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Question: Presence "causes" everything, yes....in the sense that everything appears in presence and nothing can exist outside of presence...it is the field or ground, the source and substance, so to speak. but is there not a process (for lack of a better word) of waking up in which presence becomes aware of itself by which it sees through the mirage-trance of conceptual thought (that seems to divide, solidify, and create ideas of "me" and "you" and time and progress, etc)?
Your books appear in presence and emerge from presence and are inseparable from presence, and it seems to me that in reading them, this kind of waking up (presence waking up to itself, seeing thru the conceptual illusion) can happen. likewise, it seems to me it can happen through tuning in and paying careful attention to present moment actuality (so-called meditation). We wouldn't say that your books or doing meditation "caused" presence, but they do seem to play a part in presence waking up, no? Not that we'd say, reading Leo's book or doing meditation is guaranteed to wake you up. but, it might. it certainly seems more likely to induce or encourage or give rise to waking up than reading romance novels or drinking scotch, no? Am I missing something? Answer: It took a little while, but here is a response. By now the Lisa character may occupy a total different perspective, but when even the perspective of no perspective does no longer apply, there is no where to go, nor any one to go there. Within the context of time and space your reasoning is flawless, yet the contradiction in 'waking up' is the insight that there is no one to wake up. Whether IT appears as waking up or as not waking up is only different on the relative level. In the absolutes sense, THAT what appears as waking up or not waking up is the same no-thing. IT is never the result of anything, but everything is the result of IT. There is no progressive path to presence. Presence is timeless and progress appears in time. People meditate for years and there may be some insights or, as so often, there is some relaxation and peace, but ultimately nothing happens. On the other hand, there are of course also moments of clarity or insights without ever meditating. There simply is no cause and effect that can apply to the 'causeless-cause'- or 'the-uncaused-first-cause.' Meditation happens, reading and writing happens, waking up and falling asleep happens; all within the Ultimate Context I Am-You Are. There simply is no one to miss or get something. Nothing is more IT than anything else. All this does not say that meditation does not happen, but that ultimately it isn't better or worst than any other appearance. Yet in day to day living the natural functioning is such that there are preferences. This may express as an inclination to drink scotch, or as a love for meditation. All these mind loops, ideas, thoughts and concepts appear in that Single Light, which shines prior to any concept. This light includes the ideas of better and worst, practice and no practice. All such ideas testify to THAT what knows these ideas, yet none of them can 'grasp' the unknowable knowing that is; just like all things seen testify to the presence of invisible sight. A diamond does not confirm sight more or better than a pebble does, and neither of them will make sight visible. Yet, here it is.
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com Art by: Vladimir Finkilshtein. Title: 'Trinity of Presence' Found at: http://www.progressor.net/art/finkilstein/ Fair Use Notice |
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All Buddhas and all ordinary beings are nothing but the one mind. This mind is beginningless and endless, unborn and indestructible. It has no color or shape, neither exists nor doesn't exist, isn't old or new, long or short, large or small, since it transcends all measures, limits, names, and comparisons. It is what you see in front of you.
Start to think about it and immediately you are mistaken. It is like the boundless void, which can't be fathomed or measured. The one mind is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between Buddha and ordinary beings, except that ordinary beings are attached to forms and thus seek for Buddhahood outside themselves. By this very seeking they lose it, since they are using Buddha to seek for Buddha, using mind to seek for mind. Even if they continue for a million eons, they will never be able to find it. They don't know that all they have to do is put a stop to conceptual thinking, and the Buddha will appear before them, because this mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings. It is not any less for being manifested in ordinary things, nor any greater for being manifested in Buddhas.
From: The Zen Teaching of Huang Po.
As quoted in Stephen Mitchell's book "The Enlightened Mind" An Anthology of Sacred Prose. Found at: http://www.yakrider.com/ Art by: Richard Lazzara. Title: 'Perception Of The Boundless Void' Found at: http://www.absolutearts.com/ Fair Use Notice |
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The following poem gets even better when you know it was written recently by an eight year old at St James School in the UK. "Out of the mouths of babes….." ~~~~~~~~~~ "I am" I am the sharpness of an eagle gliding over the tallest tower I am the brightness of the shinning midnight moon I am the deep great blue ocean crashing against the rocks I am the awareness of the mind I am the eye of every horse I am the seed of a flower I am the fiery centre of the earth I am the point of a needle I am the bravery of a hunter racing from human hunters I am the stillness of a wise man looking at himself in a mirror I am the nib of the pen writing this I am poem.
~ Tommy Abbot-Davies ~
Art by: Morgan Walsh - 14 years old. Found at: http://www.rain.org/eagle/eaglecontest.htm Fair Use Notice |
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Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. ~ Einstein ~ All such notions as causation, succession, atoms, primary elements... are all figments of the imagination and manifestations of the mind. ~ Buddha ~ |
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Inner Peace 
Sent to me by Dave and Freda from Australia. Fair Use Notice |
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