The Unlimited Lightness of Being

I'm near the eve of making a slightly deeper commitment to this (Buddhist) path. In case you're wondering, this DOES involve some commitment. There is risk. Like anything else, nothing changes without risk.

Mountain climbing can be risky, in fact it's essential - to a point. And you'd better hope that you suffer a little, because that is essential too. If you risk nothing you gain nothing.

You have to also give up something.

You have to lose yourself to the mountain to get a return. That's why it MUST be difficult, MUST be challenging - at least somewhat.

Not to be overly dramatic, but when you climb a mountain you are trying to have a new experience, you're trying to learn something about who you really are.

None of this happens unless you go (at least a little bit) beyond what you know of yourself, beyond what you thought you were capable of.

We view ourselves in extremely limited ways.

We see our selves as some-THING that is "alive". This is what we mean when we say "I" or "me". There is this being-THING that is "me" and it is trapped by physical boundary, physical limitation.

This is why death scares the hell out of us.

"If I am only this THING then death will be the end of me!"

Has anything ever exited the universe?

Elsewhere on the blog Ive tried to show that our experience of "me-ness" cannot be defined by partial aspects of experience. We are not our thoughts, we are not our bodies, we are not our emotions, etc..

But rather then 'freaking out' on some strange notion that this means we don't exist at all, or that we are somehow not experiencing this at all, lets try to understand what this experience actually is - or at least appreciate it AS it is.

Some people have an idea that when Buddhism negates the existence of a self it actually destroys some real THING that is there. This is not the case. What Buddhism does is release the limitations that we put on our experience of all this. "THINGS" or "BEINGS" as THINGS are -simply put- nothing but limitation.

The difference between things is not a difference between THINGS

(there are no THINGS)

It is a difference between THING-NESS and No-THING-ness

We complain (maybe internally) about the possibility of dying, yet we don't complain so much anymore about being born. Whatever our experience was prior to this, one might ask, is this an improvement to that beyond all doubt?

I'm not asserting that "you existed" before you were born, I'm just saying you can't exit your own experience - no matter what that experience entails.

But you CAN remove at least SOME of the limitations on this experience.

Our "usual experience" [as my zen teacher used to call it] is fraught with self limitations and fraught with all the distress and suffering that accompany those limitations.

'Experience' happens in the mind

Mind is 'experiencing'

When our mind darts from one thought to another it is actually darting from one THING-NESS to another. The flow of thoughts in our experience is overwhelmingly continuous. The flow of THINGS in our experience is overwhelmingly continuous.

But what we don't always notice is that THING-NESS is not the whole picture.

"THINGS" don't exist!

If you continue to study and meditate you are almost guaranteed of seeing this. You will notice where all this THING-NESS hides in all aspects of your experience - emotional, physical, and of coarse mental as well.

It's subtle. But it's arisen bad results are not.

We really have to stop our craziness at some point, stop our fears, stop killing ourselves with anxiety and neurotic self obsession. Your life is too precious not to. And generally speaking, the planet is too precious not to.

Buddhism uses a lot of tools to remove the limitations you put on yourself. Zen tends to approach this by dealing with your directed intellect and your perseverance. Tantra (Tibetan Vajrayana) approaches it with those to, but mostly emphasizes creativity, emotion even unpredictability.

Eventually all aspects of your being have to get involved no matter what approach you take. It's serious business.

Changing ourselves in the Buddhist sense is not changing a single atom of any THING. The difference between the world of suffering (samsara) and the world of liberation (nirvana) is utterly no THING.

The difference between things is not a difference between THINGS

(there are no THINGS)

It is a difference between THING-NESS and No-THING-ness

It's all how you look at it, all HOW you experience it - it's all about your mind.

But we don't know what that means in it's true sense. We don't know what an unlimited mind is capable of. We don't really understand that all of this, all this entire experience is foremost an experience of quality not of "objects".

There is no "me" here and a "death" waiting somewhere over there.

I AM DEATH!

In fact, remove the "I" and remove the "death".

What do you have?

What do you fear?

What is there to fear?

Who is there to fear?

How many deaths have you gone through? Why do you THINK only one birth? How limiting the mind is when it thinks such thoughts! Maybe we can go beyond such limitations.

What if you didn't think of time in terms of days, weeks, months and years? What if instead you thought of time in a context of eons, millennia, ages?

What if you didn't just consider your family and friends as valuable, what if you saw all people that way, even all life?

What if you didn't just think of space/time in 3 dimensions, what if you thought of it in 5 or 6 or infinite dimensions?

If our minds were actually limited, were actually nothing more than merely 'a reactive process to environmental stimuli', then how can you explain creativity? How can you explain the self transcendence of love or compassion? How can you explain art? How can you explain our curiosity about this, our experience?

How can you explain Buddhism?

Sit right now, right here and just let it be. Thoughts are self liberated voidness.
Fear is the same.

Don't make THING-NESS and there are no THINGS to fear. Take every experience as the truth of no-THING-NESS, as PROOF of no-THING-NESS.

Or just watch you're thoughts come and go, there are no particular THINGS there. THINGS are made of every other THING which in essence is no-THING.

Sounds crazy I know, but what's really crazy? Look around you, just notice the distress, notice the pain in everyone. Begin to feel a different possibility is at hand. Begin to feel a little sympathy.

Next, just meditate some more, just let all this settle right into this present experience. You don't have to pick out anything in particular, you are not searching for some-THING [that's just more of the same].

You're just noticing the tiny perfection that is self revealing in each moment of your experience. This is what we so often overlook to our own detriment.