When the ego pursues a want or desire, the heart naturally shuts down.
~ Bansi
~ Bansi
Teachings and Satsangs
Spirit Knows
You have to understand
An eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth
Before you can
Turn the other cheek.
Look within, dear soul,
You are what you love
You are what you hate
And discover
Tat Tvam Asi!
Thou Art That!
August 2011
Screens of Potential
What do you find when you look within? If you’re really honest with yourself, you don’t find anything – at least not at first. In that initial, split second of looking, you’ll probably notice that you aren’t there. Poof! Somehow you’ve vanished!
Then, in the next moment, you may notice an inner world teeming with thoughts, projections and feelings. To your amazement, your head contains reel upon reel of film clips that have been carefully spliced together to satisfy the highly personal whims of your mind. And guess what, thanks to your mind you are always the star!
So is any of this extraordinarily creative footage real? Is the spliced and diced, full-length IMAX show real? What about the split second preview, is that real? When I ask which one is real, I’m really asking which one is true and I’m using the word true to ask which one doesn’t change.
If you don’t realize it already, one day you’ll understand that the first split second of nothingness is true. It doesn’t change. It never goes away. It is constantly there, in the background (or in the foreground depending on where you are in the self-realization process). That is why the true nature of your being is often likened to a screen in a movie theater. It doesn’t change even though a series of images are projected upon it.
You are not the story playing on the screen – even though the story is so wonderfully exciting or sad or funny. You are simply the screen: an undifferentiated canvas full of potential. And if you’ve grasped this truth, even for one split second, then you also probably understand the value of true meditation. True meditation involves looking into and inquiring about the blank screen of potential. True mediation allows you to remember who you truly are.
August 2011
The Messiness of Autumn
Why did you do it?
The Stillness of Winter
I wanted Truth.
October 2011
The Gift
Birth, the taking of form, is a gift. It is an opportunity to feel love, to know love and to become love in physical form. While living, what to many may seem to be a long and strangled life, we often choose to forget the preciousness of life. Yet, when we sense the end of our own or someone elses life approaching we inevitably feel sad.
Our life is a gift not only to ourselves but also to the world around us, for the two go hand in hand. A gift to one is a gift to all: there is no separation between the giver and the receiver.
What appears to be unpleasant or even harmful in life is also a gift. All seemingly unpleasant events prod each and every one of us, as well as humanity, to wake up and to look at that that must be seen. Unpleasant experiences remind us that we need to love and take care of ourselves as well as each other. They also remind us that we also need to take care of the world that we live in.
We are the custodians. The job of a custodian is to look after something, to take care of it. As humans, we are the custodians of the Planet Earth. We are the custodians of Planet Earth not because we are the highest form of life – as some teachers might lead us to believe – but simply because we have chosen to radically recreate (for better or worse) life as we know it.
The imposition of our personal wills on each other and our planet creates responsibility and creates karma. Since the word “karma” conjures up many different understandings, I will define it as:
a reactive chain of events (much like a chemical reaction) that transpires
until the desire to impose one’s will is relinquished and a state of
homeostasis, or resolution, occurs.
Since we are the creators of karma it is also our duty (in the sense of karma yoga – the yoga of action) to dissolve karma. However, therein lies the conundrum. Since we cannot use personal will to resolve karma, and since most of us rarely act without personal will, can karma ever be resolved?
The answer to this question is whole heartedly yes! Karma can be resolved even though we can’t resolve it. Once we stop trying to maintain control, karma will gracefully “untie” itself. The decision to let go of control can come from a sudden “ah-ha” where we seem to understand the situation in a flash. Or we can let go because we are simply too worn out from years of trying. Prior experience and love can also help us to let go of control. Finally it is important to remember that, like our birth, this letting go is also a gift. It is the gift of freedom for both you and the world.
July 2011
Your song pierces me
Little Finch
And cleaves the cornerstone of my heart
with juicy sweet surrender.
July 2011
Little Finch
And cleaves the cornerstone of my heart
with juicy sweet surrender.
