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Question: I have just read your wonderful new book From Self to Self . One of your comments (in chapter 58) has created a bit of confusion.
On the subject of death, you say: "At some point the sense of being an individual appeared and now it will break up once more, only to rise again countless times, and in endless variation." This is a most depressing statement. The implications are that (since this variation is endless) we, or the appearance of we, must rise again (and again and again) as the child molester, the torture victim, the hideously maimed etc. This is like some kind of hell scenario from a Greek myth. But, on the other hand, surely this is just a story? Could you please comment? Answer: Just have a look. Life keeps renewing and reappearing in countless forms, which often include a sense of separation. Viewed from this sense of separation it may be either a message of hope ("Great we will get another change!") or a message of despair like you describe. From the impersonal perspective it is neither, both, and beyond this duality. It is the 'Great Gesture' or, as the Hindus call it, 'Maha Mudra.' This 'Great Gesture', this whole manifestation, can be seen as the body, the play, or the dream of the One Self. All such labels are of course metaphorical pointers to the Isness-That-Is… and is not. Remember, you are this Eternal One appearing as this temporal manifestation including the perspective from an apparent separate character. At night dreams may come, populated by myriad people and places. All are animated by 'you' the dreamer, and in the morning they all fade back into the no-thing-ness they arose from; only to rise again and again. Now imagine a dream in which a character finds out about this. Like you, he may conclude that this is a most depressing situation, but this conclusion also shows that his own unreality has not been seen. He has of course no independent existence apart from the dreamer; in fact he IS the dreamer… and he is not. In Rumi's words; "Like the shadow I am And I am not." To the One-Dreamer-You-Are this is not a problem. It is the dreamer's nature to appear in His/Her own dreams and have all kinds of adventures; from the most horrific to the most glorious. The idea that this is endless, hopeless, or magnificent, appears in time and space and is itself part of the dream. The One Dreamer is unaffected by whatever seems to happen. And just like you do not wake up drunk after enjoying a bottle of wine in your dream, you also will not wake up battered and bruised from falling over in your dream. See trough the apparent reality of this 'play' and know that there is no hangover. You are for ever untouched by the dream-story's twists and turns. As Meher Baba said; "Don't worry, be happy."
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com Art by: Jenny Badger Title: 'Circle of Life Renewing' Found at: http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/Art/private/instructors/jenny_badger/jenny_badger.shtml/ Fair Use Notice |
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No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that's going to happen. In other words, from the first standpoint, the worst is going to happen: we're all going to die. And don't just put it off in the back of your mind and say 'I'll consider that later.' It's the most important thing to consider NOW, because it is the mercy of nature, because it's going to enable you to let go and not defend yourself all the time, waste all energies in self-defense.
So this doctrine of the void is really the basis of the whole Mahayana movement in Buddhism. It's marvelous. The void is, of course, in Buddhist imagery, symbolized by a mirror, because a mirror has no color and yet reflects all colors. When this man I talked of, Hui-Neng, said that you shouldn't just try to cultivate a blank mind, what he said was this: the void, sunyata, is like space. Now, space contains everything--the mountains, the oceans, the stars, the good people and the bad people, the plants, the animals, everything. The mind in us--the true mind--is like that. You will find that when Buddhists use the word 'mind'--they've several words for 'mind,' but I'm not going into the technicality at the moment-- they mean space. See, space is your mind. It's very difficult for us to see that because we think we're IN space, and look out at it. There are various kinds of space. There's visual space--distance-- there is audible space--silence--there is temporal space--as we say, between times--there is musical space--so-called distance between intervals, or distance between tones, rather; quite a different kind of space than temporal or visual space. There's tangible space. But all these spaces, you see, are the mind. They're the dimensions of consciousness. And so, this great space, which every one of us aprehends from a slightly different point of view, in which the universe moves, this is the mind. So it's represented by a mirror, because although the mirror has no color, it is for that reason able to receive all the different colors. Meister Eckhardt said 'In order to see color, my eye has to be free from color.' So in the same way, in order not only to see, but also to hear, to think, to feel, you have to have an empty head.
From: The World As Emptiness By: Alan Watts
Found at: http://deoxy.org/watts.htm Drawing of 'Alan Watts' by: Jenny Badger Fair Use Notice |
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What Do White Birds Say The earth has disappeared beneath my feet, It fled from all my ecstasy, Now like a singing air creature I feel the Rose Keep opening. My heart turned to effulgent wings. When has love not given freedom? When has adoration not made one free? A woman broken in tears and sweat Stands in a field Watching the sun and me Trade jokes. But never would Hafiz laugh At your blessed labor Of finding peace. What do the dancing white birds say Looking down upon burnt meadows? All that you think is rain is not. Behind the veil Hafiz and angels sometimes weep Because most eyes are rarely glad And your divine beauty is still too frightened To unfurl its thousand swaying arms. The earth has disappeared beneath my feet, Illusion fled from all my ecstasy. Now like a radiant sky creature God keeps opening. God keeps opening Inside of Me.
~ Hafiz ~
From The Gift Translated by: Daniel Ladinsky. Art by: Ohara Shoson Title: 'White Birds in Snow' Found at: http://eu.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--10313359/sp--A/White_Birds_in_Snow.htm Fair Use Notice |
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~ Hakuin ~
Fair Use Notice |
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Cartoon by: Sidney Harris Found at: http://www.scienceteecher.com/miracle.htm Fair Use Notice |
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