Pristine Awareness

[idiot_stimpy]

The Great Tao is without form,

The Absolute is without opposite;

It is both empty and unmoving,

It is not within the flow of Samsara;

The Three Realms do not contain it,

It is not within past, future, or present.

 

.

[idiot_stimpy]

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;

But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends.

We turn clay to make a vessel;

But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.

We pierce doors and windows to make a house;

And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.

Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not

 

Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form.

Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound.

Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible.

These three are indefinable;

Therefore they are joined in one.

From above it is not bright;

From below it is not dark:

An unbroken thread beyond description.

It returns to nothingness.

The form of the formless,

The image of the imageless,

It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

 

Stand before it and there is no beginning.

Follow it and there is no end.

Stay with the ancient Tao,

Move with the present.

 

Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.

 

.

Edited March 27, 2012 by jconnar

[xabir2005]

If I try to overlay a concept over it, so as to grasp hold of it with the mind, that which is experienced seems to go away.

 

You were right, it was just an experience. Not a realization.

 

 

But trying to confine something to the realm of form/thought, seems to be a type of blasphemy.

Realization transcends conceptual thoughts, it is a non-conceptual realization or awakening to your very fact of existence. Then there will not remain any more doubts. Self-inquiry is the investigative thought that when traced back to the source, the thought along with all concepts will dissolve itself in self-realization, like a stick on fire finally annihilating itself along with the fire. Edited March 27, 2012 by xabir2005

[idiot_stimpy]

[idiot_stimpy]

[xabir2005]

What do you think about this.

 

This is the space that contains everything, but in itself is not a thing.

This is one way of practicing, but a gradual way.

 

The direct path to self-realization is through inquiry/investigative methods like self-inquiry.

 

As I wrote in my e-book ( http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-e-booke-journal.html ):

 

"An important point here however: having the ability to stay (even if persistently) in

wide perceptual openness is not the Realization of I AM, it is simply an 'experience' or

'recognition' and I experienced that since early 2009. Nevertheless, even after

Realization of I AM, it does not mean that you will live the rest of your life free of egoic

contraction. Go for the realization, not the experience - and to go for the realization

means to practice self-inquiry. As Thusness told me the last time I met him, he doesn't

like approaches that emphasize too much on the experience, like focusing to get the

experience of the spaciousness of awareness, the mirror-like quality etc, all the various

aspects. Why? Because that's like only accessing the fringe, but once you penetrate to

the Core of the matter via Self-Realization, then all the aspects are accessible to you,

like 一针见血 (go right to the heart of the matter). Not only self-inquiry, but koan practice can also

lead to realization."

Edited March 31, 2012 by xabir2005

[xabir2005]

hmm

I don't equate I AM with jhana. I AM is described by Buddha as the mind that is luminous. However it is true that realizing I AM is not nirvana.

[xabir2005]

This description by Ajahn Brahm is the I AM:

 

http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/B%20-%20Theravada/Teachers/Ajahn%20Brahmavamso/Meditation%20The%20Heart%20of%20Buddhism/Meditation%20The%20Heart%20of%20Buddhism-%20Ajahn%20Brahm.htm

 

When the Body Disappears.

 

Remember "con men," "con women" as well. These con men can sell you anything! There's one living in your mind right now, and you believe every word he says! His name is Thinking. When you let go of that inner talk and get silent, you get happy. Then when you let go of the movement of the mind and stay with the breath, you experience even more delight. Then when you let go of the body ,all these five senses disappear and you're really blissing out. This is original Buddhism. Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch completely vanish. This is like being in a sensory deprivation chamber but much better. But it's not just silence, you just don't hear anything. It's not just blackness, you just don't see anything. It's not just a feeling of comfort in the body, there is no body at all.

 

When the body disappears that really starts to feel great. You know of all those people who have out of the body experiences? When the body dies, every person has that experience, they float out of the body. And one of the things they always say is it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful. It's the same in meditation when the body disappears, it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful when you are free from this body. What's left? Here there's no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. This is what the Buddha called the mind in deep meditation. When the body disappears what is left is the mind.