July 2011
Deconstructing Enlightenment
Enlightenment is predicated upon the collapse of old structures. By structures, I mean the tangible and intangible scaffolding that we use to define ourselves as an individual and as a member of society.
I speak of tangible and intangible structures because the two are intimately linked. Our own internally generated sense of who we are creates the world in which we live. Meanwhile, the world in which we live conditions us and feeds information back to us forcing us to continually modify our personal sense of who we are. In other words, our sense of self exists within a feedback loop.
Therefore, in order for our sense of self to collapse either the internal or external structures that support our worldly identity must collapse. Now most of us, including most of us on the spiritual path, resist the collapsing of our meticulously created internal structures. This is because we simply don’t understand how we could operate in a world that does not have a “me” at its center. And this concern is a reasonable one – especially since we’ve never really operated for any extended period of time (that we can remember) without a center or from a place of emptiness. Our minds fear this radical change of perspective that seems akin to being thrown into the deep end a swimming pool without the ability to swim. Therefore, our “innate” reaction is to quickly shore up and rebuild any part of our ego before it begins to drown. Returning to the image of water, we are like the little, nameless Dutch boy who sticks his finger in the dyke to stop the water from seeping through. Only the dyke that we are trying to stop up has more than 10 holes. In fact, it is totally porous and it will eventually collapse of its own free will! We don’t have enough fingers or even toes to hold back the water. And we know this deep down inside!
As I mentioned earlier, besides living in some imaginary facet of the mind, we also live in the physical world. And the physical world that we live in can also collapse. In fact, it is collapsing all of the time. The cells in our bodies are always dying even though our bodies recreate themselves approximately every seven years. The homes that we live in are continually falling apart. Decks rot, pipes leak and whole systems, such as the heating system break down and need to be replaced. On an ever-larger scale, social systems rise up before breaking down and collapsing. No empire has ever lasted forever although, to certain people living through the experience, it may seem like forever.
All around us, right now, structures are collapsing! And they are always collapsing around us, although unless their collapse is very sudden and unexpected, we tend not to notice it. In the United States, our Social Security system has been collapsing for years. Political structures in the Middle East are collapsing, China’s housing bubble is collapsing, and the Greek economy is collapsing. Meanwhile, Japan and New Zealand are enduring structural damage from earthquakes that are destabilizing the very foundations of both countries.
The interesting and even positive thing about these external shocks is that they are eroding our "concretized" sense of self. Remember the feedback loop that I spoke of earlier? Events in the external world force us to modify our sense of self and our sense of self modifies events in the external world. So when events are changing rapidly in the external world our own sense of self (of who we truly are) is more easily brought into question. Rapid external change forces us to look again at our paradigms and question if they are real and if they are true. More importantly, these external events often force us to look into our own hearts and discard any opinions, beliefs and conditioned responses that we’ve outgrown and that are no longer supportive of the communal world that we live in.
Before concluding let me also add that it is much less frightening to allow one’s internal structures to collapse within a secure external environment than to be subjected to a severe external shock that causes one’s internal sense of self to fall away. Each and every day, we are given a choice about how our own personal collapse will occur. So my wish for each and every one of you is that you may have the courage to surrender and allow this collapse to occur from the inside out.
June 2011
I speak of tangible and intangible structures because the two are intimately linked. Our own internally generated sense of who we are creates the world in which we live. Meanwhile, the world in which we live conditions us and feeds information back to us forcing us to continually modify our personal sense of who we are. In other words, our sense of self exists within a feedback loop.
Therefore, in order for our sense of self to collapse either the internal or external structures that support our worldly identity must collapse. Now most of us, including most of us on the spiritual path, resist the collapsing of our meticulously created internal structures. This is because we simply don’t understand how we could operate in a world that does not have a “me” at its center. And this concern is a reasonable one – especially since we’ve never really operated for any extended period of time (that we can remember) without a center or from a place of emptiness. Our minds fear this radical change of perspective that seems akin to being thrown into the deep end a swimming pool without the ability to swim. Therefore, our “innate” reaction is to quickly shore up and rebuild any part of our ego before it begins to drown. Returning to the image of water, we are like the little, nameless Dutch boy who sticks his finger in the dyke to stop the water from seeping through. Only the dyke that we are trying to stop up has more than 10 holes. In fact, it is totally porous and it will eventually collapse of its own free will! We don’t have enough fingers or even toes to hold back the water. And we know this deep down inside!
