Journey to True Spirituality ~ SHINZEN YOUNG
So I just had a session with Diane and if I'm incoherent you can blame her because maybe a little too much into my body, so we'll see how much.
Upper chakras are functioning at this point, OK, so we've been talking about.
The possibility of mindfulness revolution beta few points. Let's just review. We have some guests tonight coming in medi arrests. So to speak. So I like to think about mindfulness from what might be described as unified POV.
Very widely encompassing POV I I think it is possible to have through careful analysis of the dimensions involved, it's possible to.
Understand certain underlying commonality's not just for the SE Asian Buddhist practice, which is where.
Current mindfulness sort of historically came from, but more broadly. All of Buddhist practice and more broadly. Still, all of contemplative practice all around the world there.
Any contemplative practice E or W could be nicely analyzed in terms of the degree to which the way in which.
3 core skills are talked about cultivated an employee applied so the 3 core skills are concentration sensory clarity and equanimity you can.
Think about concentration as the ability to focus on what you deem relevant.
Um at a given time? What's important about that way of describing concentration is not so much? what I said, but what I didn't say I did not imply that concentration is necessarily limiting the spatial scope of your focus. I did not imply that concentration necessarily was holding just one thing for a long duration. There's concentration could be expensive, it can cover a large domain.
Yes, it could be spatially contractive also and those are actually sub dimensions of the concentration skill? How broad or narrow you focus concentration could be momentary. You can make break make break may make break taste momentary high concentration on a variety of objects. But you could also have sort of what People often think about when they hear the word concentration, which is.
Holding just one thing in attention for an arbitrary duration of time, like you could hold the sensation at the tip of your nostril for 4 hours without any wavering whatsoever. Now that ability to hold just one thing for an extended duration of time that certainly is a sub dimension of the concentration skill. However, the ability to make break break break break and have? What is called Konica Samadi or momentary high concentration?
That's also very important, especially if you want to maintain mindfulness. A deep state of mind from us while you're engaging in daily life. You're driving a car you're having a conversation eventually we want you to experience being very, very deep while you're moving around and to get the MWe maximum meditation mileage out of each moment of.
Daily life to Manassas Eyes your life as we were talking about in the group process for that understanding that the dimension of concentration skill? Which is momentary high concentration, but consciously tasted as I say it's technically called Carnicus Ahmadi in the Pali language. So the Speaking of concentration as the ability to attend to what you deem relevant.
Not saying it has to be this thing or that thing it has to be your your breath or your body not limiting it by its range and not limiting by saying well it has to be something small could be something large not limited the concept of concentration, too well. It has to be a long duration on just one thing it could be momentary on a variety of sensory targets.
As they present themselves so as I say the way I like to talk about concentration. What's important is not just what I say, but what I don't say because there is a tendency to assume that concentration means hold a small thing.
Um for a long period of time. And, yes, indeed that represents 2 dimensions of the skill, but there are other facets to it.
Concentration is to focus on what you deem relevant sometimes you hear People say, well. I don't want to learn to concentrate because I need to let my attention freely float in order to be creative. And make associations well. If that's what's relevant to the moment, then your ability to do that will be enhanced by concentration concentration will not get in the way of that intuitive flux. In fact, it will enhance it.
You'll focus just on the place in consciousness that makes those connections for you, because that's what's relevant to that moment, so concentration power sensory clarity has the second aspect. It has 2 sub dimensions, basically you know, I've talked about it in the group process resolution.
The ability to make it to upgrade the R.
Discrimination or bandwidth within the sensory circuits themselves.
Ah that's the resolution and then detection subtle is significant. The ability to detect subtle sensor events that are normally subliminal is hugely important on this path so concentration power resolution an detection skills.
Particularly the ability to detect the very instant when a new sensory event. Horizons and the very instant. When an old sensor event passes because where things come from and where they go to are the same place.
And we've talked a little bit about the primordial great perfection well that's what proceeds.
And follows each ordinary inner and outer sensory experience, so the ability to detect what happens at the very instant of the arising of any sensory experience.
Um the ability to detect what happens as it's passing is the ability to briefly be vectorially directed towards something that is beyond sensory experience, something that is beyond.
The embedding of time and space.
OK so sensory clarity equanimity originally equanimity as a term from the Latin equal animal literally means a balanced state originally it meant sort of being.
