Wouldn't it be nice, when eating a strawberry, to go beyond the tongue
and taste the strawberry's true essence? Well, actually the tongue
cannot taste. The tongue is powerless to make anything like "taste"
happen; the tongue, too, lacks support. When the tongue touches the
strawberry, every texture and flavor of the strawberry is the
simultaneous knowing of every texture and flavor of the strawberry's
essence.
Because the ten thousand things lack true essence,
everything in the entire universe becomes immediately the essence of
itself. There is only one taste in the whole of the cosmos, and that
taste is what we call "the cosmos." Allow everything to completely
dissolve into the texture of suchness, and infinite essences come forth
to proclaim the one teaching: there is no essence in the entire world.
I
like writing verse to express and clarify my insights, especially in
the few hours proceeding a breakthrough or opening. Here is one which
expresses what I discovered today.
Unhindered, reality-less,
I go about my business.
Suchness does not know
the rain outside my window.
Naturalness prevails,
happening, happening.
The happening is no occasion
to conceive of anything existing;
the disappearing is no time
to think of anything lost.
Only see that ceasing things
were never really real;
Only see that happenings
are bubbles made of air.
Soh Wei Yu
Soh Wei Yu An interesting thing about AF is that according to Daniel many of the AF claimants back then reported getting lessened need for sleep but Daniel Ingram did not. YMMV. My sleep is not too affected after anatta (about 7 hours, like Daniel) but Thusness sleeps only 4-5 hours a day and that is enough for him. Some people encounter insomnia in I AMness due partly to the attachment to Presence or Luminosity as Self, but it seems even anatta breakthrough can have effect on sleep. Buddha himself sleeps only 1 hour a night. But that is different from us and we should not try to replicate that effect or mistaken insomnia for attainment.
In any case Thusness wrote in 2006 and 2007,
2006:
Yes Longchen,
Very well said. There never was a gap, it can't be. It is one whole flow and nothing else. When there is one, there is two. When the one subsides, nothing isn't the one Reality.
Clear transparency of the One Reality also has its problem. An illumination into the non-duality without certain pre-requiste can cause problems. There is always habitual propensities that will again make this experience an object of attachment. It can cause a person to go without sleep as the body is incapable of dealing with this new found experience. Many have mistaken this to be a heightening of awareness and took it as a natural progression. This is not true. Whenever this happens, know that it is due to attachment. Learn how to let go of everything until a tranquil calmness arise, it has got to do with our thought patterns, there must come this willingness to let go of our body completely, then our thoughts and the experience of presence...completely letting go from moment to moment...the senses and thoughts can be shut by this art of letting go and non-attachment. Total letting go and vivid Presence must fuse into one.
Practice during the waking state till the there is no single trace of doubt that there is absolutely no one there, no inner and no outer, just the incredible realness and vividness of the manifestation. The experience of non-dual in the waking state. Witnessing dreams and there is no witness, just dreams is different. Dealing with the more subtle states and pre-conscious propensites require one to master this art of non-attachment, non-action. There is no conscious way of dealing with the more subtle states, just stabilized the experience and allow the momentum to carry us naturally into the dream and deep sleep. Sleep well.
...
2007:
To find one that can completely surrender and totally be is extremely rare. Not even one in millions. Yet in deep sleep, all has to let go. How can one be denied such a precious state of beingness.
For a person that has experienced no-self (non-duality), deep sleep is even more important. It is the completion of a full cycle of non-duality and natural beingness.
But this may not be the case for one that clings to the "Eternal Witnessing". There is a very subtle holding in them for mantaining this witnessing subconciously thereby denying them from naturally going into deep sleep. If it reaches a point that presents itself as a problem, it is a signal to the practitioner that it is time to let go and dissolve the holding of the Witness, the center. It will be tough to simply try just "let go" of the center and if this is the case, an insight into our "emptiness nature" may help.
Only after going through a full cycle of natural non-duality and beingness in all three states will a practitioner sleep be shorten. I called this the second cycle of non-duality.
...
Fade away and appreciate "no where". Sleep well!
4
Manage
Like
· Reply · 6d · Edited
Soh Wei Yu
Soh Wei Yu Also Thusness wrote to me in Sept 2010 when I was in my one mind phase:
Hi Simpo and AEN,
Yet we cannot get carried away by all these blissful experiences. Blissfulness is the result of luminosity whereas liberation is due to prajna wisdom. 🙂
To AEN,
For intense luminosity in the foreground, you will not only have vivid experience of ‘brilliant aliveness’, ‘you’ must also completely disappear. It is an experience of being totally ‘transparent’ and without boundaries. These experiences are quite obvious, u will not miss it. However the body-mind will not rest in great content due to an experience of intense luminosity. Contrary it can make a practitioner more attach to a non-dual ultimate luminous state.
