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19 Nov 2008 - Abiding Silence ~ This Undisturbed Now
Even existing dharmas must be discarded,
So how can we cling to Dharmas which don't exist!
Ah ha! Futilely the Ancients
busily pursued
enlightenment, then departed.
The countenance, existing of its own accord
I wonder
who named it buddha or sentient being?
Even one true Dharma cannot survive.
Outside the window, the cherry tree
is singing
this news.
- Hyunoong Sunim, Sixth Patriarch Zen Center, Berkeley
(The
Sixth Patriarch is Hui-Neng, who said: "Within
the Essence of Mind all things are intrinsically pure, like the azure of the sky and the radiance of the sun and the moon
which, when obscured by passing clouds, may appear as if their brightness had been dimmed; but as soon as the clouds are blown
away, brightness reappears and all objects are fully illuminated. Learned Audience, our evil habits may be likened unto the
clouds; while Sagacity and Wisdom are like the sun and the moon respectively. When we attach ourselves to outer objects, our
Essence of Mind is clouded by wanton thoughts which prevent our Sagacity and Wisdom from sending forth their light".)
Enough
ado about nothing!_______________________________________________________________________________________________
17 Nov 2008 - He Who Says 'I Know', Knows NOT
The Wisest Man In The World
Many years ago a wise peasant farmer lived in China .
He had a son who, though an idiot, was the gleam in his eyes - he certainly
adored the boy as only a parent can. He also had one horse - a beautiful horse, which was not only his favorite and beloved
possession, but also the workhorse for the farm.
One day the idiot son left the corral gate open and the horse escaped
from his grounds and disappeared into the mountains outside the village.
The villagers came to him one by one and announced their condolences.
They said, "You are such an unlucky man. It is such bad fortune”"
The peasant answered, "Who knows. Maybe it's bad luck, maybe it's good fortune."
The neighbors shrugged and left.
The next day the horse returned, followed by twelve wild horses who followed
him into the corral; the farmer noticed this, smiled, and securely locked the corral gate, warning his son, "please dear boy,
do NOT leave the gate unlocked again". The boy promised to do his best.
The same neighborly people returned and told our wise man about how lucky
he was. "It's such great good
fortune”!
The wise man replied once more, "Who knows. Maybe it's good fortune, maybe
it is not. Who knows”?
As it happened, the next day his one and only son was attempting to break
in one of the wild horses when the horse threw the boy and the boy broke his leg.
Once more everyone came to console him. They said, "It's so bad."
Again the farmer replied, ""Who knows. Maybe it's bad, maybe it's good."
Three days passed and his poor idiot son was limping around the village
with his broken leg, when the emperor's army entered the village announcing that a war was starting and they conscripted all
the young men of the village for a suicidal battle against overwhelming odds. However, they left the son since he had a broken
leg.
Once more, everyone was so jealous of our wise man. They surrounded him
talking about his shier luck. "It is so good for you," they said. He answered all thus, ""Who knows. Maybe it's wonderful,
maybe it's terrible. WHO KNOWS"?
And obviously - the story goes on - forever.
Who claims to know, knows NOT. – Ancient saying
__________________________________________________________________________
11 Nov 08 - Is Awareness ‘The Absolute’?
Q: I have a question regarding what has been referred to as the "Absolute" or the Supreme
State. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said that
we are the changeless awareness that illumines the infinite content of consciousness.
C: I stand by that for sure!
Q: To me it is obvious that I am, and that there is this eternal, never-changing presence of awareness
in the background - my question is regarding whether or not this awareness is actually what I am in the very deepest sense.
C: Yes, you are that Light of Awareness that shines forth as Consciousness (I AM).
Q: Although Maharaj and many others say that you are this awareness, he also mentions that you
are the Absolute, which is "beyond awareness", beyond the sense of "I am", and that the absolute transcends birth, being,
and death.
C: Here you kind of get hung up on the semantics or languaging of what IS and PRIOR to language
and semantics. Using a word - “Awareness" - to point to The Absolute is just that – a pointer. Awareness is the
objectless Subjectless Light of Being. Consciousness is the KNOWING “I am", there IS existence, consciousness, aliveness.
Q: It is also stated that beingness or "I am" is
dependent upon the body-mind and disappears when the body dies.
C: Correct. The body-mind is like the candle and consciousness is like the flame that consumes
the candle, whereupon as the last bit of fuel is exhausted the flame goes out. But the Light that IS cannot be extinguished
because That is NOT an object. Call it a Flameless Light if you like. But bear in mind that no word can ever capture it because
it is That which gives essence and appearance to the presence and the absence of the body-mind and consciousness.
Q:
Is there a difference between the changeless in which everything, even the "I am", happens, and the Absolute?
C: Yes and no. The changeless is not an object that comes and goes and therefore IS The Absolute.
Yet that Absolute appears AS everything, arising here and now in this timeless moment, so to speak…
Q: I guess what I'm getting at is whether or not I'm actually aware of the Absolute,
C: NO! You ARE the Absolute so to “be aware” of that you would have to be separated
from that and there is no separation between you as consciousness (I AM) and The Absolute. These are, as is forever POINTED
to, NOT Two. Or, “One without a second”.
Q: Because I feel a strong need to abide fully in the state I was in before I was born and that
is unaffected by death.
C: You already do abide as That. Trying to recover that seems to obscure that. Pause thought right
now for a timeless instant: Here and now you ARE and already always abide AS that. You are just trying to capture it as if
you were separated from that. That is a fool’s errand!
Q: Is this simple, ever-present presence of awareness that I feel the Absolute, or is even this
just a transient state that disappears sooner or later, and if so how does one realize the Absolute?
C: “One” does NOT “realize the absolute”! Who is there to do that? Where
is any separate entity that is NOT already whole and complete, not already The Absolute? This is the ignorance of a mind that
takes itself to be separate – yet that mind is just a notion, an idea of a person apart from The Absolute. Do a bit
of looking for that so called person with a separate substantial existence apart from Being, Awareness, Aliveness itself and
see what you find. I promise you will come up empty handed. And in that cognizing emptiness you are as you already always
are will be have forever been – the Living Buddha-Nature, this Absolute arising as Being.
The bottom line is, YOU ARE THAT. Full Stop.
______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Now I know nothing, for all knowledge
is in dream only and not valid. I know myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being, not being this or that,
but just being". ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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