As I mentioned earlier, besides living in some imaginary facet of the mind, we also live in the physical world. And the physical world that we live in can also collapse. In fact, it is collapsing all of the time. The cells in our bodies are always dying even though our bodies recreate themselves approximately every seven years. The homes that we live in are continually falling apart. Decks rot, pipes leak and whole systems, such as the heating system break down and need to be replaced. On an ever-larger scale, social systems rise up before breaking down and collapsing. No empire has ever lasted forever although, to certain people living through the experience, it may seem like forever.
All around us, right now, structures are collapsing! And they are always collapsing around us, although unless their collapse is very sudden and unexpected, we tend not to notice it. In the United States, our Social Security system has been collapsing for years. Political structures in the Middle East are collapsing, China’s housing bubble is collapsing, and the Greek economy is collapsing. Meanwhile, Japan and New Zealand are enduring structural damage from earthquakes that are destabilizing the very foundations of both countries.
The interesting and even positive thing about these external shocks is that they are eroding our "concretized" sense of self. Remember the feedback loop that I spoke of earlier? Events in the external world force us to modify our sense of self and our sense of self modifies events in the external world. So when events are changing rapidly in the external world our own sense of self (of who we truly are) is more easily brought into question. Rapid external change forces us to look again at our paradigms and question if they are real and if they are true. More importantly, these external events often force us to look into our own hearts and discard any opinions, beliefs and conditioned responses that we’ve outgrown and that are no longer supportive of the communal world that we live in.
Before concluding let me also add that it is much less frightening to allow one’s internal structures to collapse within a secure external environment than to be subjected to a severe external shock that causes one’s internal sense of self to fall away. Each and every day, we are given a choice about how our own personal collapse will occur. So my wish for each and every one of you is that you may have the courage to surrender and allow this collapse to occur from the inside out.
June 2011
Breadth Versus Depth
Since we last met, we’ve all witnessed the tremendous power of Mother Earth. An 9.0 magnitude earthquake liquefied portions of Japan and in the process moved Japan 8 feet closer to the U.S. The earthquake and the ensuing tsunami killed over 14 thousand people. 12 thousand more are still missing. In one fell swoop, whole villages were erased. All of this chaos was then followed by a nuclear disaster that now rivals Chernobyl’s.
The enormity of Japan’s disaster cannot be measured. We can say that approximately ten times more people died than in the 9/11. We can also say that the earthquake resulted in an estimated $300 billion dollars worth of economic damage or that over 17,000 people are now homeless. Numbers give us an idea of size and allow us to make comparisons. Yet these numbers don’t tell the whole story. Indeed, they only tell a numerical story that doesn't measure the event's depth or emotional impact.
From our limited perspective, the tragedy that hit Japan consists of thousands of individual tragedies, one great national tragedy and a sobering collective, human tragedy.
So what is tragedy? In its simplest terms, it is a calamity or misfortune. In literary terms, it is a “serious drama describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror.” Tragedies are often presented as plays and often include a character that is blind. Either he himself can’t see the folly of his ways or he can see far beyond the dreamy reality of most mortal men. Antigone is a tragedy. Hamlet is a tragedy and the Indian epic The Mahabharata is a tragedy.
In most tragedies, the experiences that befall the protagonist are witnessed and viscerally experienced by the audience. The events leading up to the tragedy instil a feeling of unidentified anxiousness or foreboding in the audience since they don’t know what will happen next. Tragedies remind us to be more thoughtful and circumspect with our actions. Tragedies teach us through emotion.
