Like a Dream - how things are

Buddhist teachers try to find these ways of expressing "how things are" in effort to bring benefit to us stressed out folk. Often, they express these things as a dichotomy.

For example, we have the dichotomy between the path (aka method) and the goal (which in a sense is anti-method). Or expressed in another way, between insight (wisdom) and meditation (path).

There are many other dichotomies too, like that between your already present, innate enlightened nature and your attainment of (or need to attain) enlightenment itself. Or the one between your already present 'Buddha within' and the 'Buddha you will become'.

These are all expressed as dichotomies because we have a very hard time trying to understand something that has no comparison. So to explain and to understand this, we compare.

Ultimate truth has no comparison.

You can't call it a goal because it looks like a path when you view it from that angle. You can't call it a path because it looks like a goal for similar reasons. Ultimately speaking, it is not analogous to anyTHING because it is not a THING.

To make sense of all this you really have to dig into exactly "what is the nature of this experience I am having right now?" How are things?

To do this, in some schools of Buddhism [or to put it another way, at some stages of the path according to some schools] there is an emphasis put on a distinction between what is referred to as "calm abiding" meditation and what is called "insight" meditation.

Calm abiding is taught in it's initial stages as a method to develop "sustained attention" - kind of what I describe as "holding". This meditation uses an object or mental image (a concept) upon which you are to focus your attention in a sustained but relaxed manner. This is what most people think of as meditation.

Insight meditation on the other hand involves utilizing your curiosity - the bright and alert aspect of your mental process. This is the part of your mind that seeks to ascertain, clarify and "know" the object of attention. For example, when you analyze something, you want to see it clearly, you want to know it, to know it's true nature - this is insight as a meditation.

So these are often taught as two kinds of meditation. Ultimately speaking, these are not two separate THINGS. In Zen Buddhist meditation especially, these two are combined.

Now, one form of meditation I use that was taught to me as a kind of 'calm abiding' but can also have elements of 'insight meditation' is to use a candle flame as an object of focus.

You may use any type of candle, but I like to use the small "birthday cake" candles. The reason is that they last a short time (a few minutes) and then they go out on their own.

So you set yourself up - and the candle too - in a dark quiet place. Put the candle about 3 feet in front of you below eye level and then relax into the meditation.

Just allow your eyes to remain on the candle flame while you notice and re-notice your breath (the feeling) as it enters and leaves your nose.

Let go of all thoughts as you notice them, and just return over and over again to this simple experience.

Just notice.

Candle flame, breath, candle flame, breath, there's not much to it. Just notice when you stray from that and just return without judging good or bad.

Do this for a few minutes.

Now, while looking at the flame, just begin to analyze it.

This flame, is what? Is it the light? Is it the heat? What is the this THING we call flame? Is it the color? Is it the wick? Does it have a sharp edge or does it just fade into the surrounding area? What was the cause of the flame? Was it the match or lighter? What caused them? What gives it the label "candle flame"?

Now, is this flame a thing, or is it a collection of other things? What gives this flame duration, continuity? Is it the same flame from one moment to the next? Is there a single thing really there that is actually the flame?

You don't necessarily have to answer these questions conceptually to get the insight. But I'll go ahead and answer ;)

This THING we call the "flame" is a whole bunch of other things, conditions, causes, all coming together as an appearance we call "flame". But is there a single THING there that IS the actual THING called flame? No.

This flame is changing continuously from one moment to the next, yet it is giving the appearance of being a single flame. Does this remind you of any other things in life?

Our mind is a lot like a flame - always changing, never the same, yet continuous. Time is a lot like a flame for the same reasons. In fact, anything [or everything] is just like that flame!

And then the flame finally goes out. When this happens in a dark room during this meditation the effect can be quite profound. A lot of insight can come all at once.

The flame goes out and the nature of the flame is left. There is a kind of emptiness but still an awareness too. The flame now seems like a dream. How could something exist truly, and then not exist truly?

Was there ever really a flame?

It's not that Buddhism denies reality - Buddhism is NOT nihilism.

We grab at something in our experience that is not there - it is like a dream.

It's not that there is nothing, it's that there is no single thingNESS called "flame". Flame is just a name.

We go through life tying ourselves up in knots of anxiety, of wishes and fear. We treat each other like crap because we believe we are alone in our-self and that the world is something 'out there', away from us.

The Tibetan teachers advise to do a 'post meditation' meditation. When you get up from your seat, from your meditation cushion and go about your day, consider this all like a dream.