Here you will find the definitions -explanations really- of some of the more significant words used on the blog. The explanations here are not always cast in a traditional light, but then, neither am I. Still though, everything you read here is soundly Buddhist in meaning and context and is "vetted" through my decades of practice and study within two major schools of traditional Buddhism - those being Zen and Tibetan.
BUDDHA = a mind (an 'experiencing') imbued with clarity and certainty beyond all doubt, in it's knowing that the nature of all reality (of all experience) is nothing but 'interdependence-emptiness' (aka voidness). Simply put, a mind that sees and knows things 'the way they are'.
In addition, within the tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, it is described that a (complete and full) Buddha is: a complete BEING (with a body, voice and mind) endowed with both absolute 'wisdom' (knowing voidness as explained above) and with spontaneous and skilfully applied helpfulness (aka 'absolute compassion') in regards to bringing all other beings to the same realization of reality.
Your Buddha within (ie your Buddha nature), is merely the un-noticed potential within your experience (within your mind-body process) to become a Buddha.
The path/practice of Buddhism then is the process of actualizing your innate potential to overcome all limited views and activities with regard to true happiness (aka release and benefit).
In fact, this (a Buddha) is who and what we really are (in our true nature as conscious beings) - although we most obviously neither know nor believe that this is so - due to erroneous perceptual factors and a continuum of reinforced habits of erroneous behavior.
INTER DEPENDENCE = the fundamental way that all 'things' are. 'Things' only exist (or appear as an experience) in relation to (or as the relationship of) the parts that make them up.
Therefore, what we call a "thing" (any phenomenon, something appearing in or as any experience) is completely DEPENDENT upon this INTERplay between an infinite set of factors (ie it's parts) which serve as the basis (or cause) of the thing to appear as 'something' at all.
A car is a good example. A car is nothing but a collection of parts. What we call a "car" ONLY appears to our mind because of it's parts and the interplay of those parts. Without those factors, there is NO appearance of a car in our experience.
Without the parts, without the makers of the parts, without the parents of the makers, without the earth to support the parents, without any one of the infinite factors that go into the car's appearing, then the car ceases to appear!
In simple terms, this expresses the concept of causality; "when this becomes, that arises, with the arising of that, this becomes".
This cannot be without that, nor can that be, without this.
A more direct way to express the meaning is to simply say "things exist totally dependent upon their parts and their causes".
So because of interdependence, no thing, no appearance, no experience, at any time, anywhere, in any form what so ever, can ever be isolated or defined as an independent 'thing' in reality. Boundaries appear, but are not tenable in an ultimate sense.
In the highest, most subtle and most sublime sense, 'interdependence' is exactly the same as voidness - when expressed in conceptual terms. When you experience it directly, interdependence is completely ineffable (beyond explanation) and is utterly non conceptual.
MEDITATION = (on this blog) the simple but not easy PRACTICE of relaxing, allowing, and watching. In it's most subtle form, this can be labeled "natural presence".
Meditation in classical Buddhism is considered to be one of the 3 divisions of the 8 fold path to enlightenment. The 3 being "right view", "right meditation" and "right action".
In it's most matured and evolved teachings however, the practice of meditation encompasses all aspects of the path and goal in one actualized expression. This then, is the practice of 'taking the goal as the method'.
Ultimately, we don't meditate to attain something, we meditate because meditation is Truth as expressed by a human-Buddha being. In fact, there really is no "because.." That is not to say that nothing is attained however.
At the beginning, meditation involves a little effort- ie "holding". There is no way around this because we are starting out from a position of 'something in need of correcting'. The Buddha expressed this in his first declaration (the First Nobel Truth) regarding his insights when he pointed to the fact that life is encompassed by dissatisfaction and suffering.
This is the karma that we have to deal with, and karma (cause and effect) is how things appear to us, how we experience life. They (things, life) appear to need a path, a way to correct and attain the goal. Meditation in this context is that path to correcting.
Ultimately speaking though, there is no thing that is effort, no thing that is needed to be corrected, we're just not quiet ready to accept that yet however. Thus, we do have appearing a "goal" so-to-speak, and thus a "path" as well.
How meditation is done
Relaxing really means settling (both body and mind) right here and now, wherever (and whenever) you find yourself - sitting upright in a quiet place is highly recommended.
Allowing really means there is no thing and no thought anywhere in your experience which is capable of being an object of either attraction or aversion. Thoughts (THINGS) are void in their nature - allow them to come and go.
Watching (or observing) really means a pure awareness of (at first "noticing") THIS as THIS IS - which is ineffable (unspeakable and non conceptual) voidness-interdependence. At first and for some time, just watch your thoughts, your feelings, arise, abide and cease.
In time, notice their non-arising, non-abiding, non-ceasing. All phenomena have causes and are without essence, therefore, how can they arise as anything? And yet there is appearance.
The practice of Natural Presence meditation is the practice/activity of Buddhas.
"Natural" means things have always been this way, primordially, and that trying to attain something that has always been this way (with, as us) is unrealistic, painful, unsustainable. We can relax, we can rest here.
"Presence" means we come to SEE THIS anew in each moment, without conceptual baggage, without stopping anywhere conceptually, without making THIS into a THING. Knowing THIS, we are completely free in this unbounded, ever-changing moment.
NOTE: Mahayana Buddhism would also describe the 'presence' of a complete and full Buddha in the sense of always taking appropriate actions for the benefit of all other beings.
NO THING or NO-THINGNESS = the complete lack of essence and total lack of independent, isolated, definability within any and all phenomena.
This really is the way things are (although NOT how they appear) because all things (all experiences) are always only made of other "things".
What we call "things" APPEAR to us almost always as individual "things" or as individual events. But in reality, they do not exist in-and of-themselves, as something "from their own side". They are not "inherently" existent "things". In this way, "things" are actually "no-things".
The term "NO-THINGNESS" is synonymous with "voidness" or "emptiness-interdependence" and is conceptually opposite of "THING" or "THINGNESS".
THING or THINGNESS = the common perception we all usually have that certain experiences or appearances stand on their own as absolutely definable isolated and independent 'objects' or 'events'.
An example would be the perception that "I" (a subject - also a type of "thing") am "here" in a world of "objects" that exist out there.
Each of these notions is mentally imbued with "THINGNESS".
"I" is a thing. "AM" is a thing. "HERE" is a thing. "OBJECTS" are things. "OUT THERE" is a thing. Etc....
For us usually, we find "meaning" only in this aspect of "thingness" in our experience - which causes pain and frustration because "THINGS" never last, are insubstantial. This is our usual experience when we do not know the way things really are.
