Post by Reefs on Jan 10, 2019 12:03:50 GMT -5
Found this gem here on youtube:
There seems to be a whole series of such videos. And so far I have to say that Alan is exceptionally clear and very articulate. A scholar and a mystic all in one so to speak. That's extremely rare.
Here's a partial transcript:
That's it in a nutshell (especially the last two paragraphs).
There seems to be a whole series of such videos. And so far I have to say that Alan is exceptionally clear and very articulate. A scholar and a mystic all in one so to speak. That's extremely rare.
Here's a partial transcript:
That [circle] is a way of demonstrating the basic experience which underlies some of the major forms of oriental philosophy. And actually, this way of demonstrating it is taken from a kind of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism called Zen, which I'm going to be talking about quite a bit today because Zen is one of the best examples of a philosophy, shall we call it, in which this experience is dominant. Zen, of course, is a Japanese word. That is the Japanese Way of pronouncing the Chinese word Chan. And this in turn is the Chinese way of pronouncing an Indian Sanskrit word Dhyana. And Dyana refers to the kind of experience which has been represented in this circle. Another word for it would be a second Sanskrit term Sunya. And the nearest we can translate Sunya in English is ‘emptiness’ or ‘void’. And so we might say, this is an experience of the void.
Before trying to explain what this is, and you know, the funny thing is, it really can't be explained, because it has to be felt. Because it's a transformation of one's basic feeling, one's basic consciousness of life. But I should mention first that it is characteristic of Eastern philosophy to be based on experience rather than ideas. You see, philosophy in the Western world, especially as it's taught in our universities and academies, is mainly a matter of thinking. It's a matter of trying to arrive at certain, clear positive ideas about the nature of man, the nature of the universe and so on and so forth. And also religion in the West is somewhat similar, because religion is largely concerned with belief in certain ideas. In these basic forms of Eastern philosophy, on the other hand, such as Zen, which is a kind of Buddhism or Taoism, the basic native philosophy of China, or in Vedanta, which is the central form of Indian philosophy, what is basic to them is not ideas but a way of experiencing a way of feeling. And this might be called, as it is here, the void, demonstrated by the circle. Because it is not a void which is just emptiness. This isn't the idea that there are people in the backward worlds of Asia who think that the universe is ultimately nothing at all.
It is rather that the void represents complete spiritual freedom, or you might say, if you don't like the word spiritual, complete psychological freedom. And therefore I want to try if I can to communicate you, to give you some idea of what this experience is. In Japanese, in Zen, it is called Satori. And I like the way that's pronounced in southern Chinese. They pronounce it ‘Ng’ because it's something that happens to you suddenly.
Now let me try if I can possibly to put into some sort of words what this experience is. This experience (which so far as they are concerned) is the objective of human life. To get this, is to understand the meaning of human nature and destiny. Only because it's a transformation of consciousness, because it's something you feel rather than something you think. It is for this reason difficult to put into words. But it is as if you saw quite suddenly - and indeed this experience could have happened to you, it can come without warning to anybody and so what I'm going to be saying may strike a familiar ring in some ears - but it is as if quite sudden you became totally convinced that the way everything is in this universe and at this moment is absolutely right. And that's almost putting it too weakly. I'm not trying to talk about a sort of Pollyanna feeling where we say “Well, this is the best of all possible worlds and everything however evil and however wrong is going to work out all right in the end because it's a means to an end in some master design…” I'm not saying that. I'm saying it is suddenly feeling that everything is right the way it is now, however appalling however terrible. And you know it beyond a shadow of doubt.
There are two other aspects to this experience as well. And although you feel them all together we have to talk about them separately. While the first aspect is feeling that everything just as it is, is so right that you could say of it “This is why I'm alive!”, “This is what life is all about!” The second is that everything you see and feel seems to come to life in an extraordinary way. You feel the world as you've seen it before, was seen almost in a dream. But it is as if just the ordinary things that were confronting you suddenly went “Yeah!” and came alive. And the third aspect of it is that you no longer feel yourself and what you are experiencing to be separated. Although you don't lose the feeling of the outline of your skin, you don't forget that “I” or “Joe Doaks” is a possible name by which you can refer to yourself. Nevertheless it suddenly seems to you that your skin is no longer what divides you from the world, it's what joins you to it. What you see outside you, is also you.
