Friday, December 19, 2008 - Natchez MS
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Knarl along the Trace, Natchez Trace north of Jackson MS, January 4, 2008
Night camp
Wal-Mart Parking Lot in Natchez MS
Wal-Mart Supercenter in Natchez MS
Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #874, 314 Sgt. S. Prentiss Dr, Natchez, MS 39120 - (601) 442-2895
- Good level parking lot if a little cramped
- Verizon cell phone service is ok
- Verizon EVDO Broadband not available - slow service is over the Extended Network with frequent drop-outs
- Find other Wal-Marts in the area
- Check the weather here
Emptiness
Emptiness shouldn't be thought of as a negative. A lot of people misconstrue that as meaning the opposite of something is nothing. But this is something slightly different. I don't want to get into comparative religious things because that's a complicated topic. But if we were to think about it, the problem of life and death has to do with what comes in between, and what comes in between is an awful lot of suffering. We're not just talking about the pain of suffering, we're talking about suffering. Our common everyday parlance it's called stress. That's a kind of suffering and we die from this. From the standpoint of Zen Buddhism this life isn't some sort of stage mock-up for something else that comes after this. This is what we have. We're right here and we're being in this present moment. What you want to think about when you think about emptiness is a way in which to stay present. Just as, in a way, in a very strange kind of concept, there really is no such thing as time. There's no dress rehersal for anything.
The Artful Mind, Reverend Sohaku Flagg, Rinzai Buddhist priest, in an interview with Nanci Race, Jan/Feb 2003