In meditation, or in Buddhist practice, this is the known as the "object to be refuted", to be rejected, to be removed, renounced and or abandon.
VOID or VOIDNESS (aka "emptiness") = the lack of a substantial, independent, isolatable, essential or 'self-unique' quality within any object that appears in our experience. The lack of "THINGNESS" within all things.
Not limited to "objects" per se as normally understood, voidness also applies to the nature of all experiences which we can ever have. All things are void is the ultimate truth of all things.
Knowing (fully experiencing) voidness as exactly identical with interdependence in the exact same moment, is said according to Buddhism to be the highest knowing possible.
This is because although all things are in fact void in their nature, they still appear (interdependently) in our experience as void things that we experience. Their appearing is their voidness, their voidness is their appearing. Aside from voidness there is no appearing, aside from appearing there is no voidness.
Knowing the void nature of all our experiences allows us to utterly 'let go' of these experiences in the way that sand flows through your hands when you pick it up.
Thus it is possible to attain a more realistic and sustainable way of being.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
SANITY - vs our usual way
It's insane that we humans destroy so much, so many of each other. We have no clue about how to respect those and what is around us. Now we are killing a whole ocean. Sad, pathetic, painful. It doesn't have to be this way.
Although I know I get "preachy like", it's really not that I'm trying to convert you to a "religion". I'm not even sure if Buddhism qualifies as a "religion". It has been called a "science of the mind" by the Dalai Lama. But I have to admit that it also addresses some of the same points that "religion" addresses, some of the same questions.
So in a way it is NOT a religion, and in a way it IS. But really, the important question that it addresses is "does it help?"
Yes, it does. And you should NOT be satisfied with it until it helps YOU.
How does it help?
It benefits [you and me] by releasing us from the need to grab onto things that don't exist.
Grabbing onto things that don't exist is tat amount to insanity and that is the world we live in...usually. It's painful and frankly, it often sucks.
Usually, when we say something "exists" we also understand that to mean a thing is "real", also and more importantly, that the thing has a quality of permanence aka an "essence" to it. This is almost always how we look at the world and how we look at our own lives.
When we learn the alphabet we learn that the letter "A" exists, but does it?
/ is a line. And \ is a line. Also - is another line as well. Put them together and we get a shape that looks like A. But do these lines or does this shape contain some THING really there that we can call the letter "A"? Is there an "essence" in this THING we call the letter "A"?
If things really do have this "essence" to them [in them] then we really SHOULD be grabbing onto them. Then it aught to really be a big deal when we lose them.
In fact, if things really had this aspect of "realness" in them, we should just accept that life is filled with sheer agony because we can never really possess this sort of "permanence" within anything.
Thankfully, this is not the case.
I remember one moment when this became clear to me. One Halloween, my daughter and I had carved a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. After a couple days it was time to get rid of the rotting jack-o-lantern. I went out into the back of our apartment where there was a creek and some woods to "recycle" the rotting gourd. I began to break up the jack-o-lantern into smaller pieces and toss them around.
Then it hit me really strongly.
If this thing REALLY existed as it SEEMED to exist, then how come it is now becoming non-existent? How could this THING which we called a "jack-o-lantern" [or pumpkin or anything what-so-ever] "exist" as a real THING with it's own independent THINGNESS in one moment, and then in the next moment NOT exist that way???
It couldn't!
It NEVER existed in the way it SEEMED to exist - as some THING with it's own being, it's own essence, it's own realness. In fact, that is exactly why I COULD see it one moment, and then not see it. That is exactly why I could touch it, and then not touch it.
THE ONLY WAY SOMETHING CAN EXIST IS IF IT HAS NO PERMANENCE TO IT AT ALL, NO ESSENCE, NO "THINGNESS".
If that pumpkin existed the way we all usually THINK it exists, then it could not be destroyed, it could not change, it could never rot.
Yet, THAT is precisely how we look at the world - as though there is some-THING there that has an essence, a center, a "permanence" quality.
Because we look at the world this way, we suffer. We cause harm to the world, to everybody in it. And we cause ourselves to be full of stress, anxiety, ambition, greed, hate, ignorance.
If we could only learn to see, learn to understand, to calm down, to relax, allow, observe. If we could do that much we might be able to live another way - a way that's not so insane.
We are greedy for THINGS that don't exist, that don't have any essence to them.
We fear THINGS that are not real, that are impermanent and cannot be described accurately as some THING existing.
We are ignorant because usually, all we see and try to deal with is the surface appearance of things and events which are only appearing as one thing but are actually not that way at all.
If you say, "What about death, we should at least fear that!"
I'd ask you to analyze that. What is "death"?
Is it some THING you can separate from life? Can you distinguish it completely from anything else? Really? Not even science can explain death in any meaningful way.
Are there mountains? What are mountains? Do they exist as some individual THING completely distinct from the sky around them, from my observing them?
So you may have an impulse to fear death - I sure do - but what is that impulse based on? What is any greed or fear based on? What is our deep ignorance in dealing with reality based on?
Not much as it turns out.
When you see that every "THING" is actually "everything", when you see that this really means no "THING" exists as a "THING" and that this applies to every aspect of your experience, then and only then do you find that there is nothing to be greedy about, nothing really to base our fear on.
Then we are no longer so ignorant in how we approach others and the environment.
When you know THIS as a reality in a very robust way, you can then make use of that knowing by just chilling out a bit.
Just be here, let go of all THINGNESS and just be present with the no-THING that is everything.
That is releasing. That is sanity. That is respect. That is meditation.
That is the benefit of Buddhism.
Although I know I get "preachy like", it's really not that I'm trying to convert you to a "religion". I'm not even sure if Buddhism qualifies as a "religion". It has been called a "science of the mind" by the Dalai Lama. But I have to admit that it also addresses some of the same points that "religion" addresses, some of the same questions.
So in a way it is NOT a religion, and in a way it IS. But really, the important question that it addresses is "does it help?"
Yes, it does. And you should NOT be satisfied with it until it helps YOU.
How does it help?
It benefits [you and me] by releasing us from the need to grab onto things that don't exist.
Grabbing onto things that don't exist is tat amount to insanity and that is the world we live in...usually. It's painful and frankly, it often sucks.
Usually, when we say something "exists" we also understand that to mean a thing is "real", also and more importantly, that the thing has a quality of permanence aka an "essence" to it. This is almost always how we look at the world and how we look at our own lives.
When we learn the alphabet we learn that the letter "A" exists, but does it?
