Certainty of Being

last SG · 2010-04-21T15:16:13+00:00

If you find out what is a non conceptual thought, what is the essence of the mind at rest, it may be revealed that it is that same powerful presence and cert...

Pure Emptiness SG

Let go of what has passed.

Let go of what may come.

Let go of what is happening now.

Don't try to figure anything out.

Don't try to make anything happen.

Relax, right now, and rest.

-Tilopa

Can we meditate on this poem/stanza?

sinweiy SG

Can we meditate on this poem/stanza?

u like practicing koan of ch'an school...asking this asking that..fine though. :)

or u can ask your own mind.

An Eternal Now SG

Can we meditate on this poem/stanza?

Absolutely. It is meant to be meditated on/practiced.

Pure Emptiness SG

u like practicing koan of ch'an school...asking this asking that..fine though. :)

or u can ask your own mind.

I am not zen practitioner. My capacity is not very gd. I am Low root people.

An Eternal Now SG

I actually don't believe that enlightenment is for high root people.

In fact according to commentaries, high root people can get enlightened within 7 days, low root people should get enlightened within 7 years. (based on satipatthana sutta)

I consider myself low root. I started learning Buddhism for 5 years or more and only beginning to realise some of the fundamental truths taught by Buddha.

Pure Emptiness SG

I actually don't believe that enlightenment is for high root people.

In fact according to commentaries, high root people can get enlightened within 7 days, low root people should get enlightened within 7 years. (based on satipatthana sutta)

I consider myself low root. I started learning Buddhism for 5 years or more and only beginning to realise some of the fundamental truths taught by Buddha.

I think Zen school not so suitable for me.

I like to read sutra.

Is there a school which focuses on Sutra recitation.

Chanting is my fav activity too.

An Eternal Now SG

...........

Pure Emptiness SG

I don't follow any schools anymore... I don't follow anything any more... (though am open to new ideas and good stuff)

But most importantly, just follow your self, i.e. your own experience.

Because I read Lama Rinpoche's pdf file.

He asked us to read sutra to plant wisdom imprints like emptiness.

So in the future easier to get enlightened.

Heart sutra n Badarenjuejing shortest and can plant such imprints.

I wanna recite Golden light sutra for world peace but too long the sutra. Not much time.

An Eternal Now SG

Because I read Lama Rinpoche's pdf file.

He asked us to read sutra to plant wisdom imprints like emptiness.

So in the future easier to get enlightened.

Heart sutra n Badarenjuejing shortest and can palnt such imprints.

Yes good. Plant the seeds... but also start contemplating... start discovering. Don't walk into the treasure cave and come out with nothing. Don't read but not take them away (realize them in your life).

Prajnaparamita sutras teaches emptiness and no-self.

Don't just read them... but also contemplate.

See there is no you. There is hearing, experiencing, seeing, thinking. But no you, no thinker, no perceiver.

No being. No self. No others. Just experiences... arising... falling... traceless... gone. Vivid, lumious, clear, but empty.

Sounds arising, vivid, clear, luminous, empty, without self/hearer. Sight/vision arising... vivid, clear, luminous, empty, without self/seer.

Don't just keep thinking about the future... the truth is already shining Right Now... what are you waiting for.

Don't think enlightenment is distant, because I can assure you, it is not. From my experience and the experience of countless others.... even though there is no 'my' or 'others', just experiencing.

Pure Emptiness SG

Prajnaparamita sutras teaches emptiness and no-self.

Don't just read them... but also contemplate.

See there is no you. There is hearing, experiencing, seeing, thinker. But no you, no thinker, no perceiver.

No being. No self. No others. Just experiences... arising... falling... traceless... gone.

comtemplate need teacher to guide.

Pure Emptiness SG

Like comtemplate impermanance wrongly might become very depressed.

Need guidance from teacher.

Comtemplate on impurities of body also need teacher if not easy to go wrong way.

An Eternal Now SG

comtemplate need teacher to guide.

You just need someone who have seen the truth to guide you. Unfortunately, many teachers themselves have not seen the truth.

I am guiding you now, but whether you do as I state... that's up to you.

Pure Emptiness SG

You just need someone who have seen the truth to guide you. Unfortunately, many teachers themselves have not seen the truth.

I am guiding you now, but whether you do as I state... that's up to you.

You wanna be my teacher?

An Eternal Now SG

You wanna be my teacher?

