Ordinary Consciousness is the Way - Part 1
I.
Decided along time ago that I would talk about all the kinds of experiences that may happen to People.
Even though there's a certain danger in that because it sets up expectations. Cravings aversions comparison mind.
Desires and so forth so I just give you the little heads up nothing that I'm going to describe tonight in terms of sensory experiences are required for the classical path to enlightenment. You may have experiences like what I'm going to describe you may not there's lots of different arcs that People go through in Traverse Ng.
The territory between surface and source.
So one of the themes that can come up for a person is the theme of impermanence and each other in the Pali language, Anita in Sanskrit.
Have a
Set of techniques for working with this theme. I call it focus on change. There's nothing Mystical SH. Mystical or special about the fact that sensory experience changes, if you've ever noticed a sensation get stronger.
Or get weaker.
Anybody ever notice that OK, then you've noticed impermanence, it changed intensity levels vary.
An you may think that.
My backs been taking you know in an unvarying way all afternoon. You know you know, my back hurt all afternoon so the backs been hurting all afternoon.
Sort of sounds like that right the afternoon started.
Afternoon is over.
Sounds like it's a constant function.
But if you pay close attention.
Uh it's not exactly a straight line. It's sort of like well. It was a little more than a little less than a little more than a little less is you know, maybe a little bit of ripple on that, if we speak more accurately.
As we begin to look a little bit more accurately still.
Is changing this may become more evident a sense of rising passing?
Begins to appear we will remember last night, I said that.
That.
The more you focus on the impermanence the more sensitive you become to it.
Uh that's sort of like the clarity in the concentration peace, but the more equanimity you have with things.
Since equanimity is sort of makes you more flexible and I would compare concentration to muscle strength and maybe clarity is like definition in training and then so equanimity would be analogous to flexibility.
So as you become more flexible. Of course, you can reflect the flow of impermanence spirit. If you wish so at some point you may actually get a sense that.
What was just the hint of a ripple or became peaks and valleys that actually there's rising passing?
Rising passing rising passing rising passing like that.
I sometimes like to ask A.
A rhetorical question.
Do mountains dance and I would suggest to you, that there's 3 possible answers.
Yes.
No and it depends and I would say it depends it depends on how patiently.
And how carefully you look at a mountain.
If you look with the patients of centuries In other words, great equanimity. Timeless equanimity is a kind of timeless world. Some of you have gone into this you may have had an experience either under conditions of great ease or under conditions of great parallel parallel.
Time sort of slows down OK and there's like this.
This is an altered sense well when you drop into equanimity deeper levels of equanimity that you have the patience of centuries.
And viewed with the patients of centuries In other words, in time lapse photography. What is the surface of the earth look like?
Roiling streaming protoplasm.
Really alive with flux.
So it depends on how patiently you look In other words, how much equanimity. There is it's also help carefully you look if you look at anything beyond the level of the Atom nor the molecule for that matter is just to dance of Energi.
Amounted but if you don't look really finally or you don't look so there's not the clarity peace. If you don't look patiently. There's not the equanimity piece in the mountains seems solid as a rock as the expression goes.
So unsubtle is significant underneath that hint of ripple.
Are in an entire world rising passing rising passing rising passing?
There are.
Different.
Flavors of
Impermanence.
Or change one is changing intensity. I just sort of graph that.
Another very significant way that sensory experiences changes. They sort of shift in shape. Remember we've made a big thing about this spatial nature of experience that you can localize, perhaps not with great precision. But you can sort of get a general sense of size shape and position of body sensations and indeed even.
Auditory thoughts have a sort of size shape and position in your head visual thoughts up in front in image space and so forth so if you.
So to zoom out and cover the whole area of, say a sensation. You may notice that it shifts a little bit here shifts a little bit that subtle a significant may not be all that dramatic, but like a millimeter here. You know it's sort of like moves over here moves over there and as you're watching that little way. Venus and whatever and you're infusing it with equanimity and time is passing those shifting shapes.
Can become much more significant an fascinating you can get so fascinated with how it moves that you become less concerned with whether it's pleasure or pain, it all starts to feel good even uncomfortable sensations feel good because of the way they move. There's like a fascination with it. Almost a massage too. It Marshall Mcluhan said medium is the message right.
But I would take it one step back. The Nature's deepest message is is not the medium. It's the movement of the medium.
That's a primordial message that flows through all of nature and since our sensory systems are part of nature flows through US.