/ is a line. And \ is a line. Also - is another line as well. Put them together and we get a shape that looks like A. But do these lines or does this shape contain some THING really there that we can call the letter "A"? Is there an "essence" in this THING we call the letter "A"?
If things really do have this "essence" to them [in them] then we really SHOULD be grabbing onto them. Then it aught to really be a big deal when we lose them.
In fact, if things really had this aspect of "realness" in them, we should just accept that life is filled with sheer agony because we can never really possess this sort of "permanence" within anything.
Thankfully, this is not the case.
I remember one moment when this became clear to me. One Halloween, my daughter and I had carved a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. After a couple days it was time to get rid of the rotting jack-o-lantern. I went out into the back of our apartment where there was a creek and some woods to "recycle" the rotting gourd. I began to break up the jack-o-lantern into smaller pieces and toss them around.
Then it hit me really strongly.
If this thing REALLY existed as it SEEMED to exist, then how come it is now becoming non-existent? How could this THING which we called a "jack-o-lantern" [or pumpkin or anything what-so-ever] "exist" as a real THING with it's own independent THINGNESS in one moment, and then in the next moment NOT exist that way???
It couldn't!
It NEVER existed in the way it SEEMED to exist - as some THING with it's own being, it's own essence, it's own realness. In fact, that is exactly why I COULD see it one moment, and then not see it. That is exactly why I could touch it, and then not touch it.
THE ONLY WAY SOMETHING CAN EXIST IS IF IT HAS NO PERMANENCE TO IT AT ALL, NO ESSENCE, NO "THINGNESS".
If that pumpkin existed the way we all usually THINK it exists, then it could not be destroyed, it could not change, it could never rot.
Yet, THAT is precisely how we look at the world - as though there is some-THING there that has an essence, a center, a "permanence" quality.
Because we look at the world this way, we suffer. We cause harm to the world, to everybody in it. And we cause ourselves to be full of stress, anxiety, ambition, greed, hate, ignorance.
If we could only learn to see, learn to understand, to calm down, to relax, allow, observe. If we could do that much we might be able to live another way - a way that's not so insane.
We are greedy for THINGS that don't exist, that don't have any essence to them.
We fear THINGS that are not real, that are impermanent and cannot be described accurately as some THING existing.
We are ignorant because usually, all we see and try to deal with is the surface appearance of things and events which are only appearing as one thing but are actually not that way at all.
If you say, "What about death, we should at least fear that!"
I'd ask you to analyze that. What is "death"?
Is it some THING you can separate from life? Can you distinguish it completely from anything else? Really? Not even science can explain death in any meaningful way.
Are there mountains? What are mountains? Do they exist as some individual THING completely distinct from the sky around them, from my observing them?
So you may have an impulse to fear death - I sure do - but what is that impulse based on? What is any greed or fear based on? What is our deep ignorance in dealing with reality based on?
Not much as it turns out.
When you see that every "THING" is actually "everything", when you see that this really means no "THING" exists as a "THING" and that this applies to every aspect of your experience, then and only then do you find that there is nothing to be greedy about, nothing really to base our fear on.
Then we are no longer so ignorant in how we approach others and the environment.
When you know THIS as a reality in a very robust way, you can then make use of that knowing by just chilling out a bit.
Just be here, let go of all THINGNESS and just be present with the no-THING that is everything.
That is releasing. That is sanity. That is respect. That is meditation.
That is the benefit of Buddhism.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
KNOWING - the grounds for your 'happy'
Have you ever tried
To grab the sky?
I tried to look at the sky
But I couldn't see it
Instead, I saw just sky
Then, every where I looked
Only sky
So, I grabbed for it
And when I opened my hand
There was nothing there
Only sky
Seeing nothing to see
Being nothing to be
You can't have genuine freedom
By grabbing for it
The more you grab for it
The farther away it gets
Buddhism is about so called "release" and the "benefit of release".
To say this another way, there is peace when you let go, when you no longer grab at "THING" (THING-NESS).
But to truly and completely "let go" we have to KNOW that there is really NO-THING in the least to grab onto.
In fact, we have to KNOW that there was never any THING really to grab onto in the first place.
In other words, we have to have a grounds for releasing, we have to have a real, tangible and robust basis for releasing.
Without such a grounds, to just "let go" won't work!
On what "grounds" then do we release?
On the grounds of emptiness-interdependence.
On the grounds of VOIDNESS.
Buddhism says that grabbing and hanging onto THINGS (which is our usual way of relating to and expressing our life) is an unrealistic and painful way to relate to this experience.
It's unrealistic and painful because it contradicts reality "as it is". In other words, our usual way is "unsustainable".
To change this, you really need to undermine the CAUSE.
This is why it is essential to understand and realize "emptiness-interdependence" or what is also called "voidness".
Realizing emptiness-interdependence or "voidness" is what undermines the cause of our existential suffering.
There are no THINGS to hold onto.
But, because we so deeply THINK there are, we have to cut as deeply as possible into that thought in order to undermine it as a cause.
However, we can't just "change our thoughts" by sheer force alone - especially our impulsive and deeply ingrained assumptions and beliefs. We have to get to the root cause - we have to remove the "cause of" or the "grounds for" grabbing and replace that with the "grounds" for release.
To will ourselves to enlightenment is not tenable - especially in the long run. Mind is not only composed of will, there is also a "knowing" aspect.
If the knowing aspect of your mind (whether correctly or incorrectly) conflicts with your will, then no matter how "willful" you are the "knowing" aspect will undermine that.
So what then, is the basis of our "impulse to attach" or to grab onto THINGS? What is the basis of our distress?
Not knowing is the cause.
IT IS AN IGNORANCE OF THE WAY THINGS ARE
THAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF OUR INABILITY TO RELEASE
TO RELEASE, WE HAVE TO UNDERMINE THE BASIS FOR GRABBING
TO RELEASE WE HAVE TO REPLACE IGNORANCE WITH KNOWING
We can't just declare that "I will let go of my attachments" and be done with it. We can't just declare "I believe all things are emptiness" and simply see them in this way.
We have to develop the insight, the "KNOWING" that releases our minds from the very impulse to attach.
We have to undermine the cause of attachment in order to truly "let go". In other words, we have to replace the "not knowing" with KNOWING.
KNOWING IS THE REMEDY
This is why the Buddha came to the profound understanding that THIS VERY MOMENT is where we need to be, because experiencing THIS VERY MOMENT is what undermines the basis for attaching.
And understand as well, it's not that we need to "stop our thinking" in order to stop attaching, that alone won't do either. Thought's are no THING in and of themselves which are inherently good or inherently bad. In fact, THIS VERY MOMENT (whether the thought is there or not) is where knowing is found and KNOWING IS THE REMEDY.