Haha... no no, I wouldn't say that.

Just a lamp post... a pointer to the moon....

You have to walk the path, I can't walk for you.

Pure Emptiness SG

Haha... no no, I wouldn't say that.

Just a lamp post... a pointer to the moon....

You have to walk the path, I can't walk for you.

Of cos. If Buddha can gain enlightemnet for us no need to be monk le.

But my interest in comtemplating emptiness,no self havent arise yet.

Paiseh Paiseh.

An Eternal Now SG

Of cos. If Buddha can gain enlightemnet for us no need to be monk le.

But my interest in comtemplating emptiness,no self havent arise yet.

Paiseh Paiseh.

Then continue reading the sutras until genuine interest to understand them arises.

Pure Emptiness SG

Then continue reading the sutras until genuine interest to understand them arises.

Which is wad I do on weekly basis.

Pure Emptiness SG

But mindfulness in plain English is a very gd book.

I read it in library.

An Eternal Now SG

When I was still 16 around 4 years ago, I asked Thusness, is paying attention to details the same as awareness? For example, is paying attention to what the teacher is saying... the same as awareness? And how do I know if I am 'merely sensing' (like Vipassana) or am I simply focusing?

His reply was 'clarity and luminosity is a measurement', 'the degree of clarity and luminosity will tell you' and '(in the) complete abeyance of self, you will experience luminosity, everything becomes a flow of clarity, it is non-dual, without object and subject, without self'.

And yes, indeed, attention is not the same as luminosity. Attention is simply a mental phenomena... a particular focus on the details and contents of an experience. It is the focusing on a particular phenomena... for example the sound of teacher speaking. Attention works by focusing on a particular phenomena to the exclusion of other phenomena. Attention itself IS a mental phenomenon.

However, attention can be mistaken to be a part of a self... in other words, we may have the notion that attention is being controlled by the self... that there is a self directing attention from one object to another.

But if we look, we see that there is simply that mental phenomenon of attention. In every experience... this is it. Whether or not you are paying attention to me, this is it. There is just this phenomenon arising... be it an 'unfocused' experience or a 'focused' experience... there is only that experience arising without an experiencer or controller.

There is attending, there is focusing (or not-focusing and not-attending)... there is no attender.

There is no 'me' 'attending to' 'object'... just as there is no 'me' 'hearing' 'sound'... there is just THIS experience, whatever it is, be it with attention or not... That phenomenon of attending-object is also part of the flow of experience spontaneously arising without an agent... Attention is not tied to a subject, object of attention is not tied to an external object, there is just a seamless stream of mental and physical activities happening without a self.

Enlightenment is not any particular state of attention or experience, but an insight into the nature of all experiences. And after these insights, it doesn't mean you become very alert every moment in the sense that you attend to all the details and notice what others are telling you and so on. Luminosity and attention are different things... there can be vivid luminosity without engagement in the contents/details of the arising, which requires thought-focus/attention. If I am attending a class, I can definitely still lose focus or tune out totally sometimes (oh and I never was good in concentrating to a speaker, and my primary school teacher used to tell me to go seek medical help for attention deficit disorder though I didn't... lol). The fact remains however that there is just that phenomenon arising without a controller or experiencer.

And that phenomenon... be it an unfocused or focused phenomenon... is a luminous arising. Luminosity does not depend on attention or focus, so do not make it contrived... luminosity is effortless, ever-present, never lost... for luminosity is the essence of ALL arisings... in whatever forms it takes... in the mental phenomenon of attention... or in the engagement of thoughts... or in sounds... or sight... or whatever. In seeing, just shapes and forms... In hearing, just the da-da-da of the keyboard... just appearances alone is the luminosity. Luminosity is the effortless and spontaneous flow of manifestation happening without a director or perceiver. Hearing does not require focused attention, it just happens... seeing does not require focused attention, it just happens… focused-attention does not require or have an attender, it just happens. But whatever IS, IS luminosity.

It does not depend on whether you are paying attention to something particular.. or listening to the contents of what someone else is saying... or whatever ways the mental phenomenon of attention is taking shape. Sounds spontaneously arise without hearer (it does not take effort or focus to hear the airplane - it just happens), sights spontaneously arise without seer (it does not take effort or focus for scenery to be seen - it just happens), thoughts spontaneously arise without thinker (it does not take effort or focus for thoughts to arise - it just happens), that alone is luminosity. Focusing and interpreting what another person is saying, is just one kind of mental phenomenon.