 

I gave a simile to a monk the other night. Imagine an Emperor who is wearing a long pair of trousers and a big tunic. He's got shoes on his feet, a scarf around the bottom half of his head and a hat on the top half of his head. You can't see him at all because he's completely covered in five garments. It's the same with the mind. It's completely covered with sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. So people don't know it. They just know the garments. When they see the Emperor, they just see the robes and the garments. They don't know who lives inside them. And so it is no wonder they're confused about what is life, what is mind, who is this inside of here, were did I come from? Why? What am I supposed to be doing with this life? When the five senses disappear, it's like unclothing the Emperor and seeing what is actually in here, what's actually running the show, who's listening to these words, who's seeing, who's feeling life, who this is. When the five senses disappear, you're coming close to the answer to those questions.

 

What you're seeing in such deep meditation is that which we call "mind," (in Pali it's called Citta). The Buddha used this beautiful simile. When there is a full moon on a cloudy night, even though it's a full moon, you can hardly see it. Sometimes when the clouds are thin, you can see this hazy shape shining though. You know there is something there. This is like the meditation just before you've entered into these profound states. You know there is something there, but you can't quite make it out. There's still some "clothes" left. You're still thinking and doing, feeling the body or hearing sounds. But there does come a time, and this is the Buddha's simile, when the moon is released from the clouds and there in the clear night sky you can see the beautiful full disc of the moon shining brilliantly, and you know that's the moon. The moon is there; the moon is real, and it's not just some sort of side effect of the clouds. This is what happens in meditation when you see the mind. You see clearly that the mind is not some side effect of the brain. You see the mind, and you know the mind. The Buddha said that the mind released is beautiful, is brilliant, is radiant. So not only are these blissful experiences, they're meaningful experiences as well.

 

How many people may have heard about rebirth but still don't really believe it? How can rebirth happen? Certainly the body doesn't get reborn. That's why when people ask me where do you go when you die, "one of two places" I say "Fremantle or Karrakatta" that's where the body goes! [3] But is that where the mind goes? Sometimes people are so stupid in this world, they think the body is all there is, that there is no mind. So when you get cremated or buried that's it, that's done with, all has ended. The only way you can argue with this view is by developing the meditation that the Buddha achieved under the Bodhi tree. Then you can see the mind for yourself in clear awareness - not in some hypnotic trance, not in dullness - but in the clear awareness. This is knowing the mind

Knowing the Mind.

 

When you know that mind, when you see it for yourself, one of the results will be an insight that the mind is independent of this body. Independence means that when this body breaks up and dies, when it's cremated or when it's buried, or however it's destroyed after death, it will not affect the mind. You know this because you see the nature of the mind. That mind which you see will transcend bodily death. The first thing which you will see for yourself, the insight which is as clear as the nose on your face, is that there is something more to life than this physical body that we take to be me. Secondly you can recognise that that mind, essentially, is no different than that process of consciousness which is in all beings. Whether it's human beings or animals or even insects, of any gender, age or race, you see that that which is in common to all life is this mind, this consciousness, the source of doing.

[Lucky7Strikes]

@ Jconner

 

You are overcomplicating things with the intellect. Don't understand awareness as a space where things come and go. Not because it is or it isn't, but because you are trying to understand its nature with a certainty. Be uncertain, be ungraspable, you can't understand "space" or the "infinite." You cannot understand yourself through a reflection, but only realize yourself by dropping all pretenses.

 

All these lengthy posts are just unnecessary babble because you are trying to fit everything into a logical linguistic order.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Lucky7Strikes

[Lucky7Strikes]

That which wants to go past the 'I AM' already, is probably the very same thing that will stop the 'I AM' from being seen?

Precisely!

 

Forget the I AM, forget all these labels. Forget awareness or the 5 senses. Take language out of your system and sit in silence without structuring reality. Let it reveal itself, see everything simply for what is. Simpler it is the better.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Lucky7Strikes

[konchog uma]

Precisely!

 

Forget the I AM, forget all these labels. Forget awareness or the 5 senses. Take language out of your system and sit in silence without structuring reality. Let it reveal itself, see everything simply for what is. Simpler it is the better.

 

thank you

[idiot_stimpy]

Thank you xabir for that post and everyone else for your words of wisdom.

[idiot_stimpy]

I wanted to add, I can feel the space. But when I no nothing meditation, not even intuitively feeling, there seems to be a large amount of energy that moves and felt rushing up the neck. Sometimes there is heat.

 

So in terms of just sitting and doing nothing, it seems this generates the biggest energy response. Its a course type of energy, not the pure formless silk like feeling of the space though.