Television and the Internet allow us to witness numerous tragedies every day. Often we watch these tragedies in reverse. First, we see the destruction and then we learn about the events leading up to the tragedy. In other words, “media time” is often reorganized from the evolving present to an analysis of the past. To a certain extent, this reorganization of time allows us to approach calamities with logic. Instead of viscerally living the event, we routinely perform a postmortem on it to determine what went wrong and what could be done differently in the future.
As a result, we rarely take time to emotionally digest these tragic events. We size up a problem and then we try to understand how to fix it. We turn off emotionally because we are continually bombarded by events that are too much to bear. We have other responsibilities and we don’t have time. There isn’t enough bandwidth to process it all!
And yet what has been felt but remains untouched, and thus undigested, remains with us. It unsettles us and often fills us with unidentified fears. I like to say that “the width of the crater has been measured yet the depth hasn’t been fathomed.”
Geological experts are suggesting that the next big earthquake could be right here, in our own backyards. This news makes us feel uneasy but we don’t have time to think about it or even prepare. So we shut our eyes – just like some of the truly blind characters in tragedies – and we dream that everything will be all right. We try to escape into the external world because we are afraid that the depths within us are just too deep.
So in tonight’s meditation, allow yourself to move into your own depth and experience some portion (it can be big or small) of something that you've metaphorically eaten but not digested. Allow yourself to experience something that is uncomfortably present in your life.
May 2011
Ten Thousand Black Birds
Luminous clouds, sky
An early Spring migration
Souls. Tsunami. Mu.
March 2011
Luminous clouds, sky
An early Spring migration
Souls. Tsunami. Mu.
March 2011
We have to love everything including our fear.
Everything must be seen.
Everything must be experienced.
And everything must return to Silence.
Asking Questions
Everything must be seen.
Everything must be experienced.
And everything must return to Silence.
Asking Questions
The
mind loves problems and questions mostly because it loves anything that
gives it a reason to be in control. But some questions are beyond the
mind. Such questions include the unfathomable Zen koans as well
as the great scientific questions about the nature of the universe and
consciousness. The also include the very basic but often ignored
primordial question: Who am I?
On a daily basis, most people don’t even confront life’s great questions because their minds are preoccupied with a whole slew of relatively self-centered ones. Some examples of these egocentric questions include:
Will I get the raise that I want?
Should I tell her the truth?
When will so and so respond to my text message?
The answer to each of these simple questions can be yes or no depending on the fluctuations of the mind. But to a large extent these fluctuations are based upon past mind impressions or patterns. In other words, if your mind has a tendency to think that you aren’t good enough, then it will most likely come up with a dozen or more reasons why you shouldn’t get a raise. In contrast, if your typical mental pattern is positive, you’ll probably think that you'll get a raise.
I’m not trying to denigrate life’s day to day questions. These day to day questions are valid or you wouldn’t be asking them. However, if you allow these rather mundane questions to place you at the center of the universe, your self-centered approach will begin to block your ability to perceive the answer.
On a daily basis, most people don’t even confront life’s great questions because their minds are preoccupied with a whole slew of relatively self-centered ones. Some examples of these egocentric questions include:
Will I get the raise that I want?
Should I tell her the truth?
When will so and so respond to my text message?
The answer to each of these simple questions can be yes or no depending on the fluctuations of the mind. But to a large extent these fluctuations are based upon past mind impressions or patterns. In other words, if your mind has a tendency to think that you aren’t good enough, then it will most likely come up with a dozen or more reasons why you shouldn’t get a raise. In contrast, if your typical mental pattern is positive, you’ll probably think that you'll get a raise.
I’m not trying to denigrate life’s day to day questions. These day to day questions are valid or you wouldn’t be asking them. However, if you allow these rather mundane questions to place you at the center of the universe, your self-centered approach will begin to block your ability to perceive the answer.
It is as if you are asking the empty space from which all creation
arises to use a microscope to focus on a minuscule point in the
distance. Unfortunately, this focus cannot give you the answer because
you’re using the wrong tool. If you want to study empty space, you need
a giant Hubble telescope not a microscope. You need to open up to all
points that exist instead of contracting upon one specific point.
