More Balance….

This post is intended to be a continuation of sorts, of a previous post; “Balance”.  and… perhaps it is.

In the previous post, I explored my perceptions of the universe from a strictly humanistic side, from what can be observed with the eye and the analytical thought processes.

However, that is the yang of it.  There IS, of course,  a yin side to things also.  There is a yin side to everything!  That’s the duality of our universe.

One of the greatest, and ultimately insurmountable, challenges facing anyone who embarks on the path to understanding, is the indisputable fact that there will ALWAYS be more to know than we CAN know!

In counterpoint to the yang side of human reasoning, (or logic) is the fact there is a spiritual side (yin) that cannot be accessed by logic.  Commonly referred to as “faith”, it is usually much harder for us to accept, for several reasons.

1. People today tend to rely heavily on “science”, “logic”, and the evidence of the five senses, whereas 500 years or more ago, the world relied heavily on faith.
2. We are creatures of this physical universe, this conditional reality, and therefore tend to rely almost exclusively on phenomena existing in this reality, forgetting the little circle of yin which is our connection to the world of spirit, or Ultimate reality.  (see yin/yang diagram)
3. We, and conditional reality, are only one half of an indivisible and mutually complimentary whole, the other half being Ultimate reality.  (see explanation in “Does True Enlightenment Preclude the existence of God?” )

The above explanation should make clear why I believe in two apparently contradictory things,  God and Enlightenment.  Also I hope it helps to explain (at least in a very rudimentary fashion) why I feel that true enlightenment would at least include the understanding that all the questions we so earnestly meditate upon concerning our reality must take into account the spiritual side, Eternity, or Ultimate Reality.

If none of this is making sense to you, bear in mind that words are a poor conveyance sometimes.  Lao Tzu said: “…words may be used to speak of it, but they cannot contain it.”

The Yin/Yang of Ignorance and Understanding

It was a simple thing really…

For years I have been frustrated with my own ignorance, but as unenlightened as I am, it has always been relatively easy to notice others who understood even less than myself.  It seemed so sad.  So pitiful.  Here am I, reaching for understanding and wisdom, and daily I would encounter numerous persons, from all walks of life, who were seemingly unaware that there was even a need to seek wisdom!

These same people are usually quick to tell you all that is wrong in their life, all the challenges they are facing, and how nothing ever works out the way they want it to….

Then like the dawning of a new day, I began to understand.  Yin/Yang, the duality of the universe, demands the exsistence of such!  Just as there could be no day if there were no night, enlightenment cannot exsist without it’s opposite: ignorance!

When I understood this, I began to be grateful for ignorance, and especially for the journey from ignorance to enlightenment, for is that not really what it’s all about?  The journey, not the destination?

Balance

Oftentimes the true significance of my pursuits are obscure even to me.  But it is clearer than ever that the calling that comes so strongly from my pursuit of Eastern Philosophy is the attraction of Balance.  Balance that is only possible if it comes first from within!

Everything comes from within!  From within the deepest recesses of our thought patterns, our motivations, and our desires.  circumstances of our birth were beyond our control, but nearly everything that comes after is determined,  in large part, by us.

The thoughts and understandings of the great Buddhist, and Taoist, masters seems to confirm this phenomena.  If you want change, be it as profound as the cessation of suffering, or as mundane as a few more dollars in cash flow, the answer is always found within ourselves.  No wonder those who understand, when they meditate, contemplate their own navel!  What we find at our core, our center,determines the circumstances of our external world, and our interaction with it.

Consider the example of someone minding their own business, meditating perhaps, being struck from behind by someone to whom they had done no wrong, no harm.  The mundane or conventional (i.e. normal) person would react very strongly, perhaps even with violence.

“Who is this person, and why are they striking me?”

But the person of superior understanding would immediately realize the offender struck out of underlying ignorance, which in turn generated hatred, having no understanding of the hegative Karma they had just created.  The enlightened person would view the incident as a wonderful oportunity to apply one of the fundamental principles of Dharma practice: Patience.  This philosophy is exemplified in the meditation “Be Like Water”.

Just because the sensations of want and desire arise within our point of view or experience, does not mean we have to act upon them.  We are not required to “be” that emotion.  Acknowledge and observe the emotion, take note of it, and remain centered, serene, balanced!