Unmoved anone expressive, but that's not at all, what it means as a technical term to describe the dimensions of mindful awareness, not at all. It's balanced in a different sets balanced in the sense of.
Not.
Pushing an experience that's trying to arise so not suppressing the Arisings.
And not inappropriately holding sensory experience that's about to pass so it's.
Basically training the sensory circuits.
Into a
Uh training away their subtle tendencies to interfere with themselves. It's analogous to reducing friction in a mechanical system that's at least the way I think about it so.
We.
We cultivate these so I said that I like to think of mindful nurse so the mine. Modern mindful movement in my own mind. The phrase that I like to use is that it's.
A contemplative based Psycho spiritual growth working in concert with science.
So a two way St science will help us understand it in a way that we could never have understood it before. Even the Great Masters of the past didn't know even basic neuroscience.
So they could only give a first person report and they did so brilliantly. But with the current ways to objectively think about biophysical basis of experience and so forth. That's going to give us now. An incredible advantage to innovate to understand the deeper levels? What's involved in these psychologically and spiritually.
Significant.
Growth that humans go through when they do this practice, so working in concert, meaning we looked to science to improve and deepen our understanding of what's going on, but also the mindfulness practice will improve. The scientists as humans and as professionals and so you get a positive feedback loop going that could be very impactful.
Or in the next century or so I'm a big picture guys so you know, I look. I look to the type guys. The spirit of the Times toy me? Who is a very famous historian made an extraordinary statement. He said that when all is said, and done. It is possible. It didn't say this would happen, but he said it is possible.
Bet.
Big picture wise in retrospect.
3 or 4 centuries from now. This the single most important event of the 20th century will be the discovery on the part of the West of Buddhism. That is a direct quote from Toynbee. So not that the Buddhist. I think the Western World is going to adopt the Buddhist religion.
But there are certain discoveries that the Buddha made that I think will will absolutely pass the test of time.
Um and turn out to be very important for the whole human race.
So that's sort of the basic paradigm that I presented to you and then I said, so OK. That's the modern mindfulness movement. But how about mindfulness itself? What do we think about that? So I think about it as the systematic cultivation and broad application of those core skills?
Mindful awareness being defined as concentration power sensory clarity and equanimity working together.
So broad application.
Reducing suffering elevate fulfillment.
Understanding oneself at all levels, increasing skillful actions.
Um and ultimately the ultimate application is in discovering a spirit where you want to serve from love.
That, in Buddhism, we called the bodhicitta so we taught yesterday about the.
Demention of application, which is understanding yourself at all levels and just to make things sort of gives some organization to things I said, we might consider for aspects of that.
So one aspect would be more surface, which is to understand your own personality.
How do these skills relate to understanding your own personality well as you're sitting and practicing you all notice this sometimes insights will arise spontaneously that are personal insights. You sort of understand yourself. That's nice and that's the result of.
Observing yourself in a mindful state. However, there may be aspects of understanding your own personality that don't just percolate up spontaneously in your practice. You may have to go to professional a counselor psychologist psychiatrist to address certain.
Aspects of personality if they don't get taken care of automatically by the practice in the way you'll know that the practice hasn't taken care of. It is, you been practicing for 20 or 30 years and People tell you, you're still an ******* so clearly. Some things you know through feedback you know through.
You know things not working out. It's like well, I've learned to transcendent, it doesn't bother me that you know stuff is not working out because of my.
My behavior, but actually it should sort of bother you and if the practice can't address it then.
Well, there are specialists who work at the personal level. That's what they're trained to do so.
The practice may address understanding yourself at the personal level, it. Maybe it's all you need or maybe you need something else. So then there's what might be called?
The deaths or the subconscious so certain forms of therapy claimed to address that in fact, your classical therapies. So they don't call a depth psychology for nothing. Freudian union and so forth claim that they get down to that level, whereas other forms of therapy might not. I'm not going to get involved in the Web, whose claims are valid.
But it's just something to know about OK there are the deaths.
Um part of the depths are personal. But some of them unions would claim that there's a collective unconscious that there's things deep down there that are sort of Universal.
So.
Um.
You may come in direct contact with those depths as the result of mindfulness practice.
Um.
You will definitely come in directly in contact with them.
Um.
But once again.
There are practices that are not strictly part of mindfulness that are designed to sort of.
Touch those levels first of all depth psychology, but Secondly shamanism.
