Month: January 2010

Life is liken to a tightrope walk, balancing itself consistently. More often than not, the major bulk of work is towards balancing rather than being balanced. The balanced state seems to be illusive, escaping my attention over and over again. But then again the act of being balanced is not without balancing, albeit steadiness – it is an ongoing process of balancing that sustained the balanced state, like one riding on a bicycle. Even though a person is skilled in riding, his balanced is sustained by the act of balancing. In other words, existence is exhaustive, continuously tending towards support.

The nature of the body is such – it needs to be continuously tended so as to maintain optimum health. Any imbalance of the basic elements is enough to create stress in the mind. The world too is in the state of balance – finding a common ground to live in harmony. Even then the state of harmony is elusive, as tolerance is always on the prowl, making acceptance a mockery. The climax is also in constant balance – flowing in tandem with the destruction humanity is creating.

Permanent peace is unachievable so long as this state of balance is ongoing. Paradoxically peace can only be appreciated when there is conflict. When peace is taken for granted, conflict arise again for peace to come into existence. Thus the whole cycle of balance, balancing itself, to be destroyed and rebuilt again.

Existence is a balancing act and thus the ending for the need to balance, to be supported, is beyond reach as it is not found within its equation. It is not about you or me that contributes to this imbalance – it is the nature of the world, of existence.

Swans fly the path of the sun; those with the power fly through space; the enlightened flee from the world, having defeated the armies of Mara.
– Dhammapada 175

Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world.
– Gospel of Thomas

What is existence but the realm of the mind. I am in constant tussle with its need – wanting and not wanting, resisting and holding on to whatever it grasp. To face the mind is to face its addiction to phenomenon, in hunger for balance and yet unable to find its solution. Each doing is a need to find its balance, a futile act that propels more doing, more imbalanced. This reminds me of Albert Einstein definition of insanity:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

That is what the nature of the mind is all about. In ignorance, without finding any other ways, it repeats itself, hurting everything, everyone, along the way. It is of no wonder to the eyes of great Masters, we are all insane! The inability of the mind to strike a balance brought about the meaning of insecurity that propels itself to hoard, to attach, to keep having more – burnt by the desire of grasping.

The beginning of letting go the mind is to enter into the state of being, of abiding, of non-doing, accepting and allowing the nature to dance itself out. Through introspective observation of what is already in existence, understanding or wisdom releases the falseness of attachment to the mind – the egocentric self – thus releasing the grip for the need to balance, ending the whole entire cycle of continuum.

Hence the arising of Absolute Peace.

… Then the thought occurred to Angulimala: “Isn’t it amazing! Isn’t it astounding! In the past I’ve chased & seized even a swift-running elephant, a swift-running horse, a swift-running chariot, a swift-running deer. But now, even though I’m running with all my might, I can’t catch up with this contemplative walking at normal pace.” So he stopped and called out to the Blessed One, “Stop, contemplative! Stop!”

“I have stopped, Angulimala. You stop.”

- The bandit Angulimala to the Buddha (Thanissaro)

Though the moral of the story is metaphorical, yet there is a truth on movement, in this case “running”. When my teacher asked how many steps do I take to arrive from the meditation hall to his quarter (a distance of approx 100 metre) I was already expecting the unexpected, but not the way he answered it. One step, he said. Uh?

Today, quantum physicists are confirming that time and space are just illusions. Past, present and future all occur simultaneously. We are actually nonlocal beings having a local experience. It may look like you ‘re over there and I’m over here, but it’s a lie. Space is just a separation idea, as is time.
– Gary Renard, Your Immortal Reality

There are two ways of experiencing experiences – either at the object level (which I will refer to as the world), or the subject (the processes occuring at the mind level). Both have different end results. If my attention is given to the world, I am to expect what the world is offering me – separation. If my attention is given to the mind processes, I am to experience what is already here for me – “what is already here” is all I have, for all ideas never left its source.

I have not gone anywhere else except where I am NOW
(if only this can be true).

Lets look at this thing call “movement”. In truth movement cannot be seen except to be felt, just like colours cannot be tasted except to be seen. If I can’t see movement then what am I seeing? Optical illusion. Movement is an optical illusion arising from my inability to stay precisely in the Now. To stay in the Now needs precisely constant awareness, concurrent with the arising of consciousness. Each now ceases and is immediately replaced by a new now, unending, unbroken. The inability to see this process brought about the concept of past and future.  There is no future, no past, except now. The moment I am unconscious to this reality, I am sucked into the imaginary past and future, into the stream of unawareness, denoted by the meaning of “time”.  “Now” is never about the world. Neither is past or future, except a dream. Now, past or future is a mental occurence though I may think it has got to do with day and night, or clock and time.

When the awareness radar is made to turn inwards directing to the mind, the whole scope of reality changes.  At each moment of now “I am” always here – neither there nor anywhere – but here, in mind existence. Even “here” is incorrect, except a mean to express in-existence. If everything is in a constant flux, including “me” – where is time, where is space, where is distance?  Could the “everything” be an illusion of the mind springing from the meaning of “I”?

The stream of consciousness flows, ceasing and passing away, to be conditioned by another.
How it arises, no one knows. When it ends, no one knows.