THIS VERY MOMENT IS WHAT WE SEEK
AWAY FROM THIS, WE ATTACH ONLY TO THINGS
TO BE TRULY PRESENT IS TO BE WITHOUT THINGS
TO BE TRULY WITHOUT THINGS IS TO *KNOW* THERE ARE NO THINGS
ANYWHERE BUT HERE, AND THERE IS THINGNESS
ANYTIME BUT NOW, AND THERE IS THINGNESS
TO BE PRESENT IS TO *KNOW* THERE ARE NO THINGS
Enlightenment is not just a "quiet and stable" mind. Nirvana requires the complete honesty of KNOWING that there are no THINGS to attach to - KNOWING that there is NO basis for attachment of any kind.
Without this KNOWLEDGE, what ever you get from meditation, what ever you get from Buddhism will be just a temporary fix.
This is also why it is so important to study, to try to understand reality, to pay attention to your experience with curiosity, with an open and "seeking" mind that isn't afraid to be challenged in it's beliefs and assumptions.
This very mind that SEEKS to know truth is the very mind that KNOWS truth.
Buddhism, unlike many other religions, does not ask for your "blind faith". It rather demands that you do the intellectual work that a deeper and truer faith will naturally arise out of.
But why "THIS VERY MOMENT"? Why PRESENCE?
If you really understand "voidness" you also understand that it is the same as "interdependence".
If you understand "interdependence" then you understand that what ever experience you're having right now is completely beyond any definable explanation of it as a THING in any way what so ever.
To define something is to "contain" or isolate it. Reality can never be isolated! Reality can never be contained in an explanation. Reality is empty of THINGNESS.
The thing you try to isolate (what ever you point to) or explain, is in reality, all things all at once.
This is also that, that is also this, past is also future, present is also past, you are also me, effects cannot arise without a cause and causes cannot be without effects. THIS is interdependence. And interdependence is exactly voidness or emptiness.
We cannot attach to any THING because there are no THINGS in isolation that exist. There are no isolatable (DEFINABLE) THINGS.
But we can't STOP there either! Why?
Because to "stop" is to create another THING where none really is.
Presence, or NOWNESS is always undefinable because it is dynamic, always moving, always changing, and most importantly, all inclusive.
THIS, HERE, NOW is where interdependence reveals itself - as what is sometimes called "totality". This is where knowing is found.
So in Buddhism the essential teaching is to simply "be here", where no-THING is, where there is no individual THING to attach to. THIS is total presence. THIS is knowing.
When you are truly here, emptiness or "voidness" reveals itself as the grounds of or basis of "totality".
There is release because each moment is -in reality- already completely free from being anything to attach to. Your job is to KNOW THIS.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Images of the Buddha - actual pics!
I took some photos of Buddha today and they came out quite clear IMHO.
Here is one..
Do you see the Buddha?
Back in high school I was pretty stressed out. Everything was so raw, so deep and intense - as it usually is for most teenagers I guess. Back then, I was beginning to practice meditation even before I had ever really heard of Buddhism. I would get out of school [sometimes skip school before eventually dropping out altogether] and head for my "space". This was of coarse not "myspace" but my "space" - way, way before personal computers.
My "space" was a small, grassy, tree lined hill in a park not far from my home. I would lay down on the side of the hill which had the most open view of the sky.
Then, I would turn my head off, no thinking allowed. In fact though, I was still sort of thinking. I would just imagine that there was only me and the sky with no earth below. I would just fly through the sky as far and as fast as I wanted to go in any direction. Nothing could impede my flying or falling. I would just turn everything loose and fly, feeling the wind, feeling the sun and the occasional cloud. I was completely free for a while and my stress was really gone while this lasted.
"Sky Gazing" is a kind of meditation that comes from the Tibetan tradition called Dzogchen ("ZO chen"). Dzogchen means "great complete" or "great perfection". This tradition - like Zen Buddhism - puts an emphasis on your 'innate enlightenment'. Your "innate" enlightenment is also called your "Buddha nature" or your innate "natural nirvana".
What is natural nirvana?
Things are complete. Some might say it as things are "perfect", but to me that implies a sort of "goodness" within things and I think that what we're really talking about goes beyond goodness or "badness".
This "completeness" is an innate (natural) quality of all phenomena, of all experiences, but we miss it in our usual way of thinking.
When we "miss" the natural completeness of our experience we create this un-natural world of THING-NESS and THINGS to grab onto and in Buddhism this world is given the name of "samsara"
THINGS don't exist!
A "THING" is an isolation.
"Isolation" is impossible.
"Interdependence" is reality, but not as a THING called "interdependence".
Things appear, but they appear based on their emptiness. In other words, they appear as interdependence-emptiness. They are without THING-NESS. This is the concealed truth of all things and when this truth is no longer concealed, or when it is "cognized" the cognition is called "attained nirvana".
So natural nirvana (aka "your Buddha nature") is just (or exactly) the truth of phenomena that is concealed within our 'samsaric" experience of the world. It is a potential experience when we miss it. It is a realized truth when we see it.
We have to undo that "missing it".
This is where meditation as a "path" or a "practice" comes in.
Meditation as a "path" is the process of uncovering the innate truth that is exactly THE TRUTH precisely because things have ALWAYS or primordially been this way.
The unique path of Buddhist meditation is to take this truth, this innate state of THIS as THIS is, and use that potential as the path to realize the goal.
Meditation changes nothing.
The path IS the goal.
Meditation changes everything.
When we look at the world it looks like a pile of shit. But when a fly looks at a pile of shit that pile of shit is a feast.
The world is a pile of shit that has within it the potential to be a feast!
There is an innate completeness to things but it is only a potential until we actualize the potential as our truth. That is what Buddhism is about.
The world is a pile of shit.
Actualizing means ridding our experience of the THINGS that block the realization of the completeness.
The world is a feast.
Here is another shot of Buddha I took in the bus yard at work today..
Please go get you some "attained nirvana".
The "sky gazing" that I do has very few rules.
Find a place with a view
A viewless view is best, but anywhere will do
Look up, look out
Endless, boundless, infinite
Space, freedom, uninhibited
Not nothingness, which is something
Awareness is present
Nothing to be aware of
Emptiness is presence
Complete as it is
Nothing to add to or take away
Not future, not past, not even now
Just emptiness, awareness, emptiness
Just sky
Please feel free to use the photos you find here for your 'sky gazing' practice on your computer - it works well in lieu of the real thing.