For the mind to rest, it must have an experience of ‘great dissolve’ that whatever arises perpetually self liberates. It is not about phenomena dissolving into some great void but it is the empty nature of whatever arises that self-liberates. It is the direct experience of groundlessness and non –abiding due to direct insight of the empty nature of phenomena and that includes the non-dual luminous essence.
Therefore In addition to bringing this ‘taste’ to the foreground, u must also ‘realize’ the difference between wrong and right view. There is also a difference in saying “Different forms of Aliveness” and “There is just breath, sound, scenery...magical display that is utterly unfindable, ungraspable and without essence- empty.”
In the former case, realize how the mind is manifesting a subtle tendency of attempting to ‘pin’ and locate something that inherently exists. The mind feels uneasy and needs to seek for something due to its existing paradigm. It is not simply a matter of expression for communication sake but a habit that runs deep because it lacks a ‘view’ that is able to cater for reality that is dynamic, ungraspable, non-local , center-less and interdependent.
After direct realization of the non-dual essence and empty nature, the mind can then have a direct glimpse of what is meant by being ‘natural’, otherwise there will always be a ‘sense of contrivance’.
My 2 cents and have fun with ur army life. 🙂
Edited by Thusness 12 Sep `10, 12:56PM
3
Manage
Like
.............
p.s.
"
In the same
way, clouting in zazen is of the utmost value. To be jolted physically
by the kyosaku stick or verbally by a perceptive teacher at the right
time--if it is too early, it is ineffective--can bring about
Self-realization. Not only is the kyosaku valuable for spurring you on,
but when you have reached a decisive stage in you zazen a hard whack can
precipitate your mind into an awareness of its true nature--in other
words, enlightenment.
When this happened to Enyadatta she was so elated that she rushed
around exclaiming: "Oh, I've got it! I have my head after all! I'm so
happy!"
This is the rapture of kensho. If the experience is genuine, you
cannot sleep for two or three nights our of joy. Nevertheless, it is a
half-mad state. To be overjoyed at finding a head you had from the very
first is, to say the least , queer. Nor is it less odd to rejoice at the
discovery of your Essential-nature, which you have never been without.
The ecstasy is genuine enough, but your state of mind cannot be called
natural until you have fully disabused yourself of the notions, "I have
become enlightened." Mark this point well, for it is often
misunderstood.
As her joy subsided Enyadatta recovered from her half-mad state.
So it is with satori. When your delirium of delight recedes,
taking with it all thoughts of realization, you settle into a truly
natural life and there is nothing queer about it. Until you reach this
point, however, it is impossible to live in harmony with your
environment or to continue on a course of true spiritual practice.
I shall now point out more specifically the significance of the
first part of the story. Since most people are indifferent to
enlightenment, they are ignorant of the possibility of such an
experience. They are like Enyadatta when she was unconscious of her head
as such. This "head," of course, corresponds to the Buddha-nature, to
our innate perfection. That they evey have a Buddha-nature never occurs
to most people until they hear Shujo honrai hotoke nari--"All beings are
endowed with Buddha-nature from the very first." Suddenly they exclaim:
"Then I too must have the Buddha-nature! But where is it? Thus like
Enyadatta when she first missed her head and started rushing about
looking for it, they commence their search for their True nature.
They begin by listening to various teisho, which seem
contradictory and puzzling. They hear that their Essential-nature is no
different from the Buddha's--more, that the substance of the universe is
coextensive with their own Buddha-nature--yet because their mind are
clouded with delusion they see themselves confronted by a world of
individual entities. Once they establish firm belief in the reality of
the Buddha-nature, they are driven to discover it with all the force of
their being. Just as Enyadatta was never without her head, so are we
never separate from our essential Buddha-nature whether we are
enlightened or not. But of this we are unaware. We are like Enyadatta
when her friends told her: "Don't be absurd, you have always had your
head. It is an illusion to think otherwise."
The discovery of our True-nature can be compared to Enyadatta's
discovery of her head. But what have we discovered? Only that we have
never been without it! Nonetheless we are ecstatic, as she was at the
finding of her head. When the ecstasy recedes, we realize we have
acquired nothing extraordinary, and certainly nothing peculiar. Only now
everything is utterly natural."
-- recommended reading, Yasutani-roshi's Introductory Lectures on Zen Training (it's a practical text on Zazen and Koan training)
Posts