Now, we ordinarily restrict the idea of ego, of ‘I-ness’ or of ‘You-ness’ to some sort of psychological entity or process inside us which is in control of things. And we identify ourselves with a sort of controlling center. But in this experience it is as if that center were suddenly enlarged to include the whole universe. You almost feel as if you were God, except that in Eastern thought one doesn't think of God as a kind of omnipotent person... It isn't feeling God in that sense as if you could do anything. But it is feeling that you and this whole world are one and that in this experience of oneness and the sudden coming alive of everything and the profound rightness – that’s the only word I can use - the profound rightness of each moment, of this moment, however far it may seem to be short of one's ideals of the path of perfection - this is it. And you say, having seen this, “I can die content”, “This is what it was all about.”
Before trying to explain what this is, and you know, the funny thing is, it really can't be explained, because it has to be felt. Because it's a transformation of one's basic feeling, one's basic consciousness of life. But I should mention first that it is characteristic of Eastern philosophy to be based on experience rather than ideas. You see, philosophy in the Western world, especially as it's taught in our universities and academies, is mainly a matter of thinking. It's a matter of trying to arrive at certain, clear positive ideas about the nature of man, the nature of the universe and so on and so forth. And also religion in the West is somewhat similar, because religion is largely concerned with belief in certain ideas. In these basic forms of Eastern philosophy, on the other hand, such as Zen, which is a kind of Buddhism or Taoism, the basic native philosophy of China, or in Vedanta, which is the central form of Indian philosophy, what is basic to them is not ideas but a way of experiencing a way of feeling. And this might be called, as it is here, the void, demonstrated by the circle. Because it is not a void which is just emptiness. This isn't the idea that there are people in the backward worlds of Asia who think that the universe is ultimately nothing at all.
It is rather that the void represents complete spiritual freedom, or you might say, if you don't like the word spiritual, complete psychological freedom. And therefore I want to try if I can to communicate you, to give you some idea of what this experience is. In Japanese, in Zen, it is called Satori. And I like the way that's pronounced in southern Chinese. They pronounce it ‘Ng’ because it's something that happens to you suddenly.
Now let me try if I can possibly to put into some sort of words what this experience is. This experience (which so far as they are concerned) is the objective of human life. To get this, is to understand the meaning of human nature and destiny. Only because it's a transformation of consciousness, because it's something you feel rather than something you think. It is for this reason difficult to put into words. But it is as if you saw quite suddenly - and indeed this experience could have happened to you, it can come without warning to anybody and so what I'm going to be saying may strike a familiar ring in some ears - but it is as if quite sudden you became totally convinced that the way everything is in this universe and at this moment is absolutely right. And that's almost putting it too weakly. I'm not trying to talk about a sort of Pollyanna feeling where we say “Well, this is the best of all possible worlds and everything however evil and however wrong is going to work out all right in the end because it's a means to an end in some master design…” I'm not saying that. I'm saying it is suddenly feeling that everything is right the way it is now, however appalling however terrible. And you know it beyond a shadow of doubt.
There are two other aspects to this experience as well. And although you feel them all together we have to talk about them separately. While the first aspect is feeling that everything just as it is, is so right that you could say of it “This is why I'm alive!”, “This is what life is all about!” The second is that everything you see and feel seems to come to life in an extraordinary way. You feel the world as you've seen it before, was seen almost in a dream. But it is as if just the ordinary things that were confronting you suddenly went “Yeah!” and came alive. And the third aspect of it is that you no longer feel yourself and what you are experiencing to be separated. Although you don't lose the feeling of the outline of your skin, you don't forget that “I” or “Joe Doaks” is a possible name by which you can refer to yourself. Nevertheless it suddenly seems to you that your skin is no longer what divides you from the world, it's what joins you to it. What you see outside you, is also you.
Now, we ordinarily restrict the idea of ego, of ‘I-ness’ or of ‘You-ness’ to some sort of psychological entity or process inside us which is in control of things. And we identify ourselves with a sort of controlling center. But in this experience it is as if that center were suddenly enlarged to include the whole universe. You almost feel as if you were God, except that in Eastern thought one doesn't think of God as a kind of omnipotent person... It isn't feeling God in that sense as if you could do anything. But it is feeling that you and this whole world are one and that in this experience of oneness and the sudden coming alive of everything and the profound rightness – that’s the only word I can use - the profound rightness of each moment, of this moment, however far it may seem to be short of one's ideals of the path of perfection - this is it. And you say, having seen this, “I can die content”, “This is what it was all about.”
That's it in a nutshell (especially the last two paragraphs).