Conditioning - subtle and pervasive. We can call it belief or ideas, mental constructs, habits, it really doesn't matter. The point is that it appears to be there, points upon which we fixate. We believe we ARE or we are NOT enlightened. We believe that there can only be one or ten or fifty enlightened people on the planet at any given time. We believe that everyone is already enlightened. It doesn't really matter what the fixation, whether it is a 'good' one or a 'bad' one - in some way it is still holding us to an angle of vision, a perspective. The question is, "Who the hell said it had to be this way or that way???" People are constantly quoting someone or some scripture to me to prove their point, as if I give a damn! Sure, I love quotes as much or more than the next person. I collect them like stamps or coins, but I also recognize that they give a flavor, they point a direction. I never take them as unalterable Truths. "It takes three mill...
Ryokan, an 18th century Zen monk wrote: " Without a bit of ambition left , I let my nature flow where it will. There are ten days of rice in my bag, and by the fireplace a bundle of wood Who prattles of illusion or nirvana? Forgetting the equal dusts of name & fortune, listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut, I sit, at ease, both legs stretched out." So, the other day I was musing how it might be easier if we just got euthanized at 50 (I'm 52) - you know, something like Soilent Green is People! I mean, a few thousand years ago, (and in some places, much more recently) I would most likely be dead by now anyway. But as humans we have this incredible attachment to living. I'm not sure why, really. We tend to treat death as if it's something to be avoided. You do know it's inevitable don't you. In fact, much of the difficulty is the great struggle to resist death in all its forms. Much of this looks like "There's something wrong!" O...
The reality is, you will never be more enlightened than you are right now! It's like happiness. If you're not happy now, nothing, NOTHING will make you any more happy in the future. Nothing will change that - nothing will change who or what you are. Certainly circumstances will change. Circumstances always change. That is the nature of the flow of life. But the moment you depend on some circumstance to make you happy, you're sunk. As Socrates said, "He who is not contented with what he has, will not be contented with what he doesn't have." Enlightenment is the same. Enlightenment is not something to be achieved. It is like happiness - it is what is already present when you let go of their being something wrong, like the idea of NOT being enlightened. When you recognize that the "I" that is seeking, is itself nothing of real substance other than an idea of seeking, and that the sense of Presence, of 'I AM'-ness has always and already been pres...
Comments