Remember: Events and conditions arise, continue briefly, and then pass away, constantlyand continually, without interruption.  They do this because all conventional exsistence is in motion.  Motion changes each phenomena in relation to the other phenomena around it.  This in turn creates new conditions which then create new phenomena.

The chicken or the egg?

Even our very atoms vibrate, nothing stands still, or can remain motionless in this conventional, conditional  reality.

The only way we can remove ourselves from the suffering of change is to detach ourselves from the events, emotions, and other phenomena that surround us.

How do we become so attached to various people, places, events, and other things around us?

It all begins when we enter reality, soon after conception.  But it really takes hold after birth as we begin to explore the world around us with our newly aqquired senses.  Like all new observers, we become obsessed with the five sense factors to the point where we become convinced of our own reality.

It should be observed here that this is a reality only in the sense that we can observe it, yet at the same time, it is a dependent reality in that whatever “reality” we are observing, it is dependent on other conditions and states of being that are changing moment by moment.  And as conditions change, so does this conditional reality we are observing.

…. to be continued.

Be Like Water

Be like water.

Water conforms itself to whatever vessel or circumstance surrounds it, without being disturbed in any way.

Water is yielding and pliable, yet it brings down mountains.

Nothing can withstand it.

Water can travel anywhere, even ride the wind!

Be like water.

The Way

The Tao is beyond words, beyond understanding.
Words can be used to speak of it, but they cannot contain it.

The Tao came before words and names,
before Heaven and Earth,
before the “Ten Thousand Things”.
Tao is the Ultimate source of all conventional things.

Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the true reality of things,
dispense with words and names, with concepts,
with ambitions, and expectations, and differences, and desires.

The Tao and it’s many manifestations arise from the same source:
Subtle wonder within Mysterious darkness.

This is the beginning of all understanding.

(paraphrase of translation by Bryan Browne Walker)

Does True Enlightenment Preclude the Existence of God?

Enlightenment has often been likened to the rising of the Sun.

It begins with a minuscule increase in the available, ambient light, so discrete as to be almost imperceptible, and continues until the radiant orb is at it’s zenith.

During the process of enlightenment there are many bright flares of sudden insight, many “AHA!” moments when we are illuminated by a sudden brief flash of insight, but these can be likened to the beams of the rising sun, flashing through an opening in the leaves, or peering momentarily through a gap in the clouds.

True Enlightenment is when the sun is at it’s Zenith.

There are many on the path to enlightenment, who do not acknowledge the existence of God, of a Creator.  And for many, that is because Buddhism historically has always been intended to alleviate the problems of this present physical existence, rather than deal with the ‘unknowable’.  This is understandable, as Siddhartha Gautama himself is reported to have instructed his followers: “…do not make a religion of this.”  Instructions, which sadly enough, have not been followed.

Taoism on the other hand teaches that there is nothing in existence without an opposite, and describes it in the concept of yin/yang.  Two complementary halves of one whole.

• Day / Night
• Good / Evil
• Male / Female
• Sun / Moon
• Earth / Heavens
• Arrogance / Meekness
• Strong / Weak
• Fast / Slow

The list goes on and on.  For everything in existence, there is an opposite.

The key to this understanding is that it takes both halves together, in order for either half to exist.

Since we are not required to just take the concept of yin/yang merely on faith, but can instead see it for ourselves, we therefore know it exists.  Having perceived it thus, we can then begin to apply it to the areas in which we are still ignorant.  Not everything can be seen with our eyes, or proven with scientific observation.  Not that long ago Science was totally unaware of the ‘Quark’ particle, but with the advent of particle accelerators, quark particles were ‘discovered’.  Ironically the Universe had been operating for billions of years with these particles built right into it’s very fabric.  Our inability to fathom, let alone conceive of this particle, in no way denied it existence.

Therefore: rather than preclude, True Enlightenment would have to include the existence of God.

I have no intention of trying to convince you here that it is so, but rather to remind you to consider this: that everything that exists, only exists in conjunction with it’s mutually complementary opposite.  Inability to see it does not preclude it’s existence!

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Attachment and Aversion

Yesterday was a time of learning for me.

On the way to work I took an innocent life.  It was ‘just a rabbit’ true, but an innocent life just the same.

