Nothing to Achieve, Nowhere to Go, No One to Be

     Buddhist understanding can sound very counter-intuitive & counter-cultural. 
     Nevertheless, as we mature with our practice, we come to understand as if for the very first time.

     "To reach truth 
      is not to accumulate knowledge, 
      but to awaken to the heart of reality. 
      Reality reveals itself complete and whole 
      at the moment of awakening. 
      In the light of awakening, 
      nothing is added and nothing is lost."           Thich Nhat Hanh

 "Anesthesia" - an excellent 2015 movie, available on Netflix

Do You Feel Right?

     Perhaps we have two basic modes of being in this world. In one, our natural state, we are unconditional love. In the other, self-concern dominates. 

     Certain people, animals, places, events easily open our hearts, so that we, as individuals, essentially disappear, transforming into loving energy, freely, selflessly flowing into, nurturing our loved one. This is where empathy, respect, forgiveness, gratitude and joy also happen.
     Other people, animals, places, events easily trigger self-concern. When "me, myself & I" dominates, our hearts are closed unless there's something in it for me. Then a bit of "conditional love" sneaks out - but it's essentially a business transaction. Fear rules here: "taking care of #1", "greed is good", "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", cynicism, restlessness, revenge, depression, anxiety, loneliness, paranoia.

     It can take a lifetime to realize that "taking care of #1" can't ever truly satisfy. As we mature, we gradually realize that we only feel right when we are being egoless unconditional love. Our true nature is unconditional, transcending words & concepts.

 

Aspirations

"The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the world's ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances."                            Atisha

Julie DuBose   www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10205141453319375.1073741828.1335888565&type=1&l=e38e547509

Self, Ego and Selflessness

     "... the end of polarities is the completion of all skillful means, all practices, and all methods that were used to surmount ignorance. When ignorance is no longer pitted against wisdom, there is nonreferenced ease. ... We have to extract the 'me' from our salvation and prohibit identification with the self's return. Many people can understand selflessness; few can keep the self from meddling its way back in. This is not accomplished by forcing but through understanding. To understand exactly what the self is is to end the self. Once understood, it assumes its rightful place in our functional lives but never again assumes a place of power and authority. It takes just one polarizing moment that has gone undetected for self-centered living to resume."

       Rodney Smith. Awakening. A Paradigm Shift of the Heart. Shambhala, Boston, 2014.

"polarities" refers to opposites, the divided mind, boundaries etc
"nonreferenced" means unconditional - independent of causes and conditions
"functional" a healthy ego is described in Western psychology as like a verb (functional) rather than a noun (a solid object)
"polarizing moment" as soon as we identify with one (versus another) view, opinion, preference, the fictional "solid self" is re-created. This imaginary solid "identity" causes suffering.

 

October near Lewis Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada

Commitment to Benevolent Inexhaustibility

     Mystics, shamans, and artists seem to share a tremendous capacity for perseverance. Taoist sages live very long lives ("immortals") so as to evolve as much as possible spiritually. Perhaps the ultimate in benevolent perseverance is expressed in the Buddhist bodhisattva vow:

               Beings are numberless, I vow to save them
               Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them
               Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them
               Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it.

     "Knausgaard has his own artistic commitment to inexhaustibility ... which manifests itself as a kind of tiring tirelessness."
       James Woods' review of Knausgaard's book "My Struggle": http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/13/total-recall


     But why would this critic describe it as "tiring" tirelessness? Could there not be an energizing form of tirelessness?

Jonathan Chua Kiat, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Seeing with Wisdom - Beyond Self

     "The eye that sees the relationship of all dharmas, all existences in this relative world, is called igen, wisdom eye. The wisdom eye observes the relationship of all beings, not just your position, but everything related, interrelated, arising, and falling. Whatever comes to the mind, comes to your being, comes to your meditation, is nothing but your portion of this relationship. So whatever is experienced or observed can become the source of teaching.
     It is very important to experience the complete negation of yourself, which brings you to the other side of nothing. You go to the other side of nothing, and you are held by the hand of the absolute. You recognize yourself as the absolute, so naturally there is no more insistence of a self, of yourself. You cannot even speak of 'no-self' within that absolute. Before this, although everyone is there and helping you, you are a closed system. When you flip to the other side of nothing, you discover everyone, everything, is waiting for you there."  
               Kobun Chino Roshi

Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Fall, 2012 

Photo: mattersdorff   www.dpreview.com