Post by michaelsees on Jan 10, 2011 16:13:27 GMT -5
I liked this maybe you will also.
The act of conceiving ourselves as this individual entity
living here at this time, is a presumption. And
it's only by frustrating our habitual judgments in this
way that we're forced into loosening our grip.
This view of things pulls the plug, takes the props away,
and, above all, shakes up our standard frames of reference.
This is exactly what Ajahn Chah did with people when he
asked them, "If you can't go forward and you can't go
back and you can't stand still, where can you go?" He
was pointing to the place of nonabiding: the timelss, selfless
quality that is independent of location.
Some current research has also reached a comparable conclusion
about the fundamental nature of matter. In the world
of quantum physics, scientists now use such terms as
"the sea of potential" to refer
to the primordial level of physical reality from
which all particles and energies crystallize and into
which they subsequently dissolve. The principle of nonlocality
in this realm means that the "place where something happens"
cannot truly be defined and that a single event can have
exactly the same simultaneous effects in [apparently] widely
separated places.
Terms like "single place" and "separate places" are seen
to apply only as conventional fictions at certain levels
of scale; at the level of the ultimate field, the sea of
quantum foam, "place" has no real meaning. In the fine subatomic
realm, where-ness does not apply. There is no there there.
Whether this principle is called nonabiding or non-locality,
its both interesting and note worthy that the same
principle applies in both the mental and physical realms.
I first started to investigate this type of contemplation
when I was on a long retreat and doing a lot of solitary
practice. It suddenly occurred to me that while I might
have let go of the feeling of self - the feeling of
this and that and so on - whatever the experience of
reality was, it was still "here." There was still
here-ness. For several weeks I contemplated the question
"Where is here?" Not using the question to get a verbal
answer, more just to illuminate and aid the abandoment
of clinging that was still present.
Recognizing this kind of conditioning is just half the job -
recognizing that, as soon as there is a here-ness that is a subtle
presence of a there-ness. Similarily, establishing a
"this" brings up a "that". As soon as we define "inside",
up pops "outside". It's crucial to acknowledge such subtle
feelings of grasping, it happens so fast and at so many different
layers and levels.
This simple act of apprehending the experience is shining the
light of wisdom onto what grasping is. Once the defilements
are in the spotlight, they get a little nervous and uncomfortable.
When clinging is the focus of our awareness, it can't function
properly. In short, clinging can't cling in awareness' spotlight.
From: Small Boat, Great Mountain
Amaro Bhikkhu (free on line)
The act of conceiving ourselves as this individual entity
living here at this time, is a presumption. And
it's only by frustrating our habitual judgments in this
way that we're forced into loosening our grip.
This view of things pulls the plug, takes the props away,
and, above all, shakes up our standard frames of reference.
This is exactly what Ajahn Chah did with people when he
asked them, "If you can't go forward and you can't go
back and you can't stand still, where can you go?" He
was pointing to the place of nonabiding: the timelss, selfless
quality that is independent of location.
Some current research has also reached a comparable conclusion
about the fundamental nature of matter. In the world
of quantum physics, scientists now use such terms as
"the sea of potential" to refer
to the primordial level of physical reality from
which all particles and energies crystallize and into
which they subsequently dissolve. The principle of nonlocality
in this realm means that the "place where something happens"
cannot truly be defined and that a single event can have
exactly the same simultaneous effects in [apparently] widely
separated places.
Terms like "single place" and "separate places" are seen
to apply only as conventional fictions at certain levels
of scale; at the level of the ultimate field, the sea of
quantum foam, "place" has no real meaning. In the fine subatomic
realm, where-ness does not apply. There is no there there.
Whether this principle is called nonabiding or non-locality,
its both interesting and note worthy that the same
principle applies in both the mental and physical realms.
I first started to investigate this type of contemplation
when I was on a long retreat and doing a lot of solitary
practice. It suddenly occurred to me that while I might
have let go of the feeling of self - the feeling of
this and that and so on - whatever the experience of
reality was, it was still "here." There was still
here-ness. For several weeks I contemplated the question
"Where is here?" Not using the question to get a verbal
answer, more just to illuminate and aid the abandoment
of clinging that was still present.
Recognizing this kind of conditioning is just half the job -
recognizing that, as soon as there is a here-ness that is a subtle
presence of a there-ness. Similarily, establishing a
"this" brings up a "that". As soon as we define "inside",
up pops "outside". It's crucial to acknowledge such subtle
feelings of grasping, it happens so fast and at so many different
layers and levels.
This simple act of apprehending the experience is shining the
light of wisdom onto what grasping is. Once the defilements
are in the spotlight, they get a little nervous and uncomfortable.
When clinging is the focus of our awareness, it can't function
properly. In short, clinging can't cling in awareness' spotlight.
From: Small Boat, Great Mountain
Amaro Bhikkhu (free on line)