"Rules" for sky gazing are as follows:
Don't become enthralled by the beauty of the sky, but don't suppress the beauty either.
Don't focus on one particular aspect of the sky, but don't look around and become distracted either.
The best sky's have some clouds, but clouds can't hinder the vast sky.
Don't think about the sky when sky gazing, but don't suppress your thoughts either.
Don't analyze your sky gazing, but do notice the emptiness and awareness that is present.
When you breath out when sky gazing sometimes say AHHHHhhh..., but most of the time don't.
Just sky gaze, let it all go and sky gaze.
Here are a couple more pics I found of the Buddha - these were already online so I guess I ripped them off.. PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM FULL SIZE!
PS - Ive added one more image of the Buddha that I took to help you with your "sky gazing" meditation. Don't forget to CLICK ON THE PHOTOS (all of them) to see the FULL version:
Here is one..
Do you see the Buddha?
Back in high school I was pretty stressed out. Everything was so raw, so deep and intense - as it usually is for most teenagers I guess. Back then, I was beginning to practice meditation even before I had ever really heard of Buddhism. I would get out of school [sometimes skip school before eventually dropping out altogether] and head for my "space". This was of coarse not "myspace" but my "space" - way, way before personal computers.
My "space" was a small, grassy, tree lined hill in a park not far from my home. I would lay down on the side of the hill which had the most open view of the sky.
Then, I would turn my head off, no thinking allowed. In fact though, I was still sort of thinking. I would just imagine that there was only me and the sky with no earth below. I would just fly through the sky as far and as fast as I wanted to go in any direction. Nothing could impede my flying or falling. I would just turn everything loose and fly, feeling the wind, feeling the sun and the occasional cloud. I was completely free for a while and my stress was really gone while this lasted.
"Sky Gazing" is a kind of meditation that comes from the Tibetan tradition called Dzogchen ("ZO chen"). Dzogchen means "great complete" or "great perfection". This tradition - like Zen Buddhism - puts an emphasis on your 'innate enlightenment'. Your "innate" enlightenment is also called your "Buddha nature" or your innate "natural nirvana".
What is natural nirvana?
Things are complete. Some might say it as things are "perfect", but to me that implies a sort of "goodness" within things and I think that what we're really talking about goes beyond goodness or "badness".
This "completeness" is an innate (natural) quality of all phenomena, of all experiences, but we miss it in our usual way of thinking.
When we "miss" the natural completeness of our experience we create this un-natural world of THING-NESS and THINGS to grab onto and in Buddhism this world is given the name of "samsara"
THINGS don't exist!
A "THING" is an isolation.
"Isolation" is impossible.
"Interdependence" is reality, but not as a THING called "interdependence".
Things appear, but they appear based on their emptiness. In other words, they appear as interdependence-emptiness. They are without THING-NESS. This is the concealed truth of all things and when this truth is no longer concealed, or when it is "cognized" the cognition is called "attained nirvana".
So natural nirvana (aka "your Buddha nature") is just (or exactly) the truth of phenomena that is concealed within our 'samsaric" experience of the world. It is a potential experience when we miss it. It is a realized truth when we see it.
We have to undo that "missing it".
This is where meditation as a "path" or a "practice" comes in.
Meditation as a "path" is the process of uncovering the innate truth that is exactly THE TRUTH precisely because things have ALWAYS or primordially been this way.
The unique path of Buddhist meditation is to take this truth, this innate state of THIS as THIS is, and use that potential as the path to realize the goal.
Meditation changes nothing.
The path IS the goal.
Meditation changes everything.
When we look at the world it looks like a pile of shit. But when a fly looks at a pile of shit that pile of shit is a feast.
The world is a pile of shit that has within it the potential to be a feast!
There is an innate completeness to things but it is only a potential until we actualize the potential as our truth. That is what Buddhism is about.
The world is a pile of shit.
Actualizing means ridding our experience of the THINGS that block the realization of the completeness.
The world is a feast.
Here is another shot of Buddha I took in the bus yard at work today..
Please go get you some "attained nirvana".
The "sky gazing" that I do has very few rules.
Find a place with a view
A viewless view is best, but anywhere will do
Look up, look out
Endless, boundless, infinite
Space, freedom, uninhibited
Not nothingness, which is something
Awareness is present
Nothing to be aware of
Emptiness is presence
Complete as it is
Nothing to add to or take away
Not future, not past, not even now
Just emptiness, awareness, emptiness
Just sky
Please feel free to use the photos you find here for your 'sky gazing' practice on your computer - it works well in lieu of the real thing.
"Rules" for sky gazing are as follows:
Don't become enthralled by the beauty of the sky, but don't suppress the beauty either.
Don't focus on one particular aspect of the sky, but don't look around and become distracted either.
The best sky's have some clouds, but clouds can't hinder the vast sky.
Don't think about the sky when sky gazing, but don't suppress your thoughts either.
Don't analyze your sky gazing, but do notice the emptiness and awareness that is present.
When you breath out when sky gazing sometimes say AHHHHhhh..., but most of the time don't.
Just sky gaze, let it all go and sky gaze.
Here are a couple more pics I found of the Buddha - these were already online so I guess I ripped them off.. PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM FULL SIZE!
PS - Ive added one more image of the Buddha that I took to help you with your "sky gazing" meditation. Don't forget to CLICK ON THE PHOTOS (all of them) to see the FULL version:
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Problems, Peace and Ecstasy
Buddhism says on one level, look, this situation, this experience here is unsatisfactory, and more than that, it cannot possibly be satisfactory when experience is on this level.
But then, on another level, it says, the nature of any experience is neither inherently satisfactory nor unsatisfactory, on this level it is 'what it is' without being definable as any-THING. On this level there is neither satisfaction nor non-satisfaction.
Finally, Buddhism goes on to say that this experience, right now, is completely, totally and purely satisfactory. In fact, on this level there is nothing but pure satisfaction itself.
How is this possible? How can we reconcile these three seemingly opposing views of reality?
Each of these "descriptions" are utterly true at their particular level of experience. When we cling to any of these three levels of truth we create a cognitive dissonance, a mental conflict - a kind of suffering.
We do have to recognize that in our usual way of life we have these problems - the fist teaching of Buddha was to point out the suffering or unsatisfactoriness in life.
But when we begin to look into this we discover something deeper.
Looking into the cause of these problems reveals that their source is groundless, their basis is baseless, their nature is emptiness. THING-NESS is something that comes from within. THING-NESS does not abide 'out there'. THING-NESS is the cause. There are no THINGS so let go of that.