Contraction will only provide confusion. Expansion will open you to the possibility of a sudden “Ah ha!” So to understand the answer to a very specific question, you need to ask the question and then let it go. You need to allow the question to expand in space, like an ever-growing fishnet, so that an answer can coalesce.
I use the word coalesce to describe the process that feeds the information back to you because, most likely, the answer will not come to you via a voice or a conversation in your head. Instead, it will come to you through a variety of sights, sounds, tastes, impressions, feelings and words. Your environment will provide the answer. So you must open to your environment instead of shutting it out!
Now the so-called greater questions (e.g., Who or what am I? What is the nature of the universe?) are helpful meditation questions because they have the possibility of taking you beyond the mind’s self-centered focus. And if these questions are heart-felt – in other words, you are truly interested in the answer – they will lead you on an infinite voyage of ever deepening awareness and growth.
So you see, there are no small questions. To answer all questions, a letting go and expansion must occur. All questions have the potential to take you into that infinite, mysterious space but some questions can take you there more quickly and easily. And as you begin to understand how to ask and explore the truly expansive questions, you will probably find that you the mind’s self-centered questions gently fade away.
Contraction will only provide confusion. Expansion will open you to the possibility of a sudden “Ah ha!” So to understand the answer to a very specific question, you need to ask the question and then let it go. You need to allow the question to expand in space, like an ever-growing fishnet, so that an answer can coalesce.
I use the word coalesce to describe the process that feeds the information back to you because, most likely, the answer will not come to you via a voice or a conversation in your head. Instead, it will come to you through a variety of sights, sounds, tastes, impressions, feelings and words. Your environment will provide the answer. So you must open to your environment instead of shutting it out!
Now the so-called greater questions (e.g., Who or what am I? What is the nature of the universe?) are helpful meditation questions because they have the possibility of taking you beyond the mind’s self-centered focus. And if these questions are heart-felt – in other words, you are truly interested in the answer – they will lead you on an infinite voyage of ever deepening awareness and growth.
So you see, there are no small questions. To answer all questions, a letting go and expansion must occur. All questions have the potential to take you into that infinite, mysterious space but some questions can take you there more quickly and easily. And as you begin to understand how to ask and explore the truly expansive questions, you will probably find that you the mind’s self-centered questions gently fade away.
December 2010
Desire - Attachment = Love
(: :) :) (: : .
When everything drops away,
Nothing remains.
The faceless face.
Boredom
(: :) :) (: : .
When everything drops away,
Nothing remains.
The faceless face.
Boredom
Boredom
is an important state in any growth process. Boredom signals that a
point of stasis has been reached and that, for the moment, the way
forward is unclear. Boredom can be seen as a momentary pause in life’s
seduction. It is a time when the blackboard is empty and our desire to
project wanes And although most of us reject boredom, it is a necessary
part of any fully expressed life. So the next time you you encounter
this emotion, explore it. Embrace it! Don't push it away! We're
grown ups now, not children.
November 2010
To Engineers Everywhere Including My Brother, Earl
Perhaps you'll understand it this way:
Enlightenment rewrites your entire operating system
with open source code!
November 2010
The Lifeboat
Perhaps you'll understand it this way:
Enlightenment rewrites your entire operating system
with open source code!
November 2010
The Lifeboat
Imagine
yourself in a small dinghy in the middle of an ocean with no land in
sight. This ocean is the sea of consciousness that extends infinitely.
The sun shines so brightly upon this ocean that you can’t even see it. But you know that it is there and that it is big and vast and scary. It is undefined and therefore you fall prey to the whims of your imagination.
To protect yourself from all that is outside of you, you cling to the tools in your dinghy. If you’re lucky, you have water to drink, a rod to fish with, and some sunscreen and clothes to protect you. If you’re even luckier, you’ll have a compass to navigate with and a perhaps a flare for communication. Let’s also pretend that you have a paddle.
