Daily dose of spirituality

[silversolitaire]

I'm working through my daily quota of spiritual texts and stumbled across two that I don't quite understand. Perhaps one of you guys has an idea. And if not, I'll store it here and reread it later until I have achieved a higher spiritual level. And ramble a bit myself.

#1
The milk of cows of any hue is white.
The sages say that wisdom is the milk
And the sacred scriptures are the cows.

- Amritabindu Upanishad

Hm... what does this mean? That the wisdom is always the same, no matter the nature of the scriptures it was drawn from? *debates* Hey, that makes sense actually. *writes it down* Since all goes back to one Supreme Being it's perfectly logical that wisdom can be universally acceptable. I like that.

Then this would be something right along the same vein.

#2
Enlightenment is a way of saying that all things are seen in their intrinsic empty nature, their Suchness, their ungraspable wonder. Names or words are merely incidental, but that state which sees no division, no duality, is enlightenment.

- Prajnaparamita
From "Buddha Speaks," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2000.

I especially like the next one. It's very true.

#3
Everything is as it is. It has no name other than the name we give it. It is we who call it something; we give it a value. We say this thing is good or it's bad, but in itself, the thing is only as it is. It's not absolute; it's just as it is. People are just as they are.

- Ajahn Sumedho, "The Mind and the Way"

Now, this last one I don't get at all...

#4
Woe to authority, which buries its possessor, for there is not a single prophet who did not outlive four kings.

- Babylonian Talmud, "Pesachim 87b"

Someone got any insights on that?

Comments

[georgeh.livejournal.com]

Woe to authority, which buries its possessor, for there is not a single prophet who did not outlive four kings.

I'm thinking that this means that although a King will die within his lifetime, the words of a prophet will be remembered long after he is gone. For instance, even to this day, people debate the prophecies of Nostredamus. I could be wrong, of course. :)