Stepping Over Eternity

[zerostao]

the inconceivable nature of nature......

[et-thoughts]

Well it be conceivable that one does actually knows why one acted to trip the trap as one walks pass it, full well knowing that that is what one chose to do... without getting entangled nor entrapped by the crude contraptions... the hunter puts traps on the paths to catch and prey upon those who unknowingly move through there... the cultivator has little use of traps on the path and relies on cultivating an abundant and divine garden with all sort of stuff... I think this will be quickly eliminated for it exposes the crude conceptions and traps hunters use while pointing at the cultivators ways... if thats the case well it will be quite evident that some will actually know full well what was done... that is was what one chose to do...

[Protector]

[et-thoughts]

Actually... SOME people do assume that... then of course some people do other things...

[deci belle]

wibbly wobbly inconceivably natural nature!! haha!!❤

[deci belle]

Since this is so, before the first thought~

who does the beginning?

 

 

 

Just this is the maw swallowing and spewing the source of religious activity from time immemorial and beyond. This is the crux of the matter of birth and death, arriving at the totality of oneself and the fundamental function and realization of causeless nonorigination void of emptiness, energy replete at the cusp of going into action in perpetuity. Open aware selfless nonbeing.

 

This is not a person, not a thing; it has no location yet blazes without beginning in your own skull. Before the first thought, who can know this one? Since this is so, who is this transcendent wisdom likened to a conflagrant mass of fire?

[et-thoughts]

Evidently the one who be and knows it, without requiring the existence of the first thought... for some can be and know it quite independent of the existence of thoughts... wisdom transcendent beings likened to a conflagrant mass of fire can certainly be use to describe some human beings...

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

~_~

Edited August 20, 2013 by Northern Avid Judo Ant

[deci belle]

In just this "on one mental moment there are past and present of all worlds"

you do not entertain fascinations regarding self and other

and eternity is traversed.

You have no changes here~

and though the depth and breadth of creation

has been completely transcended without stooping

to movement or stillness in terms of self and other…

before the first thought

one already knows.

 

 

 

Since the entire past and future matrix of karmic evolution constituting creation is comprised in one mental moment, it is possible for those with discipline and insight of enlightening being to dispense with this residue of action which all creatures detest before a single thought.

 

Taking the forward step independent of self and other, before and after, good and bad is the result beyond convention that no longer entertains fascinations regarding feelings pertaining to objects or outcomes. One ceases comparisons and leaves the whole of creation as if it were a brackish leaking trickle streaming galaxies without end, because it is just that in reality.

 

Before and after, stillness and movement, self and other have their increments, yet what constitutes change has no power over one who has no part in their sameness because it is no longer another time, another direction, another person. All are self. Since it is self without beginning, where could it go? This is stillness which is not arrested and movement that has already arrived.

 

Even so, this is inconceivability known by oneself alone, independent, free of causation.

[deci belle]

The reason there are teachers

is not to offer views to seeklings

because essence cannot be taught:

People must see essence on there own.

 

The reason there are teachers

is to guide those who arrive

in the aftermath of realization.

Essence is inherent; it has only to be witnesses oneself.

 

 

 

Stanzas 8 and 9 insist that essence cannot be taught, therefore there are teachers to make the work gradually clarify itself.

 

Since it is necessary that illuminates seek teachers in the aftermath of the sudden, therefore teachers are necessarily qualified to assess the firm planting of the seeds of buddhas and work the tongs in the forge of mastery of subtle operation and advance refinement in the gradual path in the aftermath of the sudden.

 

After Bodhidharma left the Emperor of the north who did not have a grasp of emptiness he left and faced a wall for nine years. Even the Buddha sat for years after his enlightenment under the bodhi tree. People should understand that enlightenment does not confer buddhahood.

[deci belle]

The reason there are teachers

is to manifest the application of subtle awareness

by treading the path of prior illuminates in endless transformations.

 

 

 

When the elixir is purified in the furnace and cauldron of the heart of heaven and earth it comes out as inconceivable violet mist.

 

It must be sealed away in secret and incubated until it is mature. When there are teachers to authenticate and certify the achievement, it can be assured that one's effort has not gone in vain. Still, one is no different than ordinary people in that potential is no more in sages and no less in ignoramuses.

 

As before, there is sameness in the midst of difference and the nondifferentiation of absolute and temporal has no beginning. This is why there is nothing gained by complete perfect thoroughgoing enlightenment, and one is then a function within creation yet not subject to it. Enlightenment is just evidence of the efficacy of one's practice— in truth, there is no before or after in terms of subtle operation freeing potential from the midst of creation.

 

 

The reason there are teachers

is to manifest the application of subtle awareness

by treading the path of prior illuminates in endless transformations.

 

Really it is teachers are the manifested application of subtle awareness treading the path in endless transformations of prior illuminates because in terms of stepping over, there is only looking back on the path's incipience as the teaching is the voice of Return, which is the action of the Tao. Therefore it has always been a "looking back" by prior illuminates because this is how the knowledge is kept alive. What this means is, in Dogen's words, "People become buddhas and buddhas become people".

 

Though there is before and after, even in terms of people and buddhas, the action of subtle operation in the midst of ordinary affairs never changes. So even though we say one sets up the furnace and cauldron again (in the aftermath of sudden enlightenment) to enact advance practice, the operation is the same. What setting up the furnace again implies is that the emphasis is different. Before one refined the self and awaited the time to transmute, whereas now there is nothing that is not it.

 

 

 

 

ed note: typo in 4th sentence; changed that to than.