We might be tempted then to leave it at that, to stay at that level, and why not, why shouldn't we? It is utterly the truth and it sounds pretty peaceful so why not just view it all as no-THING?
Because truth is not a THING, it can't abide as anyTHING, even as the profound truth of emptiness or interdependence.
In meditation, we can approach our thoughts as though they are obstacles to the object of our meditation. Thoughts arise, distraction, you notice this and correct, you return to meditation. That is like seeing life as a problem. This is good on one level.
Then, in meditation, we can also see these thoughts as empty, as relative, as nothing to be concerned about. Here you just sit with whatever appears knowing no THING is inherently there to be an obstacle. This also is good on one level.
But even this level of meditation gives way to something deeper.
Life is not just problems.
Life is not just peace.
Life is also ecstasy.
THIS as 'THIS IS' is more than something that needs to be corrected. THIS as 'THIS IS' is more than something that needs to be recognized.
THIS as 'THIS IS' is also pure being.
Whether you correct your experience or not (in meditation), whether you recognize the nature of your experience or not (in meditation), your experience is more than (beyond) correcting or recognizing in meditation.
Pure being is who we are in truth.
In Buddhism this is called our Buddha Nature.
THAT is exactly who we really are.
It doesn't need correcting. It doesn't need recognition. We are THAT whether or not we correct our experience or recognize our experience for what it is.
When we experience life as problem then we are problem Buddha. When we experience life as peace and clarity, we are peace and clarity Buddha.
This however is like making the body and mind of a Buddha, but without the feelings and without the speech.
Speech is expression, communication, feeling. Release and benefit always have to do with that, with the whole of our experience, not just correcting and not just recognizing.
Expressing pure being 'as it is' is actualizing who you are right now in totality.
When you take this experience of interdependence, of relativity and subtract the illusory need or desire to correct it, you arrive at the ecstasy of pure being - in other words bliss/emptiness. Bliss minus "bliss" as any THING to cling to.
This is our complete experience 'as it is' NOW.
It's not a matter of correcting, although you can make good use of correcting.
It's not a matter of recognizing, although you have to recognize this - "recognizing" is still removed slightly from this 'as it is'.
Reality goes beyond both body and mind. It is so present, so complete and total that you simply miss it in any attempt to 'attain' it. Buddhism helps, but you have to be ready to (have to develop the confidence to) ditch the raft you used to cross the river or it will weigh you down carrying it everywhere.
Pure Being is THIS, and THIS has always been the case.
Enjoy it.
But then, on another level, it says, the nature of any experience is neither inherently satisfactory nor unsatisfactory, on this level it is 'what it is' without being definable as any-THING. On this level there is neither satisfaction nor non-satisfaction.
Finally, Buddhism goes on to say that this experience, right now, is completely, totally and purely satisfactory. In fact, on this level there is nothing but pure satisfaction itself.
How is this possible? How can we reconcile these three seemingly opposing views of reality?
Each of these "descriptions" are utterly true at their particular level of experience. When we cling to any of these three levels of truth we create a cognitive dissonance, a mental conflict - a kind of suffering.
We do have to recognize that in our usual way of life we have these problems - the fist teaching of Buddha was to point out the suffering or unsatisfactoriness in life.
But when we begin to look into this we discover something deeper.
Looking into the cause of these problems reveals that their source is groundless, their basis is baseless, their nature is emptiness. THING-NESS is something that comes from within. THING-NESS does not abide 'out there'. THING-NESS is the cause. There are no THINGS so let go of that.
We might be tempted then to leave it at that, to stay at that level, and why not, why shouldn't we? It is utterly the truth and it sounds pretty peaceful so why not just view it all as no-THING?
Because truth is not a THING, it can't abide as anyTHING, even as the profound truth of emptiness or interdependence.
In meditation, we can approach our thoughts as though they are obstacles to the object of our meditation. Thoughts arise, distraction, you notice this and correct, you return to meditation. That is like seeing life as a problem. This is good on one level.
Then, in meditation, we can also see these thoughts as empty, as relative, as nothing to be concerned about. Here you just sit with whatever appears knowing no THING is inherently there to be an obstacle. This also is good on one level.
But even this level of meditation gives way to something deeper.
Life is not just problems.
Life is not just peace.
Life is also ecstasy.
THIS as 'THIS IS' is more than something that needs to be corrected. THIS as 'THIS IS' is more than something that needs to be recognized.
THIS as 'THIS IS' is also pure being.
Whether you correct your experience or not (in meditation), whether you recognize the nature of your experience or not (in meditation), your experience is more than (beyond) correcting or recognizing in meditation.
Pure being is who we are in truth.
In Buddhism this is called our Buddha Nature.
THAT is exactly who we really are.
It doesn't need correcting. It doesn't need recognition. We are THAT whether or not we correct our experience or recognize our experience for what it is.
When we experience life as problem then we are problem Buddha. When we experience life as peace and clarity, we are peace and clarity Buddha.
This however is like making the body and mind of a Buddha, but without the feelings and without the speech.
Speech is expression, communication, feeling. Release and benefit always have to do with that, with the whole of our experience, not just correcting and not just recognizing.
Expressing pure being 'as it is' is actualizing who you are right now in totality.
When you take this experience of interdependence, of relativity and subtract the illusory need or desire to correct it, you arrive at the ecstasy of pure being - in other words bliss/emptiness. Bliss minus "bliss" as any THING to cling to.
This is our complete experience 'as it is' NOW.
It's not a matter of correcting, although you can make good use of correcting.
It's not a matter of recognizing, although you have to recognize this - "recognizing" is still removed slightly from this 'as it is'.
Reality goes beyond both body and mind. It is so present, so complete and total that you simply miss it in any attempt to 'attain' it. Buddhism helps, but you have to be ready to (have to develop the confidence to) ditch the raft you used to cross the river or it will weigh you down carrying it everywhere.
Pure Being is THIS, and THIS has always been the case.
Enjoy it.
The Intimacy of Death - practicing your life
Thing is, this is not bullshit. Not really bullshit at all.
It may seem like that, but any bullshit is all secondary. The bullshit is the "ism" in Buddhism.
The "Buddh" part is just to be awake, just to be fully alive in your experience - whatever shape it takes.
When we say "Im alive" that is a shape, a THING, a form. When we say "my death" that is a shape, a THING, a form.
Both of these are just elaboration on a theme.
The essence of the theme though, is not anything speakable, completely beyond words. In Buddhism they still try to express this though with words like "thus" or THIS.
You start to notice "thus" (THIS) when the doctor tells you that you only have weeks to live. THEN you pay attention to thus.