Our ancient ancestors all over the world in the tribal forms of culture would contact the spirit world. One nice way to get in contact with that, if you're interested is to do say Native American ceremonies and things like that. Now there's more to the Native American path than that because.
Because of the nature in order to find the spirit world typically you do show monic ordeals.
Uhm you expose yourself to hot here like Sweat Lodge or Sundance in Japan. You expose yourself to cold. You have to check mantras squatting under a waterfall in winter for hours on end and so all around the world shamanism entails physical sacrifices.
And those sacrifices are done within a ritual context? Which of course encourages a concentrated state?
And uh encourages a state of equanimity.
So, although they may not systematically deconstruct their personhood.
Just doing those ceremonies in order to contact the spirit world would tend to have a the effect of taking People into the deepest level.
Which is?
The source.
Which is that formless doing?
That I talked about a few minutes ago what proceeds eat sensory and motor arising and what follows each sensory and motor arising is something beyond form and so there's the world of spirits.
Which is the subconscious and then there is the great spirit or the Dharma Kyle would College in Buddhism. The formless absolute rest and absolute activity that is at the source of each moment of.
Perception an expression.
For us, so the result of.
Attempts to contact the spirit world.
Through what was apparently natural to all of our ancestors all over the world, which is you fast. You expose yourself to heat expose yourself to cold you go without water, you allow yourself to be pierced or scarified or other such things that forces you into the spirit realm that's true.
Which also forces you into a state of high concentration and equanimity? Which would then likely lead you to know self or?
And experience of touching something that is beyond the spirits, which could be called the great spirit. But as I say in Buddhism. We call it. The Dharmakaya means the body of the absolute and then the realm of spirits is called the sambhogakaya, which is the realm of glorious forms.
And then the surface is called that near Mama Kiad, the conventional experience so.
Native American specifically and show monic broadly can make a nice compliment to the mindfulness practice because it can.
Take you to the experience of the very deepest level that will talk about a little more in a minute, but it also, if you're interested in contacting the quote Spirit World. The Archetypes Realm of archetypes well. That's another specialist that could supplement the mindfulness practice so OK understand the surface individual personality be the practice.
Just intrinsically or maybe go to a specialist.
I understand the subconscious.
Either just through the practice or maybe go to a specialist.
Uh.
What is another aspect is what I started to talk about yesterday which is?
To understand yourself as a sensory system.
So.
The.
Way that I like to do that, it can be done in various ways. But my favorite way is to work with mental image. Mental talk and body emotion reason, I like to work with those 3 sensory elements is that they as far as I can tell.
From introspection they form a natural system.
Um and I believe that will be able to.
Use neuroscience to ferret out those connections. In fact that sort of the main goal of my.
My projects at Harvard Medical School are too.
Tease out that inner system and see if we can find the neural correlates of it as a system so in any event.
Mental image mental talking body emotion emotion, see in here in inner seeing inner hearing and the innermost part of our body experience, which is the emotional body, the limbic system.
Um.
That.
They work together.
There is
4 basic things that happen.
They all involve the word action.
So first of all there is interaction.
Mental image can trigger mental talk mental talk can trigger mental image mental image can treat her body motion body motion can build until it turns into an image or body emotion can trigger mental talk or the whole thing can activate simultaneously and they're all sort of triggering each other so you can actually watch how the flow of.
Interaction.
Occurs within that system and you can unblock that flow.
Um so that's the interactivity of those elements.
And then there's the reactivity of those elements external sites external sounds physical touch is a rise and then the inner system reacts to those sometimes when you have an arising of touch sight sound and rising of image talk and body motion at the same time.
That's
That creates the sense of the world over here and me over here as perceiver.
Um.
So.
But what would happen if there was just text sight sound and no inner reactivity at all where you can actually see what would happen by observing the system.
You observe the system and sometimes it doesn't react.
It.
It simply is inactive.
And there's no sense of observer. No sense of an eye that earring or seeing there's just seeing just hearing and you are that.
And the the barrier between inside and outside disappears.
Um.
Which makes it rather easy rather natural to have that sense of wanting to serve from love?
Because it seems like not just every person but every thing that you look at you inhabit.
So they are it.
So, sometimes, that system reacts and sometimes that system is inactive.
And the other thing that that inner system does is it goes proactive that's my own private language. Proactive means it disengages from the touch sight sound world.
And it goes off, and begins to spin memory plan fantasy.
