The topic that opens my mind is when
the professor mentioned about “觉悟”.
In these Chinese characters, we can clearly see
“吾见心”
which can literally mean “I see my
heart”.” 觉”
is an awakening process which happens instantly at that very
moment, and” 悟”
means awakening through experience and learning. I had been
searching, for many years, for inner happiness through means of
acquiring more wealth and material things but was not able to find
inner peace at all. It was recently when I started studying
Buddhism and Taoism when I start to realize the power of awakening.
And when I watched the show, at that very moment I was able to find
my inner peace because I listen to my heart. We just need to focus
on happiness and let go of the worldly cravings in life. I am not
sure how to explain to you, but I believe you will be able to find
yours soon J
Actually all of us already have Buddha-Nature (which is
awareness-nature)... the ability to perceive, feel, smell, etc are
all natural functionings of our Buddha-Nature's clarity. The sound
of keyboard typing, words appearing on screen, are all expressions
of that. But we are so caught up in the small ego story of the
false self (along with the fear and dissatisfaction, etc) that we
miss what we truly are -- Life in this moment expressing itself in
all forms.
Buddha-nature/awareness is aware of the thoughts that arises
(and whether they are good and bad, and so on) and also aware of
the gap between thoughts... a gap of no-mind which will
increase/lenghthen as we practice. When practicing we become more
aware of ourselves, its a non-judgmental awareness like a mirror in
which everything from a single arising thought to the speck of dust
passing in front of your eyes is revealed. Every arising sensation,
perception and thought is arising in and AS the mirror. No
inner-outer division. Everything IS awareness, an
expression/functioning of awareness, and nothing is outside
awareness.
When pure awareness is experienced it's realised to be an
impersonal energy, awareness expressing in the infinite forms.
There's no 'I' or a 'me' at the center of it -- the ego (sense of a
separate self) completely dissolve into this pure awareness. Here
there is simply the pure experience itself, of everything, but
without a perspective of a 'self' or a 'center', which has
completely dissolved. Hence we should completely drop this
self/center, and we will experience an expansion and immense
liberation. Actually there never was a 'self', but due to our
ignorance we continue to give our illusory sense of self an
excessive sense of reality/solidity.
When we maintain a mindful presence of awareness there is a
natural seeing that does not abide. The mirror simply reflects
everything as it is, non-judgementally, does not label things as
good or bad. If an apple appears, its just apple reflected. If
sound of crying appears, its just sound perceived. Just Isness. No
duality between self and other, seer and seen -- in seeing and
hearing there is only scenery, only sound; sound hears, thought
thinks (no thinker or hearer).
No traces ever 'stains' the mirror. All phenomena (whether
pleasant or unpleasnt) never leave a trace in the mirror, arise and
subsides in its own accord... transient and self-liberating, like
painting on the surface of a pond... vividly clear and intantly
gone. (See http://buddhism.sgforums.com/forums/1728/topics/274492)
But too often we get caught up in the appearances, believing in
their 'absolute reality', believing in our illusions... hence this
self-liberating nature is apparently obscured.
As we rest in awareness, and stop giving our thoughts, stories,
and experiences an excessive sense of solidity/reality, we see that
everything is naturally 'letting go' as it arise by the very nature
of impermanence -- arising and subsiding by itself in this vast
empty awareness, and none of them matters or affects you... there
is no 'you', only vast aware space that encompasses everything.
Only an impersonal happening without a 'you' experiencing. There is
a feeling of freedom and liberation from the confinement to the
body/mind.
This is also the end of endless chasing of "external forms"
(which are just projections without reality). We can participate in
the game of living but is aware that the appearances, though
vividly experienced in awareness, are just actually like mirages,
illusory, dependently co-arisen and thus empty. In seeing the
unreality of it all there is no worries, anxiety, stress, and so
on. You remain the peaceful, unmoved spacious awareness of the
immediacy of life.
Though I do not know much about Chuang Tzu and Taoism, there's a
verse by Chuang Tzu which I think is good: “The perfect man employs
his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it
receives but does not keep.”
The mirror is our buddha-mind, which is a pure,
all-encompassing, intrinsic awareness that has no form of its own
and yet is capable of perceiving, experiencing, reflecting, or
expressing all form. Everything is simply reflected as it is
without labelling, discrimination, judgement, or grasping. It is as
it is. 'It grasps nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives but does
not keep'.
So moment to moment we just drop all our attachments and
experience in bare the immediate... whenever we caught ourselves in
worrying/anxieties and so on, and we drop everything and rest in
naked awareness... our primordial awareness/wisdom reveals itself
like clouds dissipating to reveal the sun. What is experience here
is the miracle of life. We surrender to/accept 'What Is' (which is
not the same thing as 'giving up' or stop doing anything to achieve
your goals, i.e. it is not passive, as actions can still arise in
What Is, yet it may be seen that actions and deeds actually arise
all along without a doer)
.....
It's not that "I" hear the birds, it's just hearing the birds. Let
yourself be seeing, hearing, thinking. That is what sitting is. It
is the false "I" that interrupts the wonder with the constant
desire to think about "I." And all the while the wonder is
occurring, the birds sing, the cars go by, the body sensations
continue, the heart beating - life is a second-by-second miracle,
but dreaming our I-dreams we miss it. So let's just sit
with what may seem like confusion. Just feel it, be it, appreciate
it. Then we may more often see through the false dream which
obscures our life. And then, what is there?
.....
What does it mean to shatter our usual way of seeing our life? My
ordinary experience of life is centered around myself. After all, I
am experiencing these ongoing impressions - I can't have your
experience of your life. I always have my own. And what inevitably
happens is that I come to believe that there is an "I" central to
my life, since the experiences of my life seem to be centered
around "I". "I" see, "I" hear, "I" feel, "I" think, "I" have this
opinion. We rarely question this "I." Now in the enlightened state
there is no "I"; there is simply life itself, a pulsation of
timeless energy whose very nature includes -or is -
everything.
.....
"Who is there?" asks God.
"It is I."
"Go away," God says...
Later...
"Who is there?" asks God.
"It is Thou."
"Enter," replies God.
..................
I have been asked, "Isn't observing a dualistic practice? Because
when we are observing, something is observing something else." But
in fact it's not dualistic. The observer is empty. Instead of a
separate observer, we should say there is just observing. There is
no one that hears, there is just hearing. There is no one that
sees, there is just seeing. But we don't quite grasp that. if we
practice hard enough, however, we learn that not only is the
observer empty, but that which is observed is also empty. At this
point the observer (or witness) collapses. This is the final stage
of practice, we don't need to worry about it. Why does the observer
finally collapse? When nothing sees nothing, what do we
have? Just the wonder of life. There is no one who is separated
from anything. There is just life living itself: hearing, touching,
seeing, smelling, thinking. That is the state of love or
compassion: not "It is I," but "It is Thou."
~ Zen teacher, Charlotte Joko Beck, author of 'Everyday Zen'