So you paddle endlessly and when you’re tired you drift, simply hoping, maybe even praying that a wave doesn’t swamp you. But, of course, waves do come. So you must keep bailing the water out of your dinghy because if you don’t, you’ll sink and, if you sink, you’ll lose everything including your own separate self.
Sink is such a terrifying word. The act of sinking is even more terrifying. It brings up a plethora of primordial and childhood fears. But in this spiritual context what does “sinking” really entail? It entails letting go of your wants, desires, beliefs and identities. It also includes letting go of control.
So what happens when you sink and let go? What happens when you stop struggling and relax? Experience tells me that you’ll fall into the vast sea of consciousness that surrounds you. But unlike what you’d imagined from the confines of your dinghy, this vast sea is supportive, it is nurturing and it is exactly who and what you are.
That’s the joke! All along you’ve been afraid of yourself! You’ve been looking over the edges of your dinghy imaging an enormous killer whale or something to that effect. Then one day, without even knowing why, you realize that the killer whale is really just a projection of your fears! The killer whale is you. And you giggle at the cosmic humor of it all!
October 2010
The sun shines so brightly upon this ocean that you can’t even see it. But you know that it is there and that it is big and vast and scary. It is undefined and therefore you fall prey to the whims of your imagination.
To protect yourself from all that is outside of you, you cling to the tools in your dinghy. If you’re lucky, you have water to drink, a rod to fish with, and some sunscreen and clothes to protect you. If you’re even luckier, you’ll have a compass to navigate with and a perhaps a flare for communication. Let’s also pretend that you have a paddle.
So you paddle endlessly and when you’re tired you drift, simply hoping, maybe even praying that a wave doesn’t swamp you. But, of course, waves do come. So you must keep bailing the water out of your dinghy because if you don’t, you’ll sink and, if you sink, you’ll lose everything including your own separate self.
Sink is such a terrifying word. The act of sinking is even more terrifying. It brings up a plethora of primordial and childhood fears. But in this spiritual context what does “sinking” really entail? It entails letting go of your wants, desires, beliefs and identities. It also includes letting go of control.
So what happens when you sink and let go? What happens when you stop struggling and relax? Experience tells me that you’ll fall into the vast sea of consciousness that surrounds you. But unlike what you’d imagined from the confines of your dinghy, this vast sea is supportive, it is nurturing and it is exactly who and what you are.
That’s the joke! All along you’ve been afraid of yourself! You’ve been looking over the edges of your dinghy imaging an enormous killer whale or something to that effect. Then one day, without even knowing why, you realize that the killer whale is really just a projection of your fears! The killer whale is you. And you giggle at the cosmic humor of it all!
October 2010
Winter's Embrace
Fat, wet snowflakes
caress an army of stars
Curved crystal licks love.
October 2010
Fat, wet snowflakes
caress an army of stars
Curved crystal licks love.
October 2010
The Role of the Witness in Meditation
In
1637, the French philosopher, Rene Descartes wrote: Je pense donc je
suis. (I think, therefore I am.) Although earlier philosophers such as
Aristotle and Plato had expressed similar ideas, Descartes statement
struck a cord with Western man that still resonates today. Indeed
Descartes’ simple statement almost succeeded in creating a new
quasi-religion – one based on logical (or perhaps more accurately
illogical) egocentricity.
While the “I” in Descartes statement “I think, therefore I am” is paramount, much of Eastern philosophical thought is geared towards the dissembling of this “I.” In fact, ancient Eastern teachings consistently deny the existence of a separate “I.” After dusting away the layers of tradition and ritual that envelop religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, you’ll find that one of their core teachings is that the “I” that Rene Descartes speaks of is not a stable entity. Instead, this “I” is a collection of fleeting thoughts that is always changing. Hence, modern man’s oft expressed desire to be really known and understood by another human being is simply impossible - at least within the framework of the “I.”