Um in neuroscience that's called the default.
Network OK, it has a distinctive signature so it's.
Off and it's problem, solving or it's worrying or it's fantasizing out of fear or fantasizing out of desire to entertain etc etc. It's like a home entertainment system. It just goes off on its own so you can monitor your understand yourself as a sensory system by observing this so Why is that useful?
Well, first of all it can hugely reduce suffering without necessarily changing the content of your sensory experience.
Because.
When those elements tangle in unconsciousness.
And coagulate due to lack of equanimity that vastly increases the suffering associated with unpleasant content.
And that vastly reduces the fulfillment that is potentially there when it's a pleasant content. So, just by bringing untangling which is your clarity peace and unblocking which is your equanimity piece by bringing those qualities to that inner system. You achieve 2 of the dimensions of happiness that I talk about reduction of suffering elevation of fulfillment.
But it's much more than that.
Working with that system is related to understanding yourself because you see Oh yeah. This is this is how it actually arises this IAM nahs.
It's also related to improving behavior because um behaviors are preceded by will.
I if I have an anger issue or if I have a substance abuse issue or a procrastination issue.
That will too.
That experience of anger or the will to abuse a substance or the will that says, I don't want to do such and such even though I know I should that arises within that inner system.
And so your ability to have equanimity with that.
Which will break the identification with the negative vergence and that is not all that's involved in behavior change but that certainly is an important component. If you can stay if you're in recovery and you're Jonesing. For whatever it is a cigarette or drink or whatever. Well, that's going to come up in that system.
And if you can track it unblock it not suppress the experience of the desire, but also not lock onto it if you can stay with it and just watch it expand and contract expand and contract for, however long it takes well it will break up the urge will break up and you will that will help you make the behavior change gives you a very systematic way to go about that aspect of behavior change now.
The morning group process we talked about the fact that there's more to behavior change then just deconstructing undesirable desires, but that is part of it. So it turns out that working with this inner system is germane to certain aspects of object if positive behavior change.
And.
It's also.
Related.
To the love and service piece because?
Um.
The.
Once you see where that system arises from you realize that everyone arises from that same place and.
So.
Here that's another way that you're always looking at yourself basically so.
Untangling those strands.
As important in reducing subjective suffering.
But it's also important in gaining insight.
So.
Uh.
This is where we left off in the talk yesterday. Buddhism would say that if you carefully observe the components that create the oppression iambus, you'll see that there are only those components.
And there actually is no thing inside you. Called itself now first of all. That's counter intuitive because it seems to just about everyone that there is a thing inside me called itself, so why are you trying to tell me there isn't?
Um and the other thing is.
Even if it's true.
Who wants it? What's the payoff for seeing that there's no thing inside you. Called yourself well let me suggest to you, that there are meant the experience that in Buddhism is described as seeing that there's no thing inside you called itself.
Is one facet on the jewel of enlightenment? The jewel of enlightenment as a lot of sides to it. That's an important side and anyone that has had these experiences will appreciate why someone would get all excited about pointing out to you, that there is no thing inside you. Called itself, however, that is just one facet of the experience.
And there are other ways that that experience can be described for example.
It's an experience of connection to all things.
It's an experience of the boundary between inside and outside going away or more accurately an experience that let's you realize that the boundary was never there to begin with.
Um so.
Uh.
It's
Another way to put it, you could say no self or you could say it allows you to have an elastic self and elastic identity that it can expand and contract it can.
Be the normal size.
Which is?
The normal you.
Um or it can reach out.
And encompass the larger world that.
Everything that you normally don't think of is you.
Um.
It can reach out and so it could reach out and sort of encompass a person. That's in front of you or the flower that's in front of you so identity gets about this big OK can shrink that would be about this big but it can get a lot bigger it's elastic.
Um it can reach out to the ends of the imagined universe.
Um so any world systems that you would imagine you embrace them, but it can also shrink down.
It can shrink down to inhabit the center of every Atom, I'm speaking metaphorically here so.
It is it has been said that poets can see in the dark.
I I think it was lorca that said that.
So the S American writer but I could be wrong. But I think he said. For its conceive that he's the one that said it case in Point is a high not Maria Rilke RILKE.
One of the most amazing poets of all time.
I I don't know what kind of ether, he who is poetry from. I mean, you lived like 100 years ago right? Where did he pull that from to be able to say the things he says.