It started out as the usual morning ride… breakfast, coffee, the early morning sounds and smells.  And there in the middle of the road he sat.  As is my usual response to a rabbit in the road, I lightly tapped the horn, knowing from many years of experience that rabbits and squirrels often need a little jolt of fear to get them started moving.  And move he did, but entirely in the wrong direction!  At first he got it right, running for the far side of the road, but at the last minute he changed his mind and ran back, directly beneath my wheels.  There was a sickening ‘thump’ as his little body impacted the underside of the car.

Instantly I was filled with remorse, and anger at myself for not avoiding him by either slowing or dodging.  My stomach muscles began to clench as my thoughts turned toward bitterness.

“Whoa!” I chided myself.  “It was just a rabbit!”

That’s when it hit me.

Worldwide, millions of rabbits are born and die every day!  It wasn’t so much hitting the rabbit that was the source of my mental suffering, as the simple fact I had wanted (and expected) a different outcome. Not only that, but if it had been a snake or a spider, I would have been glad to run it over!

So now, I began to see, I had two different problems that were causing me suffering!  Not only was I attached to a specific outcome, I also was differentiating, whereas I should be applying the same action towards all life.  For a long time now, my views toward taking life have been shaped not only by my spiritual beliefs, but also my philosophical ones, best stated by the following mantra:

• Avoid rather than check
• Check rather than hurt
• Hurt rather than maim
• Maim rather than kill, for;
• All life is precious, and no one has the right to take it away!

Since I believe this very strongly, I had established in my mind a very strong attachment to the specific outcome of not taking life.  Any life!  And while that is a noble goal, it was the attachment to that ideal that was causing my suffering, not the fact I had failed to achieve it.

To look at the situation more realistically, I had no intent of running the rabbit over, and even took steps to ensure that I did not.  So when it ran beneath my wheels, I should have simply accepted it as Karma and moved on.

Attachment is generated as a direct result of ignorance. The word ignorance in this case meaning: “A failure to see reality as it really is.”

Reality is thus: sometimes even with the best of intention, and right action, things do not go the way I would have them to go. With mindfulness of that understanding comes peace and serenity.  What happened was supposed to happen.  The Universe, or Reality, is operating exactly as it always has, and is supposed to operate!

I was the only thing out of kilter!

As a result I have begun to examine my desired outcomes to see how much attachment I have generated.  I have found a great deal.

The antidote?

Meditations on emptiness and impermanence.  On the conditionality of this mundane reality I find myself perceiving at this moment.

This Moment. That’s all there is!

Perceptions

Our world is determined by our perception.

In another post, in another blog, I wrote that a person suffering from depression believes his negative state of mind to be ‘Reality’ based on his negative perceptions.  This is because everything we see is filtered through the lens of our perceptions.

Merriam – Webster defines ‘perception’ thus:

• 1 a: a result of perceiving : observation b: a mental image : concept
• 2obsolete : consciousness
• 3 a: awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation <color perception> b: physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience
• 4 a: quick, acute, and intuitive cognition : appreciation b: a capacity for comprehension

Nowhere in this description do you find the phrase: ‘absolute reality’.  Yet we commonly accept our observations to be reality.  We observe, construct a concept based on our  incomplete data, form an assumption, and call it reality!  When this observation is made a second time with the same conclusions, (which is likely, seeing it now has a ‘history’ in our consciousness), it is well on it’s way to becoming a ‘core belief’.

I imagine that it’s the “quick, intuitve, cognition” that gets us in trouble most of the time.  ‘Snap’ judgements, without thinking things through, will only further separate us from reality.  How many times have we found ourselves in an argument, only to discover we misunderstood the person we are arguing with?

We have a built in tendacy to think everyone percieves things the same way we do!  For instance, I used to answer direct questions very literally.  My first wife was very Indirect.  She would ask: “Do you want to take out the trash?” (meaning, of course, ”please take out the trash.”)  Unfortunately, my mind percieved the question literally, which was: “do you want to take out the trash?”  My answer would always be No!  You can imagine where that led us!

When I finally realized what was going on, I explained it only to hear: “Oh you know what I mean!”  Actually I hadn’t.  I had been trying to figure out why anyone would want to take out the trash!

That automatic assumption that everyone percieves reality the same as ourself, just reinforces our belief that what we see is reality.  Therefore we begin, deep down, to resent those who attempt to ‘persuade us’ differently.

• Your perceptions are just an impression of reality, not reality itself.
• You can choose how you wish to percieve any experience.
• Because every part and particle of the Universe (ie. ‘reality) is in constant motion, the reality of what we perceive changes moment by moment.