Mostly, we're not fully alive. We even die before we live usually. But then death puts this all into the proper perspective.
You and I are dying right now. We have terminal life disease.
Because we are born we get to die, we get to experience this great loss of utterly every aspect of our experience. Nothing really is analogous to what we will go through.
But this is right now how all this is.
How long do you have to live?
When are you going to die?
We fill our experience up with distractions, but the very nature of all this is itself un-distractedness. The very nature of this experience we are having right now is awakeness. We don't notice.
Dying brings this message home if we pay attention to our dying - which is right now.
There is no right way or wrong way to die.
I knew this guy who died of AIDS and he was extremely scared and angry almost to the point of insanity right up to the end. I felt sad for him because he couldn't accept his condition at all but then I also thought maybe I might be crazy like that as well someday.
I didn't however, think he was dying in a "wrong" way. He had the right to die in what ever way he needed to. We all do.
I witnessed a murder one time on the streets of Seattle. This man was stabbed (randomly by a crazy homeless person) in his heart and he basically died in my arms. He even looked in my eyes as he went. I felt that with him, in his case, there was some acceptance, some sense of "resignation" [as my old zen teacher once put it] as he went.
He earned his right to die in that way, but it wasn't right or wrong. Some people are quietly resigned, others fight as much as they can, who are we to interfere in such a moment with our judgments.
When will you die?
Is that a long time away?
Buddhism has a lot to do with death because death is completely intimate, completely sacred, completely personal, completely unyielding, completely real, and completely now.
There is a Tibetan saying that partially goes, "We are born alone, we will die alone". That hits home.
Just think about that for a second. Not about the philosophy behind it, because Buddhism also says that we are never alone. But just contemplate these words for a bit, not whether or not it is correct from a philosophical perspective, just let it sink in as it is..
We are born alone
We will die alone
Death is touching truth. Life is too, we just don't notice it. We need to find a realistic way to relate to this most intimate of experiences.
I new this other guy who died. While on his death bed his friend kept telling him to "follow the light, let go and follow the light..."
That really IS just bullshit! No one should "command" someone to do something while they are dying! The process of dying is too serious and too intimate for that. The dying guy finally yelled at him to shut up at one point.
Reading to someone who is dying or suggesting something yeah, that's ok in my book, simply listening to them is best of coarse, but trying to impose your phony beliefs on someone as they are going through the purest moment of their experience is a crime.
When you study Buddhism you study your death. Practicing Buddhism is practicing your death. Switch the word "death" to "life" and you see what I mean from a different perspective. Regardless of the words, either perspective is true.
WE ARE DYING
You think this is not the case but it is.
Buddhism is not bullshit because life-death is not bullshit. We make it bullshit by wasting it.
YOU ARE DYING
I read this story on line about the Dalai Lama:
"When the Dalai Lama turned 58 years old, a reporter asked him what he was going to do next with his life. He answered that he was going to prepare for death. The interviewer inquired about his health, and the Dalai Lama replied that he wasn’t sick, but that his body was impermanent."
It really is amazing that humans have come up with Buddhism.
Each moment of our experience includes every other moment. We just don't notice this! Meditating on our death removes the bullshit from our experience and replaces it with the "notice" part.
You don't have to necessarily "visualize" your dying process to meditate on death. Really, any Buddhist meditation, any Buddhist method is a meditation on death because Buddhism points toward truth - no matter what you name it.
Death is truth because it's opposite is usually avoidance, distraction, pre-occupation. Death rips this all away, or it removes it in a control manner if we face this moment as it is now by paying attention to our dying-living. Either way, truth gets revealed.
And because truth gets revealed this is why we almost universally, intuitively respect death as being so intimate, so sacred - at least we should.
Shutting down, letting go of, seeing thru, eliminating the cognitive distractions we so cling to is what Buddhism is about. Don't be fooled by the appearance of it as "just another religion", this is not bullshit unless we make it into bullshit.
WE ARE DYING NOW
What are you going to distract yourself with?
I know you don't want to face this (life-death), neither do I, but here we are, right now, what should we do with this? What should we do with our experience?
Life is suffering. Life is stressful and unsatisfying. Life is fleeting and ever changing. Life is loss. Life is death.
But because it is all these things it is precious too.
Life is that tree, that cloud, that smile, that taste, that joke, that comb by the sink in the bathroom.
WE ARE BORN ALONE
WE WILL DIE ALONE
We die each and every moment. We live each and every moment. We die each and every moment.
Right there
Right there exactly
It may seem like that, but any bullshit is all secondary. The bullshit is the "ism" in Buddhism.
The "Buddh" part is just to be awake, just to be fully alive in your experience - whatever shape it takes.
When we say "Im alive" that is a shape, a THING, a form. When we say "my death" that is a shape, a THING, a form.
Both of these are just elaboration on a theme.
The essence of the theme though, is not anything speakable, completely beyond words. In Buddhism they still try to express this though with words like "thus" or THIS.
You start to notice "thus" (THIS) when the doctor tells you that you only have weeks to live. THEN you pay attention to thus.
Mostly, we're not fully alive. We even die before we live usually. But then death puts this all into the proper perspective.
You and I are dying right now. We have terminal life disease.
Because we are born we get to die, we get to experience this great loss of utterly every aspect of our experience. Nothing really is analogous to what we will go through.
But this is right now how all this is.
How long do you have to live?
When are you going to die?
We fill our experience up with distractions, but the very nature of all this is itself un-distractedness. The very nature of this experience we are having right now is awakeness. We don't notice.
Dying brings this message home if we pay attention to our dying - which is right now.
There is no right way or wrong way to die.
I knew this guy who died of AIDS and he was extremely scared and angry almost to the point of insanity right up to the end. I felt sad for him because he couldn't accept his condition at all but then I also thought maybe I might be crazy like that as well someday.
I didn't however, think he was dying in a "wrong" way. He had the right to die in what ever way he needed to. We all do.
I witnessed a murder one time on the streets of Seattle. This man was stabbed (randomly by a crazy homeless person) in his heart and he basically died in my arms. He even looked in my eyes as he went. I felt that with him, in his case, there was some acceptance, some sense of "resignation" [as my old zen teacher once put it] as he went.
He earned his right to die in that way, but it wasn't right or wrong. Some people are quietly resigned, others fight as much as they can, who are we to interfere in such a moment with our judgments.
When will you die?
Is that a long time away?
Buddhism has a lot to do with death because death is completely intimate, completely sacred, completely personal, completely unyielding, completely real, and completely now.
There is a Tibetan saying that partially goes, "We are born alone, we will die alone". That hits home.