Ah, it's inexplicable.
Specifically, what he had to say 100 years ago, when Europe was just starting to.
Discover Buddhism I mean, just starting knowledge of Buddhism was was ruedemann tree in Europe in his time.
He absolutely mailed.
The essence of the Buddha's enlightenment.
As it would be interpreted in the Japanese, an tradition.
Without as far as I know any direct contact with the Japanese and tradition and with rather little contact with.
Anything about Buddhism.
How do they do it I don't know?
But I have a translation of his poem that I'm at made myself from German.
On my website but they in there, Gloria, the Buddha in glory.
Bitter Allumette and
Karen that Turner.
Mandel this expansion list would physicist.
Jesus Alice is on other ish Turner.
His time of hooked flash.
Czyca Goosed Center of all centers core of cores.
Almond that enclosed itself to Sweeten.
All of this to the furthest stars is your fruit flesh.
Here my greeting he is congratulating the Buddha on the moment of his enlightenment. The morning after he did put the dead. Yasa and all night, said was enlightened in the morning when he saw the Morning Star, Venus.
Um.
How did he get it? How did you know about expansion and contraction?
And I will leave that to the Buddha.
Uh.
God kind of remember the rest of it's the Dufus.
Uh we need myth now underhand in anything, it's Dina shower on torch data starkers after train.
Would from AUS him health Tim Pine. Cashdollar then comes over Virden Dinosaur in fall and clue hint umka trade?
Talk India is shown become an ASCII zone and you bridge data can refill if I remember that see you feel nothing more ipon ipon you cleaning your shell is opened wide without about.
Oh, the ripe SAP.
Endlessly streaming within you the ripen set rate on fallout and and from outside you were helped by a star. That's the seeing of the Venus. The morning star when for also helped him I'm just Rolla then guns over there.
Bear inside diamond zone and then.
All around you are orbited your stars.
Um.
Your Phone clue hint uncle date. They all are browned you orbited shining richly shining.
Door India is Sean Pacon adversity zone and a fish tape, but in you has.
But that which will outlive the stars in you?
Has now become?
That's the poem that will corrupt to describe the Buitres in language with almost no knowledge of Buddhism.
I repeat Watt Ether did, he access to pull that out of so.
Center of all centre or of course, all of this to the farthest starts city elastic identity, but you could also call it no self.
OK, so how does that come about well early Buddhism would say when you untangle the strands then the something is of self?
Is seen as an illusion and where we left off in the talk last night? Was I gave the traditional metaphor for that. The Chariot metaphor from this great scripture called the questions of Kingman Andros, King, but lived out, but Kingman and rose. He was Greek, a Westerner talking to a are hot.
Way way way back.
And it's the the dialogue is recorded.
So the are hot, not nagasena.
Quoting Buddhist nun, named Fudge era.
Oh said well it's
When you dissect a chariot there's just the parts. There's no thing called a chariot. So when you dissect dissect. I am Nahs. There's just group of aid and a son, she aisance Cara Vigiano, there's just.
Matter.
Feeling.
Thought.
Um.
Subliminal habit forces and
Consciousness.
And no self there's just those elements and there's no self. In another place in Buddhist literature. The not quite the whole picture of self, but it's self in terms of identifying with the body, saying I am body. There's this extraordinary passage where the Buddha says just as a skillful butcher.
Would carve up a steer?
Ann.
And.
At some point, the perception.
Steer goes away.
And the perception meet arises.
So, in the same way the skillful meditator deconstructs the body into.
Earth water air and fire 4 elements and the perception. I am a body disappears.
And the perception there are just these elements arises so we see in early Buddhism that the notion of untangling strands in order to eliminate a an emergent property.
Was not just applied to the 5:00 aggregates. It was also applied to the perception of the physicality of the body and the deconstructive strands worthy.
Primitive chemistry of that time.
But you know it's sort of works at it actually does work, you can do it. Maybe just for the fun of it up one of these days. I'll give a guide. I've actually done this with People I've done the old-fashioned for element deconstruction of something this of your body you can totally do. It even though we know that as far as physics goes that's Big Lots of pretty primitive view of physics, but it still works.
What you do is?
Because it's based on experience right, it's it's.
They stated as though it's based on object of science, but it's based on sensory experience. So you tune into your body and you find all the bones in the hard parts OK? Well, let's see Earth out right so you like tune into those and get a really good sense of that and then you get a sense of anything that sort of Airy, like your breath or other flatulence or things like that, and then you get like the.
