Phil,
there's some confusion I think about the dancer/dance image. As I
understand it, for buddhism there is neither dancer nor dance, nor is there
not dancer or dance. For William Butler Yeats however the figure was clear:
"Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul
Nor beauty born out of its own despair
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
W.B. Yeats, "Easter, 1916"
My interest has something to do with whether there is a direction to the
process or if it's just an endless going round and round, Kerouac's greating
grinding meat wheel, which the buddhists would have us leave behind, pass on
to the other shore, even if you're a mahayana buddhist who renounce
enlightenment until all hitchhikers, proceeding in all directions, finally
get a ride (pace Gary Snyder).
Cheers,
Paul
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