Edited June 29, 2013 by deci belle

[deci belle]

If by treading the path of prior illuminates

we arrive at the applications of subtle awareness

one can begin to realize the value of wisdom

that is in the application of its virtue

has no cause.

 

 

Stanza 10 may possibly be the crux of gaining access to the subtlety which is the heart of before and after.

 

Because causelessness is itself the open secret of one's own manifestation of functional aware enlightening being, here one can gain the power of freedom and openness inherent in karmic evolution. Reality is to be found in the midst of worldly affairs. There has never been another time, and there has never been another place to enact this.

 

Enacting unity is not a separate affair. It is oneself at all times and places adapting to the necessities of objective response. This is to say that the heart of before and after is the time of sameness in the midst of differences. I'm sorry if that seems like a lot of mumbo-jumbo, but it's true. This is because when you see that all the different times, places, people and events are truly non-attributable and your acts are simply spontaneous gestures rooted in a space empty of self and other, though acts may or may not make sense to oneself and people, one does not mind.

 

One neither acts arbitrarily nor goes along with convention in terms of self-reflective intent. It is simply going along with the momentum of the situation itself without stepping over the line. Response is completely dependent on the potential of the situation itself. It is the situation itself which determines its own logic.

 

It is very simple: it does not depend on you. When you deal with the situation on its terms, one can begin to realize the value of wisdom that is in the application of its virtue has no cause.

 

When you yourself know that no one knows, one gains this much freedom to act selflessly according to events as they unfold unbeknownst to others. It is simply genuine sincere openness without regard to anyones intent. This is because you know that you really don't know too.

 

This is the practical basis of functional sameness beyond descriptions of absolute and temporal teachings. The practical difference is that no one else knows that you do not have any attachment to outcomes, nor do you intend any outcomes— however logical or appropriate they may seem. Why? Because the there is no instigational cause either before or after in terms of karmic evolution; because reality is inconceivable; because…

 

 

One who endeavors to activate causeless reality within oneself

is already coeval in subtle operation taking over creation

and is beyond the feeble practices of the smaller vehicle.

 

The knowledge of causelessness

and its application in ordinary affairs

is independent of intellectual understanding

and is not the result of sudden enlightenment—

Carried out over a long period of time, it is the cause of it.

 

Stepping over eternity is not some other time, place, or person.

On one mental moment there are past and present of all worlds.

Since this is so, before the first thought~ who does the beginning?

[deci belle]

Before the first thought, who already knows?

 

From this it is clear that one who steps over eternity

does so for all times and places without conventions

relying on before and after.

 

 

 

 

Who already knows refers to one's unborn essential nonorigination preceding the dichotomy of yin and yang. Naturally, this is the ancestor of on one mental moment there are past and present of all worlds.

 

This is just a bit of cuteness in that since there is no beginning there is nothing whatsoever that does this. There is simply nothing whatsoever. This is not another time. There is no person. This is the identity of a tathagata. This is you whether you know it or not.

 

Since there is not before or after for such a one, such a one need not rely on convention. In fact, one must dispense with convention in order to enact subtle operation. One just meets the requirement of the time as the path develops in spite of the world's expectations.

 

Stepping over eternity really isn't so special at all. It is the natural manifestation of enlightening being without regard to outcomes relative to conventional mores. It is just a subtle shift in one's orientation. This shift is a result of a fundamental change in one's conscious vision whereby seeing becomes unhinged from the self/other dichotomy.

 

Freed of the habitual course you see outside of duality. It looks the same, but you don't go along with it. That's not to mean your actions are contrary to the normal course of affairs. Adapting selflessly is just mutual response in terms of seeing through phenomena without denying characteristics. Your going along is an actual mystery. It's entry into the inconceivable~ it's not just that other people don't know.

 

People, when Bodhidharma said "Don't know", he really said swallow the entire universe in one gulp. Who can say without hesitation— What is it?

 

From this it is clear that one who steps over eternity does so for all times and places

without conventions relying on before and after.

 

Not relying on anything is just recognizing one's own true mind. Repeating myself, this is not a matter of sudden realization. It is just one's own everyday mind not thinking good or bad, right or wrong. Before the first thought this inherent unborn true mind is just nonpsychological awareness. This is immediate knowledge without deliberations.

 

What has precedence throughout the ages is just this true mind that has never relied on people, places, situations or reason. This is how one transcends yin and yang in terms of cycles of conditioned evolution. This is not being subject to creative evolution while planting lotuses in fire and cultivating yellow sprouts in endless transformations. If not for creation this would not be possible.

 

So not going along with creation is just not seeing it outside of impersonal nonreflective nonpsychological awareness. One just forever misses out on going along with creation. Without stepping over the line, you still follow desires. You are still subject to the evolution of karmic debts, but that is just the nature of reality. Without karma, existential consciousness would have no functional basis for the subtle operation within self-refinement and stealing potential in the midst of ordinary affairs.

 

Just this last paragraph arrives at one's own working definition of stepping over eternity without relying on before and after.

 

 

 

 

ed note: add last four paragraphs

Edited July 8, 2013 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Neither seeking acceptance nor avoiding censure

in full view of prior illuminates looking back on the path perpetually arriving

those traversing the abyss of the eternity of creative evolution in one step

arrive without striving nor tarrying—

only responding according to the timing

by riding the nonpsychological spirit

inherent in the situation itself.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

It's good to read your posts again, Deci Belle

[deci belle]

Merciiii, dr no❤

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

How'd I get that nickname, again?

[deci belle]

Vous ony has it once, cheri❤ hahaha!!

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

Oh, so coy... I meant how did I wind up with it?