Circulation of the watery parts, OK and then you get like you can feel warm things different parts and you just tune into the putative characteristics of the four elements.
And you sort of.
Get those sensory strands, all separated out and sure enough, you start to experience like well. There's just the four elements. There's not a thing called about it here. So the method of divide and conquer is not limited to the 5:00 aggregates and in fact, I vastly prefer the 3:00 inner elements. Occam's razor if three will do the trick.
Why not have 3:00 instead of 4:00 or 5:00 etc? Etc OK so?
I'm pointed out that untangling mental image mental talking body. Emotion is my friends at Google would say it's a non trivial issue OK. I love this jargon instead of saying significant or hard. They say nontrivial so this is nontrivial because.
Each of these systems is scaled there's if you look in the image space there's the surface images. But those trigger subtle Association images and each of those subtle associations triggers a whole bunch of sutler associations. The bulk of all of this is below. The threshold of ordinary awareness, but with your detection skills and your concentration skills.
You can actually detect it not in terms of the content of the content is too fugacious and parallel fugacious means. It just passes, too quickly and it's massively parallel. But you can detect the aggregate the state like the state variable you can sort of take the temperature you could be aware of average kinetic energy as it changes I'm making a metaphor here.
OK, but it's sort of analogous to taking pressure temperature, you can see the overall wave form of the subconscious mind in real-time underneath surface, mental talk is sutler talk underneath that is subtler taught same deal that you can watch the sort of changing contour of the system. Likewise, with body motion so untangling is not just untangling.
The surface strands, it's untangling all the different strands until all the levels of visual process. Intervisual processing are all sort of nicely over here and all the levels of of auditory thinking over here. The motional bodies over here at all levels are completely separated out what happens at that point is that?
The emergent property of something nahs.
Disappears.
So as I say the traditional metaphor is.
The chariot thing where we left off last night as I said.
I am I find that metaphor unconvincing.
I know it refers to an experience that is absolutely true and very important but.
Explain it in terms of sort of taking apart a chariot doesn't seem quite.
Convincing so let me give you something that I think is closer.
To what's going on are closer metaphor now.
Gotta hear loud and clear this is just a metaphor. I'm not saying This is the mechanism. But I think it's closer to the mechanism. We don't know the mechanism.
Yet.
Scientifically be very interesting when we do, though, so here's something that's a little closer. Most of you have heard me say this a million times, but I'll say it again? So you have an old fashion TV set with a CRT cathode Ray tube not the flat screen kind. But the kind the old-fashioned guide and there's like test pattern and.
Big White area and I say there is no white on that screen.
And you say are you crazy just look it's mostly white.
And I say
Are you sure?
Let's take this magnifying glass. We agreed that this magnifying glass does 2 things it enlarges but that's not what's important?
It resolves.
It takes things that for the naked eye fall together.
But that are truly separate and it allows you to actually see that separation. That's called the resolution power of the lens. So we know that it doesn't do anything else, it doesn't add or subtract to what's there.
And it's really not the magnification. We're interested in is the resolution the clarity.
And now I want you to look at that white with this magnifying glass and as you get closer and closer and closer? What's going to happen.
The impression white.
Disappears.
As the reality.
Little Red Green Blue Dots Horizons.
So.
What happened to the white?
Well, it was sort of never there to begin with.
But it was actually because if you don't look carefully it's there.
But if you look very, very carefully without changing anything at all. Now it's not there. There's just red, green and blue.
Something like that occurs.
With see here inner see, hear feel.
When you're not looking carefully.
It seems like there's a thing inside you called a self that you're imprisoned in this in these thoughts and emotions. It's not just that it's a thing it's actually a prison.
That constrains your identity.
But when you finally see it clearly enough.
The something this goes away and the.
Incarceration potential goes away.
Or another way to put it is it was never there.
To begin with you just now can see that an undesirable emergent property.
That's quite compelling.
Vanish is simply through clarity.
That's the core inside of early Buddhism.
That's knowing yourself as a sensory system.
So it may sound rather cold and.
Not very relevant to things so I know myself as a sensory system, but actually it's really, really big.
Now.
Is that to know yourself at the deepest level?
Will no I would say that there is a deeper level of knowing yourself and we could actually extend the metaphor.
