE that we have Buddha nature unless we become "enlightened".... the Pieta is inside the block of marble but is not visible until some Michaelangelo chips away everything that is not the Pieta.