Two great Chan (Zen) masters speak:
Zhaozhou: How should one approach enlightenment?
Nanquan: If you try to head for it, you immediately turn away from it.
Tom’s comments:
So, what to do?
Zen: How should one approach enlightenment?
non-duality
The root concept
It is the concept of a subject,
That gives rise to the concept of an object.
Or put another way,
The concept of ‘me’,
That gives rise to ‘not me’.
But look at your experience for yourself:
What was thought to be the subject
Is actually also an object.
The experiencing entity that we take ourselves to be,
Is actually something we are aware of,
and not the subject at all.
The person looking at and experiencing life,
Is just a part of life,
Totally inseparable from life.
The body,
thoughts,
emotions,
inner sensations,
intuitions,
visions,
dreams.
– all these are objects.
– all these are sensations.
– none of these are ‘me’.
– none of these are ‘mine’.
Sensations cannot themselves sense.
The perceived cannot perceive.
In fact, looking at our own experience,
Where is the subject at all?
Look!
-There are only sensations.
-There are only objects.
-There is only experience.
-There is never the experience of the subject.
Look!
Experience is a seamless whole,
One seamless happening,
And the so-called experiencer, the ‘me’,
Is simply part of that happening.
So what are we left with?
Just this.
Life simply happening,
All by itself.
Still just me
I remember:
My life being lit up,
Without the sun shining any brighter.
Things appeared clearer,
But the same spectacles perched on my nose.
My body became just a wisp,
But I weighed the same.
Wholeness was there,
But I was still just me.
So I’ve just started using twitter…@tomdas
Hi everyone,
So I’ve decided to try to embrace social media and think I’ve got this twitter thing sorted out. Well, the basics at least anyway 🙂 Are any of you out there on Twitter? Please let me know or find me @tomdas. I’m regularly tweeting for now – let’s see how long it lasts for! Do you use twitter? What’s your experience of social media been?
I’ve also used a wordpress widget to add a twitter feed to the sidebar – please let me know if there are better ways I can use social media or twitter, etc, many thanks
Love, peace and joy to you all
❤ ❤ ❤
Beautiful London sunset
Just took this photo on my way home from work…beauty is when you are not…<3
This cannot be figured out
The mind cannot get this,
Cannot describe this,
Cannot come to it by logic.
It cannot be deduced,
Or inferred.
It cannot be gained,
Or lost.
The good news is that it doesn’t need to be.
It is already here.
It is just
whatever’s here.
Nisargadatta Maharaj: Ignore your thoughts
“It is the mind that tells you that the mind is there. Don’t be deceived. All the endless arguments about the mind are produced by the mind itself, for its own protection, continuation and expansion. It is the blank refusal to consider the convolutions and convulsions of the mind that can take you beyond it.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That
My comments:
The word ‘mind’ in the above quote is synonymous with the false sense of individual separate self. This self, this ‘I’, is just a notion, an idea reinforced by the mind. The ‘I’ is a thought, and it is reinforced by thoughts.
Trying to figure this all out (ie. more thought) is a function of the same mind that is ultimately false, imaginary: it is a fruitless endeavour.
A particularly effective sadhana (spiritual practice) is to ignore the content of thoughts as they appear within our consciousness. The energy of the sense of ‘I’ then begins to loosen and its mechanics are exposed and revealed. We can then start to see things as they actually are.
There are broadly two ways this can be done:
1) by concentrating on something else such as a mantra, the breath, or by chanting, etc – ie. a distraction from thoughts;
2) by allowing thoughts to wash past you like clouds in the sky, and in so doing not paying attention to the content of thoughts, eg. a surrender, acceptance, gratitude or mindfulness practice.
When looking for a sadhana, you will naturally be able to find the one that works for you by looking to see which one gives you greatest sense of peace and relief, and by seeing which practice you are naturally inclined towards.
For more about spiritual practices and how they work click here
The nature of Awareness
This aware principle,
Is already always aware.
Without lifting a finger,
It is effortlessly present.
Within this awareness,
A multitude of phenomena spontaneously arise and fall.
Conceptually we say ‘multitude of phenomena’,
But in reality there is just One Seamless Experience.
Whatever phenomena awareness is aware of,
We can call ‘objects’.
No object is this aware principle,
No object is awareness.
There are no actual separate objects,
Just the appearance of separate objects.
The mind, using concepts like a sword,
Carves up our Seamless Experience into apparent parts.
Let us examine this awareness,
Which is not separate from the objects it observes.
Where does it come from?
What is its nature?
Observe, no particular object of awareness is awareness itself:
An object itself cannot be aware,
The perceived cannot perceive.
Therefore awareness is not an object.
There is no knowledge of awareness:
Awareness cannot be seen, touched, smelt, heard or tasted.
In this sense it cannot be known,
But awareness’s existence is self-evident.
What is this awareness?
– I don’t know!
But I know awareness exists. How?
– Because I am aware!
Observe, there is no awareness of awareness itself,
Only awareness of objects,
(Or in Deep Sleep or Samadhi,
the awareness of the absence of objects),
The existence of awareness,
Is inferred from the presence (or absence) of objects.
So what is awareness but an idea,
Based on the assumption of a subject, a seer?
Awareness is a merely a concept,
Indistinguishable from the objects it is aware of.
Objects are awareness,
Awareness is simply the presence of objects
(or the presence of an absence of objects,
as in Deep Sleep or Samadhi).
‘Objects’ and ‘awareness’ are two names for our One Total Seamless Experience.
See this at once!
All these words,
Simply trying to describe,
What is already our direct experience of life,
Right now.
Words simply point,
To the simplicity of this,
This which is so simple:
It is just our direct experience.
Truly,
What we conceive to be awareness.
Is nothing other than our everyday experience of objects,
This.
Truly,
What is conceived to be the Absolute (ie. the Subject)
Is none other than the relative (ie. objects),
This.
In this,
There is no object or subject,
No relative or absolute,
Just this, beyond words, beyond opposites.
There is only this,
Completely obvious,
Self evident,
Alive,
And elusive of conceptualisation.
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Unknowing
All I know is I don’t know.
I don’t even know what doesn’t know.
Just all this,
Happening by itself:
No knowledge of a knower,
And never understanding any of it.
Mystery is an apt label,
For this unknowing.
Tom Das 