OK, red, green and blue pixels once again do understand just a metaphor just a way of thinking about things red, green and blue pixels.
What are?
Well, actually.
Their radiant electromagnetic energy in the visual spectrum on me and that's how I perceive them.
So if we think of its light.
So from that perspective it's just there different frequencies of the same thing.
What's light haha well that's very interesting question?
From a physics point of view, but the metaphor is actually quite.
Nice.
Because.
If you think of red, green and blue is just different frequencies of the same thing. There part of this spectrum radiant electromagnetic Energi.
Well then there's a kind of unification.
No.
So if you
Look more carefully.
At.
The actual substance.
Of see here inner see, hear feel.
Sure enough, it's sort of like vibrating space.
Um and in fact, outer sight sound touch.
Has the same quality?
So it all becomes an integrated arabesque of Energi.
Um vibrant but
Sort of transparent.
And then you come to realize that what's churning those vibrations.
Fermenting them fomenting them.
Is that with each sensory and motor arising?
There is a kind of effortless E flops and a simultaneous effortless influx that churns those vibrations into existence. The way foam is born in the cleft of a hokusai wave you know, there's that famous picture of Mount Fuji seeing in the in the cleft of a wave right by the Japanese tukio at artist Hocus side.
So expect the expanding wave.
And a simultaneous contracting wave they?
There's a sheer.
And in that sheer is born vibration.
And that vibration if.
It coagulates.
Uh.
Creates the inner sense that there's a material world on the outside.
And the thing called self on the inside.
But if you see it just as it is.
There is just this effortless E flux and reflux.
Like a fountain of Formless Fountain of youth. That's constantly gushing and gathering its center is wherever your attention goes.
And it's perimeter encompases the whole self and seen.
Um.
That is the dynamic side of.
The source that is the deepest experience of the Dharmakaya in terms of its activity.
Um, however, that activity comes from and returns to an absolute rest that always pervades it.
So it's eternally it's A kind of eternal fountain of youth.
A formless womb.
That moment by moment gives rise to self at world.
Whereas it activates.
But.
It arises from and returns to at his peppered by.
Shalom beam romov.
The Peace of God's own heaven.
This is prayer. I remember it vividly from being a little boy.
We in synagogue Oh say Shalom in Rome of who you are says Shalom Alenu, Valcol, Israel. They improve army made one that creates RCR. It's a creation mean the one that creates the piece of his own. Heaven give peace to you and all of Israel course for me is right does it mean a country it's?
Anybody who struggles for the Lord is rhe. Ale it has a meaning in Hebrew struggle.
To experience L the source that's my interpretation of Israel anyway. Other People have other interpretations. I'm sure, but I've chosen that means.
Not a race not a country so if I sometimes I I'll sing that, but that's what I mean.
The Shalom, the peace that comes with completeness shall actually moot.
Um that's
That's what the Christian poet. TS Eliot called the still point of the turning world that I quoted from last night at the still point of the turning world. Neither movement from their torrents. The restful part is when the movement in and out ceases.
When the movement in it out starts well that's when they creative activity occurs.
The.
In the Jewish Mystical tradition.
That pulling apart of acid and grew a of contraction and expansion. They even have terms for it's just amazing. It's amazing. It's called SIM Soman creates a space and then.
That space vibrates.
So that's what happens for everyone.
Um.
In each moment of inner and outer see, hear feel.
And in each act of speech or body movement or thought.
That's the primordial great perfection.
To touch it is to know true love?
Um so.
That's to understand its yourself at that deepest possible level.
Um.
And.
It's
If that becomes
A moment by moment reality.
Then it's quite easy to have this sense of wanting to kinship with everyone including.
People you don't like.
It's you know relate to Flowers, but you can also relate to garbage cans, you can relate to.
Uh.
Your personal heroes.
But you can also relate to.
People fear or dislike.
Or embarrass you.
Um.
Uh.
The trick is to realize that.
That's always 1st.
Before the reactivity can arise. It's nothing wrong with judgments. I have nothing wrong with judgment OK. I definitely have opinions like certain.
Politicians I don't like other politicians OK, I have my opinions.
But I know for sure.
Before my opinion arises.
Ah, when I first look.
Or hear that person.
The first thing that I experience is the source loving them into existence.
That does not preclude me having opinions and judgments.
It's just.
It makes some very different context to things.
I'm more pre marrow.