Centuries after Descartes formulation “I think therefore I am” certain Western philosophers began to question the nature of Descartes “I.” George Lichtenberg says that Descartes should have said, “Thinking is occurring.” Friedrich Nietzsche also finds fault with the existence of this “I”. He suggests that a more appropriate phrase would be, “It thinks” with the “it” being similar to the “it” in “It is raining.” My personal preference would be to say “rain is happening” or “thinking is occurring” – although both of these phrases would sound rather stilted in modern conversation.
The Eastern perspective on the “I” is argued rather eloquently by Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian teacher, in his book entitled Inquiry into Consciousness. For example, he writes:
So what does all of this philosophical prattle have to do with the witness technique in meditation? Well, a standard meditation technique asks meditators to witness their thoughts without attaching to them. Meditators who want to practice this technique are instructed to watch their thoughts as they arise and disappear without reacting, commenting or judging them. The purpose of this exercise is to enable meditators to disentangle their thoughts from the “I.” Over time, as this disentangling process deepens and the “I” dissolves into nothingness, meditators may eventually experience the oneness of all that is. It is at this point that meditators may also begin to see that thought is simply the infinite expressing itself through the physical body in yet another beautiful and surprising way.
September 2010
While the “I” in Descartes statement “I think, therefore I am” is paramount, much of Eastern philosophical thought is geared towards the dissembling of this “I.” In fact, ancient Eastern teachings consistently deny the existence of a separate “I.” After dusting away the layers of tradition and ritual that envelop religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, you’ll find that one of their core teachings is that the “I” that Rene Descartes speaks of is not a stable entity. Instead, this “I” is a collection of fleeting thoughts that is always changing. Hence, modern man’s oft expressed desire to be really known and understood by another human being is simply impossible - at least within the framework of the “I.”
Centuries after Descartes formulation “I think therefore I am” certain Western philosophers began to question the nature of Descartes “I.” George Lichtenberg says that Descartes should have said, “Thinking is occurring.” Friedrich Nietzsche also finds fault with the existence of this “I”. He suggests that a more appropriate phrase would be, “It thinks” with the “it” being similar to the “it” in “It is raining.” My personal preference would be to say “rain is happening” or “thinking is occurring” – although both of these phrases would sound rather stilted in modern conversation.
The Eastern perspective on the “I” is argued rather eloquently by Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian teacher, in his book entitled Inquiry into Consciousness. For example, he writes:
As of now we have observed the thinker operating upon thought; and this we see creates conflict between the thinker and thought, keeping the mind in a constant state of frustration. The thinker, the “I” is arbitrary, artificial and entirely fictitious. We also see that the thinker is the product of thought. There is no thinker if there is no thought, no experiencer if there is no experiencing. So if we see the truth of this, that the thinker is thought, that there is no thinker separate from thought, but only the process of thinking, then what happens?…..You are yourself then – not something that you are trying to be, not the thinker manipulating thought.
So what does all of this philosophical prattle have to do with the witness technique in meditation? Well, a standard meditation technique asks meditators to witness their thoughts without attaching to them. Meditators who want to practice this technique are instructed to watch their thoughts as they arise and disappear without reacting, commenting or judging them. The purpose of this exercise is to enable meditators to disentangle their thoughts from the “I.” Over time, as this disentangling process deepens and the “I” dissolves into nothingness, meditators may eventually experience the oneness of all that is. It is at this point that meditators may also begin to see that thought is simply the infinite expressing itself through the physical body in yet another beautiful and surprising way.
September 2010
Kundalini Aarti
Thank you for lighting this fire
That burns me alive
From the inside out.
June 2007
Free Fall Arms Open
Words can't describe
the pleasure, the pain
and the ultimate wisdom
of letting go into nothing
without end
June 2007
Good Grief
Thank you for lighting this fire
That burns me alive
From the inside out.
June 2007
Free Fall Arms Open
Words can't describe
the pleasure, the pain
and the ultimate wisdom
of letting go into nothing
without end
June 2007
Good Grief
Because
we don’t usually observe ourselves very closely in the days and weeks
following the death of someone we love, we often believe that death is
inextricably linked with grief and loss. So today, while we are
hopefully a bit more clear-headed, I’d like to examine both loss and
grief as they pertain to death.