Just think about that for a second. Not about the philosophy behind it, because Buddhism also says that we are never alone. But just contemplate these words for a bit, not whether or not it is correct from a philosophical perspective, just let it sink in as it is..
We are born alone
We will die alone
Death is touching truth. Life is too, we just don't notice it. We need to find a realistic way to relate to this most intimate of experiences.
I new this other guy who died. While on his death bed his friend kept telling him to "follow the light, let go and follow the light..."
That really IS just bullshit! No one should "command" someone to do something while they are dying! The process of dying is too serious and too intimate for that. The dying guy finally yelled at him to shut up at one point.
Reading to someone who is dying or suggesting something yeah, that's ok in my book, simply listening to them is best of coarse, but trying to impose your phony beliefs on someone as they are going through the purest moment of their experience is a crime.
When you study Buddhism you study your death. Practicing Buddhism is practicing your death. Switch the word "death" to "life" and you see what I mean from a different perspective. Regardless of the words, either perspective is true.
WE ARE DYING
You think this is not the case but it is.
Buddhism is not bullshit because life-death is not bullshit. We make it bullshit by wasting it.
YOU ARE DYING
I read this story on line about the Dalai Lama:
"When the Dalai Lama turned 58 years old, a reporter asked him what he was going to do next with his life. He answered that he was going to prepare for death. The interviewer inquired about his health, and the Dalai Lama replied that he wasn’t sick, but that his body was impermanent."
It really is amazing that humans have come up with Buddhism.
Each moment of our experience includes every other moment. We just don't notice this! Meditating on our death removes the bullshit from our experience and replaces it with the "notice" part.
You don't have to necessarily "visualize" your dying process to meditate on death. Really, any Buddhist meditation, any Buddhist method is a meditation on death because Buddhism points toward truth - no matter what you name it.
Death is truth because it's opposite is usually avoidance, distraction, pre-occupation. Death rips this all away, or it removes it in a control manner if we face this moment as it is now by paying attention to our dying-living. Either way, truth gets revealed.
And because truth gets revealed this is why we almost universally, intuitively respect death as being so intimate, so sacred - at least we should.
Shutting down, letting go of, seeing thru, eliminating the cognitive distractions we so cling to is what Buddhism is about. Don't be fooled by the appearance of it as "just another religion", this is not bullshit unless we make it into bullshit.
WE ARE DYING NOW
What are you going to distract yourself with?
I know you don't want to face this (life-death), neither do I, but here we are, right now, what should we do with this? What should we do with our experience?
Life is suffering. Life is stressful and unsatisfying. Life is fleeting and ever changing. Life is loss. Life is death.
But because it is all these things it is precious too.
Life is that tree, that cloud, that smile, that taste, that joke, that comb by the sink in the bathroom.
WE ARE BORN ALONE
WE WILL DIE ALONE
We die each and every moment. We live each and every moment. We die each and every moment.
Right there
Right there exactly
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Natural Being - a deeper meditation
Because words are conceptual assertion, they always fail to directly communicate reality.
As they say in the Madhyamaka as well as in Zen, "to assert anything about the nature of reality is to miss the mark".
Both the beautiful Madhyamaka reasoning which is full of insight, ideas and concept, and which ultimately yields a non conceptual fruit, as well as the beautiful art of Buddhist meditation which is filled with calm stability and realization, necessarily meet us at some point "in real time".
You will never be satisfied with philosophy.
If you see meditation as a means you will practice quietude as a drug.
And poetry, I will add, is quite the subjective medium.
Buddhism is about relationship.
If there are philosophies and poems connected to Buddhism they are all expressing the necessary step of returning to relationship. Relationship is our Buddha in action. This is called our "Sambhogakaya" Buddha.
We can "appear" like a Buddha, we can realize or "think" like a Buddha too, these are important and are given a rightful place in Buddhism. But the best Buddha is the one practice/realization of relating, of communicating our experience the way it is, as who we are, as what we do (what ever that is), as our life.
We are not in isolation. Nothing is that way. Everything is in flow and every moment brings the next experience. We have to relate to that.
Meditation might look like sitting sometimes, enlightenment might sound like a lot of big words and high ideals, but things are still in flow, the world is not still, beings are interacting.
We work with what we got.
I can't put the words below into any kind of context really so get what you can from them or just disregard them.
In the midst of what ever is
Just this
Without directing the mind
Without distraction
Just this
Neither meditation
Nor non-meditation
Just this
Without searching
Without confusion
Just this
Without setting up
Without neglecting
Just this
Letting it be
With no effort
Just this
Whether me
Or you
Just this
However the body
However the mind
Just this
Whether grasping
Or rejecting
Just this
Without enduring
Primordially present
Just this
Unobtainable
Indistinguishable
Just this
Neither this
Nor not this
Just this
I hope you can see that you're Buddha.
As they say in the Madhyamaka as well as in Zen, "to assert anything about the nature of reality is to miss the mark".
Both the beautiful Madhyamaka reasoning which is full of insight, ideas and concept, and which ultimately yields a non conceptual fruit, as well as the beautiful art of Buddhist meditation which is filled with calm stability and realization, necessarily meet us at some point "in real time".
You will never be satisfied with philosophy.
If you see meditation as a means you will practice quietude as a drug.
And poetry, I will add, is quite the subjective medium.
Buddhism is about relationship.
If there are philosophies and poems connected to Buddhism they are all expressing the necessary step of returning to relationship. Relationship is our Buddha in action. This is called our "Sambhogakaya" Buddha.
We can "appear" like a Buddha, we can realize or "think" like a Buddha too, these are important and are given a rightful place in Buddhism. But the best Buddha is the one practice/realization of relating, of communicating our experience the way it is, as who we are, as what we do (what ever that is), as our life.
We are not in isolation. Nothing is that way. Everything is in flow and every moment brings the next experience. We have to relate to that.
Meditation might look like sitting sometimes, enlightenment might sound like a lot of big words and high ideals, but things are still in flow, the world is not still, beings are interacting.
We work with what we got.
I can't put the words below into any kind of context really so get what you can from them or just disregard them.
In the midst of what ever is
Just this
Without directing the mind
Without distraction
Just this
Neither meditation
Nor non-meditation
Just this
Without searching
Without confusion
Just this
Without setting up
Without neglecting
Just this
Letting it be
With no effort
Just this
Whether me
Or you
Just this
However the body
However the mind
Just this
Whether grasping
Or rejecting
Just this
Without enduring
Primordially present
Just this
Unobtainable
Indistinguishable
Just this
Neither this
Nor not this
Just this
I hope you can see that you're Buddha.
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