When this is seen, 'efforting' due to grasping onto an agent/controller/perceiver shifts into effortless seeing - and in the seeing there is simply effortless spontaneous manifestation. There is no "me" trying to "do something" to get into a special "state". As Toni Packer used to say,

[An airplane is flying overhead.] The sound of a plane! Both the thought/word plane, and, maybe, a mental image of it are right here - aren't they? There is no one doing any attending. Just the sound, the image! [silence] But you were asking, "Isn't the attention turning toward something?" Is it? Let's look and listen! [silence] Can't discern any turning, can you? There is no need for awareness to turn anywhere. It's here! Everything is here in awareness! When there is a waking up from fantasy, there is no one who does it. Awareness and the sound of a plane are here with no one in the middle trying to "do" them or bring them together. They are here together! The only thing that keeps things (and people) apart is the "me"-circuit with its separative thinking. When that is quiet, divisions do not exist.

An Eternal Now SG

All experiences, even the most beautiful NDNCDIMOP (non-dual, non-conceptual, direct, immediate mode of perception) are more experiences that arises and subsides.

Which isn't a problem... In fact I am not suggesting transcendence of experience to reach something that doesn't arise and subside. The notion of an Awareness that doesn't arise and subside has been seen through... now it is seen that Awareness is precisely the arising and subsiding, even though each luminous arising is timeless and without coming and going (sounds confusing but isn't so in direct experience).

I am also not suggesting you to detach from such experiences... let them come, let the bliss and clarity come and go (which they will, it is the nature of all experiences to arise and subside), and 'who' is there to detach from experience anyway? No one! Only experiences without experiencer.

What I am suggesting however... is that grasping on any experiences, even what appears 'ultimate' like the NDNCDIMOP is going to result in suffering. Why? Because the nature of all experiences is that they arise and subside instantaneously. They are ungraspable and empty and as such they are unsatisfactory. The nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and non-self marks every single experience/dharma, even those that appears 'ultimate'. But actually there is no 'ultimate experience'.

Ordinary perceptions, ordinary seeing, hearing, smelling, are all marked by these characteristics. Each experience arises without an observer or experiencer or agent, they are simply as they are... scenery sees, noise hears.... and they arise and subside simultaneously leaving no traces. By the way... non-dual is the nature of all experience, it is not that there is a Presence non-dual with arisings... but rather there is only arising, and each arising does not have a separate perceiver and hence each perception as it is is free from duality. Just hearing, seeing, touching, thinking, etc is Truth. Truth is found in the most ordinary experiences and perceptions... to chase after some better experience is to overlook what is present right in front of... well... experience. If we fail to see that This ordinary arising is already the non-dual actuality, then we'll forever chase after some future experience that never exists. Actuality is... just hearing, just seeing, just smelling, just touching, just tasting, just thinking, everything happening as it is is already non-dual, complete, self-luminous, without self, impermanent, ungraspable, empty.

Seeing that everything arises and subsides by nature... we no longer form views of self and world as having any sort of inherency. We no longer perceive a world consisting of things located in fixed places. What we call 'places' are really more perceptions that arise and subside... there is nothing truly 'there'. What we call 'there' is not truly a 'there' but is more arisings that subside as soon as it manifest. Likewise what we call 'self', 'here', anything that implies 'location' and so on are also in actuality nothing inherent - only perceptions arising and subsiding.

Everything thought to be inherent (world, locations, self, body, mind, etc) is upon investigation not a solid 'thing' but simply an Arising... and as an Arising, its cessation follows. Existence/inherency, Non-existence/nihilism does not apply to reality.

As Buddha taught,

Dwelling at Savatthi... Then Ven. Kaccayana Gotta approached the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One: "Lord, 'Right view, right view,' it is said. To what extent is there right view?"

"By & large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by (takes as its object) a polarity, that of existence & non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.

The entire world as we know it... is not a fixed solid something out there... neither is there a self that is a fixed solid thing in here.

There is really just sensations and perceptions arising and subsiding each moment... its arising is the manifestation of undeniable Presence... its immediate subsidence proves there is no solid substance to anything perceived. There is no world, self, location, etc... but neither can you deny the presenc-ing (and subsidence) of the world.

« Previous Page Next Page »