Toward a resolution of Being and Becoming

[sean]

From the perspective of our minds, Enlightenment is just another goal. It's something to achieve. Somewhere to get.

 

And mind wants to know, what is it? Where is it?

 

The sages say it's pure bliss. It's true wisdom. It's immortality. It's imperturbable happiness.

 

Alright then, sign me up! How do I get there? Mind can't wait. It demands answers!

 

So the teacher writes us a prescription. Do xyz practices and eventually you will find what you are looking for.

 

But the mind is shocked to be told that what we are looking for is Reality just exactly as it is right now in this moment. Things are already as they should be. You are perfect as you are, you just don't realize it.

 

Huh?

 

You mean we need to get to a place we're already at? What's the point? And how is that even possible?

 

I believe the confusion is largely one of context.

 

Within "Oneness" is Everything. So naturally Everything is going to include pockets of experience of separateness, mortality and imperfection, ie: human egos.

 

Suffering is part of our human habit of focusing on this foreground of ego-induced separateness to the exclusion of Being that contains and also Is.

 

The parodox of seeking union with Tao is that this human-ego-pocket can only be thought to have any sort of volition or control over it's destiny within a very limited context that breaks down when perceived from a higher level.

 

Normally we think, or at least hope, our decisions and actions are the cause of results we want. We decide we want a glass of milk so we maneuver our body to get up, get out a glass, open the refrigerator, grab the milk and pour it. Voila. We are in charge.

 

Yet these actions we took, and even the decision to take them can just as easily be considered a result of a previous cause that our ego did not initiate or have anything to do with.

 

Any phenomenon that arises, including "me deciding to get a glass of milk" or even "me deciding to meditate" can be perceived, from an absolute view, as being caused by something previous to our decision.

 

Sounds like dreaded determinism.

 

And so I think there is a strong tendency to fear and therefore avoid this view. We would rather perceive ourselves as somehow having control over and of being the prime mover of all of our actions.

 

And we do have some control. We do have some free will.

 

In the same way that a thermostat can be said to have some control over the temperature in a room. The thermostat really does control the temperature. But only within a specific context.

 

From a larger view the thermostat merely triggers a process that is then mostly out of it's control. The thermostat doesn't heat the water itself, or pump it through the pipes in the room. And the thermostat can't fix pipes that break, or close open windows letting heat escape, or repair broken water heaters.

 

From an even larger view the poor thermostat can't even twist it's own dial. In this sense even it's primary function relies on the higher power of human hands.

 

I believe, in much the same way, the big big picture of our human destiny in a single lifetime is primarily out of control, at the mercy of chaos, causation, karma, God.

This is scary to our mind because our mind is a "self"-referential thermostat. It's job is to control.

 

I believe one the reasons why spiritual teachers seem to have such trouble laying out clear steps to take toward awakening is because, from the perspective of Awakening itself, the steps taken are not even fundamentally ours to take.

 

"I", within the larger context, is a neurological story, a complex alchemical reaction arising and passing in each moment along with the rest of the phenomenal world.

 

The teachers and practices that speak to our heart and that we "choose" to dedicate to are as much fruits as they are seeds.

 

Through a mysterious combination of apparent self-determination, time and grace our limited selves are lead into alignment with greater Truth. Self becomes transparent to what is.

 

Meanwhile, along the way, stay humble and enjoy your self.

 

Sean.

[Wayfarer64]

[林愛偉]

Hi Sean,

 

 

Enlightenment happens by a means of loss. Yet even with enlightenment, one still needs proper understanding. That is where further cultivation comes in to assist in loss of excess discrimination within the mind.

 

"Produce the thought that is no where supported."

 

A partial quote from the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra.

 

The methods cultivated are the expedient means to loss, which results in the "revealing" of one's true nature...which is not something one actually gains or gets to.

 

Peace,

Edited November 26, 2006 by 林愛偉

[sean]

Thank you for your thoughts. I like this view, the "path of subtraction" ... in fact I had copied a line from something you wrote on a Yahoo Group last month and added it to my Taoist quotes:

 

"Attaining Dao is not achieved by understanding...it is achieved by loss. And in that one isn't really attaining anything. Just revealing."

 

 

Sean

[林愛偉]

Thank you for your thoughts. I like this view, the "path of subtraction" ... in fact I had copied a line from something you wrote on a Yahoo Group last month and added it to my Taoist quotes:

 

"Attaining Dao is not achieved by understanding...it is achieved by loss. And in that one isn't really attaining anything. Just revealing."

 

 

Sean

 

 

hahaha

 

I remember that!

 

How funny those with fate are in the same places, yet cannot meet formally until conditions arise for it to be proper.

 

Peace,