Most teachings that I have read on death imply that the death or loss of someone leads to grief. In these teachings, the word death is used interchangeably with the word loss. However, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines death as “a permanent cessation of all vital functions” while loss is defined as “the act of losing possession.” So clearly death are loss are not the same thing. And while death usually leads to feelings of grief, loss rarely gives rise to true grief. Simply put, loss is a by-product of the mind, while grief is a facet of love.
You need only examine your prior experiences of grief to understand that grief does not arise from loss. True grief annihilates you and it annihilates you before any sense of loss can even arise. Grief is not a story (like loss is). Grief is the complete opening of your heart to the fullness of love. It is very profound and deep and at the same time it is unbearably sad.
When someone dies, grief washes over you, destroying any barriers that the mind has erected between you and the other - which is why grief is so powerful Grief is the complete expression of life, death and unity. It encompasses everything – no holds barred. It encompasses all that was complete and incomplete in your relationship. In grief, you may re-experience all of the important, unresolved moments that you and the other person shared. You may also re-experience those pure moments of love.
In contrast, loss is grief conceptualized. The sense of loss arises subsequent to feelings of grief. Loss has a subject and an object. “I have lost X,” where X stands for the person or animal who has died. Your mind believes that it has lost someone or something and then a story is built around the loss. Little by little the details of the loss are filled in, like tourniquets stanching a wound, until the feeling of grief stops flowing and only a sense of loss exists.
Loss is the construction of a story that can be played over and over again. Loss is about yourself and what has happened to you. As such, it is not True (i.e., unchanging) because it is limited in scope. The story of loss can change from day to day and minute to minute. Loss is a form of suffering that the mind.creates. As such, it is very different from grief which is experienced physically and which, like pain, resonates outwardly from the body.
Finally, please remember that nothing is ever lost. Loss is a concept of the mind. It implies possession and, as you may already know from experience, nothing can ever be possessed. Therefore, nothing can ever be lost – especially not someone you love!
Most teachings that I have read on death imply that the death or loss of someone leads to grief. In these teachings, the word death is used interchangeably with the word loss. However, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines death as “a permanent cessation of all vital functions” while loss is defined as “the act of losing possession.” So clearly death are loss are not the same thing. And while death usually leads to feelings of grief, loss rarely gives rise to true grief. Simply put, loss is a by-product of the mind, while grief is a facet of love.
You need only examine your prior experiences of grief to understand that grief does not arise from loss. True grief annihilates you and it annihilates you before any sense of loss can even arise. Grief is not a story (like loss is). Grief is the complete opening of your heart to the fullness of love. It is very profound and deep and at the same time it is unbearably sad.
When someone dies, grief washes over you, destroying any barriers that the mind has erected between you and the other - which is why grief is so powerful Grief is the complete expression of life, death and unity. It encompasses everything – no holds barred. It encompasses all that was complete and incomplete in your relationship. In grief, you may re-experience all of the important, unresolved moments that you and the other person shared. You may also re-experience those pure moments of love.
In contrast, loss is grief conceptualized. The sense of loss arises subsequent to feelings of grief. Loss has a subject and an object. “I have lost X,” where X stands for the person or animal who has died. Your mind believes that it has lost someone or something and then a story is built around the loss. Little by little the details of the loss are filled in, like tourniquets stanching a wound, until the feeling of grief stops flowing and only a sense of loss exists.
Loss is the construction of a story that can be played over and over again. Loss is about yourself and what has happened to you. As such, it is not True (i.e., unchanging) because it is limited in scope. The story of loss can change from day to day and minute to minute. Loss is a form of suffering that the mind.creates. As such, it is very different from grief which is experienced physically and which, like pain, resonates outwardly from the body.
Finally, please remember that nothing is ever lost. Loss is a concept of the mind. It implies possession and, as you may already know from experience, nothing can ever be possessed. Therefore, nothing can ever be lost – especially not someone you love!
August 2010
