thanks for lesson zem!

an honest mouse wrote on 18 May 2011 15:18:

I guess you could call that "Zem meditation".

--Eye.

and the art of tricycle maintenance...

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 20 May 2011 14:06:


Followed by an Enquiry into morals?

;D

???

"Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: an inquiry into values" was a famous book in the '70's
if it passed you by fret not, Michtav Me'eliyahu (lehavdil) is wayyyyyy better

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 20 May 2011 15:40:


It was followed by "Lila: An enquiry into morals" - not nearly as good, or as critically acclaimed (to explain my follow-up).

i prefer michtav me'eliyahu!

Couldn't it just be a stupid bird?  Keeps flying into brick walls!  Remind me of anybody I know???

gut voch

this bird who is a safek window-crashing-addict / gilgul / stupid-bird is still coming to the shul and crashing into the window...
maybe i ought to tape a piece of paper with the GYE hotline number in that window.
עוף השמים יוליך את הקול

in unrelated news, the summer has started after much hemming and hawing, and with it the usual shmiras einayim challenges. helps to remember the 'secret' from rebbe b. if a person is empty, needy and looking for a fix then he is vulnerable and might easily get dragged into destructive behavior. if he is upbeat, content and humming a tune then the vacuum that nature abhors is not there and it will be that much easier to let the 'sights' slide right off and not register.
simcha is the secret (rebbe b)

in other unrelated news, my computer broke on thursday and needed a new hard drive installed. so right now i have a new -unfiltered- system and i have to go in to work on Sunday. i plan on putting in a filter and giving away the password on Sunday. i asked a few of my friends to ask me if i installed it on sunday to keep myself accountable.

in yet more unrelated news
melave malka beckons...
as they say: it is a segula for parnassa to tell stories about the Baal Shem Tov on motzai shabbos. but not only parnassa, and not only the Baal Shem Tov and not only on motzai shabbos...

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 29 May 2011 03:26:


Is this big yellow slug I drag around hoping it'll pick up at least a little dust.  To pick up the actual dirt, I understand, would be asking way too much.

lekovod the yartzeit of Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto - the Ramchal zy'a

Caviar, Truffles and the Ramchal: Putting things in perspective

One of the many amazing characteristics evident in the many writings of the Ramchal is a profound clarity and sense of order within a complex system of ideas. Philosophy, kabbalah and halacha all mesh fluidly and form a uniform entity.

In the preface to Derech Hashem he illustrates this point with a mashal of a splendid garden full of different varieties of flowers and plants, each arranged according to size color and character, and tended to with exacting care. A person who has wealth of knowledge is comparable to that garden as long as he understands clearly the relation and order of importance of the various ideas in his repository. Knowing many ideas and lacking the knowledge of their interaction is similar to a garden that lacks order and is untended and overgrown with weeds.

Anyone who learns the seforim of the Ramchal will be amazed at the experiences he had and the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He was a mekubal par excellence. Yet, when he wrote his Mesilas Yesharim, which is a guide for a person's growth, he did not prescribe any esoteric measures or incantations. He writes that the point of the sefer is just to remind people of the basics. Ideas that because of their simplicity and widespread familiarity they don't warrant much attention. Those are the tools of growth. The simple and basic ideas. Emuna, Ahava, Yira'h, Dveikus.

Someone may appreciate the fancier things in life and he does no wrong in doing so. But if someone were to eat caviar and truffles for breakfast every day...

For addicts this is especially important. An addiction affects our thinking possibly even more than our actions. Fancy ideas and intellectual dances are not what we need to focus on. We need the basics. True living with G-d, not living with our intellectual prowess.

Did I hear something about Michtav M'Eliyahu?  :-\

nuuu??


Does Teshuva work for this too?

Whew.  Thanks Zem.  Beautiful vort.